first
attempts of the Company. Virginia was not prepared to compete with the
workers of Europe in their own chosen fields, and persisted, had to
persist, in the production of the one commodity for which she possessed
unsurpassed natural advantages.

It is remarkable how universally the plant was cultivated by all classes
of Virginians throughout the colonial period. It was difficult to find
skilled artisans in any line of work, since those who had pursued in
England the various trades usually deserted them, when they landed in
the colony, in order to turn to the raising of tobacco. And the few who
continued to pursue their old vocations usually rented or purchased a
small tract of land and devoted a part of their time to its cultivation.
Blacksmiths, carpenters, shipwrights, coopers all raised their little
tobacco crop and sold it to the British merchants,[2-12] while even the
poor minister sought to make ends meet by planting his glebe with
Orinoco or Sweetscented. The Governor himself was not free from the
all-prevailing custom, and frequently was the possessor of a farm where
his servants and slaves, like those of other gentlemen in the colony,
were kept busy tending the tobacco crop.

It is doubtful whether the members of the London Company, even Sir Edwin
Sandys himself, ever attempted to visualize the social structure which
would develop in the Virginia they were planning. If so, they
unquestionably pictured a state of affairs very different from that
which the future held in store. They took it for granted that Virginia
would to a large extent be a duplicate of England. In the forests of the
New World would grow up towns and villages, centers of industry and
centers of trade. The population would be divided into various
classes--well-to-do proprietors boasting of the title of gentleman;
professional men, lawyers, physicians, ministers; skilled artisans of
all kinds; day laborers.

We catch a glimpse of the Virginia of their minds from a Broadside
issued in 1610, appealing for volunteers for service in the
colony.[2-13] We can see the shipwrights at work in the busy yards of
thriving ports; the smelters caring for their iron and copper furnaces;
the "minerall-men" digging out the ore; saltmakers evaporating the
brackish waters for their useful product; vine-dressers tending their
abundant crops of grapes and coopers turning out the hogsheads in which
to store the wine which came from the presses; bricklayers an