History of Tobacco Farming in Southern Appalachia

Scope: 

The goal of this pathfinder is to provide introductory information concerning the history of tobacco farming and tobacco culture in Southern Appalachia. Although many sources are not Appalachia-specific, they often contain information concerning Appalachian tobacco farming. Further, these sources provide context for the similarities and differences between tobacco farming in Appalachia and in other parts of the South. Government reports are also important when examining tobacco farming in Appalachia. The amount of material for this subject is vast and wide-ranging, from reference books to oral histories and newspaper articles. Most literature on the subject concerns the 20th century (and up to the present), often dealing with the tobacco program, its origins, its heyday, or its downfall. Also relevant is literature concerning post-tobacco Appalachian farming and farm diversification strategies.

Introductory Text: 

Starnes, Richard D. “Tobacco.” Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Eds. Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006: 435-436. ASU SPEC APP COLL F106.E53 2006

Library of Congress Subject Headings: 

Highly Relevant:

  • Burley tobacco
  • Burley tobacco – Economic Aspects – Kentucky
  • Burley tobacco – Economic Aspects – Virginia, Southwest
  • Burley tobacco – Kentucky – History
  • Burley tobacco – Virginia – Handbooks, manuals, etc
  • Flue-cured tobacco
  • Flue-cured tobacco – North Carolina
  • Tobacco farmers – Blue Ridge Mountains
  • Tobacco farmers – North Carolina – Madison County – Social life and customs – Pictorial works.
  • Tobacco farmers – North Carolina – Social life and customs
  • Tobacco farms – Virginia, Southwest – Management
  • Tobacco industry – Kentucky – Logan County – History – 20th century
  • Tobacco workers – Kentucky – Logan County – History – 20th century

Also Relevant:

  • Burley tobacco – Government policy – United States
  • Burley tobacco – Southern States
  • Flue-cured tobacco – Harvesting – North Carolina
  • Flue-cured tobacco – Harvesting – United States
  • Flue-cured tobacco – Southern States
  • Flue-cured tobacco – Southern States – Marketing
  • Flue-cured tobacco – Virginia
  • Flue-cured tobacco – Virginia – Periodicals
  • Tobacco Curing – North Carolina
  • Tobacco farmers – Kentucky
  • Tobacco farmers – Kentucky – Statistics
  • Tobacco farmers – North Carolina
  • Tobacco farmers – Tennessee – Statistics
  • Tobacco farms – Kentucky
  • Tobacco farms – North Carolina
  • Tobacco farms – North Carolina – Anecdotes
  • Tobacco – Poetry


More General:

  • Burley tobacco – United States
  • Burley tobacco – United States – Statistics
  • Flue-cured tobacco – Government policy – United States
  • Flue-cured tobacco – Harvesting – Costs
  • Flue-cured tobacco – Labor productivity
  • Flue-cured tobacco – Law and legislation – United States
  • Flue-cured tobacco – United States
  • Flue-cured tobacco – United States – Marketing
  • Flue-cured tobacco – United States – Statistics – Periodicals
  • Tobacco farmers – United States
  • Tobacco farmers – Virginia – Biography
  • Tobacco farms – Economic aspects – United States
  • Tobacco farms – Southern States
  • Tobacco farms – United States
  • Tobacco farms – United States – Statistics
  • Tobacco farms – Virginia
  • Tobacco farms – Virginia – Handbooks, manuals, etc.
  • Tobacco farms – Virginia – History – 19th century
  • Tobacco – Grading – United States
  • Tobacco – Harvesting – North Carolina
  • Tobacco – History
  • Tobacco industry
  • Tobacco industry – Government policy – United States
  • Tobacco industry – Government policy – Virginia – Periodicals
  • Tobacco industry – Kentucky
  • Tobacco industry – Kentucky – History
  • Tobacco industry – Kentucky – Statistics
  • Tobacco industry – North Carolina
  • Tobacco industry – North Carolina – History
  • Tobacco industry – Tennessee
  • Tobacco industry – Tennessee – History
  • Tobacco industry – Tennessee – Statistics
  • Tobacco industry – Virginia
  • Tobacco industry – Virginia
  • Tobacco industry – Virginia – Early Works to 1800
  • Tobacco industry – Virginia – History
  • Tobacco industry – Virginia – Statistics
  • Tobacco Institute (Washington, D.C.)
  • Tobacco – Kentucky
  • Tobacco – Kentucky – Costs
  • Tobacco – Kentucky – History
  • Tobacco – Kentucky – Statistics
  • Tobacco – Law and legislation – Kentucky
  • Tobacco – Law and legislation – North Carolina
  • Tobacco – Law and legislation – United States
  • Tobacco – North Carolina
  • Tobacco – North Carolina – Anecdotes
  • Tobacco – North Carolina – Field Experiments – Periodicals
  • Tobacco – North Carolina – History
  • Tobacco – North Carolina Periodicals
  • Tobacco – Prices
  • Tobacco – Prices – Government policy – United States
  • Tobacco – Prices – United States
  • Tobacco – Southern States
  • Tobacco – Southern States – Pictorial works
  • Tobacco – Taxation – Tennessee
  • Tobacco – Taxation – United States
  • Tobacco – Taxation – Virginia
  • Tobacco – Tennessee
  • Tobacco – Tennessee – Statistics
  • Tobacco – Virginia
  • Tobacco – Virginia – Handbooks, manuals, etc.
  • Tobacco – Virginia – Periodicals
  • Tobacco workers
  • Tobacco workers – Labor unions – Southern States – History – 20th century
  • Tobacco workers – Kentucky – History
  • Tobacco workers – North Carolina
  • Tobacco workers – Southern States
  • Tobacco workers – Southern States – History
  • Tobacco workers – Tennessee – History
Clipping Files Subject Headings – W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection: 
  • Tobacco
Library of Congress Call Numbers: 
  • HD 9137
  • SB 273
  • HD 9135
  • S 441
  • S 451
Books: 

Axton, William F. Tobacco and Kentucky. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky (“The Kentucky Bicentennial Bookshelf”), 1975. UNCA GENERAL HD9137.K4 A88

Mann, Charles K. Tobacco: The Ants and the Elephants. Salt Lake City: Olympus Pub. Co,1975. ASU MAIN STACKS HD9137.A2 M34 1976

Van, Willigen J, and Susan C. Eastwood. Tobacco Culture: Farming Kentucky’s Burley Belt. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, (“Kentucky Remembered”), 1998. ASU SPEC APP COLL SB273.V35 1998

Brooks, Jerome E. Green Leaf and Gold: Tobacco in North Carolina. Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, North Carolina Dept. of Cultural Resources, 1975. ASU SPEC APP COLL HD9137.N8 B7 1975

Algeo, Catherine M. Tobacco Farming in the Age of the Surgeon General’s Warning: The Cultural Ecology and Structuration of Burley Tobacco Production in Madison County, North Carolina, 1998. ASU SPEC APP COLL HD9137.N2 A64 1998a

Guides, Encyclopedias, and Dictionaries: 

Campbell, Tracy A. Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association INC.” The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Ed. John E. Kleber. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992: 143. ASU SPEC APP COLL F451.K413 1992

Campbell, Tracy. “Kentucky.” Tobacco in History and Culture: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Jordan Goodman. Detroit: Thomson Gale, (“Scribner Turning Points Library”), 2005: 285-287. ASU MAIN STACKS GT3020.T594 2004 v.1

Gowen, Troy. “Alternative Crops.” Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Eds. Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006: 406-408. ASU SPEC APP COLL F106.E53 2006

Holst, Arthur. “Tobacco Industry.” Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Eds. Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006: 542-543. ASU SPEC APP COLL F106.E53 2006

Klee, John. “Tobacco Cultivation.” The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Ed. John E. Kleber. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992: 884-887. ASU SPEC APP COLL F451.K413 1992

Miles, Murray. “Tobacco.” Carroll V. West. The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History & Culture. Nashville: Tennessee Historical Society, 1998: 982-983. ASU SPEC APP COLL F436.T525 1998

Minick, Jim. “Alternative Farming.” Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Eds. Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006: 408-409. ASU SPEC APP COLL F106.E53 2006

Prince Jr., Eldred E. “Processing.” Tobacco in History and Culture: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Jordan Goodman. Detroit: Thomson Gale, (“Scribner Turning Points Library”), 2005: 447-450. ASU MAIN STACKS GT3020.T594 2004 v.2

Rhodes, Gilbert N, and Joseph N. Matthews. Burley Tobacco Production in Tennessee. Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1970. ASU SPEC APP COLL SB273 .R46 1970

Winters, Donald L. “Agriculture.” The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History & Culture. Carroll V. West. Nashville: Tennessee Historical Society, 1998: 9-11. ASU SPEC APP COLL F436.T525 1998

Bibliographies: 

Algeo, Catherine M. Tobacco Farming in the Age of the Surgeon General’s Warning: The Cultural Ecology and Structuration of Burley Tobacco Production in Madison County, North Carolina, 1998. ASU SPEC APP COLL HD9137.N2 A64 1998a

Abstracts and Indices: 

EBSCO

Journals: 

Southeast Farm Press. Clarksdale, MS: Southeast Farm Press, 1970.

Lexington Herald-Leader. Lexington, KY: Lexington Herald-Leader Co, 1983.

CQ Weekly. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1998.

Agricultural History. Berkeley, CA: Published for the Agricultural History Society by the University of California Press, 1927.

Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy. Knoxville, TN: Tennessee Valley Authority, 1986.

Berry, John M., Jr., and Wendell Berry. “Why We Need the Tobacco Program.” The Progressive. October 1998: 28-29.

Brass, Larisa. “Tobacco Growers Get in Line for Buyout.” Knoxville News-Sentinel, The (TN). 22 March 2005.

Brown, A. Blake, Randal R. Rucker, and Walter N. Thurman. “The End of the Federal Tobacco Program: Economic Impacts of the Deregulation of U.S. Tobacco Production.” Review of Agricultural Economics 29.4 (2007): 635-655.

Gale, H F, Linda Foreman, and Tom Capehart. Tobacco and the Economy: Farms, Jobs, and Communities. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, (“Agricultural Economic Report, no. 789”), 2000. ASU MICROFORM US A 1.107:789

Halweil, Brian. “This Old Barn, This New Money: Tobacco Farmers are in Trouble. Except That is, the Ones Who Have Discovered a Lucrative Alternative.” World Watch 16.4. 2003: 24-29.

Jalonick, Mary Clare, and John Cranford. “Move to End Tobacco Quota Program Finds Administration on the Fence.” CQ Weekly 61.48 (2003): 3059.

Purcell, Wayne D., and Dixie Watts Reaves. “Uncertain Future: As Consumption Declines and Regulations Soar, Will the Tobacco Settlement Help Bail Out Tobacco Growers?” Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy 14.3, 1999: 94-100.

Yancy, Jr., Cecil H. “Growers ’Look Beyond’ Tobacco Crop.” Southeast Farm Press 32.12 (2005): 3-5.

Websites: 

Tiller, Kelly. “Tobacco Quota Buyout.” Knoxville: University of Tennessee Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, 22 October 2004. http://www.agpolicy.org/weekcol/220.html

Tobacco at a Crossroad: A Call for Action: Final Report of the President’s Commission on Improving Economic Opportunity in Communities Dependent on Tobacco Production While Protecting Public Health. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2001. http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS17841

Wood, Lawrence E. “The Economic Impact of Tobacco Production in Appalachia.” Washington, D.C.: Appalachian Regional Commission, 1998. http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS99876

Compiled by: 

Compiler:Jonathan Buchanan, 30 November 2010