Tobacco

Tobacco is a plant with wide leaves that are dried and used in a variety of forms, such as smoking in cigarettes, pipes, and cigars, or using through other means. As an early cash crop in the state, the plant played a small but important role in the development of agriculture in Arkansas. Introduced to Europeans by Native Americans, the plant also played an important role in the culture of various tribes.

With cultivation dating back thousands of years, tobacco was an important crop for various Native American nations in North America. Evidence that the Maya in what is now Mexico grew tobacco dates to between AD 600 and 900. In Arkansas, tobacco was one of many crops grown by the Quapaw, who used it for a variety of purposes, including performing rituals after a successful hunt. Archaeological evidence discovered at sites across the state helps historians understand how widespread the usage of the plant proved to be. Remnants of clay pipe stems and bowls are often found in excavations, including at sites inhabited by the Caddo.

Explorer Christopher Columbus encountered the crop during his travels to the Western Hemisphere, and he took the plant back to Europe, where some cultivation took place. By the seventeenth century, tobacco use became fashionable, and efforts to grow the plant as a cash crop led to the establishment of an English settlement at Jamestown.

Early white settlers in Arkansas also grew the crop. A 1746 report of the families living at Arkansas Post stated that tobacco was the only crop that the settlers cultivated. As more settlers arrived, the growing of tobacco expanded, but most agricultural efforts during the colonial period focused on the cultivation of corn, wheat, and other foodstuffs. The small amount grown was traded with nearby tribes or used by the settlers. Other visitors to the state reported that tobacco smoke could be a useful tool to repel mosquitoes.

The amount of tobacco produced in the Arkansas Territory increased over the decades, and in 1840, the first agricultural report after Arkansas became a state recorded a total of 148,439 pounds cultivated over the past year. This increased to 218,936 pounds in 1850 and 989,980 in 1860. This marked the highest level of tobacco production ever recorded in the state. Tobacco proved to be a popular recreation for many in the state and was used in several different forms, including snorting a fine powder as snuff, smoking a pipe or cigar, or using orally through dipping or chewing tobacco. Many men and women used clay pipes, evidence of which can be found during archaeological excavations of historic sites in Arkansas.

During the Civil War, focus was placed on the cultivation of food crops to feed troops, civilians, and livestock in order to support the war effort. While tobacco was popular with troops on both sides of the conflict, the Confederate Congress passed legislation calling for the destruction of the crop, along with cotton and other property, if it appeared that it would fall into enemy hands. Major General Thomas C. Hindman enforced this order in Arkansas during his time as commander of the Department of the Trans-Mississippi.

Tobacco use became an important part of the image portrayed of Arkansans in books and other media. Men, especially those from the Ozark or Ouachita Mountains, were often depicted with a floppy hat, overalls, and an ever-present jug of moonshine with a corncob pipe in the corner of their mouth. George W. Featherstonhaugh reported that during his travels, he encountered Rebecca Barkman, the wife of Jacob Barkman, a major landowner in Clark County. Describing the woman, he recorded, “I have never seen any one, as far as manners and exterior went, with less pretensions to be classed with the feminine gender….She chewed tobacco, she smoked a pipe, she drank whiskey, and cursed and swore as heartily as any backwoodsman, all at the same time.” Many women in the state used snuff.

The cultivation of tobacco in Arkansas tapered off after the Civil War. The state saw 594,886 pounds harvested in 1870, but this dropped to 267,050 in 1920. The amount harvested continued to decrease, with 8,300 pounds harvested in 1978, the final year the total was reported. A single farm reported growing tobacco in 1982 and 1987, but by 1992, no farms in the state reported growing the crop.

Even with the decrease in cultivation, the use of tobacco continued to be an important part of Arkansas culture. Efforts to support troops during World War I included payments made to send tobacco to Arkansas soldiers.

As tobacco was seen as a luxury item, it proved to be an easy item to tax when the state government sought increased revenue. The Arkansas General Assembly approved a tax on cigarettes and cigars in 1924, with the proceeds directed to public education. The original tax was deemed to be unconstitutional, as the special session in which it was passed was not called for that purpose, but another special session later the same year once again approved the tax. It levied a ten percent tax on cigars and four cents on a package of cigarettes.

The use of tobacco, while important to the social life of many past and present Arkansans, has been proven to be detrimental to the health of users and can also impact the well-being of others. Restrictions on the sale of tobacco products included the prohibition of selling items to consumers under the age of eighteen. Taxes on tobacco products, designed to both generate income for the state and discourage use, by 2025 stood at sixty-eight percent of the manufacturer’s invoiced selling price prior to any discount. Premium cigars are taxed at fifty cents per cigar, along with a charge of two percent of the manufacturer’s invoiced selling price prior to any discount.

In 1999, Arkansas received a settlement from several major tobacco manufacturers to end any future litigation regarding health impacts related to smoking. The state received $62 million annually, for twenty-five years. The Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Commission managed the funds.

For additional information:
Arnold, Morris S. Unequal Laws Unto a Savage Race: European Legal Traditions in Arkansas, 1686–1836. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1985.

Cande, Kathleen H. “Rediscovering Davidsonville, Arkansas’s First County Seat Town, 1815–1830.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 67 (Winter 2008): 342–358.

Demuth, David O. “An Arkansas County Mobilizes: Saline County, Arkansas, 1917–1918.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 36 (Autumn 1977): 211–233.

Featherstonhaugh, George W. Excursion Through the Slave States from Washington on the Potomac to the Frontier of Mexico; with Sketches of Popular Manners and Geological Notices. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1968.

Key, Joseph P. “An Environmental History of the Quapaws, 1673–1803.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 79 (Winter 2020): 297–316.

“Pipe.” Hodges Collection, Joint Educational Consortium. https://archeology.uark.edu/hodges/3d/caddo-pipe/ (accessed June 18, 2025).

David Sesser
Southeastern Louisiana University