Week 1 Discussion

Impact of tobacco (question 1)

Initial post

Although, Jamestown’s colonial career began slowly, many of the original adventurers withdrew, and the current conditions were too harsh and scared off potential adventurers. At the same time, the seven-year contract of the colonists ended, turning into a free man. By 1619, the company's collective plantation gradually disappeared. Free men use their private industry to grow tobacco – after 1613, Virginians found that tobacco has great market value. However, the more income you invest in tobacco, the less labor you put into food production, so the colony relies too much on British food – the origin of the enclave economy , a theme that has influenced the history of the United States for two and a half centuries.

So in 1618 the colony made another revision, or because the benefits of the colonies were lower than the expectations of the company and the adventurer, the transformation of land use had to make a big change. The colonial residents’ complaints about the economy and politics also made the reform imperative. They needed to reform the land, property rights, and military control, and soon a Virginia parliament was born. In the first parliament, laws restricting tobacco production were passed, and a trade surplus and other self-sufficient products were sought. This expectation was not realized, but it also attracted many new residents. In 1619, 600 new colonists were sent in – 1616 colonies in 350 and 1618 in 400.

Virginia is suitable for growing tobacco, but it has always competed with the Spanish West Indies because of the poor variety. Rolf risked his life to steal their varieties from the West Indies and cultivated a sweet tobacco in Virginia. This sweet tobacco quickly became popular in the UK, and the nobles used fashioned Virginia tobacco. Virginia has since embarked on a path of prosperity and wealth. Tobacco is a delicate plant that requires a lot of labor. Eight thousands of the 10,000 colonists who originally came to Virginia died of illness, war, and hunger within a year. Therefore, Virginia's workforce is extremely expensive.

The acceptance of new cultivated plants and domesticated animals, especially for new economic and cultural lifestyles, is usually controlled by the inter-group power relations that are involved and may only occur if those advantages are obvious and urgently needed. exception. Now human life has been unable to leave many cultivated plants of American origin, such as corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, new types of beans, peanuts, new types of pumpkins, sweet peppers, cocoa beans, tobacco, etc.

“North American plants also moved from west to east in the Columbian Exchange. Leading the way in economic importance was tobacco, a stimulant used widely in North America for ceremonial purposes and broadly adopted by Europeans and Africans as a recreational drug”.( Berkin, Miller, Cherny & Gormly, 2011,P 18). The Colombian exchange is one of the major biological exchanges in history. However, at the beginning, Europeans were reluctant to accept these crops and had a clear rejection. Tobacco, a brand-new drug, was quickly gaining popularity around the world. But in the first half of the 17th century, anti-smoking laws were issued everywhere, albeit in vain. (Hahn, 2011). In terms of micro-organisms, the introduction of new bacteria and viruses through Colombian exchanges has led to a demographic catastrophe in the new world. Indigenous people are not immune to infectious diseases from Eurasia and later from Africa. Their massive deaths are not only due to malignant infectious diseases like smallpox, but also to some relatively harmless, general infectious diseases such as influenza.

References

Berkin, C., Miller, C., Cherny, R., & Gormly, J. (2011). Making America: A History of the

United States, Volume 1. , 7th edition, Cengage Learning, 9781285194806. Retrieve https://digitalbookshelf.southuniversity.edu/#/books/9781305793323?context_token=d3a845c0-bef4-0137-cdf3-228f3e5e758f

Hahn, B. (2011). Making Tobacco Bright : Creating an American Commodity, 1617–1937.

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=601031&site=eds-live

Reply to Jessica Bueno

Thank you for your informative post. No doubt , no one can ignore the importance of tobacco at that time. It effect colonies politically, socially and economically. It spread wealth and fore immigrants to came there. New chances of employment available and tobacco use a currency .in Columbian exchange, Europe has become acquainted with potatoes, maize, sunflower, beans, tomatoes, cocoa, strawberries and above all tobacco.

Reply to Korrina Barber

Thankyou for your informative post and I have learned some new aspects of this topic from your post. I am agreeing with you that the absence of gold in Canada and North America influenced colonel behavior toward the land. Tobacco became the main cash crop and reason of prosperity. Virginia has since embarked on a path of prosperity and wealth. Tobacco is a delicate plant that requires a lot of labor.