I attended the “Jim Crow Cigarettes from Richmond to China: An intimate history” lecture presented by Dr. Nan Enstad. Enstad gave an extremely insightful analysis of how race relations allowed some people to thrive in the booming tobacco and cigarette trade of the 19^th and 20^th centuries and others to be stifled across the globe. Richmond has a special relationship to this industry, as it was one of the birth places of the tobacco boom. Enstad started her research on a local basis, talking to elderly ex-factory workers about their experiences. In all of her work, Enstad highlights the role of under-represented groups (women, African Americans, queer people) in history and this project was no different for her. A major topic in her book on the subject was the “gold rush” to farm the new strain of tobacco called Brightleaf. This was a very sensitive crop to plant, and recently freed African Americans had every reason to think that it would be their ticket to social mobility because they had all the skills to thrive at it. However, white men cunningly made sure that black people never had the chance. The corporate structure of white collar versus blue collar jobs was implemented. African Americans were forced into lower level positions due to left over structures of slavery and the lack of opportunity to acquire any land.

Enstad’s talk was a good example of why certain people were able to acquire leadership opportunities, like tobacco tycoons James Duke and Lewis Ginter. This general idea is still a problem today. We have been learning a great deal about how implicit biases, and while in the 19^th century it was blatant racism, people’s preconceived notions shaped an entire business structure. Enstad explained how slavery left people with the belief that black people should be excluded from higher management jobs, even though they were most knowledgeable about the product. There was a “Brightleaf Tobacco Network” of corporate workers of the same race (white) and class (middle) that perpetuated the cycle of white-male leadership. The biases were so deep rooted, that when the American tobacco/cigarette industry spread to China, the racism spread as well.

I enjoyed Enstad’s talk and I learned a lot about an unfamiliar topic. Even past the information she shared, Enstad emphasized the investigation structure of using local stories to examine global histories which I think is extremely useful in any field of study.