If you missed the series introduction, you can read it here.
Tobacco is an elemental part of American history. Within five
years of the founding of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the
first white settlers were growing tobacco as a cash crop, and it
was the economic foundation for how they survived. George
Washington grew and sold tobacco. Or to be more precise, the
workers in his fields grew tobacco. And thus it has ever been
through the whole winding course of American history: slaves,
migrants, poor dirt farmers, small-plot landowners, and others
have worked the fields to grow this plant and turn it into
money. This picture depicts a sight you can see anywhere tobacco
is grown: tobacco farmers and workers taking advantage of any
available ground — a small patch adjacent to a healthy stand of
corn, as is shown here, or untillable land on an awkward rocky
slope — and working it to yield this sturdy, reliable cash crop.
Here, you see the oversized, beautiful, fragrant tobacco leaves,
so full of the promise