USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Tobacco became the most profitable agricultural product. Tobacco was sold in England as a cash crop. The successful planting of tobacco depended on a steady and inexpensive source of labor. African men, women, and children were brought to the colony against their will to work as slaves on the plantations.

Detailed explanation-2: -Rolfe’s tobacco sold for a high price, and tobacco quickly became Virginia’s main cash crop. At first, the governors of Virginia discouraged settlers from growing tobacco because they wanted them to grow food. But the colonists, who wanted riches and not just subsistence, were undeterred.

Detailed explanation-3: -Colonists only grew corn and wheat for use by their families. Other crops were grown, but mostly for individual consumption. As Virginia’s Piedmont became more populated during the 19th century, the area became a major tobacco producer.

Detailed explanation-4: -The answer was that tobacco itself became a source of social currency as well as money. It became a way of paying off your accounts and a way of paying others, who then purchased items at the store using someone else’s tobacco as payment.

Detailed explanation-5: -The dried leaves of the tobacco plant became the major cash crop in colonial Virginia after John Rolfe brought the seeds of a South American variety, Nicotiana tabacum, to Virginia in 1612. Oronoco tobacco, named for the Venezuelan valley of its origins, became the widest grown variety of tobacco grown in Virginia.