Tobacco has left a stain on our nation’s history ever since Europeans settled in the Chesapeake Bay area in the early 1600s, the seeds planted in the mind of John Rolfe, and eventually in the soil on plantations where colonists sowed them in every available clearing. The proliferation of tobacco established a mercantile system of exchange, global as the world at large back then, spawning malignancy in the process.

“Economic Aspects of Tobacco during the Colonial Period 1612-1776” cites developments in support of my assertion:

1. African slaves served as the labor- intensive backbone for economic growth and individual wealth through tilling, planting, growing, harvesting, and curing tobacco.

2. Government laws were made to protect the cash crop and to maintain its value in price as a lucrative source of revenue to finance wars.

3. Tobacco exhausted the soil of its nutrients, rendering the land useless. Many colonists bribed the Native Americans by bartering pots, pans, and other trinkets in exchange for land.

In contrast, further north in the New England area which included the colony of Rhode Island-- the land characterized as hilly, dense with forests, sharply sloped with stony soil, and a short growing season, seemingly offered little prospect for getting rich. Though the environment did not bode well to produce tobacco or sugar to meet the rigorous demands of mercantilism, prosperity could be had—and I’m not even tipping the scale of Rhode Island’s heavy involvement in the triangular trade for rum making.

However, a citation from “Rhode Island History" - Chapter 2” indicates that by the mid-eighteenth century, the spacious farm plantations of South County utilized the labor of black and Indian slaves to raise livestock. As well, the forests yielded lumber to make boards, planks, and barrels. The sea provided plentiful fish for food and fertilizer. Most of the aforementioned commodities enabled Rhode Island to become a viable mercantile contender.

Still, the “Agricultural History of Rhode Island” suggests that shortly after Roger Williams founded the colony of Rhode Island in 1636, Native Americans taught him the techniques to grow crops on his farm—tobacco, for one. It was also noted that tobacco was traded as early as 1727, and James Brown supplied Martinique with supplies from Providence.

It now remains to be seen how the ashes of tobacco based wealth smolder with history in “The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."

Take it with a few grains of snuff:

Snuff is cured tobacco leaves ground to a fine powder. Taking snuff was one of the original methods of tobacco use introduced in the New World during the early 1600s. One basically takes a few grains of the stuff between a forefinger and thumb, then inhales into the lower part of the nostrils.

Capitalizing on a nasty habit associated with tobacco during colonial times was the father of Gilbert Stuart, one of America’s famous portraitists who painted over 1,000 people, including the first six presidents of the United States. Hence, GILBERT STUART BIRTHPLACE & MUSEUM is a National Historic Landmark, beckoning tourists from within the state or outside its borders.

Besides affording visitors a good look at an authentically restored home and the artist’s reproductions, one can get a gander of the snuff mill on the premises. The first snuff mill in the colonies owned and operated by the Stuart family for eleven years, utilized water from a millpond nearby to turn the waterwheel which powered the snuff mill to grind locally grown tobacco. Though the original property had fallen into a state of disrepair over its years of occupancy and ownership, Gilbert Stuart’s birthplace was restored, and an authentic 1700's snuff mill was installed in the exact spot of the original in the basement of the family home. (Open to the public, from May – September; 815 Gilbert Stuart Rd., Saunderstown).


KINNEY BUNGALOW at SUNSET FARM is another local historic reminder of the state’s tobacco-based wealth. This former property was built in 1899 by Francis S. Kinney, a tobacco and real estate millionaire. He and a younger brother founded Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company, one of the leading cigarette manufacturers in the late 19th century. Acquired by the Town of Narragansett in 1991, and open to the public in 2002, Kinney Bungalow is primarily available to rent for private functions and hosting events. (Seasonally operates from April – November; 505 Point Judith Rd., Narragansett).

Newport mansion, ROUGH POINT, the 1887 Gothic-Tudor home of the late tobacco heiress Doris Duke, leaves a long cigarette ash burning from her daddy, James Buchanan Duke, a southern gent. Daddy Duke made his fortune by inheriting a tobacco company from his father. A savvy entrepreneur in his own right, Duke obtained a license to use the first automated cigarette making machine. By 1890, he supplied 40 per cent of the American cig market, and making a smart move, consolidated control of his four major competitors under one corporate name—the American Tobacco Company. Uh huh, at the time, he monopolized the production of cigarettes in the country.

When Daddy died, his estate, estimated at $100 million, was left to his twelve-year-old daughter, Doris, which precluded her to be known as “the richest girl in the world.” Rough Point, the 105-room mansion, happened to be part of the estate.

Apparently tobacco wealth couldn’t buy happiness for a woman considered reclusive and troubled throughout all of her relationships, liaisons, and lawsuits. One of the many stains to sully her reputation occurred at Rough Point in 1967. Purportedly, Ms. Duke hit the gas pedal as her interior decorator got out of the car to open the iron entrance gates, crushing him to death. Though ruled an accident, she never lived it down.

Upon her death in 1993, she bequeathed the mansion to the Newport Restoration Foundation, along with her vast collection of Ming Dynasty vases, Flemish and French tapestries, and paintings by Van Dyck and Gainsborough.

Visits are by guided tour only (May – November; 680 Bellevue Ave., Newport), decorated as Ms. Duke left it, with her clothing and jewelry in opulent array. A tour of the entire first floor, Doris Duke’s bedroom, and special exhibition galleries lasts approximately one hour.

The lucrative economic processing of tobacco from growing it, grinding the leaves into powdered snuff, or rolling cigarettes has enabled a select bunch to prosper from the toil of slavery, depletion of soil, and the gradual demise of those who ingest tobacco products. Though Rhode Island’s tobacco-inspired attractions smolder with history from the original occupants’ valuable contributions and endowments to society, one must peer through the haze of smoke to see tobacco for what it is—leaves of wrath.