• Volume 1
  • Volume II
  • Volume III
  • Volume IV
  • Volume V
  • Volume VI

Volume III: The Tobacco Issue

The third volume of SlackWater explores tobacco, the cash crop that rocketed the Maryland colony to economic prosperity. The cultivation and sale of tobacco dominated the southern Maryland economy until the onset of World War II, when the Navy confiscated 7,000 acres of fertile farmland at Cedar Point for the construction of a naval testing facility. As the economy shifted away from agriculture, so did attitudes. Farmers who had spent their lives toiling away on their tobacco fields throughout the summer heat soon found themselves vilified for a crop they took great pride in producing. Published the first year of the Maryland Tobacco Buyout, students explored the impending fate and cultural legacy of a crop that had defined the regional landscape for the past 350 years through the voices of tobacco farmers and local legislators.     

 

Editor’s Introduction: On Tobacco and Oral History

 

PART I: SURGERY ON THE EAGLE: THE MASTER SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT

Surgery on the Eagle, by Peter K. Andreone

A View from the Top, by Peter K. Andreone

A Foot in Both Worlds, by Peter K. Andreone and Jason Proetorius 

 

PART II: CULTURAL LEGACY

The Lure of Sotweed, by Henry Miller

In My Time When I Was Coming Along, told by Elsie Bean

The Southern Maryland Tobacco Barn, by Julia A. King

Eastern Europe’s Emigres, told by Joseph Gresko, Sue Roskos, and John Sivak

Stop and Realize What’s Coming, told by John Frank Mattingly, Jr.

I’m Getting Ready to Get Myself in Trouble, told by Howard Chase

Tobacco Gets in Your Blood, told by Joseph Vallandingham 

 

PART III: FACING THE FUTURE

Changing Hands: A Bleak Outlook for Farm Labor, by Dyani Payne-Tijero

Pride in Tobacco, told by Donna Sasscer

The Future–that’s a Big Question in My Mind, told by George B. Reeves

The Economy Has Left Us Behind Like a Jet Plane, by Rebecca Taylor 

 

CODA:

Thomas Earl Brady, Retired farmer, Charles County

James Raley, Farmer, St. Mary’s County

James Walter Neal, Retired farmer and laboratory technician, St. Mary’s County

Volume I: St. George's Island

Available for purchase at St. Mary's College of Maryland

The SlackWater Center

St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 1998-2013


Header image courtesy of The Calvert Marine Museum