Transcript Tobacco Cultivation in the 17th Century Chesapeake

Tobacco Cultivation in the
th
17 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
Pocahontas, wife of John Rolfe
• 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.
Tobacco:
A labor-intensive crop
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
Manduca sexta:
The tobacco horn worm
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
care
Whilst we have best Virginia
here.
-From a 17th or 18th c.
tobacco shipping label
Tobacco’s overall impact …
Tobacco: A mixed legacy