Flax Production in the Seventeenth Century detail of painting by
NPS artist Sydney King When Sir George Yeardley returned to
Jamestown in 1619, one of his instructions from the Virginia
company of London was to promote flax harvesting. The
stockholders hoped that, as with silkworm cultivation,
viticulture and glass production, the colonists would use this
ancient crop to both realize a profit and diversify their
labors. Ultimately, none of these ventures was a commercial
success. The labor involved was either too intensive or required
too much skill, the climate and soil of the Chesapeake region
did not cooperate, or plain bad luck attended the operations.
That did not mean, however, that wine, silk or linen were never
produced in Virginia. Although flax, the plant from which linen
is derived, never rivaled tobacco as a cash crop in the
Chesapeake, most farmers and plantation owners grew small
amounts will into the 1800's for their own use. The plant which
provides the raw material from which linen is made is