STANDARDS AND SKILLS
In this lesson, students will be tested on reading comprehension, making connections, and critical thinking skills; it is part of the Virginia Standards of Learning for students learning to read, write, and make economic decisions, and it also meets national social studies standards of learning.
LESSON OVERVIEW
Students will learn how tobacco became a “cash crop” for the Jamestown colony because it was popular in England at the time, and colonists needed labor to grow it.
MATERIALS AND PREPARATION
To make a profit, the Virginia Company established the colony at Jamestown, and John Rolfe grew tobacco, which was all the rage in England at the time. In 1604, King James I wrote that tobacco polluted man’s “inward parts” with an “unctuous and oily kinde of soote,” and John Rolfe left England bound for Jamestown in May 1609.
PROCEDURE
Students will participate in a role-playing activity involving John Rolfe and King James I, but they will need some background information on the Virginia colony’s economic life first. Copy the three essays Early Industries, Profit Motive and Global Economy, and Tobacco and Labor.
Students will read and discuss essays from The Economics of Tobacco and The Profit Motive and Global Economy, then share information from each essay with their classmates through role-playing activities. Students will examine how Virginia became a part of the global economy through tobacco production.
ASSESSMENT
Review the advantages and disadvantages of growing and marketing tobacco, and have the class debate who had the better argument and why. Ox-Cart Man is a craft book that follows a farming family’s natural resources from their transformation into goods to their final journey to the market.
When was the first tobacco crop?
Tobacco may have been grown in North America as early as 6,000 BCE, and smoking tobacco leaves may have been practiced for as long as 2,300 years.
Where was tobacco the main cash crop in the colonial era?
Tobacco cultivation appears to have been concentrated in the Upper James River region, the York River region, and the Rappahannock River region between 1750 and 1755, with each area exporting about 83,000 hogsheads (barrels filled with dried, pressed tobacco leaf) during this time, whereas the Lower James River shipped only 3,000.
What were the 3 main crops of the colonies?
Cotton, tobacco, rice, and indigo (a plant used to make blue dye) were the main cash crops in the southern colonies. Tobacco was the main cash crop in Virginia and Maryland, while indigo and rice were the main cash crops in South Carolina and Georgia.
What were the 5 main crops grown in Colonial times?
Wheat, corn, barley, oats, tobacco, and rice were among the popular crops grown by colonial farmers, depending on where they lived.
Who first smoked tobacco?
Tobacco was first discovered by Mesoamerican and South American natives, and was later introduced to Europe and the rest of the world. Tobacco had already been used in the Americas for a long time when European settlers arrived, and the practice spread throughout Europe.
Who first started smoking tobacco?
Native Americans begin cultivating the tobacco plant around 6,000 BC, and Indigenous American tribes begin smoking tobacco in religious ceremonies and for medicinal purposes around 1 BC. 1492 u2013 Christopher Columbus first encounters dried tobacco leaves, which were given to him as a gift by American Indians.
How did growing tobacco affect Jamestown?
The colonists of Jamestown discovered a new way to make money for The Virginia Company: tobacco, which grew in popularity to the point where the colonists had to turn to enslaved Africans as a cheap source of labor for their plantations.
What was the 1st permanent English colony in North America?
In 1607, 104 English men and boys arrived in North America to establish a settlement, and on May 13, they chose Jamestown, Virginia, to name their settlement after their King, James I. It was the first permanent English settlement in North America.
Who helped develop tobacco as a cash crop?
When John Rolfe arrived in Virginia, he experimented with planting tobacco seeds he had obtained from somewhere in the Caribbean, and he gave some of his crop to friends, who agreed that the new leaf was much more pleasant and superior to the Indian tobacco.
What 3 colonies built a lot of ships?
Massachusetts and New Hampshire were the leading shipbuilders in New England, with Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland launching the majority of the remaining tonnage. British demand for American natural resources provided a foreign market for colonial shipbuilding.
What crops did the Jamestown colonists grow?
Beans and squash are later planted around emerging corn stalks at Jamestown Settlement, a Powhatan practice adopted by English colonists. Tobacco, Virginia’s most valuable cash crop during the colonial period, is grown at both museums, with seedlings planted in mid-spring.
What crops were grown in the South?
Cotton, tobacco, rice, and indigo (a plant used to make blue dye) were the main cash crops in the southern colonies. Tobacco was the main cash crop in Virginia and Maryland, while indigo and rice were the main cash crops in South Carolina and Georgia.
Did the 13 colonies have religious freedom?
Religious toleration in the colonies was no longer a fringe belief by the time of the American Revolution, as the thirteen colonies were religiously diverse, with Anglicans, Congregationalists, Unitarians, Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, Catholics, Jews, and many others.
What problems were colonists having?
Most colonists were unprepared for the constant challenges they faced in the New World, which included drought, starvation, the threat of attack, and disease, but the colony eventually succeeded thanks to stern leadership and a lucrative cash crop.
Where did colonists get most of their meat?
The majority of colonial towns were located near the ocean or a river, which provided a plentiful supply of fish such as cod, flounder, trout, salmon, clams, lobsters, and halibut. The colonials also imported domesticated animals from Europe that could be raised as livestock for meat.