Native Americans first cultivated and used tobacco.
Virginia's first cash crop was and continues to be tobacco. It grows very well in the state and produces a great deal of money for them.
The first recorded plantation in the Americas was established by Spanish colonists in the Caribbean during the early 16th century, primarily focused on sugarcane cultivation. However, in the context of North America, the first successful plantation system is often attributed to the Virginia colony, where tobacco was cultivated on large estates beginning in the early 1600s. John Rolfe is notable for introducing tobacco as a cash crop in Virginia around 1612, which laid the foundation for the plantation economy in the region.
The first slaves in America were brought to the colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, to help grow tobacco.
The different types of crops grown in Virginia are soybeans, corn, wheat, apples and peaches. Tobacco is now Virginia's third ranked cash crop.
While the Northern colonies (and later states), relied on trade and industry as the main drivers of their economies, the Southern states, including Virginia, relied mainly on agriculture. Tobacco has been a major cash crop in North America since it was first colonized, and many tobacco plantations in Virginia can trace their history back hundreds of years.
John Rolfe
John Rolfe improved ways of preserving the pungent weed, but I am unsure of who first cultivated the tobacco in Virginia.
He cultivated "rabbit tobacco."
The strain of tobacco cultivated by Rolfe was the export cash crop that helped make the Virginia Colony profitable. It was the mainstay of the farming plantations for generations. Huge warehouses, such as those on Richmond's Tobacco Row, attest to its popularity. Even almost 400 years later, tobacco figures prominently in Virginia's economy.
Virginia
The economy of Virginia is tobacco.
That would be tobacco.
Tobacco farming in the state of Virginia is extremely profitable.
John Rolfe was the first to plant tobacco in Virginia. Tobacco became the economic salvation of the colony and, for years, its biggest cash crop.
Virginia's first cash crop was and continues to be tobacco. It grows very well in the state and produces a great deal of money for them.
Tobacco
Tobacco was Virginia's first profitable export.