Use of Tobacco in Alabama Much Older than Previously Thought

[Sweet Home Alabama]

I read somewhere about the use of tobacco in my new state of Alabama. I come from father upstream where the French Broad and Holston Rivers form the Tennessee River that extends down into Northern Alabama.

Anyway, here is some interesting information.
Study finds older use of tobacco than previously thought - The Cherokee One Feather | The Cherokee One Feather (theonefeather.com)

 

[puff_not_snuff]

Can you grow it there?

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Can you grow it there?

I found this. Tobacco's time up as Alabama farm crop - al.com

 

[Casual]

I was made aware of tobacco use in Alabama by Street Survivors but always suspected that its use went back as far as Second Helping or even farther.

Thanks for the link showing it was much farther back even than that!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Can you grow it there?

Ummmm, I’ve been growing it here for 7 years. While it may not have been a cash crop here for as long as it has other places, tobacco has been a garden crop for local use for as long as there’s been farmers living here.

 

[bullet08]

Hmm.. So, now the question becomes did our ancestors settled down to grow barley for beer, or tobacco for smoke. It's like egg or chicken now.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

Hmm.. So, now the question becomes did our ancestors settled down to grow barley for beer, or tobacco for smoke. It's like egg or chicken now.

I think they wanted to eat.

 

[bullet08]

I think they wanted to eat.

But eating can be done on the go. Hunting and gathering was typical nomadic life style. Yet to settle down to grow crop, that takes dedication and commitment. Alcohol and nicotine would definitely help. I'm wondering what they used for third ingredient for civilized society, the caffeine.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Beer was never a cultural thing in the South. That was more a Northern German immigrant thing. We had corn whisky, ciders, and farmers made fruit wines to deal with abundant fruit crops.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Would be interesting to know I’d they smoked plants until they found one they liked.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Beer was never a cultural thing in the South. That was more a Northern German immigrant thing. We had corn whisky, ciders, and farmers made fruit wines to deal with abundant fruit crops.

The Scots Irish would have brewed ale in the Southern Highlands I suspect. Lagers being cold brew would have favored a colder climate perhaps.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

There’s a book I had a class on in undergrad, 90 Degrees in the Shade. It details colonization of Alabama, the people, how and why they settled the State. It’s got all the research, if you’re interested. I may still have a couple of copies that I bought to share with friends and family.
…if someone should happen to be seriously interested.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

The Oxford Companion to Beer Definition of brewing in colonial America.

brewing in colonial America. of The Oxford Companion to Beer definition presented by Craft Beer & Brewing

beerandbrewing.com

 

[cosmicfolklore]

The Scots Irish would have brewed ale in the Southern Highlands I suspect. Lagers being cold brew would have favored a colder climate perhaps.

Beers were developed to replace meads during reformation, because it was the Catholics who kept bees and held the secrets to making meads. So, when countries overturned Catholic rule, the newly founded Lutherans developed grain wines, which became beers. The Anglicans developed ciders, and various other supping beverages were developed. There are a bunch of books on that if interested. But, beers were definitely Germanic, and was exclusively a Germanic immigrant thing in the US, and didn’t catch on as a regular commodity in the South till after WW1, and even then was viewed as a Gerry drink for a while afterwards.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

There’s a book I had a class on in undergrad, 90 Degrees in the Shade. It details colonization of Alabama, the people, how and why they settled the State. It’s got all the research, if you’re interested. I may still have a couple of copies that I bought to share with friends and family.
…if someone should happen to be seriously interested.

Would you send me a pristine , pre republic Peterson instead? Lol!!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Yeh, the Craft beer movement is rewriting a lot of history, ha ha. Funny how the history of beers changed from the books written in the 40’s and 50’s.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Yeh, the Craft beer movement is rewriting a lot of history, ha ha. Funny how the history of beers changed from the books written in the 40’s and 50’s.

Perhaps, but the Scots and Irish that were Protestants who immigrated in the 1700’s surely drank ale

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Perhaps, but the Scots and Irish that were Protestants who immigrated in the 1700’s surely drank ale

Not as far as my books show. According to Mark Twain beer rots their insides, while whiskey kept their insides polished and pristine.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Not as far as my books show. According to Mark Twain beer rots their insides, while whiskey kept their insides polished and pristine.

Ha??

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Not as far as my books show. According to Mark Twain beer rots their insides, while whiskey kept their insides polished and pristine.

In Irish and Scottish immigrants that migrated South goes, they detested drinking culturally, so it was distilled drinks were prefered, because they could sneak out and have some fun and return. Beers and supping beverages were relegated to areas where religions and culture allowed bars open drinking.
This gave the Scotch Irish a reputation for being drunkards. Beers and wines weren’t even considered true alcohols till prohibition. In Australia, the anti-drinking movement encouraged beer development, and many early labels of Australian beer says on the label that it is a safer alternative to alcohol.