Virginia Business and Occupations



Tobacco was Virginia's major cash crop. It was shipped to Europe and the Caribbean during colonial times. Before the Civil War, plantation owners relied on slave labor to produce their crops.

Many Virginia colonial settlers could not afford to pay the passage from Europe to America and labored without wages for a set number of years (usually four or five) once they arrived as indentured servants.

Identifying a Virginia ancestor's occupation
The occupations of Virginians are identified in a variety of sources. Takers of the 1820 U.S. Federal Census distinguished between residents who worked in agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing. From 1850 forward, census takers recorded occupations for each person they enumerated.

Deeds and wills often identify men by their occupations.

Gill identifies many Virginia colonists who served apprenticeships to learn specific trades:


 * Gill, Harold B. Apprentices of Virginia, 1623-1800. Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry Pub., 1989..

The Colonial Virginia Register: A List of Governors, Councillors and Other Higher Officials, and also of Members of the House of Burgesses, and the Revolutionary Conventions of the Colony of Virginia. 1902. Online at: FamilySearch Digital Library, Hathitrust;.

Index to Virginia Printing

Inventions and Patents
A.J. Morrison identified patents by Virginians from 1805 to 1824:


 * "Virginia Patents," The William and Mary Quarterly, 2nd Ser., Vol. 2, No. 3 (July 1922):149-156. Digital version at JSTOR - free.