Anthropology

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Production of the Past: Understanding Durham, North Carolina’s History in the Tobacco Industry
(2013) Butters, Susannah; Watson, James
Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the tobacco industry contributed to the growth of Durham, North Carolina changing it from a small railroad depot to a thriving, industrial city. With the acknowledgement and recognition that tobacco was harmful to one’s health in the 1960’s, tobacco use began to decline domestically. The tobacco industry, which had been growing and prospering in Durham, began to close their warehouses and factories in the city. Since this decline at the end of the twentieth century, the city of Durham has been challenged to reconsider its relationship to tobacco and to make use of the buildings left abandoned by the industry. Many of these buildings have since been renovated, allowing the past and tobacco heritage to take on new meaning within these spaces. The reuse of these spaces structures understandings of Durham’s past into an ongoing narrative of evolution and resiliency, obscuring more nuanced relationships between Durham’s citizens and the industry. This paper will demonstrate the ways in which understandings of Durham’s past in the tobacco industry are presently constructed and negotiated.