DURHAM—Discover how 19th-century farmers like Washington Duke grew tobacco in piedmont North Carolina by attending Duke Homestead’s annual “Planting Day” program on Saturday, May 2, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the state historic site in Durham.
Free and open to the public, this hands-on living history program will feature colorfully costumed interpreters transplanting tobacco seedlings. Visitors are encouraged to pitch in and “set” a plant or two in the soil at the Homestead, or have themselves photographed with staff wearing 19th-century-era clothing similar to what the Duke family wore when they lived here.
Each year, Duke Homestead’s staff plants a small plot of Bright Leaf tobacco to show how the Duke family and other North Carolina farmers planted, grew, cured and manufactured the commodity in the late 1800s. Because the leaf required so much work, farmers often called tobacco a “13-month” crop. From seed to sale, the process of cultivating this income-generating plant never seemed to end.
This year marks the 151st anniversary of the first tobacco crop being planted at what was then the Duke family farm, situated on approximately 44 acres in northern Durham County. In the spring of 1858, yeoman farmer Washington Duke — with help from family and neighbors — planted tobacco here for the first time. In 1865, this entrepreneur turned to processing tobacco and established W. Duke and Sons. He and his sons went on to expand the business, founding the American Tobacco Company in 1890. From 1890-1911, Duke’s company was the largest tobacco company in the world. In 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court broke up American Tobacco because it considered the company to be a monopoly.
American Tobacco’s corporate headquarters was in Durham. The Dukes used some of the company profits to bring Trinity College (now Duke University) to Durham; create the Duke Endowment; found Duke Power Co.; and contribute to various local hospitals, orphanages and colleges, including what today is N.C. Central University.
The state historic site’s mission is to preserve and interpret the history of the Washington Duke homestead and the North Carolina tobacco industry. It is located at 2828 Duke Homestead Road in Durham, just off the Guess Road exit off of I-85. For more information on this program or the site, call (919) 477-5498 or visit its Web site at www.dukehomestead.nchistoricsites.org.
Administered by the Division of State Historic Sites, Duke Homestead is part of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. Join the Cultural Resources 2009 theme observance of “Treasure N.C. Culture.” For more information, visit www.ncculture.com.