page_title: History of Jamestown, Virginia (1607–1699)
section_title: Tobacco
hierarchical_section_title: History of Jamestown, Virginia (1607–1699) / Expansion beyond Jamestown / Tobacco
caption_attribution_description: English: An 1878 depiction of tobacco cultivation at Jamestown, ca. 1615. From A School History of the United States, from the Discovery of America to the Year 1878 by David B. Scott (1878); available at the Internet Archive
context_page_description: Jamestown was the first settlement of the Virginia Colony, founded in 1607, and served as the capital of Virginia until 1699, when the seat of government was moved to Williamsburg.
context_section_description: In 1610, John Rolfe, whose wife and a child had died in Bermuda during passage in the Third Supply to Virginia, was just one of the settlers who had arrived in Jamestown following the shipwreck of Sea Venture. However, his major contribution is that he was the first man to successfully raise export tobacco in the Colony (although the colonists had begun to make glass artifacts to export immediately after their arrival). The native tobacco raised in Virginia prior to that time, Nicotiana rustica, was not to the liking of the Europeans but Rolfe had brought some seed for Nicotiana tabacum with him from Bermuda.
  Although most people "wouldn't touch" the crop, Rolfe was able to make his fortune farming it, successfully exporting beginning in 1612. Soon almost all other colonists followed suit, as windfall profits in tobacco briefly lent Jamestown something like a gold rush atmosphere. Among others, Rolfe quickly became both a wealthy and prominent man. He married the young Virginia Indian woman Pocahontas on April 24, 1614. They lived first across the river from Jamestown, and later at his Varina Farms plantation near Henricus. Their son, Thomas Rolfe, was born in 1615.
caption: Cultivation of tobacco at Jamestown (19th century engraving)
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