Similarities Between Virginia And The Caribbean

There are many differences between living in Bermuda and living in Virginia, while they do have a few similarities. Such similarities being that they had both been established by join-stock companies, which had attempted to seize a profit and support England (Roark, 57). The companies were given charters to take possession of the land, and afterwards the people living there governed themselves. (Lecture: The Early Colonies, 2)The differences being that when the English went to inhabit the land, they found Virginia intentionally and found Bermuda by coincidence.

Throughout the time of the Roanoke catastrophe and the hardships of Jamestown, tobacco made its grand introduction as America’s newest cash commodity that would allow success to flourish in Virginia, with a permanent English presence. Tobacco was formally popularized by a man named John Rolfe in the year 1610 and became the top resource that helped the future of this colony thrive. Tobacco did all of this by turning an

The long-term effects of the Columbian exchange included the swap of food, crops, and animals between the New World and Old World, and the start of the transoceanic trade. In order to produce a profit, Portuguese explorers were the first to established sugar cane plantations in Brazil. They then sold this crop to the Old World where it was a popular commodity because it provided Europeans with a sweetener for foods. In addition, European produce was brought to the New World, including “…wheat, vines, horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens… Where they sharply increased supplies of food and animal energy.” This fusion of crops between the Old and New World became fundamental in enhancing the diets and food of both populations.

Two of the islands which were best fit for cane sugar’s growth were Jamaica and Barbados (Doc. 2). Their soil and yearly temperature made it so that growing the crop was easier to do. During the heyday of the sugar trade, both Jamaica and Barbados were under English rule (Doc. 1). Due to their connection with England, some of the most successful plantations were run by Englishmen. One of these Englishmen was Charles Long, who at the time, held the largest amount of Jamaican land of any English plantation owner (Doc. 7). He and others took advantage of the ideal climate of the area, making the sugar trade thrive. As plantation owners were getting wealthier, the demand for sugar was also on the

The sugar trade was positively impacted by a rapidly increasing demand for sugar, along with the European desire to colonize the Caribbean islands, and the growing ease of purchasing slaves as a means of labor. As more sugar was being produced, the demand for it in Europe grew at an extremely swift rate. The production of the sugar was taking place in the Caribbean, which at the time was being colonized by major European nations such as England, France, and Spain. These islands were the ideal location for the growth of sugar cane, which was the basis for the manufacturing of sugar. To help supply the high demand for sugar, there was a rise in the use of slaves as a cheap and efficient method of labor.

In the 1600's, tobacco became the main source of income for most of the colonists. The economic prosperity of the colonies was primarily dependent on the amount of tobacco produced. The growing of tobacco needed large amount of land, with a large stable work force. The increased demand for a large, stable work force combined with the availability and low price of African slaves, led to the use of slavery in the colonies. To the planter, slavery was the ideal form of labor that would be most beneficial to productivity of his crop.#

As the British North American colonies began to develop, the Trans-Atlantic trade route started to thrive. The small farmers in the West Indies, and the southern colonies began cultivating the land and growing newly found crops. These new crops were in high demand in Europe as they seen as luxury items. The small farmers could not meet the demands for the crops, causing a change in the labor systems. This change introduced the use of indentured servitude and slavery to the American colonies.

The thirteen original colonies were significant to U.S. history and most of them contributed to history in their own way, but Virginia, New York, and Massachusetts stick out the most. The U.S. might be completely different if these three colonies were never created or had never contributed to history.

Tobacco had an effect on the colonies in many different ways. In colonial Virginia, tobacco was it’s most successful cash crop. The tobacco that the first English settlers encountered in Virginia tasted bitter and dark to the English. In 1612 John Rolfe obtained Spanish seeds, Nicotiana tabacum, from the Orinoco River valley. These seeds when planted at the bottomland of the James River, produced a still dark, but milder leaf. This became the European standard for tobacco.

Tobacco was then traded with Europe to reduce their debt. There wasn’t much slavery from the late 1400s to 1600s. Unfortunately Slavery sparked up again during the Civil War era and wouldn’t be abolished for the next 150 years. Thankfully, Congress puts a stop to the madness by enacting the Thirteenth Amendment after the big win for the Union over the Confederates. By that point though, more than 4 million African-American slaves lived in the United States. People like John Rolfe were among the farmers who took advantage of the Slavery . They essentially used Slave labor to produce Tobacco and make money. Slaves were forced to spend long hours on the farm, cultivating, maintaining and collecting the tobacco. It is important to note that Tobacco was an extremely labor-intensive crop. The confederates enjoyed freedom and money at the expense of the Slaves.The Slaves did not enjoy any of the rights or freedom that the Confederates enjoyed. The Slaves were beaten, lynched, starved, overworked, underpaid, and even whipped to death by the Confederates for a long period of time until the Union abolished slavery. Although the Slaves’ communities thrived and multiplied, these slaves were subjected to harsh living

Tobacco has been around since the 17th century and was the first crop grown for money in North America. In 1612, the settlers of the first American colony in Jamestown, Virginia grew tobacco as a cash crop. Tobacco helped pay for the American Revolution against England. By the 1800’s, many people had begun using tobacco in different ways. Some chewed it, others smoked it in a fancy pipe, and some even hand rolled a cigarette or cigar. Most people only smoked about 40 cigarettes a year. It wasn’t until 1865 that the first commercial cigarettes were made by Washington Duke on his 300 acre farm in Raleigh, North Carolina. He made hand rolled cigarettes and sold them to the soldiers at the end of the Civil war. In 1881 cigarette smoking became wide spread due to James Bonsack’s invention of the cigarette making machine. Bonsack’s machine could make 120,000 cigarettes a day. Because of this machine, he created a business with Washington dukes son, James Duke. They built a factory and made about 10 million cigarettes the first year and around one billion cigarettes only five years later. They packed the cigarettes in a box with baseball cards and called them Duke of Durham. They were known as the first brand of cigarettes. Buck Duke and his dad started the first tobacco company in the U.S. and names it the American Tobacco Company. The American Tobacco Company became the largest and most powerful company until the early 1900’s. By then, several companies had started making

The Ottoman Empires blockage of the once popular trade route to the east, led to the exploration of the America’s. In the late 15th century, with the European’s goal to find a new trading route, the Portuguese, with their strong maritime power, were the first to venture out. Not only was the establishment of a new trade route crucial, but so was the discovery of resources to exploit for European gain. Land empires formed, bringing about the enslavement of native populations, and control of production and labor. No more was this evident than in the Caribbean Islands. Small but crucial assets to Europe, why did the Caribbean islands have such a big impact on the slave trade? Many European countries had colonized several regions in North and South America, yet there was something about the Caribbean’s that made them indispensable to their respective economies. The politics in Europe, the Caribbean’s fertile soil, and its demographics were key factors in the Caribbean’s importance. All three factors were essential in the Caribbean becoming a staple in the slave trade.

Tobacco usage increased with the arrival of “Industrial Revolution”. European settlers and traders and made it popular in Europe and Americas. From Europe it

The history of Tobacco goes all the way to before the Americas were discovered by the Europeans and when it was only roamed by the natives inhabiting it. The Tobacco plant was originally used by the Native Indians at the time for many different reasons some being for medical and others being ritual related and in some cases it was used for coming of age ceremonies. “Europeans believed that tobacco could cure almost anything, from bad breath to cancer”(The History of Tobacco). The smoking of Tobacco was also originally only used for these such things and not for recreational purposes this did not change until the Tobacco plant was quickly spread throughout the europeans soon after the Americas were discovered and this was the start of the current Tobacco that we are familiar with and know today.

Initially there were no CEO's or lawsuits, it was just the demand of kings and the supply of colonies. John Rolfe never could have imagined how big of a role tobacco would have in society. For him and other colonies it was not a drug or something harmful. It was what kept boats coming back. It was what kept weapons and tools on those boats and it was what kept England interested. Without tobacco the investment into the new worlds would not have been worth the cost. Hypothetically you could argue that if it were not for tobacco we would not even be a country. Truly the value of tobacco was immeasurable for the colonists. It built a bridge to the civilized world. But that bridge was not