Materials

• Teacher-selected book about Jamestown colony
• World map – classroom size and one per student
• Chart paper/chalkboard
  
• Markers
  
• Textbook, trade books, or other instructional materials

Instructional Activities

1. Review the groups of people in Virginia during the early 1600s. Explain how having a government brought more order and permanence to the colony. The settlers were ready to establish families so that the colony could grow. Women were brought to the colony in 1620.
   
   
2. Find a book about early Jamestown and read selections that explain how tobacco became a cash crop. Define cash crop. Talk about how agriculture became the primary source of wealth. Explain that tobacco was the most profitable product, because it was not available in England, and so the settlers traded it for supplies they needed.
   
   
3. Explain or continue reading excerpts of a selected book to discuss that the settlers needed to find an inexpensive source of labor to expand the tobacco economy. Use a world map to show the students where this labor would come from and have them identify the continent of Africa. Explain that the Africans were brought against their will, first as indentured servants, to plant, raise, and harvest the tobacco. As the economy grew, more Africans were needed for labor. Many Africans were apprehended against their will and brought to America as slaves. The dependence on slave labor in Virginia would last for many, many years.