VS.4a

Explaining the importance of agriculture and its influence on the institution of slavery.

READY RESOURCES

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• Explain to students that the success of tobacco as a cash crop transformed life in the Virginia colony and encouraged slavery.
  
  
• Define the term cash crop (a crop that is grown to sell for money rather than for use by the growers and have students illustrate the cash crop of the early Virginia colony.
  
  
• Explain that the economy of the Virginia colony depended on agriculture as a primary source of wealth. English citizens wanted to purchase Virginia tobacco and so the Jamestown settlers had a product that became their cash crop.
  
  
• Explain that tobacco became the most profitable agricultural product. Tobacco was sold in England as a cash crop.
  
  
• Explain how the successful planting of tobacco depended on a reliable and inexpensive source of labor.
  
  
• Large numbers of Africans were brought to the colony against their will to work as slaves on the plantations.
  
  
• The Virginia colony became dependent on slave labor, and the dependence lasted a long time.
  
  
• Find a book about early Jamestown and read selections that explain how tobacco became a cash crop. Define cash crop. Talk about how agriculture became the primary source of wealth. Explain that tobacco was the most profitable product, because it was not available in England, and so the settlers traded it for supplies they needed.
  
  
• Explain or continue reading excerpts of a selected book to discuss that the settlers needed to find an inexpensive source of labor to expand the tobacco economy. Use a world map to show the students where this labor would come from and have them identify the continent of Africa. Explain that the Africans were brought against their will, first as indentured servants, to plant, raise, and harvest the tobacco. As the economy grew, more Africans were needed for labor. Many Africans were apprehended against their will and brought to America as slaves. The dependence on slave labor in Virginia would last for many, many years.
  
  
• Compare the experiences of different slaves by reading the stories contained in the following Web site. Ask students to chart ways slaves fought against slavery or how they survived slavery. Discuss the consequences.
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/tguide/1tgfocus.html
  
  
• http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/censusbin/census/cen.pl?year=790
  Use the U.S. Census Web site for 1790 to compare and contrast the numbers of slave and free Africans with the total population. This site may also be used to investigate the numbers of immigrants. Graphs and charts can be made right on the Web site.
  
  
• http://www.virginiaplaces.org/agriculture/tobaccostaple.html
  Have students create a chart about the effect of agriculture and Virginia tobacco and plantations on the Virginia colony.

TEACHER BACKGROUND RESOURCES

WEB SITES

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html
  This outstanding site presents Africans in America: America's Journey Through Slavery in four parts. For each era, there are: a historical narrative; a resource bank of images, documents stories, biographies, and commentaries; and a teacher's guide for using the content of the Web site and television series.
  
  
• http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/meet_george/index.cfm/ss/101/
  Several Web sites of the founding fathers present information on their views and struggles with slavery. At the Mount Vernon Web site, there is information about George Washington and Slavery, Slave Census, Slave Quarters, etc.
  
  
• http://www.virginiaplaces.org/agriculture/index.html
  "Long before Northern Virginia had the Pentagon,
  "Long before Virginia Beach became a tourist resort,
  "Long before Southwest Virginia began mining coal,
  "Long before Richmond had the Tredegar Iron Works or mills grinding flour, and
  "Long before even John Rolfe shipped tobacco from Jamestown,
  "Virginia's economy was based on agriculture."
  This site discusses farming by Indians, subsistence farming, and the growth of agriculture as an industry in Virginia.
  
  
• http://www.virginiaplaces.org/population/slaveorigin.html
  The origin of slavery is the topic of this informational site that covers how the Virginia colony became dependent on slave labor.
  
  
• http://www.virginiaplaces.org/agriculture/tobaccostaple.html
  Tobacco was a cash crop. In 1613, John Rolfe grew a crop of "sweet-scented" tobacco from seeds imported from the Caribbean, rather than the harsh strain of tobacco that was native to Virginia.
  
  
• http://www.historyisfun.org/PDFbooks/Life_at_Jamestown.pdf
  This site provides a copy of the booklet Life at Jamestown as written by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. The booklet provides further information on the Virginia Assembly of 1619.
  
  
• http://www.vahistorical.org/storyofvirginia.htm
  This site consists of ten concise, easy-to-read chapters on Virginia history from prehistoric times to the present.
  
  
• http://www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/chronology-of-jamestown-events.htm
  Chronology of Jamestown events from the Colonial National Historic Park.
  
  
• http://ww2.mariner.org/captivepassage/arrival/arr010.html
  Slavery in North American from the Mariner’s Museum.
  
  
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/
  PBS documentary Africans in America.