Tobacco Culture: The Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters on the Eve of Revolution., Revised Edition

247 Pages·2001·8.9 MB·English

by  T.H. Breen

TOBACCO
CULTURE
T".
Mentality
oft".
Great
Tidewater
Plante,·s on
the Eve of
Revolution
T. H. BREEN
N~I"'f."
Whh.
Tobacco Culture
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TOBACCO
CUL TURE_/>
The Mentality of the Great
Tidewater Planters on
the Eve of Revolution
*
With a new preface by the author
T.R.BREEN
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright © 1985 by Princeton University Press
Publisbed by Princeton University Press, 41 TVilliam Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,
3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1S Y
All Rights Reserved
First paperback edition, 1987
Ninth printing, and second paperback edition, with a new prefoce, 2001
Library of Congress Catllioging-in-Publication Datil
Breen, T. H.
Tobacco culture: the mentality of the great Tidewater planters on the eve of
revolution / T. H. Bl·een ; with a new preface by the author.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-691-08914-0 (alk. paper)
1. Virginia-History-Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775. 2. Plantation
owners-Virginia-History-18th century. 3. Plantation life-Virginia
History-18th century. 4. Tobacco industry-Virginia-History-18th century.
5. Virginia-History-Revolution, 1775-1783-Causes-Case studies.
6. United States-History-Revolution, 1775-1783-Causes
Case studies. I. Title.
F229.B8 2001
975.5'02-dc21 2001019854
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Linotron Janson
Printed on acid-free pape,·. CtO
www.pup.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States ofA merica
9 11 13 15 17 16 14 12 10
For Susan
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CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
PREFACE TO THE SECOND PAPERBACK EDITION xi
PREFACE XXV
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XXIX
I. An Agrarian Context for Radical Ideas 3
II. Tobacco Mentality 40
III. Planters and Merchants: A Kind of Friendship 84
IV. Loss of Independence 124
V. Politicizing the Discourse: Tobacco, Debt and the
Coming of Revolution 160
EPILOGUE: A New Beginning 204
INDEX 211
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
I. William Byrd's Westover viewed from the James
River (Reproduced by permission of Dementi
Studio, Richmond, Virginia) 5
II. Title page from Jonathan Carver's A Treatise on
the Culture of the Tobacco Plant (London, 1779)
(Courtesy Arents Collections, New York Public
Library) 18-19
III. Map of late eighteenth-century Tidewater
Virginia (Courtesy of the University of North
Carolina Press and Gregg Roeber) 33
IV. Five-dollar bill printed by Hall and Sellars,
1778 (Courtesy Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation, Audiovisual Library) 42
V. Stages in the production of Virginia tobacco,
from William Tatham, An Historical and Practical
Essay on the Culture of Tobacco (London, 1800)
(Courtesy Arents Collections, New York Public
Library) 52
VI. Ways of transporting tobacco to the public
warehouses, from .William Tatham, An Historical
and Practical Essay on the Culture of Tobacco
(Courtesy Arents Collections, New York Public
Library) 54
VII. A Tobacco Note issued in 1743 (Courtesy
Manuscripts and Rare Books Department,
College of William and Mary) 63
VIII. Eighteenth-century tobacco marks from Fairfax
County (Courtesy of Beth Mitchell and the
Office of Heritage Resources, Fairfax County,
Virginia) 66