When Jamestown was established in 1607 the Indians living in Tidewater Virginia were smoking a leaf from the native tobacco plant, Nicotiana rustica. It was a bitter tasting leaf of rather poor quality, and never cultivated on a large scale by the early planters.

About 1611, seeds of a West Indies tobacco plant, Nicotiana tabacum, were introduced into Virginia. A year later John Rolfe experimented with the seeds from the West Indies plant, together with tobacco seeds from South America. The exact nature of Rolfe's tests, carried on at or near Jamestown, is unknown, but the plant he seemingly developed was one with a mild, sweet-scented, leaf.

The new sweet-scented leaf became popular overnight, and during the remainder of the seventeenth century it proved the economic salvation of the colony. To a large degree, the new crop determined the economic, social, and political life of the planters. The demand in England for the new leaf was also responsible, in a large measure, for the spread of settlement and increase of population in Virginia. The tobacco plant developed by Rolfe was the first crop grown by the Virginia settlers which made a profit.

The conjectural illustration shows Jamestown colonists harvesting tobacco about the year 1650.

Harvesting Tobacco At Jamestown About 1650

Conjectural Painting