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Virginia Tobacco Cultivation

Type Object Region North America Time c. 1612

Virginia tobacco cultivation refers to the 17th-century Chesapeake Bay colonial agricultural system centered on tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) as the co…

Timeline

  1. c. 1612–1625Jamestown · VirginiaJohn Rolfe cultivated and exported 'Oronoke' variety tobacco, achieving first success in the London market, transforming the Virginia colony from a supply station into a settlement colony oriented toward tobacco exports.
  2. 1661–1670Chesapeake Bay coast · Chesapeake BayPost-Restoration royal charters and the Navigation Acts consolidated the tobacco monopoly trade; Virginia plantations expanded along the James and York rivers; white indentured servants and early African enslaved labor coexisted, and tobacco became the colony's primary source of wealth.
  3. 1680–1700Virginia colony · VirginiaAfrican enslaved labor replaced indentured servants as the main tobacco-growing workforce; large plantations and river transport-storage systems matured; Virginia tobacco dominated Anglo-American Atlantic trade, laying the foundation for the later Southern plantation economy.

Sources