Social and Economic Development in Colonial Virginia in the 1600's

Virginia: was chartered in 1606 to the Virginia Company. The Company decided to attract colonists by awarded land in exchange for indenturing themselves to be a servant for four-seven years. A booming cash crop of tobacco and the possibility of owning land sent a flood of between 130,000 and 150,000 immigrants, mostly young men, to Virginia. Tobacco was a monoculture, however, and little else was cultivated. Malnutrition and exhaustion resulted in extreme death rates. If you happened to live to age 20, your life expectancy was only 48 years. Additionally, four in ten servants

The demand of tobacco cultivation in the Chesapeake resulted in an increase of the slave trade. Unlike indentured servants, Africans was not protected by English law, and was accustomed to intensive labor as well as resistant to many diseases. And because the Native Americans were more familiar with the land which in turn made running away easier, it was hard to keep Indians as slaves. Authorities wanted to improve the status of white servants thus taking away the perception that Virginia was a death trap. In the 1660s, Virginia and Maryland laws referred explicitly to slavery. As Tobacco cultivation continued to increase so did the condition of black and white servants divided. The laws became more stricter and freedom for blacks became nonexistent,

To cultivate these tobacco crops the Chesapeake Bay colonist utilized slave labor, and the use of indentured servants. The use of indentured servants soon died out when Virginia, forbid the whipping of white servants. In the Chesapeake colonies, religion was not as strict as in New England. In these colonies there were a number of small optional religions, this was very different than the ways of the New England colonies.

“Virginia Laws Governing Servant and Slave” reveals the rebellions of servants and slaves who united to fight against their masters. Bacon’s Rebellion, in 1676, occurred in the Virginia Colony in opposition to Virginia's Indian policy (Roark, The American Promise, p. 79). Bacon’s Rebellion demonstrated that poor whites and poor blacks could be united in a cause, and it shows that they are capable of challenging the ruling class together. Virginia lawmakers enacted the laws to prevent the servants and slaves from uniting to fight against masters. According to "Document 2: Law Making Slave Status Inherited from Mother, 1662" the Virginia legislators punished interracial sexual relations, "And that if any Christian shall commit fornication with a negro man or woman, hee or shee soe offending shall pay double the ffines imposed by the former act"

In Virgina, tobacco became such a high demand that fields everywhere were used for tobacco plantations. However farmers repeatedly used the same land over and over, ruining the soil. This limited Virginia's fortunes to the irregular price of a single crop. The high demand for sugar in the Caribbeans also wiped out all other forms of Caribbean agriculture. Which led to the dependence on the north american mainland for other food supplies and basic supplies.

Now for the economic reasons. The Chesapeake region developed a tobacco economy, everything they did was to grow or sell tobacco. Document H states that the poor were unhappy. In a society the poor are sometimes unhappy, but in this case the rich did nothing to make the poor feel any better. In New England the economy was not extremely important, but the average person here was wealthier than the average person in England.

Virginia, in the southern region, was the first area colonized, named for Queen Elizabeth who was supposedly a virgin. It was intended to be a source of wealth for England by providing cash crops such as tobacco and, eventually, a new market for English goods.. The short winters and warm summers were ideal for growing cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, and rice, all of which were labor intensive. Most of the people who immigrated to these southern colonies were poor Englishmen who were part of the growing number of unemployed in their home country. They paid for their passage by becoming indentured servants, hoping to work off their servitude on the plantations and begin a new life in a new land. As economic conditions improved in England however, Virginia, as well as the other southern colonies, began to rely more and more on slave labor. Slaves became a better investment than in indentured servants, and the southern colonies soon transitioned to slave-based, agricultural economies. (Taylor)

Bacon’s Rebellion helped originate slavery in Jamestown, Virginia in the Chesapeake region. Nathaniel Bacon was a white land owner in this town who brought together indentured servants and other poor whites to overthrow their elites due to the

The key factor to the shift to African chattel slavery was the revolt known as Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676. Bacon was an English aristocrat who just came to Virginia Due to a disagreement with royal governor William Berkeley, he gathered support from both white and black indentured servants and began a series of revolts against the governor and the landowners. These revolts just added to the preference for black labor and slavery. Even though Bacon died before anything could happen, the threat of such a biracial alliance challenging the power of the master class prompted the colony’s elite to switch to an enslaved black labor force. The demand for black slaves rose and this caused an increase of Africans into the colonies. By the 1700’s, slavery was deep-rooted in the colonies’ government.#

Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676 was major weight added to the scale that shifted Virginia’s plantation labor from indentured servitude to African slaves. Confrontation between the Native Americans and settlers in western Virginia spearheaded an uprising that demanded Governor Berkeley to provide more land to the poor whites. Berkeley stood by his decision to maintain peaceful relations with the local Native American population, which sparked a series of uprisings and massacres that grew into full rebellion against Berkeley and his men. Berkeley fled when Nathaniel Bacon and his ranks burned Jamestown to the ground, which led to Bacon’s rule over Virginia for a short while until England sent warships to regain control. This conflict altered the planter’s view on indentured servitude, understanding that slaves could never become free men, demanding land and creating successful rebellions. For fear of civil war among whites, the elite planters helped launch us into a racially divided slave society.

Slavery was the main resource used in the Chesapeake tobacco plantations. The conditions in the Chesapeake region were difficult, which lead to malnutrition, disease, and even death. Slaves were a cheap and an abundant resource, which could be easily replaced at any time. The Chesapeake region’s tobacco industries grew and flourished on the intolerable acts of slavery.

Tobacco also lost its price value, but colonist thought if they planted more tobacco it would make up for the price drop. Due to this thought process, the Chesapeake Bay region was producing forty million pounds of tobacco by the end of the 1600’s; while during the 1630’s, the Chesapeake region was only producing 1.5 million pounds of tobacco annually. Lastly, the need to produce and plant an abundant amount of tobacco caused the need for cheap labor. Indentured servant were seen as the solution in the middle 1600’s but towards the end of the seventeenth century, slaves became the main source of labor.

Colonial Virginia and Jamestown are considered to be the origin of English settlement in the North America region. It was in Virginia where colonial laws about race, gender, and race were created facilitating the establishment of slavery society which would later become the United States of America (“U.S History,” n.d). The growth in tobacco production provided finance which made Virginia be an agricultural center. Virginia also witnessed the change from indentured labor to the slavery type of labor system. The issues that were experienced by colonial Virginia residents in the seventeenth century were carried on to the future United States (“U.S History,” n.d).

In 1676, the English colony of Virginia experienced a revolt. This revolt, led by Nathaniel Bacon, was backed largely by lower class, white farmers, and was directed towards both the rich landowning Virginian farmers and the nearby Native Americans. This revolt, now known as Bacon’s Rebellion, reflected both the racial and class tensions held by the majority of settlers in seventeenth century Virginia, and would greatly affect the dynamics of colonial society.

Economics- Agriculture was once a mainstay in virginia but , now it follows other sectors in employment and incomes in generation. Tobacco, was Virginia's traditional staple,and is still the leading crop, and grains, corn, soybeans, peanuts, sweet potatoes, cotton, and apples were all important.Also wine was important but,the major sources of agricultural thy income income are now poultry, dairy products, and cattle, especially in the Valley of Virginia. The coastal fisheries are large, bringing in lots of shellfish—large oysters and crabs.coal was also important.