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The Growth of the Tobacco Trade in America

An 1878 depiction of tobacco cultivation at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1615. Photo from Wikimedia Commons 

By USHistory.org, adapted by Newsela staff

Published:04/13/2017

The first joint-stock company to launch a lasting venture to the New World was the Virginia Company of London. Joint-stock companies were the original companies, like the corporations of today. Shares of ownership in the companies, or stock, were sold to rich investors in England. The money they provided went to set up the colonies. These rich investors took on the risk that the colonies might fail and they might lose their money. 

The investors in the Virginia Company of London had one goal in mind: gold. They hoped to repeat the success of Spaniards who found gold in South America.

In 1607, 144 English men and boys established the Jamestown colony in Virginia, named after King James I.

Searching for new ways to make money

The colonists were told that if they did not find ways of making money, financial support for their efforts would end. Many of the men spent their days vainly searching for gold.

The Virginia Company of London began looking for new ways to make money. The company encouraged several business ventures by 1618.

Jamestown settlers experimented with glassblowing, growing grapes for wine and even silkworm farming. Still, by the end of the 1620s, only one Virginia crop was fetching a fair market price in England: tobacco.

"Drinking smoke"

Tobacco was introduced to Europe by the Spanish. Spaniards had learned to smoke it from Native Americans. Despite some early criticism of "drinking smoke," tobacco became popular among the middle classes in England, as tobacco smoking was a sign that a person was in a high social class. Wealthy men indulged in tobacco at what was known as a "smoking club." Much of the tobacco smoked in England was grown in the West Indies of the Caribbean.

Early English explorer Thomas Hariot describes tobacco use in the American colonies in his 1588 publication "A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia." He writes: "There is an herb called uppowoc, which sows itself. In the West Indies it has several names...but the Spaniards generally call it tobacco. Its leaves are dried, made into powder, and then smoked by being sucked through clay pipes into the stomach and head." He went on to say, "Its use not only preserves the body, but if there are any obstructions it breaks them up. By this means the natives keep in excellent health, without many of the grievous diseases which often afflict us in England."

Not everyone liked tobacco. King James I of England was an early opponent of tobacco smoking, writing in one of the earliest anti-tobacco publications in 1604: "Smoking is a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs." 

Tobacco becomes an important asset

English settler John Rolfe, known among his peers as "an ardent smoker," thought that Virginia might be a perfect site for tobacco growth. Early attempts to sell Virginian tobacco had fallen flat. Smokers felt that the tobacco of the Caribbean was much less harsh than Virginian tobacco.

Rolfe reacted to consumer tastes and imported seed from the Caribbean and cultivated the plant in the Jamestown colony. Those tobacco seeds became the seeds of a huge economic empire.

By 1630, over a million and a half pounds of tobacco were being exported from Jamestown every year. The plant had quickly become the foundation of the Virginia economy.

The tobacco economy quickly began to shape society, as well as fuel the development of the colony. Growing tobacco takes its toll on the soil. Because tobacco drained the soil of its nutrients, only about three successful growing seasons could occur on a plot of land. Then the land had to lie empty for three years before the soil could be used again. This created a huge drive for new farmland.

Settlers grew tobacco in the streets of Jamestown. The yellow-leafed crop even covered cemeteries. Because tobacco cultivation is hard, more settlers were needed.

Indentured servants

Tobacco cultivation was demanding work. Indentured servants became the first way to meet this need for labor. In return for a free boat ride to Virginia, a laborer worked for four to five years in the fields. Then he or she was granted freedom. The Crown rewarded planters with 50 acres of land for every inhabitant they brought to the New World. Keeping indentured servants and slaves was difficult for landowners. Servants and slaves often ran away from abusive masters. Other servants were lured away from neighbors attempting to steal labor. In response to these problems, Virginia lawmakers passed laws that established penalties and regulated the movement of servants and slaves. In March 1642, Virginia lawmakers passed a law on runaway slaves that read:

"Whereas there are divers loitering runaways in the colony who very often absent themselves from their masters service, And sometimes in two or three months cannot be found, whereby their said masters are at great charge in finding them, And many times even to the loss of their year's labour before they be had, Be it therefore enacted and confirmed that all runaways that shall absent themselves from their said masters service shall be liable to make satisfaction by service at the end of their time by indenture double the time of service so neglected, And in some cases more if the commissioners for the place appointed shall find it requisite and convenient. And if such runaways shall be found to transgress the second time or oftener (if it shall be duly proved against them) that then they shall be branded in the cheek with the letter R. and pass under the statute of incorrigible rogues."

Keeping the indentured servant labor in line with laws ensured that the colony of Jamestown would expand. That expansion was soon challenged by the Native American confederacy of 30 tribes formed and named after the leader Powhatan.