A Colony on the Brink
When Jamestown was founded in 1607, its settlers were poorly prepared for life in the New World. They searched for gold, struggled with disease, and faced conflict with Indigenous peoples. Captain John Smith held the colony together temporarily, but Jamestown nearly failed after his return to England.
Tobacco Changes Everything
In 1612, John Rolfe began experimenting with tobacco from the West Indies. Within a decade, it had become Virginia’s chief source of revenue. Tobacco created a powerful export economy and encouraged the rapid acquisition of land and labor.
Prosperity’s Hidden Cost
The colony’s success depended increasingly on unfree labor. Indentured servants first supplied much of the workforce, but African slavery hardened into a lifelong, hereditary institution as tobacco plantations expanded. The wealth created by the crop helped build colonial society while embedding racial slavery in its economic structure.
In 1624, after disease, conflict, and the Powhatan attack of 1622, the Crown revoked the Virginia Company’s charter and made Virginia a royal colony. Jamestown’s lesson was enduring: economic survival could transform political institutions—and prosperity could be built on human bondage.