Pittsylvania County Tobacco Heritage

Pittsylvania County Tobacco Heritage. Tobacco Curing Barn. Tobacco farming and the curing of tobacco dominated Pittsylvania County's economy from its chartering in 1707 until the 1980's. Local farmers planted thousands of acres of Virginia's world famous and coveted bright leaf tobacco. Barns such as this one were built near tobacco fields to receive the crop and "cure" the green leaves before the crop could be sold. Each farm constructed its own barns from local materials including rocks for foundations and logs, usually oak. Even metal work such as hinges, latches and nails were hand-forged locally, The chinking between logs was Pittsylvania County red clay mud. Because blueprints did not exist, farmers would draw crude sketches in the dirt at the site before constructing the barns., Most barns were roughly 18 feet square and high enough to accommodate at least 5 tiers of poles. These poles were built in as the outside logs were put into place beginning 7 feet from the ground then 2 to 3 feet apart vertically and approximately 4 feet apart horizontally. This created 4 "rooms" in the barn. Each pair of tier poles held about 25 sticks of hand-strung tobacco in 3 leaf bunches for 30 bunches per stick. A barn of this type would hold 550 sticks of tobacco ready for curing., (Captions) , Three Confederate veterans, Luther Blair and his two cousins, Nathan Shelton and Jimmy Shelton, built this tobacco barn in the Mill Creek community upon their return from the Civil War. It was used to cure tobacco for approximately 100 years. The Pittsylvania Historical Society moved the original barn to this site in 2002., Tobacco was first harvested by hand and drawn by slide to a nearby tobacco barn., Workers gathered the leaves into bunches of 3 leaves and suspended them from a pole. Each pole held approximately 30 bunches of leaves Each barn held approximately 50 sticks of tobacco., Typical two rock and mud fireboxes measuring 5 feet long and 2 feet 2 inches had been built into the foundation at one end of the barn. The curing process began as soon as the poles of raw tobacco were in place. For the first 24 hours fires were kept low so that the the temperature in the barn was around 90°. After 24 hours the fires were gradually stoked until the temperature rose to 190°., Workers had to tend fires diligently. Meals were frequenty taken outside of the barn while preparing wood and tending fires. Fiddle music and songs often helped pass the time., The entire process took approximataly 4 to 5 days until the tobacco reached the yellow stage. This is the coveted bright leaf.