“Burley paid the bills:” Twentieth century tobacco culture in the central Ohio River valley

Jeffery Alan Duvall, Purdue University

Abstract

Tobacco cultivation and the various cultures that have developed around it have been the focus of past scholarly attention, but prior to this study little if anything was known of the unique tobacco culture that emerged in the central Ohio River valley over the course of the twentieth century. Rooted in the tobacco cultures that preceded it, including both that of the Amerindians as well as the Anglo-American planters of the Chesapeake Bay, the men, women, and children of the central Ohio River valley found their lives both informed, enriched, bound, and at times stymied by the burley-centered tobacco culture that evolved there after 1900. Fueled by the staggering success of American blended cigarettes, and supported by both the auction-warehouse system and the economic—and social—security afforded by the federally mandated price support and quota system put into place in the 1930s, the author proposes that a new and unique tobacco culture emerged in the central portion of the Ohio River valley. A new tobacco culture that blurred the sometimes competing regional folkways of settlers whose cultural affinities were either derived from the Upland South or New England, and bridged the divide, both real and imagined, imposed by the Ohio River itself.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Gabin, Purdue University.

Subject Area

American history

Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server
.

Share

COinS