History Of Tobacco During The Colonial Period - 1505 Words

Amanda Dai Mr. Howden Apush, Period 3 15 August 2015 Short Answers 2. (a). Tobacco, as it relates to the early colonial period, was a fundamental cash crop for the southern colonies. It was first discovered by Europeans after Columbus’s first return from the West Indies, and by the early 17th century, tobacco from the Spanish colonies was widely used throughout Europe. John Rolfe, a Jamestown planter, experimented and produced high quality tobacco which quickly spread throughout the Chesapeake Bay. As there was great demand for tobacco in Europe, planters grew tremendously wealthy and occasionally made the surrounding region prosperous. However, the farmers often produced more than the demand which caused the price of†¦show more content†¦The economy of the southern colonies, particularly in the Chesapeake region, reflected the rise and fall of the demand for tobacco. (c). Even though tobacco was a crop, it helped shape the social structure of the southern colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The wealthy planters, wh o wanted to expand their plantations required new cheap laborers. At first they used indentured servants, but after they realized that the indentured servants were creating a large source of potential social unrest, they moved towards using slaves. After the 1700s most tobacco plantations employed several dozen or more slaves. The slave work force had not only an economic effect but also a social effect. They formed a new social class, which made up the bottom of the social ladder, below the landless, unemployed white men who were previously the lowest class. The slave society also formed their own culture with their own language and kinship. The demand for tobacco, led to the demand of labor, which shaped the social structure of the southern colonies. 3. (a). In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon led a group on an unauthorized attack on the natives which became a military defiance of the colonial government. Pre-rebellion there was a lot of political turmoil and unrest in the backcountry, which was in part because the new western landowners, including Bacon, strongly disagreed with the eastern tidewater leaders over many policies; mainly on