Engravings from a study of tobacco culture published in 1800 demonstrate hoiv the leaf was prepared for shipment.
Almost any commodity that was transported across the Atlantic in the early 1600s faced some risk of damage during the 3,000-mile voyage. But tobacco—first exported in 1613 from Jamestown—was subject to more shipping problems than most. Rough handling could bruise the fragile leaves, reducing their value in-England. Worse still, tobacco was prey to mold in damp holds; during the early years of the tobacco trade, whole shiploads of the colonial leaf spoiled en route to market.
Within a few decades, however, the colonists developed curing and packing techniques that greatly reduced losses. These methods—pictured at left and keyed by numbers—changed little over the next 200 years, although the painstaking work was gradually transferred from the growers to indentured servants and slaves.
To reduce the risk of rot, the tobacco was dried in stages. After harv'est, the stalks were placed on scaffolds (Ij and left briefly in the sun. They were then hung up inside barnlike “tobacco houses” (2) for about a month, until they had lost most of their moisture but were not yet brittle.
As a first step in packing, the leaves were stripped from the stalks and then wrapped in small bundles, or “hands” (3). These were laboriously crammed into wooden hogsheads, a layer at a time; each layer was compressed by means of a weighted lever f4j. In addition to reducing the tobacco’s volume for stowage, compression forced the tobacco into a solid mass that was remarkably resistant to mold and moisture in leaky holds.
When filled, the hogsheads were delivered to public warehouses (5) for storage until they could be inspected (6). Inferior tobacco was burned; tobacco that passed inspection was conveyed to port.
The colonists devised creative ways to haul the heavy hogsheads from one place to another. If the destination could be reached by water, the planters freighted the casks in twin canoes, joined together with crossbeams for stability(7j. Otherwise, they carted the casks in wagons or turned the hogsheads on their sides, hitched them to horses and rolled them overland (8)— a method that had a secondary benefit of leveling rough trails into superior routes called “tobacco roads.” At the wharf, the planters generally sold the tobacco to an agent of a British merchant. who arranged for its passage.
Careful preparation of the tobacco assured merchants of its quality; the merchants, in turn, guaranteed Southern planters a market for virtually all the tobacco that they could produce. By 1775. Virginia and Maryland were earning 75 per cent of their export incomes from sales of the “golden leaf.”
In a 16th Century' woodcut, Nicotiana tabacum is depicted alongside on oversized cigar made from twisted tobacco leaves. The plant, native to South America, was first brought to Europe by the Spaniards. In 1612, colonist John Rolfe carried seeds from the plant to Virginia, whose soil and temperate climate proved an ideal environment.
As merchants hover in attendance, slaves ready hagsheads for u’eighing and loading an a ship bound for England.
But the sister colonies were not. In 1692, Randolph sailed across the Atlantic again, this time for James City, as the capital of Virginia was now styled, to investigate the commerce of Virginia (and, while he was at it, neighboring Maryland and Pennsylvania as well). He found a different way of life and a different manner of trade—but affairs no more to his liking than before.
Unlike their fellow colonists to the north, the Virginians had not taken to seafaring. They had not been compelled to do so, because English merchants sent their own agents across the ocean to obtain the tobacco that was yielded in such abundance by the fertile soil. The Crown was in on the operation from start to finish, lending money to the planters, controlling the narrow entrance of Chesapeake Bay to keep foreign vessels out, and assigning British men-of-war to protect tobacco ships from predation by England’s enemies.
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