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from one-room shops to two-story buildings, the number of tobacco slave workers grew. During the first decade of the nineteenth century, fewer than 100 slave hands worked in a small number of shops. By 1820 there were between 370 and 480 tobacco slave workers at fifteen to twenty businesses, and by 1840 between 600 and 700 slaves worked at some thirty manufactories processing about 100,000 pounds of tobacco per year. 13
Hundreds of workers were needed because of the high labor demands of tobacco processing. Manufacturing tobacco was a labor-intensive, hand-mechanized system that required varying levels of skill and training, depending on the specific task. Raw tobacco packed in large wooden hogsheads (which resembled huge barrels), weighing roughly 1,400 pounds each, would arrive at the factory daily. If the leaves were dry and brittle, they would be wrapped in cloth and moistened with water. Once

 

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softened, the leaves would be wiped carefully, and a worker would remove the "backbone" of the leaf with a knife or razor, a process known as stemming. The leaves were then twisted into lumps and plugs and sent to be prized (pressed) using a large iron screw press. At this point some manufactories would air or fire dry the twists for a day or two before a second prizing. The final step was to return the tobacco to the stemming rooms to be retwisted and packaged for shipment. This process remained basically unaltered throughout the antebellum era, though a few extra steps were added over time to enhance the flavor and quality of the chewing plugs. In 1839, for example, manufacturers began storing lower-quality tobacco in fire- or sun-heated rooms to "sweat" before being prized a second time. This seemed to improve the flavor and consistency of lesser-quality leaves, thereby raising their value on the market. 14
The numerous stages of processing coupled with the increasing size of most facilities encouraged the use of an assembly-line production system. As a result, by 1840 slave workers performed each stage of processing in a different room and sometimes even on a different floor. Under this labor system slave workers were placed together side-by-side for expediency and efficiency even though the tasks they performed were individual, not group activities. This labor system was introduced during the Revolutionary War in the state-owned industries and continued in the newer factories of the early nineteenth century. As a result, workers who stemmed the leaves worked apart from the hands, in the twisting rooms. There, while seated on long benches arranged in rows, they would stem the tobacco using a knife and part of the bench as a cutting board. To manipulate the leaves into chewing plugs, workers used a variety of tools including shaping mills, lump shapes, and tobacco bands. Although young boys increasingly filled the ranks of stemmers, it was considered semiskilled, not unskilled, labor, requiring dexterity, agility, and some training. 15
The finished plugs were sent to another part of the manufactory to be prized. There, slave men squeezed the tobacco into compact cakes using a press made of two large stones with a metal screw on top. In order to apply sufficient pressure to the leaves, two to three men generally manned each press. Once prized, the tobacco cakes were sent to a third area where another group of workers packaged the product and prepared it for shipping.
The numerous time-consuming tasks involved in processing tobacco make it clear why tobacconists needed so many workers. But the tasks do not explain why bond workers rather than free were selected. That answer can be found by looking at the priorities of tobacco businessmen

 

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and their experiments with various forms of labor. These businessmen were most concerned with obtaining a workforce that was cheap, abundant, efficient, and manageable. As a result, during the early decades of the nineteenth century tobacconists tried different types of