John Rolfe forever change the course of the Chesapeake colonies : He realized that cultivating tobacco would be profitable in Virginia. Log in for more information.
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In a life that held much personal tragedy, Rolfe gave the colony its economic base. His contributions allowed the English settlements to become permanent, thus solidifying the English presence in America and making possible the first steps toward the creation of the future United States. Carrier, Lyman.
Rolfe returned to Virginia, remarried and served a prominent role in the economic and political life of the colony until his death in 1622. Not much is known about Rolfe’s early life except that he was born around 1585 and was probably the son of a small landholder in Norfolk, England.
John Rolfe arrived in Jamestown along with 150 other settlers in 1610, as part of a new charter organized by the Virginia Company.
John Rolfe (1585–1622) was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia in 1611.
In a life that held much personal tragedy, Rolfe gave the colony its economic base. His contributions allowed the English settlements to become permanent, thus solidifying the English presence in America and making possible the first steps toward the creation of the future United States. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Carrier, Lyman.
He became a councilor and sat as a member of the House of Burgesses. He married again to Jane Pearce, daughter of a colonist.
The Virginia Company, founded by investors, had financed and sponsored the English colony founded at Jamestown in May 1607. The Company expected the colonist to start industrial enterprises in Virginia that would return profits to the Company. The colonists in Virginia tried a number of different enterprises: silkmaking, glassmaking, lumber, ...
It resulted in peace with the Indians long enough for the settlers to develop and expand their colony and plant themselves permanently in the new land. In 1616 , Rolfe took his wife and infant son Thomas to England.
The Sea Venture ran aground on a reef off the Bermudas, but the entire company of 150 safely reached shore in the ship's boats. The colonists found Bermuda to be a hospitable place with sufficient food. In the following months, they built two smaller ships from cedar trees and salvage.
However, Rolfe wanted to introduce sweeter strains from Trinidad, using the hard-to-obtain Spanish seeds he brought with him. In 1611, he was the first to commercially cultivate Nicotiana tabacum tobacco plants in North America; export of this sweeter tobacco beginning in 1612 helped turn the Virginia Colony into a profitable venture. He named his Virginia-grown strain of the tobacco "Orinoco", possibly in honour of tobacco popularizer Sir Walter Raleigh 's expeditions in the 1580s up the Orinoco River in Guiana in search of the legendary City of Gold, El Dorado. The appeal of Orinoco tobacco was in its nicotine, and the conviviality of its use in social situations.
In 1612, Rolfe established Varina Farms, a plantation along the James River about 30 miles (50 km) upstream from Jamestown and across the river from Sir Thomas Dale 's progressive development at Henricus. The first harvest of four barrels of tobacco leaf was exported from Virginia to England in March 1614.
Heading the Third Supply fleet was the new flagship of the Virginia Company, the Sea Venture, carrying Rolfe and his wife, Sarah Hacker. The Third Supply fleet left England in May 1609 destined for Bermuda with seven large ships, towing two smaller pinnaces.
John Rolfe Middle School, in Henrico County, Virginia, one of Virginia's eight original shires of 1634, is named for him. Varina magisterial district in Henrico County is named for Rolfe's Varina Farms plantation, where the tiny village was also the first county seat (from 1634 to 1752).
In eastern Virginia, State Route 31 is named the John Rolfe Highway. It links Williamsburg with Jamestown, the southern entrance to the Colonial Parkway, and via the Jamestown Ferry leads to the rich farming area of Surry County and Sussex County, ending in Wakefield, Virginia.
A project of the proprietary Virginia Company of London, Jamestown had been established by an initial group of settlers on 14 May 1607. This colony proved as troubled as earlier English settlements. Two return trips with supplies by Christopher Newport arrived in 1608, while another large relief fleet was dispatched in 1609, carrying hundreds of new settlers and supplies across the Atlantic. Heading the Third Supply fleet was the new flagship of the Virginia Company, the Sea Venture, carrying Rolfe and his wife, Sarah Hacker.
John Rolfe Drive, in the town of Smithfield in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, connects Battery Park Road with Magruder Road, and is named for Rolfe. John Rolfe Lane, in the town of Katy, Texas, goes through the suburban neighborhood of Williamsburg Colony. John Rolfe Middle School, in Henrico County, Virginia, ...