Chapter 1
Tobacco's Roots in the Western World

Nicotine is a naturally occurring, addictive chemical found in the leaves of the tobacco plant. Although tobacco was unknown to Europe before Columbus's historic journey, it grew naturally in the Americas and was used by many native tribes. In the five centuries after Columbus brought tobacco back to Europe, tobacco use spread to every known culture.

Governments have reacted in many different ways to the proliferation of tobacco in their countries—from taxation, penalties, or even death to encouraging tobacco's production so that the government could profit from it. With automation and advertising, tobacco use grew exponentially throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Almost 50 million Americans inhale or ingest tobacco in the form of cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, or other tobacco products. It is one of the few legal drugs available today, and its popularity exceeds that of other drugs.

A Gift from the New World

In the fifteenth century, many Europeans had a desire for expansion and trade, including Italian-born explorer Christopher Columbus. After settling in Spain, Columbus joined in the search

for new markets and trade routes, believing there was a previously undiscovered westward route to India and Asia. In April 1492, Columbus convinced the Spanish monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand to sponsor his exploration and finance his voyage.

In August 1492, sailing with three ships, Columbus landed in what he believed to be India. However, he had actually landed on the island of San Salvador in the Caribbean, part of the vast, unexplored lands that would later be called the New World. The local people, the Tainos, greeted Columbus and his party warmly and gave them food and many gifts.

One of the gifts he received, some strange dried leaves, were a mystery to Columbus. He did not know what to do with them. However, two of his sailors soon observed the Tainos rolling the largest leaves into tubes, filling them with smaller leaves, and then lighting the tubes on fire. It looked like they then "drank" the smoke. One of Columbus's sailors eventually tried it and became the first known European smoker.

The natives also chewed the leaves or smoked them through pipes they called toboca or tobaga, which historians believe is the source of the English word tobacco. Columbus soon realized that the strange dried leaves held a strong power over his men. They seemed to be consumed by their new pursuit.

A Native Tradition

When Columbus returned to Europe, he carried tobacco back with him, along with chocolate and the many other things he had discovered in the New World. Before his return, tobacco was unknown in Europe. Yet throughout North, Central, and South America, native peoples had been using tobacco for centuries for medicinal purposes, in religious ceremonies, and in rituals of peace and friendship. Native Americans, the Maya, and groups inhabiting regions from modern-day Argentina to Canada used tobacco regularly.

How Tobacco Came to the Cherokee

A myth in the Cherokee tribe explains how tobacco came to their people. Several versions of this story are described on websites presenting Native American myths, including this one found on Stonee's Native American Lore, Legends, and Teachings, available at www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/697myths.html:

According to the tale, the Cherokee people had tobacco at one time, but they had used it all up. One man was sick and weak, and his strength was waning daily. Only tobacco had kept him alive. His son did not want to see him die, so he went off to where the tobacco was.

The tobacco was far in the South over some steep mountains, and all the passes were guarded. But the son was a conjurer, and took a hummingbird costume out of his medicine bag. He placed the costume over him like a dress and became a hummingbird, darting past the guards down to where the tobacco was. He broke off some of the top leaves and seeds in his beak, placed it in his medicine bag, and quickly flew past the guards back to the people.

His father was ailing still, but with one draw on the pipe, his health was restored. The people planted the seed, and have had tobacco ever since.

Everyone used tobacco in some tribes. In others, tobacco was reserved for important people or special occasions. In some tribes, only the chief, the spiritual leader and healer, or another distinguished member of the tribe could use it. For example, spiritual leaders and healers called shamans used tobacco to treat countless diseases and disorders. Tobacco leaves were used as poultices over wounds or snakebites. The smoke was used to ease the pain of childbirth or injury. Some shamans used the smoke to drive out evil spirits that were believed to cause illnesses.

Often tobacco was smoked with great ceremony. Groups of elders or important tribal members gathered, sometimes in connection with a religious ritual, and shared a common pipe. The elders or shamans believed that the mind-altering effects of tobacco provided a connection with the gods. Many believed that tobacco had miraculous powers, and by using tobacco, they could ensure a variety of good fortunes, from sufficient rainfall to plentiful harvests.

Tobacco Spreads in the Old World

After Columbus brought tobacco back to Europe, tobacco usage grew slowly and steadily. Some people tried it because a friend or neighbor recommended smoking. Others believed that it had health benefits and restorative properties. Many believed that smoking cured all manner of illnesses, from gout to asthma.

Tobacco in the Roanoke Colony

Thomas Hariot was part of the colonization attempt initiated by Sir Walter Raleigh on Roanoke Island. In his 1588 book titled A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, Hariot describes how the natives used tobacco and how the Europeans who were convinced of its many health benefits adopted it:

There is an herb called uppowoc, which sows itself. In the West Indies, it has several names, according to the different places where it grows and is used, but the Spaniards generally call it tobacco. Its leaves are dried, made into powder, and then smoked by being sucked through clay pipes into the stomach and head. The fumes purge superfluous phlegm and gross humors from the body by opening all the pores and passages. Thus, its use not only preserves the body, but if there are any obstructions, it breaks them up. By this means, the natives keep in excellent health, without many of the grievous diseases which often afflict us in England.

This uppowoc is so highly valued by them that they think their gods are delighted with it. They make holy fires and cast the powder into them as a sacrifice. If there is a storm on the waters, they throw it up into the air and into the water to pacify their gods. Also, when they set up a new weir for fish, they pour uppowoc into it. And if they escape from danger, they also throw the powder up into the air. This is always done with strange gestures and stamping, sometimes dancing, clapping of hands, holding hands up, and staring up into the heavens. During this performance they chatter strange words and utter meaningless noises.

While we were there we used to suck in the smoke as they did, and now that we are back in England we still do so. We have found many rare and wonderful proofs of the uppowoc's virtues, which would themselves require a volume to relate. There is sufficient evidence in the fact that it is used by so many men and women of great calling, as well as by some learned physicians.

Sir Walter Raleigh, a sixteenth-century soldier, businessman, explorer, and writer, did much to popularize smoking among the upper classes in Europe. Raleigh began smoking after trying tobacco that had come to England from a seized Spanish ship. Raleigh soon became an avid proponent of tobacco. And, because he was highly influential and distinguished, many other English noblemen gave smoking a try. Queen Elizabeth I herself is reported to have tried smoking at Raleigh's behest. Yet smoking was not very common—a servant once thought Raleigh was on fire when he saw Raleigh surrounded by smoke, and he poured a bucket of water over Raleigh's head.

Another European who had great influence over tobacco use was Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal in the mid-sixteenth century. The active ingredient in tobacco, nicotine, was named after this very outspoken supporter of tobacco. Nicot observed how the Portuguese valued tobacco for its healing powers. He wrote to the French nobility telling them of the great wonders of tobacco. He even sent seeds to the French courtiers to try. The queen of France tried tobacco for her migraine headaches. It did not take long for the French to become believers in the power of tobacco. Within forty years, tobacco use had spread to most French citizens, who believed that its disinfectant and antiseptic powers could cure or prevent all manner of ailments. Some even believed tobacco was effective against the plague.

By the early seventeenth century, the Europeans had introduced tobacco to many other nations and territories. Sailors wanting a regular supply of tobacco left seeds along their trade routes. Local farmers began to cultivate the tobacco and develop local crops. Later, when the sailors returned to their ports of call, they had tobacco waiting for them. Europeans, finding tobacco a valuable

new commodity, began to offer it in trade. Tobacco use spread throughout Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Serious Consequences

Although tobacco was quite popular, and believed by many to be beneficial, it generated controversy and conflict almost from the beginning. In 1621, Robert Burton wrote in The Anatomy of Melancholy about tobacco's values and vices:

Tobacco, divine, rare, superexcellent tobacco, which goes far beyond all the panaceas, potable gold, and the philosophers' stones, a sovereign remedy to all diseases … but as it is commonly abused by most men, which take it as tinkers do ale, 'tis a plague, a mischief, a violent purger of goods, lands, health, hellish, devilish and damned tobacco, the ruin and overthrow of body and soul.³

Many monarchs and governments tried to stem the flow of tobacco into their nations because they recognized that the health benefits that had been promoted were in fact wrong. In 1665 an experiment was done in which a cat was fed distilled oil of tobacco. The cat died within seconds. Others noted increased respiratory ailments and diseases among tobacco users. However, despite this evidence, many people still believed that tobacco use was a healthy practice.

In addition, many monarchs and other leaders did not like how their citizens became enslaved to their smoking habit. Those who used tobacco were addicted to it and used it despite threats of serious penalties. The sultan of Turkey blamed a serious fire on careless smokers. Religious leaders called tobacco offensive to both God and man. One smoker was jailed after being accused by a priest of having evil spirits coming out of his mouth.

Laws were passed to deter smoking and limit tobacco import. Some leaders placed exorbitant taxes on tobacco. In 1604 King James I of England published an antismoking tract called A Counter-Blaste to Tobacco, in which he condemned the practice of smoking as "a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless."⁴

The leaders of some nations had more severe penalties for smokers. The Hindustani emperor ordered smokers' lips to be split as a punishment and deterrent. Those who sold tobacco in China were beheaded. Russian smokers were banished to Siberia. Smokers in Turkey met the wrath of the sultan, who had been dismayed by the fire; those caught smoking had their pipes driven through their noses just before they were beheaded.

Governments Go for the Gold

Like many illicit substances, though, nothing diminished the growing popularity of tobacco. Just as Columbus realized he had little power over his crew's tobacco use, most leaders recognized that they could not stem the flow of tobacco products into their nations. Many instead decided to profit from tobacco by increasing taxes on the sale and import of tobacco products.

Tobacco grown in the Spanish colonies of Cuba, Mexico, and the West Indies was quite popular in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The Europeans favored the taste and the Spanish tobacco soon cornered the market. To compete with the Spanish, the English thought it was to their benefit to have their own colonies in America begin producing superior tobacco.

John Rolfe, a leader of the Jamestown settlement in Virginia and the man who later married the daughter of the Powhatan tribe's chief, Pocahontas, obtained some tobacco seeds from a Spanish colony. He planted those seeds in Virginia, and soon the colony was producing some of the finest-quality and most flavorful tobacco available.

To encourage its Virginia colony to become a competitive force in the tobacco-producing industry, England offered land grants and low-priced ocean passage to those wanting to establish tobacco operations. Farmers in England were prohibited from growing tobacco so that a stronger market would develop for the Virginia crops. Penalties and duties were imposed on those importing tobacco into England from anywhere other than Virginia.

In exchange for the guaranteed market for Virginia tobacco, growers agreed to sell exclusively to British merchants. The tobacco could not be shipped on any ship not flying a British flag. If merchants in other countries wanted Virginia tobacco, the British merchants resold it to them.

Virginia produced more and more tobacco, and with England as its only customer it became greatly dependent on this trade relationship. Farmers in Virginia grew few other crops—just what was needed to provide food for themselves and their workers. British merchants brought supplies to the farmers, but often charged what the growers considered unfair prices. Many producers had borrowed money from British firms to establish their tobacco operations, buy supplies, and secure slave labor to work on their plantations. Although tobacco production was quite successful, Virginia farmers were heavily indebted to England. With an abundant supply of tobacco, the prices that the British would pay dropped. Consequently, with lower incomes and high debt loads, the profits of the colonial tobacco farmers all but disappeared.

However, this situation changed drastically during the Revolutionary War. Tobacco was not the only item that was restricted in the colonies; England controlled many other markets as well. For example, England prohibited colonists from making metal tools so there were guaranteed markets for high-priced, British-made tools. Other goods were highly taxed. The colonists asked the English for relief, but the English responded by imposing more taxes. The angry colonies declared their independence from England and fought the Revolutionary War to secure that independence. Virginia and other tobacco-producing colonies hoped that the Revolution would provide freedom from all the restrictive trade practices of the English king and relief from their crippling debt.

The war did as they hoped. In fledgling America, tobacco growers could begin anew. No longer burdened by their debts, the growers looked for new markets. However, international tobacco trade had slowed down after the war. As a result, many tobacco producers started providing tobacco for domestic tastes—they

grew the types of tobacco and supplied the tobacco products that their new compatriots favored.

Chew, Chew!

Many early colonists smoked pipes or used snuff, a powdered or finely cut form of tobacco. While most Europeans preferred to inhale powdered snuff, the colonists preferred moist snuff, which would dissolve slowly when placed between the lower lip and gum. After the Revolutionary War, however, American tobacco preferences turned toward chewing tobacco. Chewing tobacco, also called chew or chaw, was already popular with sailors and others who worked outdoors. It was sweetened, convenient to carry, and kept the hands free so that one could chew tobacco and work at the same time. Sailors and others did not have to worry about wind and weather causing interference with a lighted cigar or pipe.

Although chew was popular, its use had some unpleasant consequences. When people chew tobacco, they must spit out the tobacco juice. Spittoons, containers to catch brown-colored spit and used chewing tobacco, were placed everywhere. If chewers could aim well, they hit the spittoon. Otherwise, when they missed, carpets and other items became soiled. In his book Ashes to Ashes Richard Kluger said that there was "a veritable stream of tobacco juice [which] filled the air throughout much of the nineteenth century, targeted at the [spittoon] but at least as frequently darkening carpets, walls, draperies, and trousers."⁵ Outside, people could and would spit anywhere. Because of this habit, visitors from other countries thought the Americans were messy and filthy.

Use of chew dramatically lessened in the mid-nineteenth century when it was discovered that tuberculosis could be transmitted through spit. In some places it even became illegal to spit in public. As smokeless tobacco became less popular, use of other forms of tobacco increased.

From Cigars to Cigarettes

Native Americans had smoked mostly cigars, which were made by rolling dried tobacco into larger tobacco leaves. Cigars became quite popular with many American smokers in the mid-nineteenth century. In Europe, another form of tobacco was in use. Spanish smokers were trying cigaritos, or "little cigars." To make cigaritos, shredded tobacco was placed on tan paper and was then rolled into a thin tube. The ends were twisted to keep the tobacco in. The cigaritos were popular but expensive and time-consuming to make. Many people simply bought the ingredients and rolled their own.

In France and England, these cigarettes (French for "small cigars") were not yet popular except with the poor. They could sift through garbage to find cigar stubs and other tobacco products and reroll them with their own paper into cigarettes. Cigarettes actually had a bad reputation in much of Europe at first. They were said to be dirty and contaminated. Some people thought the cigarettes might be tainted with dung, urine, or spit.

However, the Crimean War (1853–1856) changed Europeans' perceptions about cigarettes. Because they were lightweight, easy-to-use, portable, and inexpensive, cigarettes became popular among European soldiers. After the war, London tobacco producer Philip Morris began supplying cigarettes to satisfy the new tastes of the soldiers.

Tobacco in the Trenches

As nicotine use was becoming even more widespread in all its different forms, eventually one tobacco product cornered the market. Cigarettes, the most popular form of tobacco, were made even more popular during times of conflict. Wars helped shape the choices that tobacco users ultimately made. Wars were very difficult times for soldiers, who were often lonely, uncertain of what to expect, and far from home. Using tobacco gave soldiers something to do and helped them cope with their anxieties.

In the American Civil War, cigarettes became extremely popular with soldiers on both sides of the conflict. They were easy to smoke and fit in with the lifestyle of the soldier, who had only limited time for smoking and little money for pipes or cigars. Later, other wars popularized tobacco and cigarettes even more. In both World War I and World War II, cigarettes were included in daily

rations. They were considered at least as important as food. In fact, according to writer Richard Kluger, during World War II President Roosevelt declared tobacco "an essential wartime material"⁶ and allowed tobacco growers exemptions from going to war.

All of these military conflicts did much to spread tobacco use. Besides being given to soldiers by their governments, cigarettes were available at low cost to the armed forces. Additionally, charitable organizations like the Red Cross and the YMCA delivered cigarettes free-of-charge to the military. Tens of thousands of young soldiers went to war as nonsmokers and returned home with an addiction they would have for a lifetime. Modern wars, and the government support of tobacco products during those wars, did more to popularize cigarettes and tobacco use than did any other single event in history. By 1949, over half of all American men smoked tobacco.

Hand-Rolled Versus Machine-Made

Although cigarettes increased in popularity over the years, mainly as a result of war, they were hard to make commercially. In the late 1800s most smokers rolled their own cigarettes. Some companies produced ready-made cigarettes, which were rolled by hand in factories, usually employing large numbers of young women. However, these did not have a very strong market since they were expensive to produce.

In 1880 one cigarette company sponsored a contest with a prize of the then-huge sum of seventy-five thousand dollars for the first person to develop a machine to roll cigarettes automatically. Mechanical production had been tried before, but it had not worked very well. The paper tore or wrapped the cigarettes unevenly, and the shredded tobacco got into everything and caused the equipment to break down.

James Albert Bonsack, an inventor and son of a plantation owner from Lynchburg, Virginia, had been tinkering with mechanical production of cigarettes since he was a teenager. In 1880, when he was twenty-one, Bonsack obtained a patent for his automatic cigarette-rolling machine. The company offering the prize rejected the machine, even though it could produce over seventy thousand cigarettes in a single shift. However, it did not operate as efficiently as Bonsack had hoped.

Although the cigarette company ultimately rejected Bonsack's machine, he did not give up. Within two years, he sold five of his machines on a trial basis to another company, run by James Buchanan "Buck" Duke. Duke's engineers helped Bonsack solve the efficiency problems of his machine on the condition that Duke would get royalties on any machines sold to competitors.

The Bonsack machine was a gold mine for Duke. The new machine-rolled cigarettes could be produced for less than half the cost of hand-rolled cigarettes. Operating even more efficiently, Bonsack's machine was now able to produce more cigarettes than forty workers could produce by hand in the same time period. In 1884, Duke produced 744 million cigarettes—more than the national total from all manufacturers in the previous year.

Young People and Women: Advertising Targets

Duke's cigarettes were rolling out of his factory so quickly that he needed to find ways to make people want to buy them. A competitor was already inserting small trading cards in their cigarette packs. Buck Duke decided he needed to do more to attract customers. He began aggressive marketing campaigns that set the stage for cigarette advertising and the growth of U.S. tobacco companies for the next hundred years. By 1899, he was spending over eight hundred thousand dollars annually on marketing.

Tobacco companies started marketing to young people almost from the start. Cigarette trading cards often featured sports figures or actresses. These items were very popular with young people, who would either purchase the cigarettes themselves for the promotional item or convince their parents to purchase them. The demand by minors grew steadily, and retailers were willing to meet that demand.

Tobacco companies soon realized they were ignoring another whole market: the female smoker. In the United States in the early part of the twentieth century, women rarely smoked. It was illegal in some locations, and considered improper in most. In some circumstances, a woman could smoke privately at home, but never

out in the open. Women were expelled from schools and even arrested for smoking in public.

The promotional items inside cigarette packs were a good way for the tobacco companies to focus on women. In 1912 they started offering silk rectangles in each pack. These rectangles could be sewn together to make a scarf or quilt cover.

By the 1920s, cigarette ads started to be targeted toward women. Ads began to show women enjoying life by enjoying cigarettes. Some brands were specifically designed for women, and the tobacco industry played on social fears to encourage women to smoke. They started billing cigarettes as an effective way to stay slim. In 1928 the American Tobacco Company, which made Lucky cigarettes, promoted them with the slogan, "To stay slender, reach for a Lucky. A most effective way of maintaining a trim figure."⁷ Another Lucky ad read, "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet."⁸ The ads encouraged women to pick up a cigarette for weight control, and more and more women did.

Women usually smoked indoors, but tobacco companies wanted to make it more acceptable for them to smoke outdoors. In 1929 the American Tobacco Company sponsored a march of New York debutantes and fashion models. These women "declared their independence" from the social stigma of women smoking by dressing as the Statue of Liberty and holding lighted cigarettes up high like "torches of freedom."

Tobacco advertisements also focused on the independent woman during World War II. Women as well as men became widely addicted to cigarettes. Many women began to work outside the home to fill jobs left vacant by men fighting overseas. Cigarette advertisements targeted these independent women, working to help the war effort and support their families. Ads featured patriotic women smoking in the workplace, riveting panels on airplanes, or doing other wartime jobs. In 1949, about 33 percent of all American women smoked tobacco.

Tobacco's Turning Point

After the world wars, tobacco use continued to build in popularity. In many circles, it seemed almost more common to smoke than not to smoke. In 1963, American adults were consuming 4,345 cigarettes per capita. Both men and women increased their cigarette consumption until the landmark 1964 report of the surgeon general titled Smoking and Health.

President John Kennedy commissioned this report to determine whether there was any truth to the report of negative health effects of smoking. The resulting report was a culmination of many months of study and research, and it stunned the nation. Contrary to what the tobacco companies had said, it reported some very serious hazards of tobacco use. The surgeon general's report changed the way people thought about tobacco.

Over the last five decades, researchers have published study after study detailing how tobacco affects people's health. As a result, tobacco consumption dropped significantly. When tobacco users found out what their habit had been doing to their health, it caused many to quit immediately. Others were still hooked by nicotine and continued to use tobacco despite knowing there were health risks. Although overall the smoking rate has declined, in 1999, American adults still consumed 2,146 cigarettes per capita. The nicotine in tobacco keeps people addicted and their addiction keeps them using tobacco.