American School (artist unknown), American
The Cultivation of Tobacco in Colonial America, 19th century
This piece depicts slave labor in the tobacco industry of colonial America and serves as a starting point for discussing the socioeconomic impact of said industry. John Rolfe is credited with bringing tobacco to the colonies via Virginia in 1612. While tobacco cultivation in the Chesapeake area was originally characterized by white planters working alongside enslaved black people, the wildly increasing demand for tobacco in the 18th century led to an enormous slave boom that deepened racial divide. The industry became extremely competitive and working conditions for enslaved people worsened. Racially motivated laws emerged that would eventually become Jim Crow laws. While white workers are depicted in the foreground, this engraving shows an undeniable division between them and the black enslaved people. Label by Laura Reitze