jan 1, 1610 - 3. John Rolfe

Description:

*The settlers at Jamestown were extremely lazy, so lazy, in fact, that they nearly all died of starvation after no one wanted to make their own food.* Eventually, Captain John Smith put some sense into the settlers, but still, Jamestown had not taken off yet. That's where John Rolfe comes it. Rolfe had come to the New World as an amateur botanist. Rolfe found that by crossbreeding local Virginia tobacco with tobacco from the Caribbean, the product was some really good tobacco. The English back in Europe went crazy for this stuff, and soon everyone in Jamestown was farming and producing it. Rolfe is often contributed with being the "Savior of Jamestown", as just 60 years later the population of Jamestown had soared from less than 100 to over 35,000.

AP Key Concept 2.1, II