Tobacco In Huckleberry Finn

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The topic I chose for my research paper is tobacco. This includes tobacco's history, ingredients and the current worldwide tobacco industry. I chose this topic because it was something I didn't know much about and wanted to learn more about it.

Before I started this project I knew very little about tobacco. Other than the cancer and other adverse health effects that go along with it, I didn't know anything about what it was made up of or the importance it had on the founding of America. Its connection to Huckleberry Finn is the story takes place in the south, which was a huge tobacco producing area. Tobacco is also mentioned multiple times in the story.

The history of the tobacco plant can be traced back to 6000 BC. It was in this time that experts believe the modern tobacco plant began to grow. It was not until 1 BC however that the American population began finding ways to use the plant. They started using the plant for ceremonial and ritual purposes in the beginning. Because tobacco is a hallucinogenic drug when used in high amounts, medicine men and shamans would use it to go on spiritual journeys. Tobacco also played a pivotal role in the founding of the United States also. During the colonial time period, tobacco was extremely popular in Europe. It was first grown in Jamestown by a man named John Rolfe. "John Rolfe is credited to be the first person to successfully raise tobacco at Jamestown" (www.en.wikipedia.org). Rolfe made a very successful profit off of selling tobacco to England. After the Revolutionary War, the tobacco industry spread to more states. This is where the tobacco plantations started popping up in many southern states. It was not until the end of the 18th century that negative health effects were being noted due to tobacco usage.

Of all the ingredients and additives used in tobacco, nicotine is the most identifiable of all of them. Many people believe that nicotine is what directly causes cancer, but it actually plays an indirect role in the development of cancerous growth. This is because of the fact that even though the carcinogenic properties of nicotine are extremely low, "nicotine inhibits the body's ability to destroy potentially cancerous cells" (www.en.wikipedia.org). Nicotine is also a deadly neurotoxin that is used in many insecticides. A lethal dose of nicotine for an average adult male is in the range of 40-60mg, which is contained in three cigarettes or one half a cigar. Cocaine's lethal dosage is 1000mg. Nicotine also has a remarkable ability to travel through the body in a matter of seconds. Because it is able to pass right through the blood-brain barrier, nicotine will reach the brain on an average of seven seconds. Nicotine though is only one ingredient in a modern tobacco. In a cigarette however, there are 599 different additives in one cigarette. Some of these additives are acetic acid (used in processing photographs), alfalfa extract, formaldehyde (used to preserve corpses), and hydrogen cyanide (used in gas chambers).

The current tobacco industry is just as strong if not stronger than ever before. Generating $25 billion a year, "tobacco is the most widely grown commercial non-food plant in the world" (The World Book Encyclopedia). Tobacco is also the number one selling product in the world, followed by Coca-Cola in second and oil in third.