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Tobacco Cultivation in the 17 th Century Chesapeake. APUSH – Unit 1. Significance of Tobacco . As a cash crop, tobacco made the Virginia colony an economic success
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Tobacco Cultivation in the 17th Century Chesapeake APUSH – Unit 1
Significance of Tobacco • As a cash crop, tobacco made the Virginia colony an economic success • Tobacco’s cultivation in the 17th century set the foundation for the economic, social, and political structure of the agrarian South in the British colonies and, later, the United States
How tobacco arrived in Virginia Thank you, John Rolfe.
"I may not forget the gentleman worthie of much commendations, which first tooke the pains to make triall [of tobacco] thereof, his name Mr. John Rolfe, Anno Domini 1612, partly for the love he hath a long time borne unto it, and partly to raise commodity to the adventurers....” -Ralph Hamor, Secretary of Virginia
Tobacco was first planted as an experiment in 1612 In 1617, the Virginia colony exported 20,000 pounds of tobacco to England In 1629, Virginia exported half a million pounds of tobacco to England. By the 1640s, over 1.5 million pounds of tobacco were shipped to England from the Chesapeake region annually Tobacco guaranteed Virginia’s success as a colony.
Seeds and Seedlings February: Plant seedlings in flats; protect from weather May: Move seedlings to fields; plant individual seedlings in hills
Daily Plant Maintenance Topping Suckering Weeding (with hoe)
Daily Pest Control Remove and destroy pests by hand: Plant-by-plant Leaf-by-leaf
Daily Pest Control Ideally, eggs were found and destroyed before the worms hatched …
Harvesting August-September: Tobacco plants fully matured Plants were ready for harvest when the leaves were blotchy, dry-feeling, and curling on the edges Plants were split, allowed to wilt, then cut and set on sticks
Curing Harvested tobacco was stored in specially built tobacco barns; typically, the average barn could hold five acres’ worth of tobacco Tobacco cured for 6-8 weeks, until it was chestnut brown Pests did not trouble drying tobacco, but mold and mildew could destroy an entire crop
Preparing tobacco for market Leaves were stripped and sorted according to size and quality After sorting, sound leaves were tied into “hands” and packed (“prized”) into barrels
Hogsheads Hogsheads, the barrels used for transporting tobacco, were of standard size and shape A packed hogshead weighed around 1,000 pounds Hogsheads were constructed by skilled coopers To ensure the highest price possible, the Tobacco Inspection Act was passed by Virginia’s legislature in 1730
Tobacco and the mercantile system Life is a smoke! -- If this be true,Tobacco will thy Life renew;Then fear not Death, nor killing careWhilst we have best Virginia here. From a 17th or 18thc. tobacco shipping label
