The Tobacco Barn

Tobacco barns like this one were used by farmers in Shiloh from around 1890 to around 1960 and were often built by hand with axe-hewn logs, mud, and mortar. Tobacco harvesting was an extremely manual process that brought entire families and communities together to gather tobacco from the fields, process it, and prepare it for market. Starting in late July and early August, farmers harvested a few leaves at a time from the bottom of the plant and frequently inspected their crops for hornworms and other parasites that could damage or destroy them. Women and children helped in the fields by priming and looping tobacco, gathering handfuls of leaves and twisting string around them while fastening the bundles to long sticks. The sticks were then hoisted into the barn and lined up between beams in barns that often had four or five sections with four or more tiers each. When the barn was full, a fire or furnace was lit to begin curing. Curing took three to ten days, depending on the tobacco and the barn's heating system, and many farmers then left the tobacco in the barn for several months so it could age and develop a sweet flavor. After removal from the barn and transfer to processing centers, the tobacco was graded by leaf quality, color, and texture, then shipped to auction warehouses for sale from September to November. Tobacco barns were designed with posts and crossbeams to hold the tobacco sticks, along with gabled roofs and ventilation systems to control heat; vents were closed as the temperature was raised after hanging, then opened with the barn doors after curing so the tobacco could absorb natural humidity.

Morrisville, North Carolina · United States