Captive Passage - Arrival: Life in the Americas
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Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the AmericasSugar Plantations
Tobacco Plantations
Cotton Plantations
Rice Plantations

Captive Passage
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Arrival: Life in the AmericasPreference for AfricansThe Slave Markets
European RewardsSlave Populations in the AmericasThe Ships Return to EuropeEconomics
Sugar IntroductionSlavery in North AmericaReligionSilver Mines of South America

Tobacco Plantations:

Tobacco Plantation
Tobacco Plantation
Virginia and Maryland were founded as outposts for English commerce, financed by English merchants. This endeavor was to fill England's tax coffers and to furnish a place to send the excess population.

Early American settlers soon found tobacco had a profitable market in England, and all other economic activities were discontinued. It was popular in Europe where tobacco smoking and snuff taking had become fashionable. The English consumed more tobacco per capita than any other European nation in the 17thcentury and sought a place to grow it so they would not have to buy from their old rival, Spain. They could take advantage of this opportunity only if they could get enough labor to increase output. Much of the profits went to importing more English servants. However, the supply of indentured servants had decreased by the end of the 17thcentury. Desperate for a labor force, they turned to African slaves.

Plantation owners imported large numbers of slaves to cultivate the tobacco, dry its leaves, and pack it to be transported to market. When prices fell in the middle of the 17thcentury, some planters turned to producing rice and sugar cane.

Tobacco was a very labor-intensive crop. Planters were kept busy for about nine months out of the year with sowing, transplanting, weeding, and other tasks associated with tobacco cultivation. The crop quickly depleted the soil, forcing farmers to continually search for new land. A field could produce approximately three crops before it had to lie fallow for several years.


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