Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Tobacco was first discovered by the native people of Mesoamerica and South America and later introduced to Europe and the rest of the world.. Archaeological finds indicate that humans in the Americas began using tobacco as far back as 12,300 years ago, thousands of years earlier than previously documented.
An illustration from Frederick William Fairholt's Tobacco, its History and Association, 1859 Tobacco plant and tobacco leaf from the Deli plantations in Sumatra, 1905. Following the arrival of the Europeans to the Americas, tobacco became increasingly popular as a trade item.
Imported tobacco and tobacco pipes became prized and valuable trading goods and were both quickly absorbed into African cultural traditions, rituals, and politics. The practice spawned a rich artistic tradition of decorated pipes of wood, ceramics, and eventually metal in an endless variety of themes and motifs of all shapes and sizes.
Aztec women are handed flowers and smoking tubes before eating at a banquet, Florentine Codex, 16th century. Smoking's history dates back to as early as 5000–3000 BC, when the agricultural product began to be cultivated in Mesoamerica and South America; consumption later evolved into burning the plant substance either by accident or with intent of exploring other means of consumption. [1]
The history of commercial tobacco production in the United States dates back to the 17th century when the first commercial crop was planted. The industry originated in the production of tobacco for British pipes and snuff .
Tobacco has a long cultural, economic, and social history in the United States. Tobacco cultivation near Jamestown, Virginia Colony , in 1610 was the beginning of the plant's development as a cash crop with a strong demand in England.
Price, Jacob M. France and the Chesapeake: A History of the French Tobacco Monopoly, 1674–1791, and of its Relationship to the British and American Tobacco Trades (University of Michigan Press, 1973. 2 vols) online book review; Rainbolt, John C. “The Case of the Poor Planters in Virginia for Inspecting and Burning Tobacco.”
Tobacco in history: The cultures of dependence (Routledge, 2005), world history; online. Goodman, Jordan. Tobacco in history and culture: an encyclopedia (Facts on File, 2005). Harrald, Chris, and Fletcher Watkins. The cigarette book: the history and culture of smoking (Skyhorse Publishing Inc., 2010).