Jamestown Tobacco Essay

Without Tobacco, Jamestown would have failed as a Colony
In the year of 1606 King James 1 established 2 companies wanting a big profit out of these. He named them the London Company and the Plymouth Company. King James tricked some Englishmen into going to the Island in Virginia if they wanted land and riches. King James began by sending the London Company in the late December of 1606 his main priority was finding gold. In May of 1607 only a few Englishmen survived on the boat that had taken them to the Island. After they arrived they named this land Jamestown after their King James. Soon after they arrived they began having problems. The Englishmen never would have imagined that tobacco would be the only thing that would save Jamestown.
“Problems

“John Smith made a big impact on the colonies” (A Brief History of Jamestown). James Smith’s motto was “work or starve.” He pushed and motivated the new settlers into working harder. In 1609 Smith had a gun powder accident and returned to England. Leaving the colonists brought great misery to the settlers. Disease, farming and the weather all took a big impact on the colonists. This lead to the death of hundreds of Englishmen. This era was called the “Starving Time,” Hunger and disease quickly tore apart Jamestown. This hunger went to full extend that some people turned to cannibalism. A man was even punished and blamed for eating his own wife. Living conditions couldn’t have been worse after John Smith

Tobacco brought great riches to the colonists and with that money they could have all they wanted. “Growing tobacco was like printing money” (Tobacco). They sold tobacco by the yard when added syrup. Settlers would even sell and trade their slaves for tobacco. In 1617 Governor Samuel Argall went to Jamestown and said that the settlers were cropping way too much tobacco. He then enforced a law saying that if the settlers do not grow food crops that they will no longer be able to grow