Tobacco saved Jamestown from becoming a lost colony

by Paul Levengood
for Virginia Business
Novermber 2006

Commemorating significant historical events seems to be a part of Virginians’ makeup. In 2006 and over the next few years, the state will celebrate a number of significant events. This year, the Virginia Historical Society marked the 175th anniversary of its founding, making it the oldest continuously operating cultural institution in the South. And the state is already beginning to gear up for 2011, which will mark 150 years since the outbreak of the Civil War.

More immediate, in 2007 of course, the state will host an array of events to mark the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in North America. The Commonwealth of Virginia has appropriated millions of dollars in the hope of luring tourists from within and without the state to celebrate what has been dubbed, in a gentle jab at Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims, “America’s 400th Anniversary.”

As important as 1607 was in the history of Virginia and the United States, one wonders if the quadricentennial of 1614 will garner any recognition a few years from now. Historians have long been in agreement that Jamestown might well have gone the way of the ill-fated Roanoke colony of 1587 had it not been for an event in 1614 that gave the colony an economic base on which to survive. In that year, the first commercial shipment of tobacco left the dock at Jamestown for England. Virginia would never be the same.

Early after their arrival in Virginia, colonists had noted that the Powhatan Indians used tobacco, which they called “uppowoc,” in their ceremonies. However, the plant, Nicotiana rustica, had a bitter, unpleasant flavor to the English palate. Milder Nicotiana tabacum had long been grown in the Spanish West Indies, and the limited amount that had reached England had been enthusiastically consumed. John Rolfe deduced that he might be able to grow the imported Nicotiana tabacum, and began experimenting at his farm near present-day Varina in Henrico County. In 1614 he had raised and cured enough to fill four barrels for export to England, where it sold quickly and at a robust price of three shillings per pound.

For his fellow desperate colonists, Rolfe’s entrepreneurial gambit hit like a lightning bolt. Having failed to find the gold and other treasures envisioned by the backers of the Virginia Company, Virginia was holding on by a thread. The immense profits to be had by raising tobacco literally gave the colony a reason to continue. Soon every available piece of land was planted in tobacco, even the cemetery of Jamestown itself. By 1617–18 Virginians had produced 50,000 pounds of the leaf for export. A decade later, that figure would reach 250,000. In 1669, 15 million pounds of tobacco would be shipped to Britain.

Tobacco’s effects on Virginia can hardly be understated. It pushed settlement farther and farther west, eventually prompting several deadly conflicts with native peoples. Tobacco’s labor intensive cultivation caused the colony to look for large, reliable pools of labor: first English indentured servants, then African slaves. The great fortunes of early Virginia, visible today in the great riverside plantation homes, all came from tobacco. Even the state’s more recent history is inextricably intertwined with what King James I called a “stinking weed.” After the Civil War, tobacco processing became Virginia’s first significant manufacturing enterprise. Factories to produce snuff, chewing tobacco, cigars and cigarettes became the largest employers in cities like Richmond, Danville and Petersburg until well into the 20th century. Only in the late 20th century did health concerns and a drop in U.S. tobacco consumption cause tobacco to give way as the pre-eminent force in Virginia’s economy. Tellingly, last year the state produced fewer than 40 million pounds of tobacco, down almost two thirds from the amount produced in 1990.

Paul Levengood is managing editor of the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond. He also serves as the program coordinator of the Reynolds Business History Center, which opened in July as part of the VHS 175th anniversary celebrations. For more information, go to www.vahistorical.org