what is a tobacco colony

Full Answer

What colony was known for growing tobacco?

Virginia This colony was known for growing the most tobacco. The first English settlement in the Americas was in this colony. There were many slaves here. This colony also had the first representative government. Pennsylvania This colony was founded by William Penn.

What colony did tobacco help succeed?

Tobacco formed the basis of the colony’s economy: it was used to purchase the indentured servants. How did tobacco help save Jamestown? Tobacco farming saved Jamestown, ensuring its economic success by becoming the colony’s cash crop. How did the growth of tobacco impact the land? Its cultivation rapidly depleted the soil of nutrients ...

Why was tobacco important in the colonies?

Why was Tobacco important in the colonies? Tobacco formed the basis of the colony's economy: it was used to purchase the indentured servants and slaves to cultivate it, to pay local taxes and tithes, and to buy manufactured goods from England. Click to see full answer. Simply so, why was tobacco so popular in the colonies?

What two colony was tobacco important in?

Why was tobacco so important to the Jamestown colony? Tobacco became very popular in Europe and proved to be a highly profitable cash crop. As the number of indentured servants in the colony declined, colonists needed laborers to work their tobacco plantations.

Why were they known as the tobacco colonies?

The British prized tobacco, for it was a way to display one's wealth to the public. Only those of high status could afford the new product. As tobacco's popularity grew, it became the savior of the colonies. Due to the rough climate, the colonies were not able to produce other crops necessary for survival.

What role did tobacco play in the colonies?

Tobacco formed the basis of the colony's economy: it was used to purchase the indentured servants and slaves to cultivate it, to pay local taxes and tithes, and to buy manufactured goods from England.

What colony was known for growing tobacco?

the Virginia colonyKnown among his peers as "an ardent smoker," John Rolfe introduced the tobacco plant to the Virginia colony. This plant became the cornerstone of the Virginia economy.

What was a problem for the tobacco farmers in the colonies?

Of course, tobacco had its disadvantages, too. Weather, disease and pests could all too easily spoil a crop. In addition, it was necessary to have an experienced planter on the scene to supervise the other workers and to make crucial decisions all through the growing and curing processes.

What is the purpose of a colony?

People within each of these colonies lived, worked, sourced for food, and developed a culture together as a community. Colonies were a way for the mother country to engage in the practice of mercantilism, or increasing their power by creating a source for exports and raw materials.

How did tobacco affect slavery?

Tobacco cultivation spurs plantation slavery By the end of the 17th century, demand for tobacco steadily increased while the indentured servant work force dwindled. Tobacco plantations and farmers faced a continually shrinking labor force; enslaved people from Africa unwillingly filled that demand.

Where was tobacco grown in the colonies?

Article. The most important cash crop in Colonial America was tobacco, first cultivated by the English at their Jamestown Colony of Virginia in 1610 CE by the merchant John Rolfe (l. 1585-1622 CE).

Where did tobacco come from?

Tobacco is derived from the leaves of the genus Nicotiana, a plant from the night-shade family, indigenous to North and South America. Archeological studies suggest the use of tobacco in around first century BC, when Maya people of Central America used tobacco leaves for smoking, in sacred and religious ceremonies.

Who started tobacco?

Tobacco was first discovered by the native people of Mesoamerica and South America and later introduced to Europe and the rest of the world. Archeological finds indicate that humans in the Americas began using tobacco as far back as 12,300 years ago, thousands of years earlier than previously documented.

Why was tobacco a good cash crop?

Because growing tobacco also required a lot of hard work and labor, more people (human resources) were needed to work in the fields. The more workers one had, the more tobacco they could grow and the greater the profit they could recognize.

How did tobacco get to America?

In 1492, Columbus was warmly greeted by the Native American tribes he encountered when he first set foot on the new continent. They brought gifts of fruit, food, spears, and more and among those gifts were dried up leaves of the tobacco plant.

What was the importance of tobacco in the Southern colonies?

Tobacco became so important, that it was used as currency, to pay taxes, and even to purchase slaves and indentured servants. Because of its burgeoning tobacco industry, African slaves were brought to Jamestown in 1619 to work the plantations.

What was the importance of tobacco in the Southern colonies?

Tobacco became so important, that it was used as currency, to pay taxes, and even to purchase slaves and indentured servants. Because of its burgeoning tobacco industry, African slaves were brought to Jamestown in 1619 to work the plantations.

How did the growth of tobacco impact the culture?

Tobacco & the Revolution As the European demand for tobacco grew, more land was required for plantations and so, first, more Native Americans had to be removed from their tribal lands and, second, more Africans were needed as slaves.

Where was tobacco grown in the colonies?

Article. The most important cash crop in Colonial America was tobacco, first cultivated by the English at their Jamestown Colony of Virginia in 1610 CE by the merchant John Rolfe (l. 1585-1622 CE).

What was tobacco used for in the 1600s?

During the 1600's, tobacco was so popular that it was frequently used as money! Tobacco was literally "as good as gold!" This was also a time when some of the dangerous effects of smoking tobacco were being realized by some individuals. In 1610 Sir Francis Bacon noted that trying to quit the bad habit was really hard!

What is tobacco culture?

A culture of expertise surrounded tobacco planting. Unlike cotton or rice, cultivating tobacco was seen as an art form, and buyers understood that behind every crop of good tobacco was a meticulous planter with exceptional skills. Tobacco shipments were “branded” with a signature unique to its planter before they were sent overseas, and guarantors regarded brands as a seal of approval from the planter himself. One planter proclaimed of his branded tobacco, “it was made on the plantation where I live and therefore as I saw to the whole management of it my self (sic), I can with authority recommend it to be exceedingly good.” Even though not necessarily participating in the manual labor, planters took great financial stake in their final product.

How did tobacco affect the colonial economy?

The tobacco economy in the colonies was embedded in a cycle of leaf demand, slave labor demand, and global commerce that gave rise to the Chesapeake Consignment System and Tobacco Lords. American tobacco farmers would sell their crop on consignment to merchants in London, which required them to take out loans for farm expenses from London guarantors in exchange for tobacco delivery and sale. Further contracts were negotiated with wholesalers in Charleston or New Orleans to ship the tobacco to London merchants. The loan was then repaid with profits from their sales.

What was the culture of the Chesapeake tobacco plantation?

Before the slave boom, Chesapeake tobacco plantations were characterized by a “culture of assimilation”, where white planters worked alongside their black slaves and racial boundaries were less distinct. As slaveholding increased, intense racial contrasts emerged and all-black labor units supervised by white planters came to replace mixed-race units. Unwritten race-based sumptuary laws, which would later become Jim Crow laws, became common social fixtures in Northern and Southern colonies.

What was the Chesapeake Consignment System?

Chesapeake Consignment System. As the English increasingly used tobacco products, tobacco in the American colonies became a significant economic force, especially in the tidewater region surrounding the Chesapeake Bay. Vast plantations were built along the rivers of Virginia, and social/economic systems developed to grow ...

What was the tobacco industry in the 18th century?

Tobacco advertisement from the 18th century. Tobacco cultivation and exports formed an essential component of the American colonial economy. During the Civil War, they were distinct from other cash crops in terms of agricultural demands, trade, slave labor, and plantation culture.

Why were tobacco slaves' lives longer?

Individual life expectancies for tobacco slaves were generally longer because their unique skills, honed over the course of many years in the field, proved indispensable to a planter’s success.

How did tobacco plantations finance their growth?

American tobacco planters, including Jefferson and George Washington, financed their plantations with sizeable loans from London. When tobacco prices dropped precipitously in the 1750s, many plantations struggled to remain financially solvent. Severe debt threatened to unravel colonial power structures and destroy planters’ personal reputations. At his Mount Vernon plantation, Washington saw his liabilities swell to nearly £2000 by the late 1760s. Jefferson, on the verge of losing his own farm, aggressively espoused various conspiracy theories. Though never verified, Jefferson accused London merchants of unfairly depressing tobacco prices and forcing Virginia farmers to take on unsustainable debt loads. In 1786, he remarked:

Why did they cultivate tobacco?

Until the plant reached knee-high, weekly cultivation was necessary, to deter both weeds and cutworms. The work was done both with a hoe and by hand, the hills around the tobacco being reformed at the same time.

When was tobacco introduced to Virginia?

Tobacco was also tended by enslaved Africans, who were forcibly brought in significant numbers to Virginia starting in 1619. The need for fertile soil on which to grow the year's crop required that the planter own large tracts of land, which had to be arduously cleared and prepared as field.

What did Virginia cropmasters look for in tobacco?

One of the skills of a Virginia cropmaster was the ability to judge just when the tobacco should be harvested. An experienced planter would look at color (a yellowish green), texture (thick, rough and downy) and pliancy (a leaf that broke when it was folded between one's fingers).

How many square yards of seedbeds are needed for tobacco?

The preparation of seedbeds began in January or February; for each acre of tobacco ultimately to be cultivated, 40 square yards of seedbed were required.

How many hills did it take to grow tobacco?

This task was considered the most arduous one in the tobacco cultivation process; an experienced adult could prepare no more than five hundred hills a day. After hilling, the planter waited until a rain softened the soil in the fields and seedbeds before transplanting the tobacco plants to their final location.

What pests are in tobacco?

Throughout its growth, tobacco was subject to the attack of numerous diseases and insects. Of all the pests in the tobacco field, the most feared was the horn worm, the same creature that attacks tomato plants. Usually there were two periods in the summer when the worms, which could grow to the size of a man's finger, were at their worst. A plague of worms could destroy a crop in less than a week; planters learned to inspect each tobacco plant daily. Worms were picked off and crushed underfoot.

How long after transplanting tobacco leaves are they removed?

About two months after the tobacco was transplanted, a series of steps began to ensure large leaves of high quality. First, the two to four leaves growing closest to the ground were removed in a process referred to as "priming.". At the same time, the plants were "topped.".

How much tobacco was shipped from Virginia to England?

That same year, the amount of tobacco being shipped from Virginia to England reached 22 million pounds. Although the market price of tobacco fluctuated, it remained sufficiently high relative to the cost of the labor required for cultivation to justify the acquisition of indentured servants or the purchase of slaves.

What tobacco was grown in Virginia?

Two major types of tobacco constituted the bulk of the crop grown in Virginia from about 1650 to the 1730s: sweet-scented and Orinoco. The milder, sweet-scented tobacco was unique to Virginia and traces back to about 1650, when Edward Digges planted seeds of the Orinoco variety of tobacco on Digges Neck, a tract of land he had acquired on the York River. There the soil was sandy and poor, but the leaf was what the Old World had been waiting for: light-colored, aromatic, and mild. ED or E. Dees tobacco, as it was known (for Digges’s initials on the hogsheads), demonstrated that the differences in soil quality were as important to the product as the differences in tobacco varieties. Soon every Virginian was trying to produce this sweet-scented tobacco.

Why was quality control important to the tobacco industry?

Because goods were bought with promissory notes that represented a certain amount of tobacco , quality control was vital to the industry’s success. This issue had concerned Virginia’s politicians since 1619, when the first inspection law was passed. The law ordered all low-quality tobacco brought to the Jamestown inspection site to be burned. The General Assembly amended the law in 1623 to allow for selected men in each settlement to condemn such tobacco. A 1630 law disallowed accepting inferior tobacco in payment of debts; anyone who did so lost his right to plant tobacco and could only recover it by petitioning the General Assembly. In 1633 five sites for the inspection of tobacco were named: Cheskiack, Denbigh, James City, Shirley Hundred Island, and Southampton River in Elizabeth City. By the end of that year two more sites had been chosen at Warrosquyoake and between Weyanoke and the falls of the James, but no warehouses were built there. An act of 1639 added 213 inspectors to be appointed, 3 in each district.

Where did Rolfe grow tobacco?

In 1611 Rolfe, known as “an ardent smoker,” decided to experiment with cultivating tobacco in Jamestown. The plant had first been brought to England in 1565, perhaps from Florida by Sir John Hawkins, and by the 1610s there was a ready market in Britain for tobacco—especially Spanish tobacco from the West Indies. Rolfe obtained from a shipmaster some seeds from Trinidad and Caracas, Venezuela, and by July 1612 was growing Spanish tobacco, or Nicotiana tabacum —presumably at Jamestown, although the exact site of Rolfe’s crop is unknown. The Virginia Indians also grew and smoked tobacco, so Rolfe could have bought seeds from them, but the native Nicotiana rustica, described by William Strachey as being “poore and weake, and of a byting tast,” did not appeal to English smokers. Moreover, relations between the Indians and the English were unstable at best.

What crops did Virginia plant during the American Revolution?

By the advent of the American Revolution (1775–1783), some planters had switched to growing food crops, particularly wheat; many more began to farm these crops to support the war effort. In the first year of fighting, tobacco production in Virginia dropped to less than 25 percent of its annual prewar output.

What contributed to the growth of the tobacco industry in Virginia?

Relatively cheap labor, a growing population of middling planters, the increasing worldwide demand for tobacco, and a system of regulation designed to maintain the quality of the product all contributed to the creation of a tobacco industry in Virginia, especially in the Piedmont area.

How much tobacco is produced in Virginia?

A bumper crop of Virginia tobacco—measuring more than 18 million pounds, the largest crop produced in a single year to date—causes prices to fall to a penny a pound.

Which colony was less cosmopolitan?

The Southern Colonies. By contrast, the Carolina colony, a territory that stretched south from Virginia to Florida and west to the Pacific Ocean, was much less cosmopolitan. In its northern half, hardscrabble farmers eked out a living.

What are the 13 colonies?

That story is incomplete–by the time Englishmen had begun to establish colonies in earnest, there were plenty of French, Spanish, Dutch and even Russian colonial outposts on the American continent–but the story of those 13 colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia ) is an important one. It was those colonies that came together to form the United States.

What colony did Puritans form?

As the Massachusetts settlements expanded, they generated new colonies in New England. Puritans who thought that Massachusetts was not pious enough formed the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven (the two combined in 1665). Meanwhile, Puritans who thought that Massachusetts was too restrictive formed the colony of Rhode Island, where everyone–including Jewish people–enjoyed complete “liberty in religious concernments.” To the north of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a handful of adventurous settlers formed the colony of New Hampshire.

What did the Jamestown colonists learn?

It was not until 1616, when Virginia’s settlers learned how to grow tobacco, that it seemed the colony might survive. The first enslaved African arrived in Virginia in 1619.

What was the name of the colony that was named after William Penn?

Penn’s North American holdings became the colony of “Penn’s Woods,” or Pennsylvania.

What was New York named after?

The English soon absorbed Dutch New Netherland and renamed it New York, but most of the Dutch people (as well as the Belgian Flemings and Walloons, French Huguenots, Scandinavians and Germans who were living there) stayed put. This made New York one of the most diverse and prosperous colonies in the New World.

When did the first English settle in North America?

The first English settlement in North America had actually been established some 20 years before, in 1587, when a group of colonists (91 men, 17 women and nine children) led by Sir Walter Raleigh settled on the island of Roanoke. Mysteriously, by 1590 the Roanoke colony had vanished entirely. Historians still do not know what became of its inhabitants.

Who published the description of tobacco?

By 1558, Frere Andre Thevet, who had traveled in Brazil, published a description of tobacco which was included in Thomas Hacket's The New Found World a decade later:

Where did the Old World find tobacco?

The Old World encountered tobacco at the dawn of the European Age of Exploration. On the morning of October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus set foot on a small island in the Bahamas. Believing himself to be off the coast of Asia, the Admiral dressed in his best to meet the local inhabitants. The Arawaks offered him some dried leaves as a token of friendship. Those leaves were tobacco. A few days later, a party from Columbus' ship docked off the coast of Cuba and witnessed local peoples there smoking tobacco through Y-shaped tubes which they inserted in their noses, inhaling smoke until they lost consciousness.

How much tobacco was imported in 1630?

By 1630, the annual import of Virginia tobacco in England was not less than half a million pounds. By 1640, London was receiving nearly a million and a half pounds a year. Virginia tobacco was acknowledged as equal, if not superior, in quality to the Spanish weed.

What was the French name for tobacco?

The French became enthusiastic about tobacco, calling it the herbe a tous les maux, the plant against evil, pains and other bad things. By 1565, the plant was known as nicotaine, the basis of its genus name today. By this time, Europeans were discovering recreational uses of tobacco as well as its medicinal ones.

Why did James I dislike tobacco?

Part of James' disaffection for tobacco may be attributed to his personal dislike of Sir Walter Ralegh. Another factor was the Spanish monopoly over the production and distribution of the plant, which was worth its weight in silver at the end of the sixteenth century. James I solved the former problem by beheading his enemy; his financial difficulty was at an end a decade after the publication of his pamphlet. An English source had been found for tobacco.

Where did Rolfe grow tobacco?

How Rolfe came by fine Trinadad tobacco seed is not known, but he was growing it experimentally by 1612 in Virginia. Rolfe's agricultural attempt was an unqualified success. By 1614, Ralph Hamor, a secretary of the Colony, reported: . . .

Who first smoked tobacco?

The general English population was most likely first introduced to tobacco by Sir John Hawkins, who displayed it with the riches he accrued from a voyage to Florida in 1565.

Overview

Tobacco cultivation and exports formed an essential component of the American colonial economy. During the Civil War, they were distinct from other cash crops in terms of agricultural demands, trade, slave labor, and plantation culture. Many influential American revolutionaries, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, owned tobacco plantations, and were financially devastated by debt to British tobacco merchants shortly before the American Revoluti…

Early cultivation

Chesapeake Consignment System

Slave labor on tobacco plantations

Colonial tobacco culture

See also

Notes