The history of tobacco is the history of Jamestown and of Virginia. No
one staple or resource ever played a more significant role in the
history of any state or nation. The growth of the Virginia Colony, as
it extended beyond the limits of Jamestown, was governed and hastened
by the quest for additional virgin soil in which to grow this "golden
weed." For years the extension into the interior meant the expansion of
tobacco production. Without tobacco the development of Virginia might
have been retarded 200 years.
Tobacco was the life and soul of the colony; yet a primitive, but
significant, form of diversified farming existed from the very
beginning especially among the small farmers. Even with the development
of the large plantations in the eighteenth century, there were quite a
number of small landowners interspersed among the big planters in the
Tidewater area, and they were most numerous in the Piedmont section.
They usually possessed few slaves, if any, and raised mostly grains,
vegetables and stock which they could easily sell to neighboring
tobacco planters. The negligible food imports by the colony indicates
that a regular system of farming existed. Nor was tobacco the sole
product of the large tobacco plantations. This is indicated by the fact
that practically all of the accounts of the product of one man's labor
were recorded as so many pounds or acres of tobacco plus provisions.
And had the plantations not been generally self-sufficient, the
frequently extremely low prevailing tobacco prices would have made the
agricultural economy even less profitable.
Tobacco was a completely new agricultural product to most, if not all,
of the English settlers at Jamestown. There were no centuries of vast
experience in growing, curing, and marketing to draw upon. These
problems and procedures were worked out by trial and error in the
wilderness of Virginia. Tobacco became the only dependable export and
the colony was exploited for the benefit of English commerce. This
English commercial policy, plus other factors, caused the Virginia
planter to become somewhat of an agricultural spendthrift. For nearly
200 years he followed a system of farming which soon exhausted his
land. Land was cheap and means of fertilization was limited and
laborious. By clearing away the trees he was able to move north, south,
southwest, and west and replace his worn-out fields with rich virgin
soil necessary to grow the best tobacco.
While struggling with the problems involved in producing an entirely
new crop about which they knew little or nothing, the colonists also
had to feed themselves, deal with their racial problems, and maintain a
stable local government as they continually expanded in a limitless
wilderness. Out of all this chaos grew the mother and leader of the
American colonies.
Tobacco penetrated the social, political, and economic life of the
colony. Ownership of a large tobacco plantation could take one up the
social ladder; many of the men responsible for the welfare of the
colony were planters, and everything could be paid for in tobacco. In
1620 the indentured servants were paid for with tobacco, the young
women sent to the colonists to become wives were purchased by paying
their transportation charges with tobacco. The wages of soldiers and
the salaries of clergymen and governmental officials were paid in
tobacco. After 1730 tobacco notes, that is warehouse receipts,
representing a certain amount of money, served as currency for the
colony.
The development of the inspection system with its chain of tobacco
warehouses hastened urbanization. Around many of these warehouses grew
villages and settlements; some of these eventually became towns and
cities. Richmond, Petersburg, Danville, Fredericksburg, Farmville,
Clarksville and others were once merely convenient landings or
locations for tobacco warehouses. Even today the fragrant aroma of
cured tobacco still exists in a number of these places during the
tobacco marketing season. The tobacco trade was largely responsible for
the birth and growth of Alexandria, Dumfries, and Norfolk into
important export-import centers. For her birth, growth, and colonial
leadership, Virginia pays her respect to John Rolfe and the other brave
settlers at Jamestown.
Tobacco is still a vital factor in Virginia's economy. Of approximately
2,000,000 acres of cropland (pastureland excluded) in 1949, 115,400
were planted in tobacco which produced 124,904,000 pounds valued at
$55,120,800 or twenty-three percent of the total value of all
agricultural crops. Of the four largest agricultural products--poultry,
tobacco, meat animals, and milk--tobacco ranked second only to poultry
in terms of income in 1955. Poultry produced an income of $99,935,000,
tobacco $84,128,000, meat animals $80,564,000, and milk $70,681,000.
Peanuts and fruits were tied for fifth place, each producing an income
of about $21,000,000.
Of the many different industries in Virginia today only five--food,
textile, wearing apparel, chemical, and the manufacture of
transportation equipment--employ more workers than the tobacco
manufacturers. In 1953 a total of $40,000,000, in salaries and wages,
was paid to production workers in the tobacco manufacturing industry in
Virginia.
Although tobacco is no longer "king" in the Old Dominion, Virginia
farmers produce enough of the "golden weed" each year to make one long
cigarette that would stretch around the world fifty times.