ABSTRACT
In contrast to the situation in indigenous South America, in 18th century Europe “the syncretic master opposition between nature and culture” became the site for the emplacement of increasingly large numbers of ‘other’ humans into the realm of ‘nature’. This chapter examines how the consequences of this dehumanization of people into goods and chattels – the fundamental premise of the slave trade – played out in the tobacco plantations of North America, and in the process further strengthened the importance of this product in the emergent capitalist economy. Tobacco was firmly ensconced across social classes and geographical areas. Literary circles in early 18th century London were steeped in tobacco, and virtually every prominent male author of the period – such as Addison, Pope, Prior, Steele, and Swift – was at least an occasional user of the drug.
