Up in smoke: Pipe -making, smoking, and Bacon\u27s Rebellion

Abstract

Clay tobacco pipes made in the early colonial Chesapeake draw on traditions found in contemporary clay tobacco smoking pipes from Native America, Europe and Africa, yet they also exhibit a mix of material, formal, and decorative attributes that make them unique. A critical approach to classification provides answers for as yet unanswered questions concerning the manufacture, distribution, and consumption of these pipes. Can one recognize particular production styles and generate testable hypotheses about the connections between pipe-makers and pipe-users? Can we find evidence for exchange such that these pipes offer a window into early industry in the American colonies and the production of a commodity for the local economy? This dissertation analyzes the attributes of artifacts excavated from sites in a single county in Virginia from the second half of the 17th century. Here, the pipes are distinguished from one another based on decorative and technological criteria. These findings are used to demonstrate the extent to which locally made pipes were commodities whose distribution flowed along the social networks of major planters, politicians, and owners of labor. These networks are identified in the context of a brief uprising known as “Bacon\u27s Rebellion.” The social upheaval exemplified by this local event is linked to international, long-term trends such as shifts in colonial administrative policy in England, and the transition from indentured servitude to slavery. Unlike other aspects of the economy, the local pipe trade does not appear to have been dominated by provincial elites. The Virginia-made pipes are used to explore the nature of local social relations as well as the connections between this region and the rest of the Atlantic world