In eastern Virginia, mid-twentieth-century farmers worked according to centuries-old traditions. Their forefathers had shipped a lot of tobacco and later potatoes by sail and steamboats, and then by train and trucks for most of the county’s 375 year history. But by the middle of the twentieth century, commercial farming became less profitable and by century’s end, the farm was more profitably subdivided for suburban living.
Early Farming in James City County
Farming commenced in earnest in James City County when colonial settlers discovered they could make money by marketing a sweet strain of Virginia tobacco to Europe. As more settlers came to Virginia and tobacco cultivation moved west to fresh land, the county that was home to the first permanent English settlement in America supplied grain, peas, and other food crops to Caribbean colonies where sugar was widely cultivated. Some farmers raised crops to supply the city of Williamsburg.
Farms During American Revolution and Civil Wars
Farm commerce was interrupted in the skinny eastern Virginia county between the James and York Rivers and the cities of Williamsburg and Richmond by troop movement during by two wars. During the American Revolution, troops skirmished for months as they staged and waited for George Washington prior to the conflict-ending battle at nearby Yorktown. Thousands of Continental, French, and British soldiers ate their way through tons of grain, produce, and livestock.
