History
of tobacco.
Tobacco has a long history in the
Americas. The Mayans of Mexico carved drawings in caves and stone using tobacco.
These drawings date back to somewhere between 600 to 900 A.D. Tobacco was grown
by American Indians before the Europeans came from Europe. Native Americans
smoked tobacco through a pipe for special religious and medical purposes. They
did not smoke every day.
Tobacco
was the first cash crop grown in north america, which soul purpose was to make
money. In 1612 people who recently inhabited Jamestown, Virginia, began growing
tobacco as their main profit bringer. Other cash crops such as corn, cotton,
wheat, sugar, and soya beans also brought in profit, just not as much profit as
tobacco. Tobacco also helped fund the revolutionary war with England. Plus our
first president, George Washington grew tobacco.
By
the 1800's, many people had begun using tobacco. Some chewed it, others smoked
it, occasionally in a pipe, or they hand-rolled a cigarette or cigar. On
average, people in the 1800’s smoked about 40 cigarettes a year. The first
commercial cigarettes were made in 1865 by Washington Duke on his 300-acre farm
in Raleigh, North Carolina.
It
was not until James Bonsack invented the cigarette-making machine in 1881 that
cigarette smoking became widespread. Bonsack's cigarette machine could make
120,000 cigarettes a day. He went into business with Washington Duke's son, James
"Buck" Duke. They built a factory and made 10 million cigarettes
their first year and about one billion cigarettes five years later. The first
brand of cigarettes were packaged in a box with baseball cards and were called
Duke of Durham. Buck Duke and his father started the first tobacco company in
the U.S. They named it the American Tobacco Company.
