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[Coop and Dino singing]

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Here’s something fun: imagine that you're a settler in Jamestown, the very first permanent

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English settlement in the Americas. It's rugged, it's rough, it's probably a little bit smelly. [Old settlers in a forest]

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… Or a lot smelly.

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What do you think you would most want while you're here? More food? Fresh water? Deodorant?

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All those things sound great. But forget about them.

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The real settlers? All they craved was American tobacco. [Settler man coughs and woman appears]

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Seriously. Nicotine is one heck of a drug. As more and more settlers came from England

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to Jamestown in Virginia, the new communities demanded more tobacco. And in order to grow [Settlers protesting for more tobacco]

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more tobacco, the colony needed more land.

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And what do you do when you're a European settler living in America and you need more

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land? You take it, obviously! It’s the American way. [Settlers holding guns and man runs away]

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…And no, that doesn't mean it was the right way. Don't try to move into your neighbor's

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home tonight, just 'cause they have a pool. As you can imagine, the people having their [Boy in a swimming pool]

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land stolen from them weren’t too happy about it. This led to a bunch of conflicts

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between the Virginia Colony and local Native Americans, it was called the Anglo-Powhatan

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Wars.

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And what did that lead to? Besides, you know, death and destruction and all those terrible

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side effects of war?

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Well, the Native American tribes in the area were pushed away, and the settlers built a [Native American man walks away]

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six-mile-long fence made of tree trunks called a palisade to protect Jamestown

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and other nearby settlements.

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…not quite the “white picket” fence we associate with the American dream. [Man cooking barbecue in garden]

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Anyway, though thousands of people migrated to the Virginia Colony before it turned 30,

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even they weren't enough to do all the work needed to grow the tobacco.

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Though maybe they wouldn’t have needed so many people to grow tobacco if some of them

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would just quit smoking… Just a thought.

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So instead of growing the tobacco themselves, the Europeans came up with the idea of bringing [European sailing a ship]

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over slaves from Africa to do the work for them, because apparently that’s easier than

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chewing some gum, or quitting cold turkey, or something.

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In fact, the Europeans wanted tobacco so badly that they would actually give land in the [A sign for free land nailed down]

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Americas away to rich Europeans, so long as they paid for servants or slaves to come along

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with them.

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That's right – tobacco was as valuable to them as that land that they worked so hard

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to steal.

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If you’re thinking “these guys sound kind of like jerks and their behavior doesn’t

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make any sense at all…” you’re right.

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And now you know why your parents don’t want you to bother them before they’ve had [Boy and Father sit down for breakfast]

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their morning coffee.

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Because caffeine can be an addiction, too, guys. Now where'd we put our fourth cup of

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coffee…?

Full Transcript