Tobacco History

All tobacco varieties belong to the Nicotiana genus. Nicotiana varieties are classified in the Solanaceae family which encompass many other plants of agricultural interest such as potatoes, tomatoes, aubergines, chilis etc. The Nicotiana Tabacum variety covers over 90% of tobacco strains produced industrially throughout the world.

The growing of tobacco began in America over 3,000 years ago. Indians began to roll tobacco leaves until they obtained a type of large cigar which they called tabaco. Before the discovery of America, tobacco was a sacred plant used by priests and medicine-men. It was used to communicate with the spirits and soothe pain.

Christopher Columbus discovered tobacco in 1492 when landing on Cuba. During the 15th century, the French and English started to grow tobacco in Canada, Louisiana and the West Indies. The cultivation spread afterwards all over the United States. Native Americans in the eastern United States grew Nicotiana rustica. N. Tabacam, first introduced to the Spanish, was obtained from Mexico and South America. It has been the preferred tobacco since settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, began growing it.
In the Spanish and Portuguese court, tobacco was used for a long time simply as an ornamental plant. It was only in the middle of the 16th Century when the personal doctor of Philippe II began to popularize tobacco as a universal medicine.
In 1560, tobacco established itself in France thanks to Jean NICOT. He was convinced of the plant’s healing properties and sent some in powder form to Queen Catherine of Medicis in order to treat the painful migraines of her son Francois II. The treatment was successful and tobacco became the Queen’s herb whose sale was restricted to apothecaries. Tobacco was henceforth called Nicotiana Tabacum paying tribute to Jean Nicot.

Later on, tobacco was consumed as snuff but the pipe consumption steadily increased during the 16th century. At that time, the industries made use of tobacco imported from America and the cultivation in France only started in 1637 in the Lot et Garonne region. Then it spread to Lorraine and Normandy.

In 1674, during the reign of Louis XIV, COLBERT decreed the privilege for producing and selling which was first granted to private individuals, then exclusively to the Compagnie des Indes. Tobacco growing became a monopoly.

In the early 17th century, in the United States, planters refined the crop, importing seeds from Caribbean and South American varieties to develop plants that pleased their European consumers. Before 1760, when Pierre Lorillard established a company to mass produce pipe tobacco, cigars, and snuff, the majority of tobacco products used by the colonists was processed in England or Scotland or made in small local factories. With the growing popularity of smoking, other manufacturing plants soon appeared in America.

Because planters believed that tobacco had to be grown on virgin soil, tobacco gradually made its way to the eastern part of what is now North Carolina. Consumer preferences for tobacco products changed decidedly from the early 1700's.

Carl Linnaeus describes tobacco in this 1762 edition of Caroli Linnaei Species plantarum, exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad general relatas, cum differentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonymis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum system a sexuale digestas.

In 1839, bright leaf tobacco was discovered by a slave named Stephen (headman on the farm of Abisha Slade, a successful planter in Caswell County). Stephen fell asleep owing to the heat from the wood fires in the tobacco barn, and when he awoke the fire was almost out. He rushed to a charcoal pit and found some charred logs on the dying embers. He threw these on the fire, which created a sudden drying heat, which resulted in the brightest yellow tobacco ever seen.

Consumer demand established tobacco farming as an important
part of North Carolina farm life. NC State, through its College of Agriculture and the Agricultural Extension program, researched tobacco and aided farmers around the world. Farmers received important information from NC State. Blue mold probably existed in the western United States for many years as a minor disease on wild species of tobacco. It came east in 1921 but disappeared for ten years before resurfacing in 1931. It is caused by a fungus that attacks tobacco.