By John Siblon
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Teacher aims :
1) The aim of this project is to demonstrate the importance of tobacco cultivation and trade in the economic development of Britain and the
American colonies from their founding until the start of the American
War of Independence.
2) The project also seeks to demonstrate that the economies of Britain,
Africa and the American colonies were interdependent on this trade.
3) The project also discusses the extent that the physical landscape of
American and European societies developed through the tobacco trade
4) The project will look at how tobacco and the institution of slavery were connected.
The teacher’s role in this task is to look at the background information and to gain enough secure knowledge to ensure that students are taking full advantage of the material and evidence in the booklet. The idea is to give a clear time limit and allow students to carry out the investigation for themselves whether in the classroom or at home.
Student aims :
Chronological understanding:
Students will use dates, vocabulary and conventions that describe the colonial period between Britain and America.
Knowledge and understanding:
Students will describe and analyse the relationships between the characteristic features of the period and the societies studied and identify trends both within and across the colonial period. Students will also identify links between local, British, European and world history and consider the significance of the main events, people and changes studied.
Historical interpretation:
Students will learn to evaluate interpretations.
Historical enquiry:
Students will identify, select and use a range of appropriate sources as a basis for independent historical enquiry. They will also evaluate the sources used, select and record information relevant to the enquiry to reach a conclusion.
Organisation and communication:
Students will recall, prioritise and select historical information. They will accurately select and use chronological conventions and appropriate historical vocabulary. Students will also communicate their knowledge and understanding of history, using a range of techniques including ICT.
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These days smoking is not as visible and acceptable in society as it used to be. Smoking is now banned in public places on both sides of the Atlantic
Ocean in parts of the USA and in Scotland, Ireland and from 2007 the whole of Britain and France. This does not mean, however, that people have stopped smoking in the USA and Britain. It is still a multibillion dollar industry.
In Britain, a well-known brand of hand-rolled toba cco is ‘Golden Virginia’.
Why do you think it is called this name?
The story of the link between Britain and the America is four hundred years old but the tobacco link between the two is almost as old. When did America first start growing tobacco and exporting it to Britain and Europe?
The Task
Your task is to answer the big question on the cover and also at the top of this page. You will use the internet and some printed evidence to help you answer the big question. The idea is the more notes you have and the more questions you have answered, the easier it will be to answer the big question in an essay form.
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Task 1
– Tobacco and the American colonies
Look at the following link and answer the questions below: http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/VACompany.html
1. What is the symbol below?
Evidence - symbol
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2. What was the purpose of the Virginia Company of London?
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3. What crop did John Rolfe introduce to the colonies which helped overcome their early difficulties?
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How did John Rolfe’s wedding to Pocahontas help the development of tobacco in the colonies? Look at the link below to help you answer this and question 5. http://www.apva.org/history/jrolfe.html
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5. How many pounds of tobacco were exported to England in 1629?
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Task 2
– Tobacco, servitude and slavery
Look at the following link and answer the question below: http://www.apva.org/history/index.html
5. What sorts of people provided the labour to grow tobacco from 1612 onwards? Explain your answer.
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Evidence - statistics
Historians have offered various theories to explain this sudden shift from white to black field labour. In parts of Maryland, for example, it appears that in the late 1670’s white servants outnumbered black slaves nearly 4:1, but by the early 1690’s slaves outnumbered servants nearly 4:1. In Virginia, the rich tobacco lands between the James and the Rappahannock rivers underwent a similarly drastic change…A few blacks arrived in Virginia in 1619. They were transported by a Dutch ship and were probably sold as slaves. 30 years later,
Virginia’s black population still amounted to only a few hundred. Until the mid-
1670’s, when slaves were first shipped directly from Africa, most of
Chesa peake’s blacks came from Barbados and other Caribbean colonies or from the Dutch colony of New Netherland (later known as New York). The decision to purchase shiploads of African slaves was made by a small group of wealthy planters who concluded that temporary white servants could no longer meet the need of large landowners for a cheap and expanding supply of labour.
David Brion Davis, Slavery in the Colonial Chesapeake , the Colonial
Williamsburg Foundation, 1986
Evidence - Exports from America in 1758
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Evidence – re-enactment of Enslaved Africans engaged in tobacco cultivation at Colonial Williamsburg
It is clear from many history books and articles that tobacco was the major source of wealth for Virginia and Maryland planters until the revolutionary war period from 1775 onwards. The need for labour to grow the tobacco also led an increase in enslaved Africans to the tobacco growing colonies of North
America. Some of the most famous Americans of this time such as George
Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned plantations where tobacco was grown by slaves
Look at the following links and then complete the task below: http://www.poplarforest.org/newsltr/newsf04tobacco.html
http://www.nps.gov/archive/gewa/bowden&history.htm
6. Write a short paragraph describing how tobacco was cultivated.
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7. Explain how important tobacco was to the wealth of the planters (in this case, Thomas Jefferson).
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Look at the link below and answer the following question: http://www.pbs.org/georgewashington/timeline/index.html
8. Why did you think George Washington stopped growing tobacco from
1759 onwards?
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Another group to become wealthy from the tobacco trade were the merchants from Britain. Initially, London controlled the trade in tobacco exported from
America, followed by other coastal towns such as Bristol, Liverpool, Lancaster and Whitehaven. However, after the Act of Union in 1707, between England and Scotland in 1707 Scottish merchants, especially in Glasgow, began to invest heavily in the tobacco trade. They sent representatives of the merchants called factors to America to establish contact with the planters. The
Glasgow merchants had a profitable trade with the American colonies until the
American war of independence in 1776. It is said, however, that tobacco was the making of Glasgow.
Task 3 – Glasgow and the Tobacco trade
9. Look at the evidence below and give as many reasons you can find as to why Glasgow overtook its other British competitors to become the major importer of American tobacco in the colonial period.
Evidence – the Glasgow merchants
The Clyde ports [near Glasgow] had crucial advantages over their rivals in the south. The route to Virginia and Maryland north of Ireland was the shortest and quickest (by two or three weeks’ sailing time) which helped to reduce freight [transport] costs for Glasgow ship-owners. The Northern sea lanes were, in addition, much safer in time of war and so insurance premiums were significantly cheaper in for Scottish vessels over much of the 18 th century…The Glasgow tobacco houses established chains of stores supervised by young Scottish factors which offered consumer goods, plantation equipment, money and credit in exchange for tobacco. The stores therefore ensured that enough tobacco was purchased in advance of the annual arrival of the tobacco fleets from the Clyde. The ‘stay in the country’ was therefore cut to a minimum, turn-around time in the colonial ports drastically reduced and much more effective use of shipping capacity assured.
Tom Devine, ‘The Tobacco Lords of Glasgow’, History Today , Volume 40,
Issue 5, 1990.
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Evidence – John Glassford
10. Look at the picture above c. 1767. It is of a very successful Tobacco merchant of Glasgow, John Glassford and his family. He also provided slaves for Virginia planters. In fact, there was originally an enslaved
African servant in the painting on the far left but he has been removed
– why do you think the slave has been removed from the painting?
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11. Look at the map below and see how many clues there are that
Glasgow merchants traded in Tobacco and slaves. For example George
Buchanan was a tobacco trader who owned a plantation next door to
George Washington’s plantation in Virginia. Indeed, both Buchanan and
Washington made a joint decision to name their land s ‘Mount Vernon’.
There are currently two ‘Mount Vernon’s’; one in Scotland and one in
Virginia, USA.
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Evidence – map of Glasgow in 1778
You can use the link below to help you: http://heritage.scotsman.com/places.cfm?id=456212006
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Legacy
The picture below provides evidence from today abou t Glasgow’s tobacco trading past. The building in Queen Street, Glasgow was formerly the home of the tobacco trader, William Cunninghame. It is now The Gallery of Modern
Art.
Evidence – The Gallery of Modern Art
Now you are in a position to write an essay in answer to the main question:
Bibliography
Websites : http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/VACompany.html
http://www.apva.org/history/jrolfe.html
http://www.apva.org/history/index.html
http://www.poplarforest.org/newsltr/newsf04tobacco.html
http://www.nps.gov/archive/gewa/bowden&history.htm
http://www.pbs.org/georgewashington/timeline/index.html
http://heritage.scotsman.com/places.cfm?id=456212006
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Articles:
Tom Devine, ‘The Tobacco Lords of Glasgow’, History Today , Volume 40,
Issue 5, 1990
Books:
David Brion Davis, Slavery in the Colonial Chesapeake , the Colonial
Williamsburg Foundation, 1986
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