Tobacco Barn

Tobacco Barn. Reynolds Homestead. , Tobacco has been a major part of the economy of Virginia since the beginning of settlement. The variety of tobacco grown in Virginia, Nicotiana Rustica, has been traced back to use by the American Indians. As early as 1825, Abraham Reynolds began growing tobacco on Rock Spring Plantation., In 1828, he sent his son Hardin to Lynchburg to sell a barrel of tobacco. After facing a difficult journey and receiving a low price for the crop, Hardin returned and persuaded his father to start manufacturing plug tobacco on their plantation, thus a small log factory was built near the home. In 1867, Hardin’s son, R. J. Reynolds, purchased a share of the family business, officially beginning his career as a tobacco grower and manufacturer. In 1875 R. J. Reynolds moved his tobacco business to what is now Winston-Salem, North Carolina, about 48 miles southeast of Critz, Virginia., The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company donated a collection of eighteen paintings depicting scenes of harvesting, hanging, and selling tobacco. The paintings were created by the American Regionalists, a group of artists whose paintings, prints, and drawings represented everyday life in the heart of the United States during the 1930s and later. By representing the southern and midwestern landscape and their inhabitants, Regionalists celebrated an underclass of people whose lives were often ignored in the cultural centers of urban America., By the 1600s, tobacco was used as currency in the American Colonies and was growing in popularity in Europe. With the demand for more product, tobacco became a thriving business in Virginia. Bright Leaf tobacco was created in Caswell County, North Carolina in 1839. It was with this new milder variety that the Reynoldses made their fortune., The manufacturing of tobacco was labor intensive, including at least 36 steps from cultivating to curing. Enslaved workers spent long days in the fields caring for the tobacco plants. To prepare his tobacco for consumption, Hardin Reynolds began using the flue-curing method of creating high heat in a small enclosed space. The construction of the tobacco barn reflects this process. Tobacco leaves were picked and strung on sticks, then hung in the barn. The flues, which run from the external fire boxes, created heat to cure the tobacco without exposing it to smoke. The temperature was slowly raised over the course of the curing, which generally took about a week. The flue-curing method produces tobacco that is high in sugar and has medium to high levels of nicotine. During the curing process, enslaved workers would labor round-the-clock tending fires to maintain the correct curing temperature in the tobacco barns., [Captions:] , Boy, That's Tobacco!, an oil painting by artist James Ormsbee Chapin, is among the collection of paintings at Reynolds Homestead., This barn was reconstructed in 2010 using logs salvaged from tobacco barns on this property and two additioanl structures donated by Ben and Betty Davenport.