10. Tobacco had a significant impact on the American Revolution
In Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Delaware the majority of tobacco planters were heavily indebted to their merchants and lenders in Britain, where the Tobacco Lords in Glasgow manipulated prices to their own benefit. By the time of the Seven Years’ War, known in America as the French and Indian War, the Tobacco Lords in Glasgow handled more of the tobacco trade from America than all other British ports combined. Virginia and Maryland planters, many of whose names are among the Founding Fathers, were in debt to the tune of the equivalent of $200 million in today’s money. Anger with Britain among the Southern gentry over debt had as much impact on British-American relations as the taxes levied by Parliament. Indebtedness threatened the loss of land for many viewed by their fellow Americans as wealthy.
The American Revolutionary War allowed the planters to turn the tables on the Tobacco Lords. Tobacco crops were used by the newly formed state governments and the Continental Congress to finance the war loans received from France. Following the war, most of the debts incurred prior to hostilities were simply ignored by the planters, many of whom abandoned tobacco as their main cash crop. The Tobacco Lords in Glasgow turned their attention to the sugar and cotton markets in the colonies held by Britain in the Caribbean. Tobacco, or more accurately the tobacco trade, was thus both a contributing factor to the American Revolution and a means of financing it. Following the war, a domestic tobacco industry emerged in the United States, and the sale of their crops was no longer limited to the mother country for American tobacco planters.