A stemmery is a building where
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
leaves are stripped for the production of tobacco products. The name is an Americanism dating to the mid-late 1850s. Stemmeries often employed
African-American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
laborers.
Labor issues
Many stemmery workers were African Americans from the
antebellum
Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to:
United States history
* Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern US
** Antebellum Georgia
** Antebellum South Carolina
** Antebellum Virginia
* Antebellum architectu ...
period (when slaves were used) to the post-
Civil War
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
era, when African-American workers were employed for the lower-waged and lower-skilled work carried out at stemmeries. The work was typically seasonal following the tobacco harvest.
In 1942, African-American workers at
Larus and Brother Company
Larus and Brother Company (1877–1968) was a diversified tobacco company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. The company manufactured pipe tobacco, cigarettes, and charcoal. It also operated local radio and television stations.
History
Charles ...
tried to negotiate better pay through their union representative, but the company fended off the discrimination claim by saying that, while these workers made less than white workers, they performed a different job function, as they were confined to working in the stemmery rather than in the main factory.
The segregated work structure and uneven pay scale was allowed to continue.
, a labor organizer in the 1940s, won a substantial settlement for workers, including those at stemmeries in
Winston-Salem
Winston-Salem is a city in Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the fifth-most populous city in North Carolina and the 91st-most populous city in the Uni ...
. Her efforts also resulted in the doubling of the minimum wage.
Locations
According to a 1903 Kentucky Bureau of Labor report there were several stemmeries in
Owensboro
Owensboro is a home rule-class city in Daviess County, Kentucky, United States, of which it is also the county seat. It is the fourth-most populous city in the state. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest ...
.
Significant stemmeries include:
*
National Tobacco Works Branch Stemmery
* Stemmery building at
American Cigar Company (Norfolk, Virginia)
*
W. B. Lewis & Sons Tobacco stemmery building in the
Darlington Industrial Historic District
References
External links
1905 photograph of workers outside a stemmery Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a Public university, public research university in Richmond, Virginia, United States. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virgin ...
photographic collection
*
Tobacco in the United States
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