Impressive and sometimes accidental advances in agriculture and curing enabled the development of tobaccos particularly suited to cigarette smoking.   The most influential being the legendary development of Bright Leaf or “yaller” tobacco by a snoozing slave who discovered the fortunate reaction that led to this most delicious advance in curing to date.   One chilly young man’s desire to stay warm and a near disastrous super heating of the curing shed made for the near perfect smoke sweet enough even for the ladies that  sparked worldwide demand.  Cigarette popularity was increasing exponentially by the year only decades after birth.

The civil war saw the advent of the peculiar taxation schemes on tobacco products that thrives to this day.  By this time, the cigarette industry was already a multi million dollar industry and the legislators took full advantage quickly.  Tobacco in general and cigarettes in particular boasted ever growing sales despite economic trends that inspired a plethora of creative tax schemes.  Not quite the bloated schedules commanded routinely nowadays but the onset of creative tobacco taxes took root early on making the bastardization of fair taxes on tobacco usual and customary.