the europeans who moved to america started to farm tobacco so that they could sell it in europe. this became one of the main causes of the african slave trade. in 1610 a european man called john rolfe arrived in the american state of virginia and set up a tobacco farm which made him very rich. rolfe was the first non-native farmer to use "nicotiana tabacum", which is the type of tobacco most commonly smoked today. he also married pocahontas, a native american woman who became famous when she went to live in london.