Rolfe, John 93tobacco was less expensive than the Spanish product, and
in England, Sir Walter Raleigh promoted its use as a medi-
cine and a recreational drug.
In 1614, the widower Rolfe wrote to Sir Th omas Dale,
governor of Virginia, to ask the governor’s approval of his
marriage to a young Indian woman, Pocahontas. Pocahon-
tas, 20 years younger than Rolfe and the daughter of the
Powhatan federation leader, Chief Powhatan, had been
kidnapped a year earlier by English colonists and had been
brought to Jamestown to be exchanged for weapons and
English prisoners her father held. Before any exchange took
place, Pocahontas had learned English, had converted to
Christianity, and had been baptized and christened with the
name Rebecca. In his letter to the governor, Rolfe explained
that he was a devoutly religious person, that he loved Poca-
hontas, that he believed his marriage to Pocahontas would
be for the betterment of the colony, and that the marriage
would not compromise his standing in the church or in
his community. Rolfe also asked Powhatan’s permission to
marry Pocahontas. Permission was granted and Rolfe mar-
ried Pocahontas in the spring of 1614.
Rolfe’s marriage to Pocahontas upset England’s King
James, who believed that Rolfe might want to become king
of Virginia because he had married an Indian princess.
However, the English settlers favored the marriage and
expressed hopes that the marriage would promote and fa-
cilitate the transfer of Indian lands to the settlers. In 1616,
the Rolfes left Jamestown with their infant son and several
Powhatan Indians to travel to England to express support
for the Virginia Company and to encourage further settle-
ment in the colony. During their visit, the Rolfes traveled
extensively, met important people, and raised money and
attracted settlers for the Virginia colony, and were intro-
duced at the court of King James I and Queen Anne.
As the Rolfes were preparing to return to Virginia
in 1617, Rebecca and their son, Th omas, became ill. It is
not clear whether Rebecca died of smallpox, tuberculosis,
or pneumonia, but she died before the ship left England
and was buried in Gravesend. Rolfe returned to Virginia
but made provisions for his infant son to remain in En-
gland until his health would permit a return to Jamestown.
Th omas remained in England to complete his education
and returned to Jamestown aft er his father’s death.
When Rolfe returned to Jamestown, he became ac-
tively involved in the colony’s government, serving as sec-
retary and recorder of the colony for fi ve years and thenWood, Peter. Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina
from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1974.
Yoshida, Shouichi. Fundamentals of Rice Crop Science. Manila,
Philippines: Th e International Rice Research Institute, 1981.
Rolfe, John
John Rolfe (1585–1622) was born in Heacham, Norfolk,
England, in 1585. Little is known about his early life, but
it is known that he and his wife, in 1609, boarded the Sea
Adventure (or Venture) to sail with approximately 100 other
settlers to Jamestown, Virginia, the colony the Virginia
Company had founded two years earlier. A hurricane off
the coast of the Bermudas wrecked the ship on which the
Rolfes were sailing, but the passengers reached shore safely
and began constructing two smaller ships that would take
them to Jamestown. Th e colonists were stranded on the is-
land several months but they found the island’s people hos-
pitable and the food supply adequate.
During the time they were in Bermuda, Mrs. Rolfe
gave birth to a daughter, but the baby girl died before the
colonists left the island. In May 1610, the colonists left Ber-
muda and began a 10-day voyage to Virginia. Mrs. Rolfe
died shortly aft er their arrival in Jamestown.
Jamestown had been fi nanced and sponsored by the
Virginia Company because the English government had
wanted a permanent colony in North America to elimi-
nate possible Spanish colonization of the area. Th e Vir-
ginia Company expected the Jamestown colonists to fi nd
valuable resources and initiate commercial endeavors that
would return profi ts to the company and to England.
Tobacco was an indigenous plant in Virginia but the
Virginia Company was not interested commercially in the
native crop because of the tobacco’s harsh taste. Rolfe began
to plant the native tobacco seeds with some he had obtained
from a Caribbean island, and he developed a plant with
leaves that had a less harsh taste than the native crop. In ad-
dition to the tobacco leaves producing a more pleasing taste,
the tobacco plants also grew well in the low marshy lands
near Jamestown. When Rolfe shipped his fi rst tobacco crop
to England, tobacco became the colony’s fi rst marketable
product and provided the English with an alternative to the
sweeter tobacco known as “Spanish leaf,” which was grown
from West Indies plants by the Spaniards. Th e American