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Title: Tobacco in Colonial Virginia
"The Sovereign Remedy"
Author: Melvin Herndon
Release Date: November 1, 2008 [eBook #27117]
Language: English
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TOBACCO IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA
* * * * *
JAMESTOWN 350TH ANNIVERSARY HISTORICAL BOOKLETS
_Editor_--E. G. SWEM, Librarian Emeritus, College of William and Mary
COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATIONS: JOHN M. JENNINGS, Director of the Virginia
Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia, _Chairman_. FRANCIS L.
BERKELEY, JR., Archivist, Alderman Library, University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, Virginia. LYMAN H. BUTTERFIELD, Editor-in-Chief of the
Adams Papers, Boston, Mass. EDWARD M. RILEY, Director of Research,
Colonial Williamsburg, Inc., Williamsburg, Virginia. E. G. SWEM,
Librarian Emeritus, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg,
Virginia. WILLIAM J. VAN SCHREEVEN, Chief, Division of Archives,
Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia.
1. _A Selected Bibliography of Virginia, 1607-1699._ By E. G.
Swem, John M. Jennings and James A. Servies.
2. _A Virginia Chronology, 1585-1783._ By William W. Abbot.
3. _John Smith's Map of Virginia, with a Brief Account of its
History._ By Ben C. McCary.
4. _The Three Charters of the Virginia Company of London, with Seven
Related Documents: 1606-1621._ Introduction by Samuel M. Bemiss.
5. _The Virginia Company of London, 1606-1624._ By Wesley Frank
Craven.
6. _The First Seventeen Years, Virginia, 1607-1624._ By Charles E.
Hatch, Jr.
7. _Virginia under Charles I and Cromwell, 1625-1660._ By Wilcomb
E. Washburn.
8. _Bacon's Rebellion, 1676._ By Thomas J. Wertenbaker.
9. _Struggle Against Tyranny and the Beginning of a New Era,
Virginia, 1677-1699._ By Richard L. Morton.
10. _Religious Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century._ By
George MacLaren Brydon.
11. _Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth Century._ By Henry
Chandlee Forman.
12. _Mother Earth--Land Grants in Virginia, 1607-1699._ By W. Stitt
Robinson, Jr.
13. _The Bounty of the Chesapeake; Fishing in Colonial Virginia._ By
James Wharton.
14. _Agriculture in Virginia, 1607-1699._ By Lyman Carrier.
15. _Reading, Writing and Arithmetic in Virginia, 1607-1699._ By Susie
M. Ames.
16. _The Government of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century._ By Thomas
J. Wertenbaker.
17. _Domestic Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century._ By Annie
Lash Jester.
18. _Indians in Seventeenth-Century Virginia._ By Ben C. McCary.
19. _How Justice Grew. Virginia Counties._ By Martha W. Hiden.
20. _Tobacco in Colonial Virginia; "The Sovereign Remedy."_ By Melvin
Herndon.
21. _Medicine in Virginia, 1607-1699._ By Thomas P. Hughes.
22. _Some Notes on Shipping and Shipbuilding in Colonial Virginia._ By
Cerinda W. Evans.
23. _A Pictorial Booklet on Early Jamestown Commodities and
Industries._ By J. Paul Hudson.
Price 50¢ Each
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
GARRETT and MASSIE, INC., Selling Agent, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
* * * * *
TOBACCO IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA
"The Sovereign Remedy"
by
MELVIN HERNDON
Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation
Williamsburg, Virginia
1957
Copyright©, 1957 by
Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration
Corporation, Williamsburg, Virginia
Jamestown 350th Anniversary
Historical Booklet, Number 20
TOBACCO IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA
"The Sovereign Remedy"
Tobacco was probably first brought to the shores of England from
Florida by Sir John Hawkins in 1565. Englishmen were growing it by the
1570's, and after the return of the daring Sir Francis Drake to England
with a large quantity of tobacco captured in the West Indies in 1586,
the use of tobacco in England was increased substantially. By 1604 its
consumption had become so extensive as to lead to the publication of
King James' _Counter Blast_, condemning the use of tobacco;
nevertheless, six years later the amount brought into Great Britain was
valued at £60,000.
Some of the colonists were probably acquainted with tobacco before they
landed at Jamestown and found the Indians cultivating and using it
under the name of uppowoc or apooke. However, it was not until 1612
that its cultivation began among the English settlers, even in small
patches. Previously their attention had been centered entirely on
products that could be used for food. Captain John Smith wrote that
none of the native crops were planted at first, not even tobacco.
The story of tobacco in Virginia begins with the ingenious John Rolfe.
He was one of the many Englishmen who had come to enjoy the fragrant
aroma and taste of the imported Spanish tobacco; and upon his arrival
at Jamestown in May, 1610, Rolfe found that tobacco could be obtained
only by buying it from the Indians, or by cultivating it. There seems
to have been no spontaneous growth then as now. Owing to the frequent
unfriendly atmosphere between the colonists and the Indians, Rolfe
probably decided to grow a small patch for his own use. He also had a
desire to find some profitable commodity that could be sold in England
and thus promote the success and prosperity of the settlers and the
London Company. Driven by these two motives John Rolfe became the first
colonist to successfully grow tobacco, the plant that was to wield such
a tremendous influence on the history of Virginia.
_Nicotiana rustica_, the native tobacco of North America, was found to
be inferior to that grown in the Spanish Colonies. Botanists state that
_Nicotiana rustica_ had a much greater nicotine content and sprouted or
branched more than that cultivated today. William Strachey, one of the
first colonists, gave the following description of the native plant
grown in 1616:
It is not of the best kynd, it is but poore and weake, and of a
byting tast, it growes not fully a yard above the ground, bearing a
little yellowe flower, like to hennebane, the leaves are short and
thick, somewhat round at the upper end....
In 1611 Rolfe decided to experiment with seed of the mild Spanish
variety. He persuaded a shipmaster to bring him some tobacco seed from
the Island of Trinidad and Caracas, Venezuela; and by June, 1612,
tobacco from the imported seeds was being cultivated at Jamestown. On
July 20, 1613, a Captain Robert Adams landed the _Elizabeth_ in England
with a sample of Rolfe's first experimental crop. In England, this
first shipment was described as excellent in quality, but it was still
inferior to Spanish tobacco. In 1616 Rolfe modestly asserted, "no doubt
but after a little more triall and expense in the curing thereof, it
will compare with the best in the West Indies." The success of Rolfe's
experiment was soon apparent. In 1617, 20,000 pounds of tobacco were
exported from Virginia, and in the following year the amount doubled.
Tobacco did not become the chief staple owing merely to the successful
attempts by Rolfe to produce a satisfactory smoking leaf. As has been
noted, there was a ready market for tobacco in England before the
settlers landed at Jamestown. A second important cause was the fact
that tobacco was indigenous to the soil and climate of Virginia.
Tobacco also had a greater advantage Over All Other Staples in That It
Could Be Produced in Larger Quantities Per Acre. This Was Important
Considering the Labor Required To Clear the Trees and Prepare One Acre
for Cultivation. It Was Soon Discovered That the Amount of Tobacco
Produced by One Man's Labor Was Worth About Six Times the Amount of
Wheat That One Man Could Grow and Harvest. Moreover, Tobacco Could Be
Shipped More Economically Than Any Other Crop; Thus the Monetary Return
Upon a Cargo Was Greater Than for Any Other Crop That Could Be Produced
in the Colony.
One Other Factor Must Not Be Overlooked. One of the Basic Aims of the
English Colonial Policy Was the Development Of Colonial Resources,
Which Would at the Same Time Create a Colonial Market for English
Manufactures in the Colonies. Tobacco Proved To Be Virginia's Most
Valuable Staple, and With Everyone Feverishly Growing the Plant, the
Colony Became an Important Colonial Market. Virginia Purchased English
Goods Delivered in English Ships With Her Tobacco, England Marketed
Much of the Tobacco In Europe and Received Specie Or Goods That Could
Be Sold Elsewhere. This Created a Market for English Manufactures, the
English Merchant Fleet Profited From the Carrying Trade and There Was
No Drain of Specie From England.
THE TOBACCO PLANTATION: FROM JAMESTOWN TO THE BLUE RIDGE
The cultivation of tobacco soon spread from John Rolfe's garden to
every available plot of ground within the fortified districts in
Jamestown. By 1617 the value of tobacco was well known in every
settlement or plantation in Virginia--Bermuda, Dale's Gift, Henrico,
Jamestown, Kecoughtan, and West and Shirley Hundreds--each under a
commander. Governor Dale allowed its culture to be gradually extended
until it absorbed the whole attention at West and Shirley Hundreds and
Jamestown.
[Illustration: _TOBACCO at Jamestown--1600's_
Courtesy of Sidney E. King]
The first general planting in the colony began at West and Shirley
Hundreds where twenty-five men, commanded by a Captain Madison, were
employed solely in planting and curing tobacco. In 1616 the tobacco
fever struck furiously in Jamestown. The following description
indicates the impact of the "fever": there were "but five or six
houses, the church downe, the palizado's broken, the bridge in pieces,
the well of fresh water spoiled; the storehouse used for the church...,
[and] the colony dispersed all about, planting tobacco." The "Noxious
weed" was even growing in the streets and in the market place.
By 1622 plantations extended at intervals from Point Comfort as far as
140 miles up the James River, and the planters were so absorbed in the
cultivation of tobacco that they gave the Indians firearms and employed
them to do their hunting. This boldness was shortlived, for the Indian
Massacre of 1622 tended to narrow the area under cultivation for that
year. Even so, the planters were able to produce 60,000 pounds of
tobacco.
Within a year after the massacre the settlers once again became very
bold and extended cultivated areas even farther than before. Prior to
the massacre, the planters had difficulty in clearing the ground of
timber; afterwards, they took over the fields cleared by the Indians
which were said to be among the best in the colony. Expansion was
further facilitated by the "head-right" system, introduced in 1618,
which gave fifty acres of land to any person who transported a settler
to the colony.
For the first twenty years after the landing at Jamestown, the settlers
restricted themselves to the valley of the James and to the Accomac
Peninsula. For the next thirty years there was a gradual expansion to
the north and west along the banks of the James, York, and the
Rappahannock rivers and their tributaries. By 1650 the frontiersmen had
reached the Potomac. From Jamestown, settlements gradually spread up
and down both banks of the James and its tributaries, the Elizabeth,
Nansemond, Appomattox, and the Chickahominy. Then came the settlements
along the York and its tributaries, the Mattapony and the Pamunkey; and
finally, along the banks of the Rappahannock and the Potomac. The
expansion into the interior did not take place until the Tidewater area
had become fairly well settled. The tidal creeks and rivers afforded a
safe and convenient means of communication while the country was
thickly forested and infested with unfriendly Indians. By settling on
the peninsulas, formed by the tidal creeks and rivers, it was easier to
protect the early settlements once the Indians had been driven out.
In 1629 there were from 4,000 to 5,000 English settlers, confined
almost exclusively to the James River valley and to the Accomac
Peninsula, where they cultivated about 2,000 acres of tobacco. By 1635
tobacco had almost disappeared in the immediate vicinity of Jamestown,
as many of the planters moved to new land along the south bank of the
York River. At this time there were settlements in the following eight
counties: Henrico, located on both sides of the James River, between
Arrahattock and Shirley Hundred; Charles City, also located on both
sides of the James from Shirley Hundred Island to Weyanoke; James City,
on both sides of the James from Chippoakes to Lawnes Creek, and from
the Chickahominy River on the north side to a point nearly opposite the
mouth of Lawnes Creek; Warrasquoke (Isle of Wight), contained the area
from the southern limit of James City to the Warrasquoke River; Warwick
and Elizabeth City, the rest of the remaining settlements on the James
River; Charles River (York), all of the plantations on the south bank
of the York River; and finally Accomac. The plantations were still more
thickly grouped in James City than in any other county.
By the late 1630's, attempts to reduce the amount of tobacco grown in
the colony, by limiting the number of plants each person could plant,
had caused many planters to leave their plantations in search of virgin
soil in which more tobacco per plant could be grown. They frequently
built temporary dwellings, as they expected to move on as soon as the
land under cultivation showed signs of exhaustion. In 1648 planters in
large numbers sought permission from Governor Berkeley and the Council
to move across the York River, to take up the virgin and unclaimed
land.
Spreading north the frontiersmen had reached the Rappahannock and the
Potomac by 1650, and settlers began moving into Lancaster County. In
1653 the first settlers established themselves in what is now King
William County. Just before the end of the seventeenth century the
tobacco industry had expanded into the lowlands all along the
Rappahannock and Potomac rivers below the Fall Line. In 1689 the York
River area produced the largest quantity of tobacco, the Rappahannock
River area was second, the Upper James third, and the Accomac Peninsula
last. While the production of tobacco continued to expand north and
west, it made little headway in the sandy counties of Princess Anne and
Norfolk.
All during the seventeenth century expansion tended to extend in a
northerly direction within the Tidewater region, but in the eighteenth
century the movement was to the west in search of virgin soil. Planters
began moving beyond the Fall Line soon after the turn of the century.
Robert Carter of Nomini Hall patented over 900 acres of land above the
Falls in 1707. It is generally agreed that the commercial production of
tobacco began to expand beyond the Fall Line about 1720. In 1723 a
traveler, who had just visited above the Falls, mentioned seeing many
fields of tobacco. In the following year Robert Carter had hundreds of
additional acres surveyed, in what is now Prince William County, as he
extended his holdings above the Fall Line. The tobacco industry seems
to have been fairly well established as far west as Spotsylvania,
Hanover, and Goochland counties as early as 1730.
In the year 1740 Elias and William Edmunds were among the first
settlers in Fauquier County. They settled near what is now Warrenton
and began producing tobacco of excellent quality, which soon came to be
known as "Edmonium Tobacco." Ten years later large quantities were
being produced in Albemarle (including present Nelson and Amherst
counties), Cumberland, Augusta, and Culpeper counties. During the
six-year period 1750-1755, tobacco production appears to have been
centered equally in three areas: the Upper James River district, the
York River district, and the Rappahannock River district. Each of the
three districts exported about 83,000 hogsheads of tobacco, while the
Lower James River district exported only about 10,000.
Just prior to the American Revolution the tobacco industry began to
expand rapidly south of the James River, especially to the south and
west of Petersburg. One observer declared in 1769 that the Petersburg
warehouses contained more tobacco than all the rest of the warehouses
on the James or the York River. It was estimated that 20,000 hogsheads
were being produced annually in that region alone. A considerable
amount of tobacco was also being grown in the lower region of the
Valley of Virginia.
As the tobacco industry continued to expand into Piedmont Virginia,
there was a gradual decline in the Tidewater area. The increase in
population naturally caused a continual expansion of the tobacco
industry from its meager beginnings at Jamestown, but this was not the
major cause. The primary cause was the wasteful cultivation methods
practiced by the planters. To obtain the greatest yield from his land
the planter raised three or four consecutive crops of tobacco in one
field, then moved on to virgin fields. This practice was begun on a
relatively large scale as early as 1632 when a planting restriction of
1,500 plants per person was enacted, causing many planters to leave
their estates in search of better land in an effort to increase the
quality of their tobacco. As cheap virgin soil became scarce, planters
left their lands in Tidewater to take up fresh acreage in the Piedmont,
or they stayed at home and grew grain, some corn but mostly wheat.
We can only generalize as to when and how extensive this substitution
of wheat for tobacco may have been. There are those who believe that a
permanent shift away from tobacco began as early as 1720 on the Eastern
Shore of Virginia, while others state that it did not start until about
ten years later. As early as 1759 all of the best lands in Virginia
were reported to have been taken, and by the time of the Revolution the
supply was said to have been completely exhausted. In 1771 there were
rumors that at least one hundred of the principal Virginia planters had
given up the tobacco culture entirely and converted their plantations
to something more profitable. However, it is generally agreed that
tobacco was not abandoned extensively in Tidewater before the
Revolution.
The first appreciable decline came during the Revolution and this trend
continued until the tobacco was almost completely abandoned in
Tidewater in the nineteenth century. The rise in demand for foodstuffs
during the war caused planters to shift from tobacco in increasing
numbers. Many of them only reduced their tobacco crop at first, but
later abandoned it completely. After the Revolution wheat was
substituted for tobacco quite extensively, but owing to the expansion
into the Piedmont, Virginia's post-war tobacco production soon equalled
that of the prewar years. Tobacco was still grown in Tidewater Virginia
and some beyond the western boundary of the Piedmont, but by this time
Tidewater had ceased to be the "tobacco country" of previous years.
The production of tobacco continued to increase in the Piedmont and
decrease in Tidewater, and Piedmont Virginia became more firmly
established as Virginia's tobacco belt. This change was due partly to
the fact that the virgin and fertile soils of the West kept tobacco
prices so low that it could not be profitably produced on the manured
worn out soils in the East. Tidewater was becoming full of old tobacco
fields covered with young pine trees and the industry became
concentrated largely in middle and southern Virginia. By 1800 Piedmont
Virginia had definitely become the major tobacco producing area.
[Illustration: Old Tobacco Warehouse, built 1680 at Urbanna, Virginia
Courtesy of Mrs. H. I. Worthington]
[Illustration: The mild species of tobacco which Rolfe imported from
the West Indies.
The harsh species of tobacco which Rolfe found the
Indians cultivating.
Courtesy of George Arents, and Virginia State Library]
Expansion and new developments over a period of years brought about a
fantastic increase in tobacco production. When its production was
confined to the Tidewater area, Virginia produced about 40,000,000
pounds annually; by 1800 this amount had doubled. Virginia remained the
leading producer of tobacco in the United States until the War Between
the States, when she was replaced by Kentucky, owing to the devastating
effects of the war in the Old Dominion.
In the South the nature of the crop usually determines the number of
acres that one person can cultivate successfully. Only a small number
of acres of tobacco can be cultivated properly owing to its high value
of yield per acre and the careful supervision required. The production
of tobacco per acre does not appear to have changed very much in the
long period from about 1650 to 1800, when 1,000 pounds per acre was
considered a good yield. However, the amount that one man could produce
increased during this period as the planters became more experienced
and the plow and other implements came to be used more extensively. It
has been estimated that in 1624 one man could properly cultivate and
harvest only about one-half of an acre of tobacco, or about 400 pounds.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century the average product of one
man was from 1,500 to 2,000 pounds or in terms of acreage, from one and
a half to two acres, plus six or seven barrels of corn. Around 1775 one
man produced from 2,000 to 2,500 pounds of tobacco besides provisions.
Thus it appears that during most of the Colonial period one man could
cultivate one and a half to two acres of tobacco, plus provisions; but
by the end of this period he had increased the productiveness of his
own labor.
MANAGEMENT OF THE CROP
Cultivation practices during the early years at Jamestown appear to
have been a combination of those used by the Indians and those of the
farmers in England; modifications and new techniques were developed as
the settlers became experienced planters. The early Jamestown settlers
followed the Indian custom of planting the tobacco seed in hills as
they did corn, although some probably followed the practice as
described by Stevens and Liebault's _Maison Rustique_ or _The Country
Farm_, published in London in 1606:
For to sow it, you must make a hole in the earth with your finger
and that as deep as your finger is long, then you must cast into
the same hole ten or twelve seeds of the said Nicotiana together,
and fill up the hole again: for it is so small, as that if you
should put in but four or five seeds the earth would choake it: and
if the time be dry, you must water the place easily some five days
after: And when the herb is grown out of the earth, inasmuch as
every seed will have put up his sprout and stalk, and that the
small thready roots are entangled the one within the other, you
must with a great knife make a composs within the earth in the
places about this plot where they grow and take up the earth and
all together, and cast them into a bucket full of water, to the end
that the earth may be separated, and the small and tender impes
swim about the water; and so you shall sunder them one after
another without breaking them.
This was perhaps the forerunner of the tobacco plantbed, as it appears
from the above description that a half dozen or so plants were taken
from each hill sown and transplanted nearby.
Just when the planters stopped planting tobacco like corn is not known.
Thomas Glover's _Account of Virginia_, written in 1671, is perhaps the
first written account which mentions sowing the seeds in beds. He
wrote, "In the Twelve-daies [before Christmas?] they begin to sow their
seed in the beds of fine Mould..." A somewhat more detailed account was
written in 1688 by John Clayton, an English clergyman visiting in
Virginia. He relates that before the seeds were sown the planters
tested the seed by throwing a few into the fire; if they sparkled like
gunpowder, they were declared to be good. The ground was chopped fine
and the seeds, mixed with ashes, were sown around the middle of
January. To protect the young plants, the seedbed was usually covered
with oak leaves, though straw was used occasionally. Straw was thought
to harbor and breed a fly that destroyed the young plants, and if straw
was used, it was first smoked with brimstone to kill this fly. Oak
boughs were then placed on top of the leaves or straw and left there
until the frosts were gone, at which time they were removed so that the
young tender plants were exposed to allow them to grow strong and large
enough to be transplanted.
Post-Revolutionary plantbed practices were essentially those of the
early colonial planters, with slight modifications as they became more
experienced. In choosing plantbed sites, a sunny southern or
southeastern exposure on a virgin slope near a stream was preferred.
This enabled the planter to water his plantbed in case of a drought.
The practice of burning the plantbeds over with piles of brush and logs
prior to seeding was no doubt a seventeenth century custom, but the
first available record was found in an account written during the
Revolution.
To clear land for cultivation, the settlers felled the trees about a
yard from the ground to prevent the stump from sprouting and to cause
the stump to decay sooner. Some of the wood was burnt or carried off
and the rest was left on the field to rot. The area between the stumps
and logs was then broken up with the hoe. In their ardent quest for
more cleared land, the planters frequently cultivated old Indian
fields, which the Indian had abandoned for one reason or another. Such
land was always found to be of the best soil. Clayton stated that after
the land was chopped fine, hills to set every plant in were raised to
"about the bigness of a common Mole-hill...." A later account by
William Tatham, relates that the hills were made by drawing a round
heap of earth about knee high around the leg of the worker, the foot
was then withdrawn and the top of the hill was flattened with the back
of the hoe.
In 1628 the hills were made at a distance of four and one-half feet,
the distance was reduced to four feet by 1671, and by 1700, three feet
became and remained the usual distance. The plants were considered
large enough to be transplanted when they had grown to be about the
"Breadth of a Shilling," usually around the first or second week in
May. The earlier in May the better, so that the crop would mature in
time to harvest before the frosts came. Planters usually waited for a
rain or "season" to begin transplanting. One person with a container
(usually a basket) of plants dropped a plant near each hill; another
followed, made a hole in the center of each hill with his fingers,
inserted the roots and pressed the earth around the roots with his
hands. Several "seasons" and several drawings from the plantbeds were
usually required before the entire crop was planted, which was
frequently not until sometime in July.
The tobacco was hoed for the first time about eight to ten days after
planting, or to use a common expression, when the plants had "taken
root." The tobacco was usually hoed once each week or as often as was
deemed necessary to keep the soil "loose" and the weeds down. When the
plants were about knee high they were "hilled up," as the Indian had
done his corn, or the Englishman his cabbage, and considered "laid by."
Frequently some of the plants died or were cut off by an earthworm;
these vacant hills were usually replanted during the month of June,
except when prohibited by law. This restriction was an attempt to
reduce the amount of inferior tobacco at harvest time.
Around 1800, plows were still rarely used in new grounds, but they
appear to have been rather common in the old fields. George Washington
used the plow to lay off his tobacco rows into three-foot squares, the
hills were then made directly on the cross so that in the early stages
of its growth the tobacco could be cultivated with the plow each way.
The plow lightened the burden of cultivation by requiring less hoe
work.
When the plant began to bloom, usually six or seven weeks after
planting, the plant was topped; that is, the top of the plant was
pinched out with the thumb and finger nails. The number of leaves left
on the plant depended largely upon the fertility of the soil. In the
early days of the colony, planters left twenty-five or thirty leaves on
a plant, by 1671 the number had been reduced to twelve or sixteen in
very rich soil. Throughout the seventeenth century the General
Assembly, in an attempt to reduce production, occasionally limited the
number of leaves that could be left on a plant after topping. After
around 1700, from five to nine leaves were left on the plant, depending
on the strength of the soil.
After topping, the plant grew no higher, but the leaves grew larger and
heavier and sprouts or suckers appeared at the junction of the stalk
and the leaf stem. If allowed to grow they injured the marketable
quality of tobacco by taking up plant food that would have gone into
the leaves. These suckers were removed by pinching them off with the
thumb and finger nails. Owing to his laziness or ignorance, the Indian
did not top his tobacco, though he did keep the suckers out. Tobacco
that has been topped will produce a second set of suckers once the
first growth has been removed. If the tobacco is not topped, only three
or four suckers will appear, and these grow in the very top of the
plant. During the course of the growing season the colonial planter had
two sets of suckers to remove, from the junction of each leaf and from
the bottom to the top of the plant, whereas the Indian had only a total
of three or four per plant. Thus it appears that the planter learned
from his own experience to top tobacco, and that it was a laborious
though profitable task. It has been said that topping was first used as
a means of limiting the production of tobacco to the very best grades
by the planters as early as the 1620's.
Only a planter with considerable experience could tell when the plant
was ripe for harvest. This no doubt accounts for much of the inferior
tobacco produced in the early days of the colony. Planters usually had
their own individual methods of determining when a plant was ripe for
cutting. Some thought the plants were ripe and ready to cut when a
vigorous growth of suckers appeared around the root; others believed
the plant was ripe when the top leaves of the plant became covered with
yellow spots and "rolled over," touching the ground. Occasionally it
had to be cut regardless of its maturity to save it from the frost.
During the early days at Jamestown the tobacco was harvested by pulling
the ripe leaves from the plants growing in the fields. The leaves were
then piled in heaps and covered with hay to be cured by sweating. In
1617, a Mr. Lambert discovered that the leaves cured better when strung
on lines than when sweated under the hay. This innovation was further
facilitated in 1618 when Governor Argall prohibited the use of hay to
sweat tobacco, owing to the scarcity of fodder for the cattle. It was
probably this new method of curing that led to the building of tobacco
barns, which were known to be in use at the time of the Indian Massacre
in 1622.
By 1671 the planters had stopped stringing the leaves on lines; the
tobacco plant was cut off just above the top of the ground and left
lying in the field for three or four hours, or until the leaves "fell"
or became somewhat withered so that the plant could be handled without
breaking the stems and fibers in the leaves. The plants were then
carried into the tobacco barns, and hung on tobacco sticks by a small
peg that had been driven into each stalk.
During the early years of the eighteenth century the pegs were
superseded by partially spliting the stalk and hanging it on the
sticks. The use of fire in curing tobacco was also introduced during
this century, but was rarely used before the Revolution. The earlier
accounts refer to curing as the action of the air and sun. If the plant
was large, the stalk was split down the middle six or seven inches
below the extremity of the split, then turned directly bottom upwards
to enable the sun to cause it to "fall", or wither faster. The plants
were then brought to the scaffolds, which were generally erected all
around the tobacco barns, and placed with the splits across a small oak
stick about an inch in diameter and four and a half feet long. The
sticks of tobacco were then placed on the scaffold. The tobacco
remained there to cure for a brief period and then the sticks were
removed from the outdoor scaffolds, carried into the tobacco barn and
placed on the tier poles erected in successive regular graduation from
near the bottom to the top of the barn. Once the barn was filled, the
curing was sometimes hastened by making fires on the floor of the barn.
Around 1800 the most common method was still air-curing, fire was used
primarily to keep the tobacco from molding in damp weather. During the
War of 1812 there was a considerable shift to fire-curing owing to the
demand in Europe for a smoky flavored leaf. Fire-curing not only gave
tobacco a different taste, but it also improved the keeping qualities
of the leaf. The fire dried the stem of the leaf more thoroughly, thus
eliminating the major cause of spoilage when packed in the hogshead for
shipment.
August and September were the favorite months for cutting and curing
because the tobacco would cure a brighter color if cured in hot
weather. Even today farmers like to finish curing their tobacco as
early in September as possible. However, it was usually cold weather
before all of the crop could be cut and cured. Occasionally frost would
kill part of the crop before it was ripe enough to cut.
In the early years of the tobacco industry there was little to the
stripping process as the leaves were hung on strings to cure. The
string was removed and the leaves were twisted and wound into rolls.
The leaves were twisted by hand or spun on a small spinning machine
into a thick rope, from which a ball containing from one to thirty
pounds was made, though some were known to weigh as much as 105 pounds.
The rolls were either wrapped in heavy canvass or packed in small
barrels for shipping. In 1614 four barrels containing 170 pounds each
were sent to England on the _Sir Thomas_. Tobacco was also shipped
loose or in small bundles known as hands, and by 1629 a considerable
number of hogsheads were being used.
There seems to have been little grading in the early days. London
Company officials frequently complained of the bad tobacco being mixed
with the good, and early inspection laws required that the tobacco be
brought to central locations and the mean tobacco separated from the
bulk. After cutting became the common practice the leaves were stripped
from the stalk and assorted according to variety and grade. By the
1680's the lowest grade was known as lugs. Sweet-scented and Oronoco
were usually exported separately, and usually only the sweet-scented
was stemmed. If the two varieties were mixed in a hogshead, it was
purchased at the prevailing Oronoco prices, which were less than those
paid for sweet-scented. The English merchant claimed that he had to
sell all of it as Oronoco unless it were separated and that the cost of
the labor required to separate it was equal to the higher price the
sweet-scented would bring. These two varieties were probably seldom
mixed except perhaps to fill the last hogshead of the season. The
planters eventually came to realize the value of handling tobacco with
care, for when good tobacco land became less plentiful, other means of
improving the quality of tobacco became necessary.
By 1665 most of the tobacco was shipped in hogsheads, but it was not
until 1730 that the shipment of bulk tobacco was prohibited. Nor were
the hogsheads made to any standard size until 1657, at which time they
were required to be 43" × 26". In 1695 the standard size was raised to
48" × 30", and this remained the standard size until the 1790's. In
1796 the legal size was increased to 54" × 34"; this remained the legal
size until the 1820's. The weight of the hogshead increased from time
to time. In 1657 a hogshead of tobacco weighed about 300 pounds, 600 in
the 1660's, 800 by 1730, 950 by 1765, and around 1,000 in the 1790's.
These were supposed to have been the standard or legal weights, but
regulations were not strictly enforced. As early as 1757 some of the
hogsheads weighed as much as 1,274 pounds. By 1800 hogsheads averaged
about 1,100 pounds.
VARIETIES
A complete story on the origin of the early varieties of tobacco would
be a very significant contribution, since very little is known about
them. Most writers agree that the tobacco cultivated by the English
settlers was not the same _Nicotiana rustica_ grown by the Indians, but
_Nicotiana tabacum_, the type found growing in South America and the
West Indies. The difference between these two types was profound, both
in taste and size. The plant native to Virginia was small, growing to a
height of only two or three feet, whereas _Nicotiana tabacum_ grew from
six to nine feet tall. As to taste, George Arents remarked, "the same
difference in taste exists between these two species, as between a crab
apple and an Albemarle pippin."
All during the colonial period tobacco was classified into two main
varieties, Oronoco and sweet-scented. Oronoco had a large porous
pointed leaf and was strong in taste. Sweet-scented was milder, the
leaf was rounder and the fibers were finer. We are also told that
sweet-scented grew mostly in the lower parts of Virginia, along the
York and James rivers, and later on the Rappahannock and on the
southside of the Potomac. Oronoco was generally planted up the
Chesapeake Bay area and in the back settlements on the strong land
along all the rivers.
Oronoco is thought to have originated in the vicinity of the Orinoco
River valley in Venezuela. After being brought to a different
environment and climate in Virginia, various varieties or strains of
Oronoco were developed or came about naturally. In the late 1600's a
very fair and bright large Oronoco, Prior, and Kite's Foot were
mentioned. As the years passed planters came to distinguish other
varieties such as Hudson, Frederick, Thick-Joint, Shoe-string,
Thickset, Blue Pryor, Medley Pryor, White Stem, Townsend, Long Green,
Little Frederic, and Browne Oronoco.
A type of tobacco referred to locally as "yellow", had been growing on
the poor, thin, and sandy soils in and around Pittsylvania County,
Virginia, and Caswell County, North Carolina since the early 1820's. It
was just another one of the many local varieties and attracted little
attention until a very lucky accident occurred in 1839. A Negro slave
on the Slade farm in Caswell County, North Carolina, fell asleep while
fire-curing tobacco. Upon awakening, he quickly piled some dry wood on
the dying embers; the sudden drying heat from the revived fires
produced a profound effect--this particular barn of tobacco cured a
bright yellow. This accident produced a curing technique that soon
became known throughout the surrounding area in Virginia and North
Carolina. This tobacco became known as "Bright-Tobacco", and this area
the "Bright-Tobacco Belt".
The many variations were due to the different environments, cultural
practices, methods of curing and breeding; and each of these variations
was given a name because of some particular quality it possessed, or
was given the name of a person or place. The difference in the
composition of the "Bright-Tobacco" grown in the poor sandy soil, such
as that found in Pittsylvania County, caused the tobacco to cure
bright. This so-called new type of tobacco was of the old Virginia
Oronoco and if grown on heavier soils, it produced a much heavier
bodied tobacco and would not make the same response when flue-cured.
Only the tobacco grown in the soils such as that in the "Bright-Tobacco
Belt" cured bright, which indicates that it was the soil and not the
variety that caused the tobacco to be bright when cured.
The origin and development of sweet-scented tobacco remains somewhat of
a mystery, and we can only make conjectures as to what happened. Some
authorities hold that the present day Maryland tobacco is descended
from the sweet-scented of the Colonial days, while others believe it to
be a descendant of Oronoco. It seems quite possible that there was only
one variety of _Nicotiana tabacum_ when John Rolfe first began his
experiments, and there is reason to believe that this first tobacco was
sweet-scented. The name Oronoco probably came after the name
sweet-scented had already been established. It also appears that
sweet-scented disappeared as soon as the soils along the James, York,
Rappahannock, and Potomac rivers were exhausted.
George Arents, probably the foremost authority on the history of
tobacco, in referring to Rolfe's first shipment to England wrote, "So
fragrant was the leaf that it almost at once began to be known as
'sweet-scented.'" Ralph Hamor, in 1614, declared that the colony grew
tobacco equal to that of Trinidad, "sweet and pleasant." Jerome E.
Brooks wrote that Rolfe's importation of tobacco seed resulted in the
famous Virginia sweet-scented leaf.
Once the cultivation began to spread into the areas away from the sandy
loam along the James and York rivers, the type of soil necessary for
the production of the sweet-scented, other varieties began to develop.
In 1688 John Clayton wrote, "I have observed, that that which is called
Pine-wood Land tho' it be a sandy soil, even the sweet-scented Tobacco
that grows thereon, is large and porous, agreeable to Aranoko Tobacco;
it smokes as coursely as Aranoko." While on his visit to Virginia,
Clayton visited a poor, worn-out plantation along the James River. The
owner, a widow, complained to him that her land would produce only four
or five leaves of tobacco per plant. Clayton suggested that one of the
bogs on the plantation be drained and planted in tobacco. A few years
later Clayton happened to meet this same lady in London, selling the
first crop of tobacco grown on the drained bog. She related to Clayton
that the product was "so very large, that it was suspected to be of the
Aranoko kind...."
In 1724 Hugh Jones observed that the farther a person went northward
from the York or southward from the James, the poorer the quality of
the sweet-scented tobacco, "but this maybe (I believe) attributed in
some Measure to the Seed and Management, as well as to the Land and
Latitude." John Custis in a letter to Philip Perry in 1737 wrote that
he grew Oronoco on the Eastern Shore of Virginia using the same seed as
he did for his sweet-scented York crop. It appears that as the sandy
loam necessary for the growing of sweet-scented tobacco became
exhausted and the planters expanded into the heavy fertile soils, the
tobacco became the strong, coarse Oronoco. As virgin soil became
scarce, Oronoco was no longer confined to the richest soils, nor was it
thought to be less sweet-scented than its rivals. Toward the end of the
eighteenth century tobacco inspectors found it so difficult to
distinguish the various types, that they classed all tobacco as
Oronoco. Thus it seems quite possible that both Oronoco and
sweet-scented were originally one variety which became two, primarily
because of the different soil composition.
TRANSPORTATION TO MARKET
In the early days of the colony the small ocean-going merchant vessel
was the only method of transportation essential to marketing the
tobacco crop. Such a small ship was able to anchor at many of the
plantation wharves and load its cargo of tobacco. Next to fertility,
the proximity to navigable water was the most important factor in
influencing the planter in the selection of a tract of land. However,
later expansion of the tobacco industry into the interior and the
increase in the size of all ocean-going ships made some mode of
transportation within the colony a necessity. When the ships could not
get directly up to the wharf or enter shallow creeks on which many of
the plantations were located, small boats called flats or shallops were
used to transport the hogsheads to the anchored vessels. In 1633 the
General Assembly provided that all tobacco had to be brought to one of
the five warehouses--to be erected in specified localities--to be
stored until sold. The planters objected immediately and petitioned the
House of Burgesses to allow ships to come into every county, "where
they will find at every man's house a store convenient enough for
theire ladinge, we beinge all seated by the Riverside." The planters
also complained that they had "... noe other means to export but by
Boatinge."
Carrying the tobacco for long distances in the shallop involved a risk,
as well as an additional expense. By rolling the hogsheads directly on
board a ship anchored at his own wharf or only a few miles away the
planter eliminated the danger involved in transporting his tobacco in
an untrustworthy, heavily laden shallop, and he also saved the increase
in freight charges for delivery to the ships by the seamen. Freight
rates were the same from his wharf to England as they were from any
other point in the colony.
In 1697 Henry Hartwell remarked, "they [the merchants] are at the
charge of carting this tobacco ... [collected from the planter,] to
convenient Landinge; or if it lyes not far from these landings, they
must trust to the Seamen for their careful rolling it on board of their
sloops and shallops...." A second common mode of transportation,
according to Philip A. Bruce, was "not to draw the cask over the ground
by means of horses or oxen, like an enormous clod crusher, the custom
of a later period, but to propel it by the application of a steady
force from behind." In 1724 Hugh Jones wrote, "The tobacco is rolled,
drawn by horses, or carted to convenient Rolling Houses, whence it is
conveyed on board the ships in flats or sloops." Thus it appears that
by 1700 the Tidewater planters had adopted three methods of
transporting their tobacco to market or to points of exportation: by
rolling the hogshead, by cart, and by boat.
By the middle of the eighteenth century planters in the Piedmont were
rolling their tobacco to the distant Tidewater markets, whereas the
Tidewater planter usually hauled his tobacco by wagon. Rolling tobacco
more than 100 miles was not out of the ordinary. The ingenious upland
planters placed some extra hickory hoops around the hogshead, attached
two hickory limbs for shafts, by driving pegs into the headings, and
hitched a horse or oxen to it. This method worked quite well except
that the tobacco was frequently damaged by the mud, water, or sand. To
prevent this, the hogshead was raised off the ground by a device called
a felly. This device consisted of segments of wood fitted together to
form a circle resembling the rim of a cartwheel; these segments were
fitted around the circumference of the hogshead. The hogsheads used for
rolling in this manner were constructed much more substantially than
those wagoned or transported by boat.
For the river trade the Piedmont planter once again relied upon his
ingenuity. Around 1740 a rather unique water carrier was perfected by
the Reverend Robert Rose, then living in Albemarle County. Two canoes
fifty or sixty feet long were lashed together with cords and eight or
nine hogsheads of tobacco were rolled on their gunwales crossways for
the trip to Richmond. This came to be known as the "Rose method." For
the return trip the canoes were separated and two men with poles could
travel twice the distance in a day as four good oarsmen could propel a
boat capable of carrying the same burden. Before 1795 boats coming down
the James River from the back country landed at Westham, located just
above the falls, and the tobacco was then carried into Richmond by
wagon. There is the story of one planter who forgot to land his canoes
at Westham. It seems that he left his plantation on the upper James
with a load of tobacco and a jug full of whiskey. By the time he
reached Westham the planter had consumed too much of the whiskey, and
forgot to land at Westham. He rode his canoes, tobacco and all, over
the Falls. Shortly thereafter he was fished from the waters downstream,
wet and frightened, but sober.
By 1800, owing to the fact that both the planters and buyers had become
more concerned about the quality of tobacco, rolling tobacco in
hogsheads began to decline sharply, although fifty years later a rare
roller might still be seen on his way to market. The rivers and canals
provided the most typical means of transportation. Wagons were used
primarily as feeders to and from inland waters. The Potomac,
Rappahannock, and York rivers were valuable colonial arteries, but
played a less significant role after the Piedmont became the major
producing area. The James and the Roanoke superseded them as the major
arteries of transportation in the nineteenth century.
The "Rose method" of water transportation, the lashing of two canoes
together, had practically disappeared on the upland waters by 1800,
being replaced by a small open flat-bottomed boat called the bateau,
which carried a load of from five to eight hogsheads. Two planters, N.
C. Dawson and A. Rucker, both of Amherst County, patented a bateau, in
the early 1800's, which was a great improvement over the earlier ones.
This bateau was from forty-eight to fifty-four feet long, but very
narrow in proportion to its length. It was claimed that with a crew of
three men these new "James River Bateaux" could make the round trip
from Lynchburg to Richmond in ten days. They floated down the stream
with ease, but worked their way back upstream with poles. Shortly
before the turn of the eighteenth century canals had been constructed
around the falls from Westham to Richmond, and the upland boats were
able to load and unload their cargoes at the wharves in Richmond. In
1810 it was estimated that about one-fourth of the entire Virginia
tobacco crop came down the James River and through the Westham Canal
into Richmond.
There were land and water routes in the Roanoke Valley that led to
Petersburg. Tobacco was taken all the way to Petersburg by wagon, or
carried by boat from the upper Roanoke and its tributaries to the falls
at Weldon, North Carolina, and from there to Petersburg by wagon. Owing
to the tobacco trade coming down the Roanoke, Clarksville became a
small market town. In the Farmville area many of the planters sent
their tobacco down the Appomattox River to Petersburg, rather than
overland by wagon. Soon after 1800 the Upper Canal Company built a
canal that connected Petersburg with the navigable waters of the
Appomattox River. Virginia's waterways served her transportation
problem well until they were superseded by the railroads in the
ante-bellum days.
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE INSPECTION SYSTEM
Within a few years after Rolfe's successful experiment in the
cultivation of tobacco, it became necessary to inaugurate some means of
improving the quality of the Virginia tobacco. Once it was discovered
that tobacco could be successfully and profitably grown in Virginia,
everyone wanted to grow it. Blacksmiths, carpenters, shipwrights, and
even the minister frequently grew a patch of tobacco. Owing to
inexperience in farming of any kind, plus the fact that the commercial
production of tobacco was new even to most of the experienced farmers,
much of the tobacco produced was of a very low quality. For centuries
many planters seem to have placed quantity above quality in growing
tobacco. Anyone could grow tobacco in certain quantities, but only a
few could produce tobacco of superior quality.
The first general inspection law in Virginia was passed in 1619 and
provided that all tobacco offered for exchange at the magazine, the
general storehouse in Jamestown, found to be very "mean" in quality by
the magazine custodian was to be burnt. The magazine was abolished in
1620 and in 1623 this law was amended to provide for the appointment of
sworn men in each settlement to condemn all bad tobacco.
In 1630 an act was passed prohibiting the sale or acceptance of
inferior tobacco in payment of debts. The commander of each plantation
or settlement was authorized to appoint two or three experienced and
competent men to help him inspect all tobacco, offered in payment of
debts, which had been found "mean" by the creditor. If the inspectors
declared the tobacco mean, the inferior tobacco was burned and the
delinquent planter was disbarred from planting tobacco. Only the
General Assembly could remove this disability. Owing to complaints that
the commanders were showing partiality to planters on their own
plantations, the act was amended in 1632; the commander's power of
inspection was removed and his duty was limited to appointing two
inspectors and making the final report. The appointment of inspectors
was made compulsory in case of a complaint.
The following year (1633) a more comprehensive measure was enacted. It
provided that all inspections were to be made at five different points
in the colony: James City, Shirley Hundred Island, Denbigh, Southampton
River in Elizabeth City, and Cheskiack. Storehouses were to be built at
these places and all tobacco was to be brought to these storehouses
before the last day of December of each year. At these storehouses the
tobacco was to be carefully inspected and all of the bad tobacco
separated from the good and burned. This duty was to be performed once
each week by inspectors under oath, one of whom was to be a member of
the Council. All tobacco found in the barns of the planters after
December 31 was to be confiscated, unless reserved for family use. All
of those planning to keep tobacco for that purpose were required to
swear to this fact before the proper officials before December 31. All
debts were to be paid at one of these five storehouses, with the
storekeeper as a witness. Before the end of the year (1633) two other
such storehouses were authorized to be built,--one at Warrasquoke and
the other at a point lying between Weyanoke and the Falls. In addition
to the Councillors, members of the local courts were added as
inspectors. The provision requiring the burning of unmerchantable
tobacco may have been enforced, but the storehouses were never built.
In 1639 all of the mean tobacco and half of the good was ordered
destroyed. The legislature passed an act providing for the appointment
of 213 inspectors, three were assigned to each district. These
inspectors were authorized to break down the doors of any building if
they had reason to believe that tobacco was being concealed within.
This act was designed primarily to restrict the quantity of tobacco to
be marketed owing to the flooded markets abroad and the resulting low
prices.
All of the inspection laws passed after 1632 were formally repealed in
1641. The only important inspection law left on the statute books was
the one passed in 1630 requiring the plantation commander, who was
later replaced by the county lieutenant, to appoint two or three
inspectors to inspect tobacco sold or received in payment of a debt,
upon complaint of the buyer or creditor that he had been passed some
bad tobacco. The law remained on the books until 1730. After these
early attempts to establish an effective inspection system, little
further progress was made during the seventeenth century. Occasional
acts aimed at controlling the quantity and quality of tobacco continued
to be passed from time to time; such as laws prohibiting the tending of
seconds, false packing, and planting or replanting tobacco after a
certain date.
As the tobacco industry continued to expand into the interior, the need
and the difficulty of regulating the quality of the leaf increased.
Owing to ignorance or indifference, the frontier planters seldom
resorted to methods of improving the quality of the crop. They traded
their tobacco in small lots with the outport merchants, those from
ports other than London, mostly Scottish, who sold the inferior tobacco
to the countries in northern Europe. In 1705 the Council proposed that
an experienced and competent person be appointed in each county to
inspect and receive all tobacco for discharge of debts in that county
at specifically named storehouses and "at no other place." These county
agents were to meet and select proper locations for building the
storehouses. Owners of the land sites selected were to be given the
privilege of building and renting these storehouses. If the owner did
not choose to build, he could rent the land site to the county agent
that he might build on it. If both refused to build, it was proposed
that the county court should buy the land and erect the storehouse.
Storehouses were already established on many of the land sites
proposed. In 1680, to accelerate the growth of towns, the General
Assembly had passed an act providing that fifty acres of land be laid
out for towns at convenient landings and that storehouses be built in
each, at which all goods imported had to be landed and all exports
stored while awaiting transportation. The towns and storehouses were
located in the following places in twenty counties: Accomac, Calvert's
Neck; Charles City, Flower de Hundred; Elizabeth City, Hampton;
Gloucester, Tindall's Point; Henrico, Varina; Isle of Wight, Pates
Field on Pagan Creek; James City, James City; Lancaster, Corotomond
River; Middlesex, Urbanna Creek; Nansemond, Dues Point; New Kent, Brick
House; Norfolk, on the Elizabeth River at the mouth of the Eastern
River; Northampton, Kings Creek; Northumberland, Chickacony; Essex,
Hobb's Hole; Stafford, Pease Point, at the mouth of Deep Creek;
Westmoreland, Nominie; and York, Ship Honors Store. Though none of the
proposals were passed by the General Assembly in 1705, they were
incorporated into later legislation and provided the basis for an
effective inspection system.
In 1712 the General Assembly once again decided it would be
advantageous to have designated places in each county where tobacco and
other products could be kept safe while waiting for transportation to
England, and an act was passed providing that all houses already built
and being used as public "rolling-houses", that is warehouses, within
one mile of a public landing, be maintained by their respective owners.
If there were no such warehouses at designated locations, the county
courts were given the authority to order new ones built. If the owner
of the site refused to build, the county could, after a fair appraisal,
buy the land and build a warehouse at public expense. When and if the
warehouse was discontinued, the land reverted to the original owner or
his heirs. It is interesting to know that the warehouse built at
Urbanna, in Middlesex County, in 1680, is still standing, and it is
"America's only colonial built warehouse for tobacco still in
existence".
The owners were compelled to receive all goods offered, and were to
receive storage rates for these services. For goods stored in casks of
sixty gallons in size, or bales or parcels of greater bulk, the owners
of the storehouses received twelve pence for the first day or the first
three months and six pence for every three months thereafter. The owner
of the warehouse was made liable for merchandise lost or damaged while
under his custody.
One of the most significant features of the 1730 inspection system was
first introduced in 1713. Primarily through the efforts of Governor
Spotswood, an act was passed providing for licensed inspectors at the
various warehouses already established. To provide a convenient
circulating medium, and one that would not meet with opposition from
the English government, these inspectors were authorized to issue
negotiable receipts for tobacco inspected and stored at these
warehouses. Like many new and untried ideas, this law seemed somewhat
radical and met a great deal of opposition. With Colonel William Byrd
as their leader, the opposition was able to convince certain British
officials that the added expense required by the act imposed an undue
hardship on the tobacco trade. This local opposition combined with the
pressure of the conservative London merchants caused the act to be
vetoed by the Privy Council in 1716.
The act of 1712, providing for the regulation of public warehouses,
remained in force and became a part of the rather effective inspection
system established in 1730. The act was amended in 1720 giving the
county courts the authority to order warehouses inconvenient to the
landings discontinued. These two pieces of legislation brought all of
the public warehouses near convenient landings and made the warehouse
movement flexible. From this point on, as the tobacco industry shifted
from one area to another, the warehouse movement kept pace. From time
to time established warehouses were ordered discontinued, or new ones
erected; and occasionally warehouses ordered discontinued were revived.
However, it appears that inspection warehouses were not permitted above
the Fall Line until after the Revolution.
In 1730 the most comprehensive inspection bill ever introduced, passed
the General Assembly. The common knowledge that the past and present
inspection laws had failed to prevent the importation of unmarketable
tobacco, plus a long depression, had changed the attitude of many of
the influential planters and merchants. Nevertheless, the act did meet
with opposition from some of the English customs officials and a few of
the large planters. Soon after the passage of this new inspection law a
prominent planter wrote complainingly to a London merchant, "This Tobo
hath passed the Inspection of our new law, every hogshead was cased and
viewed by which means the tobacco was very much tumbled and made
something less sightly than it was before and it causes a great deal of
extraordinary trouble". There were complaints that the new law
destroyed tobacco that used to bring good money. Still another planter
complained that the planter's name and evidence on the hogshead had
much more effect on the price of the tobacco than the inspector's
brand. While some of the planters expressed their disapproval of the
new inspection law verbally, others resorted to violence. During the
first year some villains burned two inspection houses, one in Lancaster
County and another in Northumberland.
The inspection law passed in 1730 was frequently amended during the
colonial period, but there were no changes in its essential features.
The act provided that no tobacco was to be shipped except in hogsheads,
cases, or casks, without having first passed an inspection at one of
the legally established inspection warehouses; thus the shipment of
bulk tobacco was prohibited. Two inspectors were employed at each
warehouse, and a third was summoned in case of a dispute between the
two regular inspectors. These officials were bonded and were forbidden
under heavy penalties to pass bad tobacco, engage in the tobacco trade,
or to take rewards. Tobacco offered in payment of debts, public or
private, had to be inspected under the same conditions as that to be
exported. The inspectors were required to open the hogshead, extract
and carefully examine two samplings; all trash and unsound tobacco was
to be burned in the warehouse kiln in the presence and with the consent
of the owner. If the owner refused consent the entire hogshead was to
be destroyed. After the tobacco was sorted, the good tobacco was
repacked in the hogshead and the planter's distinguishing mark, net
weight, tare (weight of the hogshead), and name of inspection warehouse
were stamped on the hogshead.
A tobacco note was issued to the owner of each hogshead that passed the
inspection. These notes were legal tender within the county issued, and
adjacent counties, except when the counties were separated by a large
river. They circulated freely and eventually came into the possession
of a buyer who, by presenting them at the warehouse named on the notes,
exchanged them for the specified amount of tobacco. And these
particular notes were thus retired from circulation. The person finally
demanding possession of the tobacco was allowed to have the hogsheads
reinspected if he so desired. If he was dissatisfied with the quality,
he could appeal to three justices of the peace. If they found the
tobacco to be unsound or trashy, the inspectors paid a fee of five
shillings to each of the justices, and they were also held liable for
stamping the tobacco as being good; should the tobacco be declared
sound, the buyer paid the fee.
Parcels of tobacco weighing less than 200 pounds in 1730, later
increased to 350, and finally 950 pounds, were not to be exported, in
such cases the inspectors issued transfer notes. When the purchaser of
such tobacco had enough to fill a hogshead, the tobacco was prized and
the transfer notes were exchanged for a tobacco note. The tobacco could
then be exported. Such small parcels were often necessary to pay a
levy, or a creditor, or it might have been tobacco left over from the
crop after the last hogshead had been filled and prized. These tobacco
notes provided the only currency in Virginia until she resorted to the
printing press during the French and Indian War. By the end of the
eighteenth century the reputation of the inspectors and the value of
the tobacco notes began to decline, due primarily to lax inspecting.
Exporters and manufacturers frequently demanded that their tobacco be
reinspected by competent agents.
The inspection law was allowed to expire in October, 1775, but it was
revived the following October. During this period the payment of debts
in tobacco was made on the plantation of the debtor, and if the
creditor refused to accept the tobacco as sound and marketable, the
dispute was referred to two competent neighbors, one chosen by each of
the disputants.
Prior to 1776 tobacco that was damaged while stored in the public
warehouses was paid for by the colony, but provisions were made in 1776
that such a loss was to be borne by the owner of the tobacco. In 1778
this was amended to the effect that losses by fire while stored in the
warehouses would be paid for by the state. Four years later, owing to
the great losses that had been sustained by the owners of the tobacco,
the inspectors were held liable for all tobacco destroyed or damaged,
except by fire, flood, or the enemy. The state continued to guarantee
the tobacco against the fire hazard until well into the nineteenth
century.
The law requiring "refused" tobacco to be burned in the warehouse kiln
was repealed in 1805, and such tobacco could then be shipped anywhere
within the state of Virginia. Stemmers or manufacturers were required
to send a certificate of receipt of such refused tobacco purchased to
the auditor of public accounts in Richmond. These receipts were then
checked against the warehouse records of the amount of refused tobacco
sold. Finally, in 1826, the General Assembly legalized the exportation
of refused tobacco, provided the word "refused" was stamped on both
ends and two sides of the hogsheads in letters at least three inches in
length.
In 1730 three inspectors were appointed for each inspection by the
governor, with the advice and consent of the Council. This did not
always mean that there were three inspectors at each warehouse at all
times. Warehouses built on opposite banks of a creek or river were
frequently placed under the same inspection; that is, the three
inspectors divided their time at the two warehouses. In areas where the
production of tobacco declined from time to time, two warehouses were
frequently placed under the jurisdiction of one set of inspectors. And
if the quantity of tobacco produced in that particular area
necessitated separate inspections, the change was then made. The
inspection system was very flexible in this respect. The inspectors
were required to be on duty from October 1 to August 10 yearly, except
Sundays and holidays. By 1732 it was discovered that it was unnecessary
to have three inspectors on duty at all times. Consequently, the number
of regular inspectors was reduced to two, but a third was appointed to
be called upon when there was a dispute between the two regular
inspectors as to the quality of tobacco.
As the governor was able to choose the inspectors and place them at any
warehouse within the colony, the local county people began to complain
and demand that they be given more authority in this governmental
function. This procedure tended to provide the governor with the
opportunity to provide his friends with jobs regardless of their
qualifications. In 1738 the General Assembly enacted legislation
providing that the inspectors were to be appointed by the governor from
a slate of four candidates nominated by the local county courts. Where
two warehouses under one inspection were in different counties, two
candidates were to be nominated by each county. This procedure remained
unchanged until the middle of the nineteenth century.
The salaries of the inspectors were regulated by the General Assembly,
though the colony did not guarantee the sums after 1755. For the first
few years each inspector received £60 annually, and if the fees
collected were insufficient to pay their salary, the deficient amount
was made up out of public funds. After 1732 it was found that this
amount was too high and unequally allocated with respect to the amount
of individual services performed, as some warehouses received more
tobacco than others. So for the next few years salaries were determined
on the basis of the amount of tobacco inspected and ranged from £30 to
£50 annually. From 1755 to 1758 the inspectors received the amount set
by the legislature only if enough fees were collected by the inspectors
at their respective warehouses. During the next seven years the
inspectors received three shillings per hogshead, plus six pence for
nails used in recoopering the tobacco, instead of a stated salary. Out
of this the inspectors had to pay the proprietors of the warehouse
eight pence rent per hogshead. In 1765 the inspectors were again placed
on a flat salary basis, and for the next fifteen years their salaries
ranged from £25 to £70. After 1780 their annual salaries ranged from
about $100 at the smallest warehouses to about $330 at the largest.
WAREHOUSES 1730-1800
In most instances the warehouses were private property, but they were
always subject to the control of the legislature. Regulations regarding
the location, erection, maintenance and operation as official places of
inspection were set forth by special legislation. Owners of the land
sites selected were ordered to build the warehouses and rent them to
the inspectors. If the land owner refused to build, then the court
could order the warehouse built at public expense. Just how many
warehouses were built at public expense is difficult to determine,
probably only a few, if any, were built in this manner.
The rent which the proprietor received usually depended upon the number
of hogsheads inspected at his warehouse, though the rates were
regulated by the General Assembly. In 1712 the proprietors received
twelve pence for the first day or the first three months and six pence
every month thereafter per hogshead. In 1755 the owners received eight
pence per hogshead. During the Revolution the rate was raised to four
shillings, but was lowered to one shilling six pence after the
cessation of hostilities. At the beginning of the nineteenth century
rent per hogshead, including a year's storage, was twenty-five cents.
To keep pace with the movement of the tobacco industry, new warehouses
were built and others discontinued from time to time. And by observing
the warehouse movement it is possible to grasp a general picture of the
decline of the tobacco industry in Tidewater Virginia. The expansion of
the industry into Piedmont is more difficult to follow during this
period owing to the fact that inspection houses were not permitted
above the Falls until after the Revolution.
In 1730 seventy-two warehouses located in thirty counties were ordered
erected and maintained for the purpose of inspection and storage by the
General Assembly. Twelve years later warehouses were erected in only
one additional county, Fairfax. A few of those established in 1730 were
discontinued, but twenty-six new ones had been erected by 1742, making
a total of ninety-three in operation at that time. From 1742 to 1765
the total number of inspection houses increased by about six, but this
does not reveal a complete picture of the warehouse movement. A closer
examination shows a much greater shift in the movement. Sixteen new
inspection warehouses were erected during this period, twelve of them
near the Fall Line; in the meantime, ten of the old established
warehouses far below the Falls were discontinued.
After a year without an official inspection system the lapsed
inspection law was revived in October, 1776; seventy-six of the
warehouses were re-established as official inspection stations. Soon
after the end of the war the number of inspections began to increase
again, and it was chiefly through the efforts of a David Ross that
inspection warehouses were permitted above the Falls. The first
inspections seem to have appeared above the Falls in Virginia in 1785:
one at Crow's Ferry, Botetourt County; one at Lynch's Ferry, Campbell
County; and a third at Point of Fork on the Rivanna River, Fluvanna
County. Tobacco inspected in the warehouses above the Falls could not
be legally delivered for exportation without first being delivered to a
lower warehouse for transportation and reinspection upon demand by the
purchaser.
There were a number of reasons why the inspection warehouses were
restricted to Tidewater Virginia until after the Revolution. It was not
until after the Revolution that a strong need and demand for them was
felt above the Falls. Inadequate transportation facilities in the
interior made exportation from upland inspections less feasible. It is
also probable that the Legislature was opposed to upland inspections as
it would be more difficult to control the inspections, spread out over
a larger area, as rigidly as those concentrated in a smaller area. And
no doubt Tidewater Virginia recognized the economic value of having all
of the inspections located in its own section. However, the sharp
decline in tobacco production in the Tidewater followed by an equal
increase in the Piedmont made inspections above the Falls inevitable.
Of the ninety-three inspection warehouses in operation in 1792, only
about twenty were above the Fall Line; but by 1820 at least half of the
137 legal inspections were above the Falls. Of the forty-two new
inspections established in the period 1800-1820 only three were in
Tidewater Virginia; one in Prince George County in 1807, one in Essex
County in 1810, and the third in Norfolk County in 1818, owing to the
opening of the Dismal Swamp Canal.
SALE OF THE LEAF
Under the original plan of colonization the Virginia settlers were to
pool their goods at the magazine, the general storehouse in Jamestown.
All of the products produced by the settlers, and all goods imported
into the colony were to be first brought to the magazine. In 1620 the
London Company made plans to abolish the magazine and open the trade to
the public. The colony was then forced to rely on peripatetic merchant
ships which came irregularly. These casual traders dealt directly with
the planters, going about from plantation to plantation collecting
their cargo. These merchants were without agents in the colonies, and
they relied solely upon the chance of selling their goods as they
passed the various plantation wharves. They usually sold their goods on
credit, expecting to collect their dues in tobacco on the return trip
the next year. Occasionally the crops were small, or they discovered
that most of the tobacco had been sold or seized by other traders, and
consequently they were forced to wait another year to collect from
their debtors.
The planter soon discovered that he was in an equally precarious
situation, and largely at the mercy of the merchant, for if he failed
to sell on the terms offered, another ship might not come his way until
the following year. The planter's bargaining power was also hampered by
his ignorance of market conditions abroad. Such conditions encouraged
the practices of engrossing and forestalling, by the merchants, to the
point that much legislation was passed to prohibit such actions.
Increasing competition by the Dutch traders gradually reduced the
dependence of the planter on the casual trading merchant. The danger
from pirates and frequent wars caused the English to inaugurate the
convoy system, which also helped improve the market conditions.
However, trading directly with the casual merchants was still common
after 1625, and a few still operated as late as 1700.
The consignment system developed along with the system of casual
trading, and it also operated upon the practice of the ships collecting
cargo from the various plantations. Importation was based on the same
idea: the ship which gathered the planters' tobacco usually brought
goods from abroad. Originally the merchant acted only as the agent of
the planter. He advanced him the total cost necessary to export and
market the crop abroad, sold the crop on his client's account and
placed the net proceeds to the planter's credit. Soon the merchant was
advancing the planter goods and money beyond the amount of his net
receipts; the planter frequently discovered that he was at the
merchant's mercy and was forced to sell on the merchant's terms. To
make matters worse, the tobacco was sold by the merchants to retailers
in England on long term credit at the planter's risk. If the retailer
went bankrupt, or his business failed, the planter not only lost his
tobacco but still had to pay the total charges, freight, insurance,
British duties, plus the agent's commission, which amounted to about
eighteen pounds sterling in 1730. Planters frequently complained that
their tobacco weighed much less in England that it did when it was
inspected and weighed in the colony. There were reports that the
stevedores were supplying certain patrons in England with tobacco of
superior quality obtained by pilfering. An agent in England was
certainly not apt to look after a planter's crop as though it were his
own.
The gradual destruction of the fertility of the soil in the Tidewater
country and the expansion of the tobacco industry into the back country
made direct consignment less feasible. This, and the various other
causes of dissatisfaction with the consignment system, led to the
system of outright purchase in the colony. This new procedure was
carried on largely by the outport merchants, especially the Scottish,
who were doing quite a bit of illicit trading before the Union of 1707.
Since the Tidewater business was controlled largely by the London
merchants, the new Scottish traders penetrated the interior and
established local trading posts or stores at convenient locations, many
of which became the nuclei of towns. After the Union their share of the
trade increased very rapidly, and at the beginning of hostilities in
1775 the Scots were purchasing almost one-half of all the tobacco
brought to Great Britain. On the eve of the Revolution only about
one-fourth of the Virginia tobacco was being shipped on consignment.
The factorage system appears to have been introduced in Virginia around
1625, and was actually a part of the consignment system. A factor was
one who resided in the colony and served as a representative and the
repository of the English merchant. With the establishment of a
repository in the colony, trade became more regular, debtors less
delinquent, and the problem of securing transportation for exports or
imports was mitigated. Some of the factors were Englishmen sent over by
the English firms, others were colonial merchants or planters who
performed for the foreign firms on a commission basis. As the tobacco
industry expanded beyond the limits of the navigable waters, it became
the custom of the planters located near such streams to act as factors
for their neighbors in the interior. By 1775 the factorage system had
developed to the extent that one planter found four firms at
Colchester, eleven at Dumfries, and twenty at Alexandria which would
buy wheat, tobacco, and flour in exchange for British goods and
northern manufactures.
The rise of a class of factors in Virginia, aided by the Scottish
merchants, made it possible for the planters to break away from the
London commercial agents. The Revolution cut the connection between
England and the Virginia planters, but the factorage system was not
destroyed. The merchants and businessmen in the former colonies simply
replaced the English factors. Soon after the cessation of hostilities,
England had reestablished her commercial predominance owing to the
superior facilities and experience of British merchants in granting
long term credits, and perhaps the preference of Americans for British
goods. The British were again willing to extend to the planters the
accustomed long term credits, but they were careful to grant it only to
merchants of high standing.
Lax inspecting caused the buyers to lose faith in the inspectors'
reputation and guarantee. As early as 1759 tobacco was being sold by
displaying samples. It was quite natural then for the buyers to begin
visiting the warehouses as the tobacco was being inspected, to enable
them to purchase the better hogsheads directly from the original owner.
But it seems that even as late as 1800 such practices were only
occasional. While lax inspections caused a few buyers to visit the
warehouses, the presence of these buyers led many of the planters to
bring their tobacco to the warehouses most frequented by the buyers. As
these buyers paid higher prices for the better tobacco, the ultimate
result was the development of market towns and the disappearance of the
tobacco note. Within a decade after the turn of the nineteenth century
Richmond, Manchester, Petersburg, and Lynchburg had become major market
towns.
PRODUCTION, TREND OF PRICES, AND EXPORTS
When tobacco was first planted in Jamestown, Spanish tobacco was
selling for eighteen shillings per pound. Virginia tobacco was inferior
in quality, but it was assessed in England at ten shillings per pound.
On the basis of these high prices the Virginia Company of London agreed
to allow the Virginia planters three shillings per pound, in trade at
the magazine in Jamestown, for the best grades.
Even though it seemed that the London Company was getting the lions
share, these prices proved to be very profitable for the colonists and
the infant tobacco industry increased very rapidly. During the period
1615-1622 tobacco exports increased from 2,300 to 60,000 pounds, and by
1630 the volume had risen to 1,500,000. Meanwhile prices had fallen as
rapidly as production and exports had increased. In 1625 tobacco was
selling for about two shillings per pound, but in 1630 merchants were
reported to be buying it for less than one penny per pound.
It was quite obvious that the fall in prices was due to overproduction.
The English first attempted to alleviate the condition in 1619 through
monopolistic control. Negotiations were conducted with the Virginia
Company of London, Henry Somerscales, and Ditchfield in 1625. All were
opposed by the colony, except that of the London Company, because the
colonists thought that the various proposals would benefit the King and
a small group of court favorites at the expense of the planters.
The next move was made by the colony. In an attempt to restrict the
production of tobacco, Governor Wyatt ordered that production be
limited to 1,000 plants per person in each family in 1621. These same
instructions provided that only nine leaves were to be harvested from
each plant. Similar laws were enacted in 1622 and again in 1629, but
these laws were probably not strictly enforced as prices failed to
improve. Undaunted by failure in its first attempt to cope with the
situation, the General Assembly made several attempts at price fixing.
In 1632 tobacco prices in the colony were fixed at six pence per pound
in exchange for English goods; in 1633 it was increased to nine pence.
The 1639 crop was so large that the legislature ordered all of the bad
and half of the good tobacco destroyed; merchants were required to
accept fifty pounds of tobacco per 100 of indebtedness. English goods
were to be exchanged for tobacco at a minimum rate of three pence per
pound. The minimum rate of the 1640 crop was fixed at twelve pence.
Such legislation failed to meet with the approval of the home
government and in 1641 tobacco averaged about two pence per pound.
Following the depression of 1639 tobacco prices failed to rise above
three pence, and probably never averaged more than two pence per pound
for the next sixty years. To prevent the complete ruination of the
tobacco planters, the General Assembly established fixed rates for
tobacco in the payment of certain fees. In 1645 these fees were payable
in tobacco rated at one and one-half pence per pound; ten years later
the rate had increased only a half pence. The war with Holland,
restrictions on the Dutch trade, and the plague in England brought
forth another serious depression in the colonies in the 1660's. In 1665
the tobacco fleet did not go to the colonies on account of the plague
in London. Tobacco prices dropped to one pence per pound.
[Illustration: METHODS OF TRANSPORTING TOBACCO TO MARKET
a, Upon canoes. b, By upland boats. c, By wagons. d,
Rolling the hogshead.]
[Illustration: PLANTATION TOBACCO HOUSES AND PUBLIC WAREHOUSES
a, The common tobacco house. b, Tobacco hanging on a
scaffold. c, The operation of prizing. d, Inside of a
tobacco house, showing the tobacco hanging to cure. e,
An outside view of a public warehouse. f, showing the
process of inspection.]
This new depression stirred the Virginia legislature. In 1662 the
Assembly prohibited the planting of tobacco after the last of June,
provided that Maryland would do the same. Maryland rejected the idea.
This would have eliminated a great deal of inferior tobacco, for much
of the tobacco planted in July seldom fully matures before it must be
harvested to save it from the frost. The planters in both colonies
continued to produce excessive crops and the depression became more
acute. Led by Virginia, the North Carolina and Maryland legislatures
prohibited the cultivation of tobacco in 1666. Lord Baltimore again
refused to permit a cessation in Maryland, consequently Virginia and
North Carolina repealed their legislation. Instead of cessation the
Virginia crop was so large in 1666 that 100 vessels were not enough to
export the crop. The possibility of another enormous crop in 1667 was
eliminated by a severe storm that destroyed two-thirds of the crop.
However, the glutted market resulting from the large crop grown in 1666
caused prices to fall to a half pence per pound.
In the 1670's prices climbed to one and one-half pence, but a
tremendous crop in 1680 glutted the market again. The crop was said to
have been so large that it would have supplied the demand for the next
two years, even if none were produced in 1681. The General Assembly
once again came to the aid of the planter by rating tobacco in payment
of debts at one and one-fifth pence in 1682, and two pence in payment
of quit-rents in 1683. Once again Virginia renewed attempts to bring
about a cessation of production, but the English government refused to
permit such action claiming that it would stimulate foreign production
and thereby reduce the revenue to the Crown. In April, 1682 the General
Assembly convened but was prorogued by Lieutenant Governor Sir Henry
Chicheley a week later, when it was apparent that the members were
determined to discuss nothing but the cessation of tobacco. A week
later a series of plant cuttings broke out in Gloucester County
followed by others in New Kent and Middlesex counties. Approximately
10,000 hogsheads of tobacco were destroyed before these riots were put
down by the militia. Probably as a result of this destructive act,
prices rose to two and a half pence in 1685, but a bumper crop of over
18,000,000 pounds in 1688, the largest ever produced to that date,
caused prices to drop to one penny per pound in 1690.
Throughout most of the seventeenth century the tobacco planters were
plagued with the problem of overproduction and low prices. To add to
their woes the entire eighteenth century was one of periodic wars
either in Europe or in America, or both. King William's War ended in
1697 and the following year tobacco prices soared to twenty shillings
per hundred pounds and prices remained good for the next few years. The
outbreak of Queen Anne's War and another 18,000,000 pound crop ushered
in another depression. Several thousand hogsheads of tobacco shipped on
consignment in 1704 brought no return at all, and the next year many of
the planters sold their tobacco for one-fourth of a penny per pound.
Instead of attempting to limit production in an effort to relieve the
market conditions, these low prices caused the planters to increase
production as they attempted to meet their obligations. In 1709 tobacco
production reached an all-time high of 29,000,000 pounds.
The Peace of Utrecht in 1713 seems to have brought little relief.
Tobacco prices failed to improve until after the passage of the
inspection act in 1730. In 1731 tobacco sold for as much as twelve
shillings six pence per hundred pounds, despite the fact that Virginia
exported 34,000,000 pounds. In a further attempt to improve the quality
and the price of tobacco the General Assembly ordered the constables in
each district to enforce the law forbidding the planters to harvest
suckers. Anyone found tending suckers after the last of July was to be
heavily penalized. These two measures seem to have produced the desired
effects; in 1736 tobacco sold for fifteen shillings per hundred pounds.
Unlike Queen Anne's War, King George's War seemed to stimulate tobacco
prices and they remained relatively good for a number of years after
the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. During the early 1750's merchants
paid up to twenty shillings per hundred pounds, even though Virginia
had been exporting from 38,000,000 to 53,000,000 pounds annually.
During the French and Indian War the belligerents agreed to continue
the tobacco trade, but in spite of this arrangement there were unusual
price fluctuations owing primarily to inflation and occasional poor
crops. In 1755 a period of inflation was created when Virginia resorted
to the printing press for currency. At the same time war operations
hampered production and only about one-half of the usual annual crop
was produced, and tobacco prices rose to twenty shillings per hundred
weight. During the years of peace just prior to the American
Revolution, tobacco averaged about three pence per pound and never fell
below two pence. With the outbreak of hostilities the General Assembly
prohibited the exportation of tobacco to the British Empire.
Frequent overproduction and the numerous wars during the eighteenth
century seem to have caused more violent price fluctuations than those
of the previous century. Although the American colonies did not
participate in all of the wars involving England, all of them had their
effects upon the colonies. Virginia depended primarily upon England to
transport her tobacco crop and during the war years there was a
frequent shortage of ships used for the tobacco trade. As this cut off
the tobacco supply to the foreign markets, many of them began to grow
their supply of tobacco.
The tobacco crops were small almost every year during the Revolution.
Owing to the increase in the demand for foodstuffs many of the planters
switched from tobacco to wheat. During the first year of the war
tobacco exports dropped from 55,000,000 to 14,500,000 pounds. It has
been said that for the entire period 1776-1782 Virginia's exports were
less than her exports of a single year before the Revolution. Wartime
prices and inflation caused tobacco prices to increase from eighteen
shillings per hundred pounds in 1775 to 2,000 shillings, in Continental
currency, in 1781. An official account in the latter part of 1780
related that twenty-five shillings per hundred pounds in specie was
considered a very substantial price. A very small crop in 1782 was
followed by one that topped any of the pre-war crops, and by 1787
prices had fallen to fifteen pence per pound. Prices dropped to $12.00
in 1791, and a period of relatively low prices continued until 1797
when prices increased as a result of an extensive shift from tobacco to
wheat. In 1800 prices dropped to $7.40 per hundred pounds as Virginia
exported a near record crop of over 78,000 hogsheads of tobacco.
VIRGINIA TOBACCO PRICES AND EXPORTS, 1615-1789
A complete and accurate price table would be virtually impossible to
compile. Some of these averages represent only single individual
quotations, or the average of only two or three such quotations. These
charts are intended to give the reader a general picture of the prices
during the Colonial period.
Year Average Price Average Price Pounds Exported
per Lb. per Cwt.
1615 3s 2,300
1617 3s 20,000
1618 3s 41,000
1619 3s 44,879
1620 2s 6d 40,000
1621 3s 55,000
1622 3s 60,000
1623 2s
1625 2s 4d
1626 3s 500,000
1628 3s 6d 500,000
1629 1,500,000
1630 1d 1,500,000
1631 6d 1,300,000
1632 6d
1633 9d
1634 1d
1637 9d
1638 2d
1639 3d 1,500,000
1640 12d 1,300,000
1641 2d 1,300,000
1642 2d
1644 1-1/2d
1645 1-1/2d
1649 3d
1651 16s
1652 20s
1655 2d
1656 2d
1657 3d
1658 2d
1659 2d
1660 2d
1661 2d
1662 2d
1664 1-1/2d
1665 1d
1666 1-1/5d
1667 1/2d
1669 20s
1676 1-1/2d
1682 1-1/5d
1683 2d
1684 1/2d
1685 2-1/2d
1686 1-1/5d
1688 18,295,000
1690 1d
1691 2d
1692 1d
1695 1-1/2d
1696 1-1/5d
1697 1/2d 22,000,000
1698 20s 22,000,000
1699 20s 22,000,000
1700 10s average
1701 average
1702 20s
1704 2d 18,000,000
1706 1/4d
1709 1d 29,000,000
1710 1d
1713 3s
1715 2s
1716 11s
1720 1d
1722 3/4d
1723 1d
1724 1-1/2d
1727 9d
1729 10d
1731 12s 6d 34,000,000
1732 9d 34,000,000
1733 2d 34,000,000
1736 2d 34,000,000
1737 9d average
1738 3d average
1739 2d average
1740 34,000,000
1744 2d 47,000,000
1745 14s 38,232,900
1746 2d 36,217,800
1747 37,623,600
1748 16s 8d 42,104,700
1749 2d 43,880,300
1750 15s 43,710,300
1751 16s 43,032,700
1752 2d 43,542,000
1753 20s 53,862,300
1754 45,722,700
1755 2d 42,918,300
1756 20s 25,606,800
1757 3d
1758 3d 22,050,000
1759 35s 55,000,000
1760 55,000,000
1761 22s 6d 55,000,000
1762 11d 55,000,000
1763 2d 55,000,000
1764 12s 6d 55,000,000
1765 3d 55,000,000
1766 4s average
1767 3s 10d average
1768 22s 6d average
1769 23s average
1770 25s average
1771 18s average
1772 20s average
1773 12s 6d average
1774 13s average
1775 3-1/4d 55,000,000
1776 12s 14,498,500
1777 34s 12,441,214
1778 70s 11,961,333
1779 400s 17,155,907
1780 1,000s 17,424,967
1781 2,000s 13,339,168
1782 36s 9,828,244
1783 40s 86,649,333
1784 30s 10d 49,497,000
1785 30s 55,624,000
1786 19d 60,380,000
1787 15d 60,041,000
1788 25s 58,544,000
1789 15d 58,673,000
CONCLUSION
The history of tobacco is the history of Jamestown and of Virginia. No
one staple or resource ever played a more significant role in the
history of any state or nation. The growth of the Virginia Colony, as
it extended beyond the limits of Jamestown, was governed and hastened
by the quest for additional virgin soil in which to grow this "golden
weed." For years the extension into the interior meant the expansion of
tobacco production. Without tobacco the development of Virginia might
have been retarded 200 years.
Tobacco was the life and soul of the colony; yet a primitive, but
significant, form of diversified farming existed from the very
beginning especially among the small farmers. Even with the development
of the large plantations in the eighteenth century, there were quite a
number of small landowners interspersed among the big planters in the
Tidewater area, and they were most numerous in the Piedmont section.
They usually possessed few slaves, if any, and raised mostly grains,
vegetables and stock which they could easily sell to neighboring
tobacco planters. The negligible food imports by the colony indicates
that a regular system of farming existed. Nor was tobacco the sole
product of the large tobacco plantations. This is indicated by the fact
that practically all of the accounts of the product of one man's labor
were recorded as so many pounds or acres of tobacco plus provisions.
And had the plantations not been generally self-sufficient, the
frequently extremely low prevailing tobacco prices would have made the
agricultural economy even less profitable.
Tobacco was a completely new agricultural product to most, if not all,
of the English settlers at Jamestown. There were no centuries of vast
experience in growing, curing, and marketing to draw upon. These
problems and procedures were worked out by trial and error in the
wilderness of Virginia. Tobacco became the only dependable export and
the colony was exploited for the benefit of English commerce. This
English commercial policy, plus other factors, caused the Virginia
planter to become somewhat of an agricultural spendthrift. For nearly
200 years he followed a system of farming which soon exhausted his
land. Land was cheap and means of fertilization was limited and
laborious. By clearing away the trees he was able to move north, south,
southwest, and west and replace his worn-out fields with rich virgin
soil necessary to grow the best tobacco.
While struggling with the problems involved in producing an entirely
new crop about which they knew little or nothing, the colonists also
had to feed themselves, deal with their racial problems, and maintain a
stable local government as they continually expanded in a limitless
wilderness. Out of all this chaos grew the mother and leader of the
American colonies.
Tobacco penetrated the social, political, and economic life of the
colony. Ownership of a large tobacco plantation could take one up the
social ladder; many of the men responsible for the welfare of the
colony were planters, and everything could be paid for in tobacco. In
1620 the indentured servants were paid for with tobacco, the young
women sent to the colonists to become wives were purchased by paying
their transportation charges with tobacco. The wages of soldiers and
the salaries of clergymen and governmental officials were paid in
tobacco. After 1730 tobacco notes, that is warehouse receipts,
representing a certain amount of money, served as currency for the
colony.
The development of the inspection system with its chain of tobacco
warehouses hastened urbanization. Around many of these warehouses grew
villages and settlements; some of these eventually became towns and
cities. Richmond, Petersburg, Danville, Fredericksburg, Farmville,
Clarksville and others were once merely convenient landings or
locations for tobacco warehouses. Even today the fragrant aroma of
cured tobacco still exists in a number of these places during the
tobacco marketing season. The tobacco trade was largely responsible for
the birth and growth of Alexandria, Dumfries, and Norfolk into
important export-import centers. For her birth, growth, and colonial
leadership, Virginia pays her respect to John Rolfe and the other brave
settlers at Jamestown.
Tobacco is still a vital factor in Virginia's economy. Of approximately
2,000,000 acres of cropland (pastureland excluded) in 1949, 115,400
were planted in tobacco which produced 124,904,000 pounds valued at
$55,120,800 or twenty-three percent of the total value of all
agricultural crops. Of the four largest agricultural products--poultry,
tobacco, meat animals, and milk--tobacco ranked second only to poultry
in terms of income in 1955. Poultry produced an income of $99,935,000,
tobacco $84,128,000, meat animals $80,564,000, and milk $70,681,000.
Peanuts and fruits were tied for fifth place, each producing an income
of about $21,000,000.
Of the many different industries in Virginia today only five--food,
textile, wearing apparel, chemical, and the manufacture of
transportation equipment--employ more workers than the tobacco
manufacturers. In 1953 a total of $40,000,000, in salaries and wages,
was paid to production workers in the tobacco manufacturing industry in
Virginia.
Although tobacco is no longer "king" in the Old Dominion, Virginia
farmers produce enough of the "golden weed" each year to make one long
cigarette that would stretch around the world fifty times.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This is to acknowledge the sources for the following illustrations:
Methods of Transporting Tobacco to Market and Plantation Tobacco Houses
and Public Warehouses--William Tatham, _An Historical and Practical
Essay on the Culture and Commerce of Tobacco_, London, 1800; An Old
Tobacco Warehouse--courtesy of Mrs. H. I. Worthington, Directress of
the Ralph Wormeley Branch of the Association for the Preservation of
Virginia Antiquities, Syringa, Virginia; Tobacco cultivated by the
Indians and Tobacco imported from the West Indies--these two pictures
were reproduced by permission of George Arents and courtesy of the
Virginia State Library. The pictures were found originally in _Tobacco;
Its History Illustrated by the Books, Manuscripts and Engravings in the
Library of George Arents, Jr., together with an Introductory Essay, a
Glossary and Bibliographic Notes_, by Jerome E. Brooks, Volume 1, (The
Rosenbach Company, New York, 1937). However, the two pictures in this
pamphlet were reproduced from _Virginia Cavalcade_, by courtesy of the
Virginia State Library.
I am also grateful to Dr. E. G. Swem for his critical reading of the
manuscript and his helpful suggestions, and to my wife for her
proficient typing of the manuscript.
G. M. H.
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