The Tobacco Economy's Development and Early Struggles

The Tobacco Economy's Development and Early Struggles Many of the first Jamestown immigrants died from starvation, poor bealth, and conflicts with Native Americans. The winter of 1609-16100, dubbed "the starving time," almost brought the cokmy to its knees. Only the last-minute arrival of a supply ship from England saved the region fram another unsuccessful colonization attempt by June 1670, when the finw people still there had made the decision to leave Of the seventy-five hundred people who arrived to Virginia between 1607 and 1624, only twelve hundred survived, despite the fact that the supply ship brought fresh inhabitants Virginia had gotten through the worst by the 1620s and bad established some stability, Slowly but surely, political stability developed, and by 1679 the nascent colong was governed by a House of Burgesses, a council, and a governor Tobacco farming was a profitable industry that provided economic stability Native Americans had long been smakens, and English and other European customers quickly followed suit. When the Virginia colony started exporting tobacco to England in 1614, it made a substantial profit and avoided going bankrupt. King Charles I handed the Calvert family e license to establish a second tobacco colong, Maryland, in 1834 in exchange for their devoted service to England. The second Lord Baltimore, Cecilius Calvert, saw Maryland as a haven for English Catholics Tobacco cultivation was a labor-intensive endeavor (Figure 3.9), necessitating the Chesapeake colonists to have a consistent labor force for the labor-intensive tasks of clearing the soil and tending to the fragile immature plants. The next step included curing, or drging, the adult leaf of the plant, which required building drying bams. After the tobacco was cured, it needed to he labor-intensively packed into hogsheads, which are big wooden barrels, and carried onto ships. The early Virginians depended on indentured slaves to satisfy these labor needs. An indenture is a kind of labor contract that young, poor, and often illiterate Englistimen and women signed in England, promising to work cultivating tobacco in the Chesapeake colonies for a certain period of time, generally five to seven gears, Indentured sløves got food, clothes, and accommodation in exchange for their funded vogage to America After their indenture ended, slaves were paid "freedom dues," which were often food and other supplies, sometimes even colony-provided land. Because they had few, if any choices at home, members of England's underclass saw great interest in the prospect of a fresh life in America Approximately 100,000 indentured servants made their way to the Chesapeake Bag in the 1800s. The majority were young, impoverished males in their early 20s. But colonial life proved to be hard. Indentured slaves were bound by the will of the tobacco growers who purchased their work contracts and were not allowed to marry. The contractual servants might be practically sold or exchanged among those who could afford to buy them, treated as property Some contract holders failed to provide enough housing and food for their staff. An indentured servant's periods of duty were extended, sometimes by many years, if they broke the law or defled the people holding their contracts. Particular risks befell female indentured slaves in this effectively bachelor colong Mang were taken advantage of by dishonest tobacco growers who wooed them with marriage proposals. To save the expenses of rearing a lid, the planters would sell the pregnant women to other tobecco growers if they fell pregnant