Bacon's Rebellion: Rough Draft #2

Bacon’s Rebellion

Thesis: When the colonists needed tobacco during Bacon's Rebellion they looked to the Virginians to meet their needs.

Tobacco production and trade

Tobacco production and trade by the Virginians increased during Bacon’s rebellion. The cause for increased production and trade was the popularity of tobacco during the rebellion. Virginians had to work long days in temperatures that were at times miserable to keep up with the tobacco fields. They had hoes to help them with the work of cutting the tobacco, most of the time that was all they got for tools. During this time colonists and Europeans increased the amount of tobacco they smoked, making more work for the Virginians. “A demanding crop, tobacco required close attention and a great deal of hand labor year-round.” (P. 77 Roark). The increase in production was a benefit for Virginians because they had to expand and make more tobacco, which meant larger profits.

The consumption of tobacco by colonists and Europeans was growing and growing everyday. By the early 1600s the production of tobacco was increasing tremendously causing more labor for the Virginians. A great deal of money was being made for this ever so popular drug. Trading tobacco was an easy task in the 1600s because of the high demand and popularity by the Europeans and colonists. Once they got the ball rolling on producing tobacco it made it much easier to produce large amounts and trade to the Europeans and colonists.

The Virginians needed to make new land to plant more tobacco to meet the demands of the colonists and Europeans. Clearing was important to the procedure of producing tobacco on large fields. It was necessary to clear land before planting because there were other plants, trees, etc. that would prevent tobacco from growing. “Girdling brought sun-light to clearings but left fields studded with tree stumps, making the use of plows impractical.” (p.77 Roark). Clearing the land for new tobacco fields included cutting down trees and leaving the stumps, everything else had to go. “Like the Indians, the colonists “cleared” fields by cutting a ring of bark from each tree (a procedure known as girdling)” (p.77 Roark). Once they had more land they started planting tobacco; that they would later profit off of by selling it to the colonists and Europeans. “To plant, a visitor observed, they “just make holes (with a stick) into which they drop the seeds, “much as the Indians did.” (p.77 Roark). The process of planting tobacco was fairly easy and just required time.

Developing new land

The Virginians next step was to start developing new land to meet the tobacco needs of the colonists and Europeans. They achieved this by first, clearing fields of trees that in which the land was not being used and secondly planting tobacco seeds into holes that they made. The development of new land wasn’t hard at this time because many people didn’t have a problem with what they were using it for. It was only until the later days in which people had specific property lines, where they could only use the land inside that property.