Tobacco is a plant that grows natively in North and South America. It is in the same family as the potato, pepper and the poisonous nightshade, a very deadly plant.
The seed of a tobacco plant is very small. A 1 ounce sample contains about 300,000 seeds!
It is believed that Tobacco began growing in the Americas about 6,000 B.C.!
As early as 1 B.C., American Indians began using tobacco in many different ways, such as in religious and medicinal practices.
Tobacco was believed to be a cure-all, and was used to dress wounds, as well as a pain killer. Chewing tobacco was believed to relieve the pain of a toothache!
It contains the drug nicotine. The leaves of the tobacco plant can be prepared for smoking, chewing or inhaling. People have used tobacco, or other plants that contain nicotine, for many centuries.
Tobacco use was introduced to Europe by Christopher Columbus and other explorers returning from the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries,(Human Services,1988) and was brought to England by Sir Walter Raleigh during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. (Pitman, 1983)
Not everyone thought that tobacco was a good thing, and its use was controversial. King James I, who took the throne after Elizabeth, called it 'a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs. (Walker, 1984)
At first, tobacco was smoked in pipes by both men and women. By the 18th century, the upper classes had adopted snuff – tobacco ground into a powder, which was inhaled through the nose.
In the late 18th century, cigars became fashionable among upper class men, later followed by cigarettes. However this new way of smoking was not seen as acceptable for women.
In the early years tobacco was also used in......
