SETTLING NORTH AMERICA 1497 1732
THE SOUTHERN COLONIES SETTLEMENT AND GROWTH
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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Tobacco was a plant that grew well in the sandy soil.
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John Rolfe wanted people to start smoking.
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Growing tobacco discouraged growth in Virginia.
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Nothing else would grow in that region, so they planted tobacco.
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Detailed explanation-1: -Relatively cheap labor, a growing population of middling planters, the increasing worldwide demand for tobacco, and a system of regulation designed to maintain the quality of the product all contributed to the creation of a tobacco industry in Virginia, especially in the Piedmont area.
Detailed explanation-2: -After the Spanish colonized the West Indies, South and Central America after 1492 CE, tobacco was grown, harvested, and exported as a recreational drug, and its popularity in Europe and elsewhere made it highly profitable.
Detailed explanation-3: -Virginia colonists quickly centered nearly all of their investment on growing one staple crop, tobacco. They literally “bet the farm” that the crop would be successful and the prices in England would be high enough to make a profit.
Detailed explanation-4: -Tobacco became so important, that it was used as currency, to pay taxes, and even to purchase slaves and indentured servants. Because of its burgeoning tobacco industry, African slaves were brought to Jamestown in 1619 to work the plantations.
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.