Tobacco being harvested in the Virginia Colony. By 1612, John Rolfe's new strains of tobacco had been successfully cultivated and exported. Finally, a cash crop to export had been identified, and plantations and new outposts sprung up, initially both upriver and downriver along the navigable portion of the James River, and thereafter along the other rivers and waterways of the area.

Tobacco Cultivation in Colonial Virginia

Tobacco being harvested in the Virginia Colony. By 1612, John Rolfe's new strains of tobacco had been…