History of tobacco
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Early history
Pre-Columbian America
Tobacco was first discovered by the native people of Mesoamerica and South America and later introduced to Europe and the rest of the world.
Archaeological finds indicate that humans in the Americas began using tobacco as far back as 12,300 years ago, thousands of years earlier than previously documented.[1][2]
Tobacco had already long been used in the Americas by the time European settlers arrived and took the practice to Europe, where it became popular. Eastern North American tribes have historically carried tobacco in pouches as a readily accepted trade item, as well as smoking it in pipe ceremonies, whether for sacred ceremonies or those to seal a treaty or agreement.[3][4]
In addition to its use in spiritual and religious ceremonies, tobacco is also used for medical treatment of physical conditions. As a pain killer it has been used for earache and toothache and occasionally as a
According to Iroquois mythology, tobacco first grew out of Atahensic's head after she died giving birth to her twin sons, Sapling and Flint.[7]
Ceremonial use
Religious use of tobacco is still common among many indigenous peoples, particularly in the Americas. Among the Cree and Ojibwe of Canada and the north-central United States, it is offered to the Creator, with prayers, and is used in sweat lodges, pipe ceremonies, and is presented as a gift. A gift of tobacco is traditional when asking an Ojibwe elder a question of a spiritual nature.
European usage
Tobacco was completely unfamiliar to Europeans before the discovery of the New World.[8] Bartolomé de las Casas described how the first scouts sent by Christopher Columbus into the interior of Cuba found:
men with half-burned wood in their hands and certain herbs to take their smokes, which are some dry herbs put in a certain leaf, also dry, like those the boys make on the day of the Passover of the Holy Ghost; and having lighted one part of it, by the other they suck, absorb, or receive that smoke inside with the breath, by which they become benumbed and almost drunk, and so it is said they do not feel fatigue. These, muskets as we will call them, they call tabacos. I knew Spaniards on this island of Española who were accustomed to take it, and being reprimanded for it, by telling them it was a vice, they replied they were unable to cease using it. I do not know what relish or benefit they found in it.[9]
Following the arrival of Europeans, tobacco became one of the primary products fueling colonization, and also became a driving factor in the introduction of African slave labour. The Spanish introduced tobacco to Europeans in about 1528, and by 1533, Diego Columbus mentioned a tobacco merchant of Lisbon in his will, showing how quickly the traffic had sprung up. The French, Spanish, and Portuguese initially referred to the plant as the "sacred herb" because of its valuable medicinal properties.[9]
Swiss doctor
The importation of tobacco into England was not without resistance and controversy.
Tobacco was introduced elsewhere in continental Europe more easily. Iberia exported "ropes" of dry leaves in baskets to the Netherlands and southern Germany; for a while tobacco was in Spanish called canaster after the word for basket (canastro), and influenced the German Knaster. In Italy,
In Russia, tobacco use was banned in 1634 except for foreigners in Moscow. Peter the Great—who in England had learned of smoking and the royal monopoly—became the monarch in 1689, however. Revoking all bans, he licensed the Muscovy Company to import 1.5 million pounds of tobacco per year, with the Russian Crown receiving 28,000 pounds sterling annually.[8]
Asia
The Japanese were introduced to tobacco by Portuguese sailors from 1542.
Tobacco first arrived in the
Sultan
Australia
Although
United States
Economic history in the American colonies
In the Thirteen Colonies, where gold and silver were scarce, tobacco was used as a currency to trade with Native Americans,[17] and sometimes for official purposes such as paying fines, taxes, and even marriage license fees.[18]
The demand and profitability of tobacco led to the shift in the colonies to a slave-based labor force, fueling the slave trade. Tobacco is a labor-intensive crop, requiring much work for its cultivation, harvest, and curing. With the profitability of the land rapidly increasing, it was no longer economically viable to bring in indentured servants with the promise of land benefits at the end of their tenure. By bringing African slaves instead, plantation owners acquired workers for long hours in the hot sun without paying them, providing only a bare subsistence to workers who could not leave or appeal to laws.
The uncultivated Virginia soil was reportedly too rich for traditional European crops, especially cereals like barley. Tobacco "broke down the fields and made food crops more productive" by depleting the soil of nutrients.[17]
Tobacco's impact on early American history
The cultivation of tobacco in America led to many changes. During the 1700s tobacco was a very lucrative crop due to its high demand in Europe. The climate of the Chesapeake area in America lent itself very nicely to the cultivation of tobacco. The high European demand for tobacco led to a rise in the value of tobacco. The rise of value of tobacco accelerated the economic growth in America. The cultivation of tobacco as a cash crop in America marks the shift from a subsistence economy to an agrarian economy. Tobacco's desirability and value led to it being used as a currency in colonies. Tobacco was also backed by the gold standard, with an established conversion rate from tobacco to gold.
The increasing role of tobacco as a cash crop led to a shift in the labor force that would shape life and politics in the American South up through the civil war. In order to maximum profits, tobacco plantation owners abandoned the traditional practice of
Early cultivation of tobacco
In the first few years of tobacco cultivation in the colonies, the plants were simply covered with hay and left in the field to cure or "sweat." This method was abandoned after 1618, when regulations prohibited the use of valuable potential animal food for such purposes. It was also abandoned because a better method of curing tobacco had been developed. In this new method the wilted leaves were hung on lines or sticks, at first outside on fence rails. Tobacco barns for housing the crop were in use by the 1620s.[20]
During the curing period, which lasted about four to six weeks, the color of the tobacco changed from a greenish yellow to a light tan. Mold was an immense danger during this time. Once again, a planter relied on his experience to know when the tobacco was ready to be removed from the sticks on which it hung, a process known as "striking."[20]
At last, when the tobacco was ready, and preferably during a period of damp weather, workers struck the tobacco and laid the leaves on the floor of the tobacco barn to sweat for somewhere between a week or two. Logs could be used to press the tobacco and increase its temperature, but with that there came a danger. The heat might become too intense and mold spoil the crop.[20]
After sweating, the next step was sorting. Ideally, all the tobacco should be in a condition described by cropmasters as "in case". This meant that the tobacco had absorbed just the right amount of moisture; it could be stretched like leather, and was glossy and moist. If tobacco were too damp, it would rot in transit; if too dry, it would crumble and be unsalable.[20]
In the early years at Jamestown the settlers paid little heed to quality control; this attitude soon changed due to both the market and to regulations. Over time, the settlers began to separate the tobacco into sections of equal quality. The leaves were then tied together in hands, which were bunches of five to fourteen. The hands were returned to platforms to sweat. When they were once again "in case", the inspection of the crop could take place and the final processing for export begin.[20]
Early on, the preparation of tobacco for shipping was very simple. The tobacco leaves were twisted and rolled, then spun into rope, which was wound into balls weighing as much as a hundred pounds (45 kilograms). These balls were protected in canvas or barrels, which would then be shipped to Europe. Although the export of bulk tobacco was not outlawed until 1730, a large barrel called a "hogshead" soon became the favored container throughout the colonial period. Even though its capacity varied slightly, governed by the regulations of the day, the average weight of the tobacco stored in a hogshead barrel was about a thousand pounds (450 kilograms).[20]
These barrels were transported in a variety of ways to the ships on which they would be carried to England. At first, captains of merchant vessels simply traveled from one plantation dock to the next, loading up with barrels of tobacco as they moved along the river. Other ways included employing northern smugglers to ferry tobacco to England.
Plantations in the American South
In 1609, English colonist John Rolfe arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, and became the first settler to successfully raise tobacco (commonly referred to at that time as "brown gold")[21] for commercial use. Tobacco was used as currency by the Virginia settlers for years, and Rolfe was able to make his fortune in farming it for export at Varina Farms Plantation.
When he left for England with his wife Pocahontas, a daughter of Chief Powhatan, he had become wealthy. Returning to Jamestown, following Pocahontas' death in England, Rolfe continued in his efforts to improve the quality of commercial tobacco, and, by 1620, 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) of tobacco were shipped to England. By the time John Rolfe died in 1622, Jamestown was thriving as a producer of tobacco, and its population had topped 4,000. Tobacco led to the importation of the colony's first Black slaves in 1619.
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, tobacco continued to be the
There were also tobacco plantations in Tennessee, like Wessyngton in Cedar Hill, Tennessee.[22]
19th century
The 19th century witnessed several significant trends in the history of tobacco, as it became increasingly popular and its consumption spread across the world. Here are eight main trends that shaped the history of tobacco during that time:[23]
- Global Spread: Tobacco cultivation and consumption expanded rapidly, reaching various parts of the world through trade and colonization. This led to a global increase in tobacco usage and production.[24]
- Commercialization and Mass Production: Technological advancements, particularly the introduction of steam-powered machinery, allowed for large-scale commercial production of tobacco products, making them more accessible and affordable.[25]
- Health Concerns: Early awareness of the potential health risks associated with tobacco consumption emerged during the late 19th century. A few medical professionals began expressing concerns about the impact of smoking on health. Nevertheless tobacco usage increased steadily.[26]
- Social and Cultural Acceptance: Smoking became increasingly socially acceptable and integrated into various social settings. Smoking rooms and designated areas in public places and social gatherings became common.[27]
- Tobacco Advertising and Marketing: As the tobacco industry grew, so did advertising and marketing efforts. Tobacco companies used various promotional strategies to attract consumers and create brand loyalty.[28]
- Regulation and Taxation: Governments started imposing taxes on tobacco products, generating significant revenue for state coffers.[29] Additionally, there were some early attempts to regulate tobacco, primarily driven by concerns over public health. Until 1883, tobacco excise tax accounted for one third of internal revenue collected by the United States government. Internal Revenue Service data for 1879–80 show total tobacco tax receipts of $38.9 million, out of total receipts of $116.8 million.[30]
- Tobacco in Literature and Art: Tobacco use found its way into literature, art, and popular culture. It became a symbol of leisure, sophistication, and rebellion, which further contributed to its popularity.[31]
- Anti-Tobacco Movements: As awareness of tobacco-related health issues increased, various anti-tobacco movements emerged, advocating for tobacco control and promoting abstinence from tobacco use.[32]
These trends demonstrate the complex and evolving role of tobacco in the 19th century, setting the stage for further developments in the 20th century and beyond.
United States
A historian of the
The chewing of tobacco was well-nigh universal. This habit had been widespread among the agricultural population of America both North and South before the war. Soldiers had found the quid a solace in the field and continued to revolve it in their mouths upon returning to their homes. Out of doors where his life was principally led the chewer spat upon his lands without offence to other men, and his homes and public buildings were supplied with spittoons. Brown and yellow parabolas were projected to right and left toward these receivers, but very often without the careful aim which made for clean living. Even the pews of fashionable churches were likely to contain these familiar conveniences.
Since 1900
Dominance of Cigarettes. Cigarette smoking became the dominant usage after 1910.[36]
Women and Smoking: the 1910–1930 era saw a gradual shift in cultural attitudes. More women began smoking, challenging traditional gender norms and sparking debates about the propriety of female smokers.[37]
Health concerns
Nazi Germany saw the first modern anti-smoking campaign,[38] the National Socialist government condemning tobacco use,[39] funding research against it,[40] levying increasing sin taxes on it,[41] and in 1941 banning tobacco in various public places as a health hazard.
In the UK and the US, an increase in lung cancer rates was being picked up by the 1930s, but the cause for this increase remained debated and unclear.[42]
A true breakthrough came in 1948, when the British physiologist
In 1964 the United States Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health likewise began suggesting the relationship between smoking and cancer, which confirmed its suggestions 20 years later in the 1980s.
In the United States, The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) became law in 2009. It gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products to protect public health.[48] Partial controls and regulatory measures eventually followed in much of the developed world, including partial advertising bans, minimum age of sale requirements, and basic health warnings on tobacco packaging. However, smoking prevalence and associated ill health continued to rise in the developed world in the first three decades following Richard Doll's discovery, with governments sometimes reluctant to curtail a habit seen as popular as a result – and increasingly organised disinformation efforts by the tobacco industry and their proxies. Realisation dawned gradually that the health effects of smoking and tobacco use were susceptible only to a multi-pronged policy response which combined positive health messages with medical assistance to cease tobacco use and effective marketing restrictions, as initially indicated in a 1962 overview by the British Royal College of Physicians[49] and the 1964 report of the U.S. Surgeon General.
In the 1950s tobacco companies engaged in a
In order to reduce the potential burden of disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) successfully rallied 168 countries to sign the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003.[51] The Convention is designed to push for effective legislation and its enforcement in all countries to reduce the harmful effects of tobacco.
In science
Tobacco has been the subject of a great deal of biological and genetic research. The economic impact of Tobacco Mosaic disease was the impetus that led to the isolation of Tobacco mosaic virus, the first virus to be identified;[52] the fortunate coincidence that it is one of the simplest viruses and can self-assemble from purified nucleic acid and protein led, in turn, to the rapid advancement of the field of virology. The 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was shared by Wendell Meredith Stanley for his 1935 work crystallizing the virus and showing that it remains active.
See also
References
- ^ Nuwer, Rachel (11 October 2021). "Mammoths Roamed when Humans Started Using Tobacco at Least 12,300 Years Ago". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 11 October 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
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- ^ California Natural History Guides: 10. Early Uses of California Plant, By Edward K. Balls University of California Press, 1962 University of California Press.[1] Archived 22 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Economic Aspects of Tobacco during the Colonial Period 1612–1776". Tobacco.org. Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
- ^ Day, Ashley (20 November 2023). "3 Sisters to Invite to Thanksgiving". Food & Wine.
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- ^ a b Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico p. 768
- ^ "History of Tobacco". Boston University Medical Center. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
- ^ "A Counterblaste to Tobacco". University of Texas. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
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- ^ Grehan, p. 3
- ^ Tobacco in Australia
- ^ a b "Tobacco: Colonial Cultivation Methods". US National Park Service. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
- ^ "Scharf, J. Thomas". Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
- ^ Allan Kulikoff, Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680–1800 (U of North Carolina Press, 1986) pp. 421–423.
- ^ a b c d e f "Tobacco: Colonial Cultivation Methods – Historic Jamestowne Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)".
- ^ Jamestown, Virginia: An Overview
- ^ Van West, Carroll. "Wessyngton Plantation". The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. Tennessee Historical Society and the University of Tennessee Press. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
- ^ Jordan Goodman, Tobacco in History and Culture (2 vol 2005) p. xiv.
- ^ Goodman, Tobacco in History and Culture (2 vol 2005) pp. 11:96–102, 170–171; 240–245, 2:570–593.
- ^ Goodman, Tobacco in History and Culture (2 vol 2005) pp. 1:96–102, 170–171; 240–245, 2:570–593.
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- ^ Goodman, Tobacco in History and Culture (2 vol 2005) pp. 1:1–18, 2:327–336.
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- ^ The Republican Campaign Textbook, 1880 Statistical Tables, p. 207.
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- ^ Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, A History of the United States since the Civil War (1917) Vol. 1. p. 93.
- ^ Arlene Hirschfelder, Encyclopedia of Smoking and Tobacco (1999) 34–35, 80–81.
- ^ Goodman, Tobacco in History and Culture (2 vol 2005) pp. 1:145–146.
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Further reading
- Benedict, Carol (2011). Golden-Silk Smoke: A History of Tobacco in China, 1550–2010.
- Breen, T. H. (1985). Tobacco Culture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00596-6. Source on tobacco culture in 18th-century Virginia pp. 46–55
- Burns, Eric (2007). The Smoke of the Gods: A Social History of Tobacco. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
- Collins, W.K., and S.N. Hawks (1993). Principles of Flue-Cured Tobacco Production.
- Corti, Count. (1931) A history of smoking (Bracken 1996 reprint; 1931) online
- Cosner, Charlotte (2015). The Golden Leaf: How Tobacco Shaped Cuba and the Atlantic World. Vanderbilt University Press.
- Cox, Howard. (1997) "Learning to Do Business in China: The Evolution of BAT’s Cigarette Distribution Network, 1902–1941," Business History 39, no. 3 (1997).
- Fuller, R. Reese (Spring 2003). Perique, the Native Crop. Louisiana Life.
- Gately, Iain (2003). Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3960-4.
- Goodman, Jordan. Tobacco in history: The cultures of dependence (Routledge, 2005).
- Goodman, Jordan, ed. Tobacco in History and Culture. An Encyclopedia (2 vol, Gage Cengage, 2005)
- Graves, John. "Tobacco That Is not Smoked" in From a Limestone Ledge (the sections on snuff and chewing tobacco) ISBN 0-394-51238-3
- Gray, Stanley, and V. J. Wyckoff. "The International Tobacco Trade in the Seventeenth Century" Southern Economic Journal 7#1 (1940), pp. 1–26 online
- Grehan, James (2006). Smoking and "Early Modern" Sociability: The Great Tobacco Debate in the Ottoman Middle East (Seventeenth to Eighteenth Centuries). The American Historical Review 3#5 online
- Hahn, Barbara (2011). Making Tobacco Bright: Creating an American Commodity, 1617–1937. Johns Hopkins University Press. 248 pages; examines how marketing, technology, and demand figured in the rise of Bright Flue-Cured Tobacco, a variety first grown in the inland Piedmont region of the Virginia-North Carolina border.
- Heimann, Robert K. Tobacco and Americans (McGraw-Hill, 1960) online
- Hilton, Matthew, Smoking in British Popular Culture, 1800–2000 (Manchester University Press, 2000)
- Jacobstein, Meyer. The tobacco industry in the United States (Columbia Univ. Press, 1907) online
- Killebrew, J. B. and Myrick, Herbert (1909). Tobacco Leaf: Its Culture and Cure, Marketing and Manufacture. Orange Judd Company. Source for flea beetle typology (p. 243)
- Kluger, Richard (1996). Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War.
- Murphey, Rhoads (2007). Studies on Ottoman Society and Culture: 16th–18th Centuries. Burlington, VT: Ashgate: Variorum. ISBN 978-0-7546-5931-0
- Neuburger, Mary C. Balkan Smoke: Tobacco and the Making of Modern Bulgaria (Cornell University Press, 2013).
- Oreskes, Naomi, and Erik M. Conway. Merchants of doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming (Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2011).
- Parker, John B. The tobacco industry of Western Asia (1964), on the Middle East online
- Poche, L. Aristee (2002). Perique Tobacco: Mystery and history.
- Porter, Patrick G. "Origins of the American Tobacco Company," Business History Review 43#1 (Spring 1969)
- Price, Jacob M. (1954). "The rise of Glasgow in the Chesapeake tobacco trade, 1707–1775." William and Mary Quarterly pp: 179–199. in JSTOR
- Robert, Joseph C. The Story of Tobacco in America (Knopf, 1949). online
- Robert, Joseph C. The Tobacco Kingdom: Plantation, Market and Factory in Virginia and North Carolina (Duke University Press, 1938).
- Schoolcraft, Henry R. (1851–57). Historical and Statistical Information respecting the Indian Tribes of the United States. Philadelphia.
- Shechter, Relli (2006). Smoking, Culture and Economy in the Middle East: The Egyptian Tobacco Market 1850–2000. New York: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. ISBN 1-84511-137-0
- Swanson, Drew A. A Golden Weed: Tobacco and Environment in the Piedmont South (Yale University Press, 2014) 360pp
- Tilley, Nannie May The Bright Tobacco Industry 1860–1929 (1948)
- Tilley, Nannie M. The R.J. Reynolds tobacco company (UNC Press Books, 1985), a major scholarly history
- United States.: Dept. of Agriculture. Present status of the tobacco industry (1910) online
- Werner, Carl Avery. Tobaccoland: A book about tobacco; its history, legends, literature, cultivation, social and hygienic influences, commercial development, industrial processes and governmental regulation. (1922) online
- Winkler, John K. Tobacco tycoon, the story of James Buchanan Duke (1942) online, popular
- Woofter Jr. T.J. The Plight of Cigarette Tobacco (1931) in North Carolina