Tobacco usage was ubiquitous across the United States, and …

Tobacco usage was ubiquitous across the United States, and for the longest time the South dominated tobacco consumption, until recently when it was overtaken by the midwest.

Tobacco and tobacco users were often seen in the same vein as wine sommeliers, with the quality of a man's tobacco often being seen as an indicator of the quality of the man himself, as author T.H. Breen recorded “quite literally, the quality of a man’s tobacco often served as the measure of the man.”

Among the Aristocrats of the South, being a class of Planters, most of them smoked their own tobacco and so they pridefully ensured the quality of their crop at all time. Those who's crop were considered of excellent quality often times even bore a certain measure of political strength originating out of the respect for the quality of their tobacco.

However, consumption was very different from modern day tobacco usage. It was typically smoked in cheap, disposable clay pipes, and later on the wealthier would come to enjoy cigars.