American Tobacco Trust Exploits Black Labor in Virginia and North Carolina

James Duke's American Tobacco Company, formed in 1890 and controlling 90% of US tobacco production by 1898, relied overwhelmingly on Black labor in its manufacturing plants in Durham and Richmond. Black workers — predominantly women — performed the most dangerous and lowest-paid tasks: stemming leaf tobacco, a dusty process linked to respiratory disease. Black workers were systematically excluded from the better-paid manufacturing jobs reserved for white workers and had no recourse through unions, which either excluded Black members or refused to organize tobacco workers. The tobacco trust's profits were built on a racial wage structure that paid Black workers 30–50% less than white workers for equivalent labor.