During the time period between 1606 and 1700 hundreds of settlers flocked

to the Virginia colony seeking riches – only to find hardship, and no gold.
However, after many years, and much effort, the Virginians managed to secure
a solid social and economic system that would eventually make Virginia one of
the most important North American colonies. Document A demonstrates one
hardship that Virginians had to face while developing their colony. Documents
B, C, and D demonstrate solutions to various problems the Virginians faced
during the 18th century.

Some of the first – and most obvious – hardships that the early Virginia
settlers faced were disease, malnutrition, and starvation. When they arrived,
the inexperienced settlers spent valuable time searching for gold, instead of
making preparations and gathering provisions for the difficult winter to come.
Once winter did come, the settlers died “with cruel diseases as swellings, [and]
burning fevers” (Doc. A). The settlers were accustomed to their gentlemanly
ways of life back in Britain and were never “in such misery as we were in this
new discovered Virginia”. However, the Virginians were saved by the
leadership of Captain John Smith, who whipped the colonists into shape and
saved the colony from an early demise. Ironically, Smith’s efforts to improve
the Virginia colony were rewarded when he was kidnapped by the local
Powhatan Native American tribe and subjected to an “execution”. Luckily for
Smith, the Powhatan’s desired a peaceful relationship with the Virginians, and
did not actually harm him. Smith, along with the Native American princess
Pocahontas, helped negotiate the trade of much needed food for the
colonists. Smith provided the leadership that helped the Virginians survive the
first few harsh winters and acquire food.

At this point, the Virginia colonists needed a source of revenue to aid them in
the development of their colony. The colonists realized that they were not
going to find gold in Virginia so they desperately searched for something else.
Then, John Rolfe came to their rescue when he perfected the methods of
raising tobacco – a product in high demand in Europe. John Rolfe’s efforts put
Virginia on stable economic ground and also had lasting effects on countless
people’s health – effects which can be seen in America until this day. As seen
in the tobacco advertisements of the time (Doc. B), the tobacco industry was
vital to Virginia’s economic well-being. Colonists and Britons were encouraged
to “Fear not Death, nor killing Care; Whil’ st we have best Virginia here.” This
demonstrates the value of the tobacco crop to the Virginians. In fact the
Virginians valued tobacco so much that in many cases they would plan
tobacco before they planted food crops! However, one negative aspect that
arose because of this fact was Virginia’s dependence on tobacco. The entire
prosperity of the Virginia colony was enchained to the unpredictable prices of
a single crop. Clearly, tobacco was of economic significance to Virginia in more
ways than one.

With massive land ownership, comes the inherent necessity of finding a cheap
labor force to work the land. Labor was another challenging issue that the
Virginians faced – however, like they had done on more than one occasion,
the Virginians overcame their hardship in a way that would profoundly
influence the society and economics of their colony for many centuries to
come. While tobacco was a poor man’s crop (in that it could be planted easily
and produce commercially marketable leaves in under a year), landowners
were faced with the difficult task of procuring laborers to work their massive
land tracts. At first, the Virginian’s captured Native Americans and put them to
work on the land; however, the European diseases wreaked havoc among the
natives, killing 90% of them within weeks. At this point, Virginians were
desperately in need of a more reliable labor source – one that was cheap and
profitable. They found their answer in indentured servants.

Indentured servants are laborers who are under contract to work for a specific
amount of time. As seen in Document C, indentured servants in Virginia were
expected to serve their masters for a set period (usually 5 to 7 years), in
exchange for paid passage across the Pacific Ocean and the promise of
“freedom dues” – usually a new suit of clothes and a small plot of land – at the
end of the term. This worked out wonderfully for the landowners – even more
so with the establishment of the Headright system in 1618 which promised 50
acres of land to anyone who paid for the passage to Virginia for someone else.
Rich landowners began to bring pay for the passage of hundreds and
hundreds of indentured servants. In this manner, the rich landowners were
able to increase their land holdings and obtain cheap labor in one fell swoop.
However, in many cases, freed indentured servants were not being given their
justly earned freedom dues at the end of their terms. In other cases,
indentured servants received land far out on the frontier of the colony,
vulnerable to Native American attack. A growing group of malcontents began
to form in Virginia, and many well-to-do Virginians feared for their lives. In
1676 their fears came true. Nathaniel Bacon led a rebellion, later known as
Bacon’s Rebellion, against the rich landowners and the Native Americans
killing several and setting fire to the Capitol. Bacon’s Rebellion pitted the
landless freemen against the lordly landowners, and shook Virginia in near-
civil war. However, the rebellion was soon crushed, but the landowners had
learned their lesson; they were on the lookout for less troublesome laborers.

African slaves proved to be the next-best solution. Though they were very
expensive, they had many benefits. They were more manageable than
indentured servants because they could easily be recognized as a slave from
far away due to their dark skin; this deterred runaway slaves. Additionally, they
could be worked harder because they were “property” and not actually human
in the eyes of their masters.  In many cases, it was cheaper to work slaves to
death and then buy new ones, rather than treat the slaves humanely. Unlike
the indentured servants, slaves were abused, threatened, and beaten on a
regular basis and reduced to the lowest position in society. Most slaves were
procured by kidnappings and attacks on African villages. Slaves were packed
onto ships for the agonizing Middle Passage. As seen in Document D, the
slaves were packed into the ships in the most inhumane of conditions. Often
slaves were forced to lie below deck for up to 6 months, sitting in their own
feces, chained to several other dead slaves. After they arrived in America,
things did not get any better. The adoption of “slave codes” took away every
basic freedom from the slaves, and started the racial discrimination against
blacks that can still be seen today. Clearly, slaves were at the lowest social
level in Virginian society – after children, women, indentured servants,
freemen, and the aristocratic landowners – a fact that would remain true until
the Thirteenth Amendment freed slaves in 1865.

After many years, and much effort, the Virginians overcame the hardships they
faced and developed unique social and economic systems. Through the
growing of tobacco and the employment of, at first, Native Americans,
followed by indentured servants, and then slaves, the Virginia colonists
managed to secure a solid social and economic system that would eventually
make Virginia one of the most important North American colonies.