Growing & Selling Tobacco the Sappony Way

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Randolf Doyle
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1 Growing & Selling Tobacco the Sappony Way by Kara Stewart Growing & Selling Tobacco the Sappony Way was written by Kara Stewart, a Sappony tribal member, for the Sappony tribe. 2006, 2011.

2 The Sappony, like many rural people in the southeastern United States, depended on agriculture, or farming, for a living. Tobacco was the primary subsistence crop for the Sappony, along with corn and wheat. The Sappony insignia, found on the cover of this book, features a tobacco leaf in the center, flanked by corn and wheat. The insignia also includes seven stars that represent the seven families, or clans, of the Sappony watched over by God, as do the seven feathers tied together. The three arrowheads were historically the Sappony trading symbol with the colonists. Today, tobacco and other types of farming in the Piedmont region are no longer economically viable. Tribal members have pursued higher education, become skilled in a variety of fields, and currently work in many professions other than farming, including education, medicine, finance, business and technology. The farming methods in this book are a valued part of the Sappony heritage and agricultural history.

3 What is this farm tool and what was it used for?

The photograph shows a plow. Plows were used to till the soil to prepare it for planting crops. Plows were pulled by a mule or a horse up and down the fields in long rows to make furrows for planting.

4 The photograph shows a plow. Plows were used to till the soil to prepare it for planting crops. Plows were pulled by a mule or a horse up and down the fields in long rows to make furrows for planting. The mule or horse was hooked to the plow by a singletree (the T-shaped wooden rod in the front of the plow). Singletrees came in different sizes, depending on the farmer s needs. This photograph below shows four different sizes of singletrees. Singletrees were attached to the plow with shackles. Depending on which singletree a farmer needed, either a straight or a crooked shackle was used to attach the singletree to the plow. The photograph below shows a straight shackle on the left and a crooked shackle on the right.

5 What are these and what were they used for?

The photograph shows three planting pegs. In about the mid 1800s and possibly earlier, Sappony farmers used them to set, or plant, tobacco slips (young tobacco plants).

6 The photograph shows three planting pegs. In about the mid 1800s and possibly earlier, Sappony farmers used them to set, or plant, tobacco slips (young tobacco plants). The pointed end was used to make holes in the soil. Then the young tobacco plants were slipped into the holes. Different sizes and shapes of planting pegs were carved to fit different sizes and shapes of hands. Starting in the early 1900s, Sappony farmers used a different sort of tobacco planter, shown below. This tobacco planter took two people to operate. One person held the tobacco planter and squeezed the trigger next to the red handle to release the water held in the large side of the planter while the other person walked backwards and dropped the slips (young tobacco plants) one at a time into the small part of the planter. This way, farmers both planted and watered the new tobacco plants at the same time.

7 What is this? What did farmers use it for?

8 This is also a tobacco planter! Tobacco planters like this were in use by Sappony farmers starting in about the 1930 s. This horse- or mule-drawn tobacco planter enabled farmers to plant more tobacco faster with two people dropping plants simultaneously. You can see the two seats and there is a tray for the plants in front of each seat.

9 What was this tool used for?

10 This tool was used in tobacco farming to hold up tobacco leaves so farmers could put soil around the tobacco stalk without the soil getting on the leaves. The process of putting soil around tobacco stalks is called siding up. This tool was used to hold up the lower leaves during siding up so that soil would not cover up the leaves. This particular tool in the photograph is over fifty years old and was used and handed down by several generations of Sappony farmers!

11 What are these and what were they used for?

12 The photograph shows two mauls. Mauls are heavy, long-handled tools used for splitting wood. They resemble massive two-handed hammers. Like the mauls in the photograph, many mauls were hand made by Sappony farmers by carving the entire tool in one piece from one log. In the photograph, the maul on the left is worn away where its head pounded the wedge that was placed in the wood to be split. Tobacco farmers needed to split logs to have wood to burn. Fire created heat in the tobacco curing barn, to cure, or dry, the tobacco. To split logs for wood, farmers first placed metal wedges in the logs to start them splitting. They pounded the metal wedges with the mauls. Metal wedges Then they took out the metal wedges and used larger wooden wedges, also called gluts, to finish the job of splitting the logs. Gluts, like the mauls, were hand carved. Wooden wedges, or gluts

13 What is this and what was it used for?

A tobacco tie horse is shown in the photograph. After tobacco was grown and the leaves were picked, farmers tied three or four leaves in a bunch to tobacco sticks with string.

14 A tobacco tie horse is shown in the photograph. After tobacco was grown and the leaves were picked, farmers tied three or four leaves in a bunch to tobacco sticks with string. The tie horse was used to hold the stick in the V-shaped notch while the farmers tied the leaves to the stick. The sticks holding tobacco leaves were then placed in the curing barn to cure, or dry, the tobacco with the heat of the fire kept burning in the barn. These tobacco sticks were hand-carved by Sappony farmers.

15 What was this barn used for?

16 This is a curing barn, used to cure, or dry, the tobacco. Tobacco leaves hanging from tobacco sticks were moved into the curing barn. A fire was built in a flue on the outside of the barn, burning logs the farmers split. The heat was kept at a steady temperature that was just right for curing the tobacco leaves not too high and not too low. How long did it take for tobacco to cure? It usually took five days for the tobacco to cure. What do you think would happen if the fire was allowed to burn too hot? What do you think would happen if the fire wasn t hot enough?

17 How was this pack barn used differently from the curing barn?

18 The pack barn was used to store tobacco after it was cured in the curing barn. Farmers also graded (or separated out) tobacco in the pack barn until it was ready for market.

19 What did farmers use tobacco benches for?

20 Farmers used a tobacco bench to separate (salt out) different grades of tobacco. Why? Different grades of tobacco sold for different amounts of money. The higher quality grades, such as yellow tobacco, sold for more money. Brown and green tobacco grades sold for less money than yellow. Shacks (very dark, poor quality tobacco) sold for even less. Could farmers choose what grade they grew most? The grade of tobacco a farmer produced could be somewhat controlled by the timing of the priming (picking) of tobacco. Which quality tobacco do you think farmers most wanted to grow?

21 Why are these bunches of tobacco leaves in this basket?

22 Tobacco was carried to market and placed on a basket such as this to be inspected by graders for its quality or grade. The tobacco was then auctioned, or sold, to tobacco companies. What do you think farmers did with the money they made growing tobacco? The money was used for the basic necessities of life. Although many things in farming households were homemade, some things had to be bought, such as some clothing and some groceries that couldn t be grown at home like sugar and coffee. Books and some farming equipment were also store bought. What other things do you think were store bought or home made?

23 Now you have learned about growing and selling tobacco the Sappony way! Would you have liked to be a Sappony tobacco farmer? Why or why not?

No. 04 Nebraska s First Farmers Nebraska s First Farmers

No. 04 Nebraska s First Farmers Nebraska s First Farmers At least 1,000 years ago Indian women tended small fields of corn. By the 1700s corn continued to be an important food for the Oto, Pawnee and Omaha