too frequently resulted in the seizure of a boat and 

 the massacre of her crew. 



Much of the tobacco used during this period was 

 manufactured at home in the form of "twists" for 

 chewing and cigars. Practically all country stores sold 

 "sticks" of twists which were commonly used by the 

 average working man. The elite used only James River 

 tobacco and smoked Spanish cigars. 



By the turn of the 19th century, tobacco figured 

 more profitably in proportion to total income to the 

 farmers of the Cumberland vallev. One of the first 

 warehouses in the area was built in Pulaski County, Ky., 

 on the Cumberland River and was known as Stigall's 

 Warehouse. Crude as these tobacco warehouses were, 

 they still sold a good deal of tobacco down the Mis- 

 sissippi. Stigall's reported, on the average, annual 

 inspection of 217 hogsheads and nearby Montgomery 

 Warehouse reported inspection of 294. Each hogshead 

 weighed around 1,000 pounds, proving the inspection 

 totals to be far from insignificant. 



o 



verstocked warehouses 



Wilkinson's boast that he had opened the Mississippi 

 was justified. Customs records at New Orleans for 

 1790 showed that more than a quarter of a million 

 pounds of tobacco had been registered in that port 

 alone. An incalculable amount was smuggled in or 

 went to sea without benefit of customs permits. 



Western tobacco shipments increased to the point 

 where much more of it was flowing down the river than 



23 



