The way the tobacco companies tell the story, "keep 'em talking" seems to have been the operating principle behind their strategies to prevent legislation and regulation over tobacco products.

Smoking and its Enemies: A Short History of 500 Years of the Use and Prohibition of Tobacco Fine, detailed history from FOREST. Often uses country-by-country approach.

• Tobacco in Business & History
• Tobacco in Culture

When Raleigh was ready to attempt the first permanent English colony in the New World, he sent the 25-year-old Hariot along as a historian and surveyor. The group of 109 Englishmen and two natives sailed from England April 9, 1585, under the command of Sir Richard Grenville. They arrived at what is now North Carolina's Pamlico Sound on June 26, and settled on Roanoke Island. Grenville stayed two months before returning to England, leaving Ralph Lane as the colony's governor. During the year the colonists remained on Roanoke Island, Hariot wrote The Chronicle or Discourse of Virginia according to the course of the times, a detailed survey of area's natural resources and native inhabitants. . . Hariot's Briefe and True Report is an abstract of his Chronicle. It was first published privately in 1588 . . .

There is an herbe which is sowed a part by it selfe & is called by the inhabitants vppówoc. . The Spaniardes generally call it Tobacco. . . We ourselues during the time we were there vsed to suck it after their maner, as also since our returne . . .

On a hot July day in 1587, 117 men, women, and children set foot on a New World. Their benefactor, Sir Walter Raleigh, had long dreamed of a permanent settlement, and finally, despite the threat of war with Spain, Queen Elizabeth I had consented.

James I, King of England (British, 1566­1625), London: Robert Barker, 1604, Arents Tobacco Collection

• 1606 Jamestown From Colonial Williamsburg
• 00/07/17 A Brief History of Jamestown from Jamestown Rediscovery
• 1606Insructions for the Virginia Colony (U. of Kansas)
• The Virginia Charters (Philip Schwarz)
  • 1606 The First Virginia Charter (1606) Hanover College
  • 1609 The Second Virginia Charter (1609)
  • 1612 The Third Virginia Charter (1612)
• 1621 An Ordinance and Constitution of the Virginia Company (1621) (U. of Gruningen)

• 1607 Jamestowne Documents

The "most agreeable and pleasant smoke" for everyone, even "delicate women," was marketed by a St. Louis company about 20 years after the end of the Civil War. It seemed it was good for almost anything that ailed you. "Cocarettes" cigarettes were "not injurious" and made of "the finest sun-cured Virginia tobacco" and "the exact proportion" of genuine Bolivian coca leaf, all packaged in the best rice paper available.

• Tobacco's Town
• BRAND $$$$$$ From out of the circus emerged the symbol of success in the race to market cigarettes The original Camel campaign
• Death of Smith Reynolds became a lasting mystery Newspapers struggled to keep up with twists and turns
• Strikeout: Breaking the union at Reynolds Tobacco is an unsightly skeleton in the Journal's closet
• 1964 The Famous Surgeon-general's Report Got Plenty of Coverage in the Winston-Salem, NC, Journal

Friend Ford . . . The injurious agent in cigarettes comes principally from the burning paper wrapper. The substance thereby formed, is called "Acrolein." It has a violent action on the nerve centers, producing degeneration of the cells of the brain, which is quite rapid among boys. Unlike most narcotics this degeneration is permanent and uncontrollable. I employ no person who smokes cigarettes.