The Cigar Industry Changes Florida

The Cigar Industry Changes Florida
Teacher’s Guide for Photos

Background Information

Commercial cigar rolling in Florida began with small-scale operations started by Cuban immigrants in the 1830s.

German immigrant and New York cigar manufacturer Samuel Seidenberg established the first “clear Cuban” cigar factory in Key West in 1867. By using Cuban laborers to roll Cuban tobacco, Seidenberg pioneered the idea of making authentic Cuban cigars in America while avoiding the high tariff levied against products from Havana, as well as the trade restrictions imposed by Spain.

There was a strong natural connection between the cigar workers in Key West and Havana, and by the early 1890s, 50,000-100,000 people traveled back and forth annually.

Cuban Cigar Makers Create a New Florida City

Vicente Martinez Ybor, one of the most significant figures in the history of cigar making in Florida, established a cigar factory in Key West in 1869. Ybor had run a very successful cigar manufacturing business in Cuba, but he fled the country after colonial authorities discovered his connections with revolutionaries.

In 1885, he moved his cigar making operation from Key West to Tampa. Steamships could bring tobacco leaves from Cuba for the cigar factories, and Henry Plant's new railroad connected the small town of Tampa to the rest of the country. The area around the cigar factories grew and became known as Ybor City.

Immigrants came not just from Cuba, but from Italy, Spain, and throughout Eastern Europe and Latin America in search of work. At its height in the 1880s, there were more than 100 factories in Key West. By 1910, there were 150 factories in the Tampa area employing more than 10,000 workers. Of the 50,000 residents of Tampa, 14,000 were Cuban, 7,500 were Spanish, and 1,500 were Italian.

Mutual Aid Societies

Mutual aid societies were central to the culture of the new Florida communities. Cubans, Spaniards, Italians and Germans formed clubs where members and their families could socialize, attend performances and dances, play cards and dominoes, and receive free medical services.
The Cuban clubs were also an important source of fundraising and political support for the Cuban revolutionary movement.

The Spanish-American War and Cuban Independence

Florida's Cuban immigrants were strong supporters of the United States' involvement in the Spanish-American War. Cuban-Americans from every social and economic level supported the cause of Cuban independence. Revolutionary leader José Martí toured Ybor City, West Tampa and Key West, delivering speeches to large crowds wherever he went.

Workers Versus the Management

By 1889, strikes and organized resistance to factory demands were commonplace. Over the next two decades, cigar workers became increasingly organized and held strikes more frequently. This helped push more of the cigar manufacturers to leave Key West, most of them resettling in the Tampa Bay area.

The Lector

Strong union culture was an essential aspect of the Cuban cigar factory upon which many of the Florida factories were modeled.

The Lector was a factory worker, usually selected by fellow workers, to read aloud during work hours to help pass the time and keep the workers’ minds occupied. Although the Lectors read all sorts of materials from fiction to news articles, choices were often very pro-union, in favor of Cuban independence, and in Tampa, increasingly leftist and anti-corporation. By 1931, after years of dispute over the role of Lectors in changing factories, the major Tampa companies banned them once and for all.

Segregation by Race and Gender

Cuban society was not as rigidly segregated by race as in the southern United States. Cuban-Americans of all skin colors in Ybor City worked side by side in the cigar factories and belonged to the same social clubs.

In the 1890s, laws formalizing the segregation of public facilities and businesses, often called “Jim Crow” laws, spread throughout the South. The separation of jobs between white and black workers became more common and certain specialized jobs became off-limits for black workers.

Jobs in the cigar factories were also sometimes segregated by gender. Some factories limited the most skilled positions to men. Women were often relegated to traditionally female jobs such as “stemmers,” those removing the center stem from leaves, whereas men occupied other areas of cigar work such as selecting wrapper leaves.

However, small factories called chinchals employed men and women at all skill levels in order to maximize the work of fewer employees. Women became more commonly employed in skilled positions at large factories by the 1930s, although still working for lower wages.

Tobacco in North Florida

Cigar factories appeared in numerous Florida cities during the late 1800s, such as in Jacksonville and the Wanish Factory in Tallahassee. Tobacco remained an important agricultural product in north Florida, particularly in Gadsden County, where tobacco was a chief agricultural product for more than 150 years.

Quincy in Gadsden County was the American center for shade tobacco production. Factories produced cigars and cigarettes in Havana (named after the Cuban capital) and Quincy, Florida.

Florida’s Cigar Heritage

Cigar manufacturing took place in all of Florida’s urban areas at some point during the first century of statehood, but its impacts were particularly profound in Key West, and in the Ybor City and West Tampa areas around Tampa Bay.

The cigar industry prospered in Florida during the early decades of the 20th century. A combination of factors caused the industry to decline, however, as time moved forward. Conflicts between organized labor and factory managers slowed production, while new machines were able to turn out cigars much faster and cheaper than the hand-rolling method. Demand for fine cigars decreased during the Great Depression, and by the end of World War II enough cigar factories had closed to make the industry less attractive for returning veterans.

The cigar industry changed the cultural landscapes of cities like Tampa and Key West. Historic districts still feature buildings once dedicated to the art of the hand-rolled cigar, and local histories still count the industry as a critical influence.

Beginning in the 1960s, master cigar makers demonstrated the art of traditional cigar rolling at the Florida Folk festivals. Ybor City continues to honor the impact of the cigar industry through the Cigar Heritage Festival.

Although all of the original factories in Key West have long since been shuttered, hand-rolled and specialty cigar shops are a prominent attraction in Key West. Through them, the city and its millions of annual visitors rediscover the legacy of the Cuban cigar tradition and the importance of cigar factories in the city’s history.

José Martí at a cigar factory where he made a speech for Cuban independence

Cuban volunteers during the Spanish-American War

Lector reading to cigar workers

Employee hand rolling a cigar

Women removing the center stem of filler tobacco

Workers rolling cigars

Women packing cigars

The trimming room

Use to Illustrate:

• The connection between the cigar industry and the struggle for Cuban independence.
• The Lector reading to workers.
• Integration and segregation by race and gender in various jobs within the cigar industry.

Sunshine State Standards

• SS.4.A.1.1: Analyze primary and secondary resources to identify significant individuals and events throughout Florida history.
• SS.4.A.8.4: Explain how tourism affects Florida's economy and growth.
• SS.4.A.6.1: Describe the economic development of Florida's major industries.
  Examples are timber, citrus, cattle, tourism, phosphate, cigar.
• SS.4.A.6.2 Summarize contributions immigrant groups made to Florida.
• SS.4.A.6.3: Describe the contributions of significant individuals to Florida.
  Examples may include, but are not limited to, John Gorrie, Henry Flagler, Henry Plant, Lue Gim Gong, Vicente Martinez Ybor, Julia Tuttle, Mary McLeod Bethune, Thomas Alva Edison, James Weldon Johnson, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
• SS.4.A.6.4: Describe effects of the Spanish-American War on Florida.
  Examples may include, but are not limited to, cigar industry, temporary economic boom at Ft. Brooke due to Rough Riders, Cuban immigration.
• SS.4.E.1.1: Identify entrepreneurs from various social and ethnic backgrounds who have influenced Florida and local economy. Examples are Henry Flagler, Walt Disney, Ed Ball, Alfred Dupont, Julia Tuttle, Vicente Martinez Ybor.
• SS.912.A.3.13: Examine key events and key people in Florida history as they relate to United States history.
  Examples are the railroad industry, bridge construction in the Florida Keys, the cattle industry, the cigar industry, the influence of Cuban, Greek and Italian immigrants, Henry B. Plant, William Chipley, Henry Flagler, George Proctor, Thomas DeSaille Tucker, Hamilton Disston.
• SS.912.A.3.9: Examine causes, course, and consequences of the labor movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• SS.912.A.4.11: Examine key events and peoples in Florida history as they relate to United States history.
  Examples may include, but are not limited to, the Spanish-American War, Ybor City, José Martí.
• SS.912.A.5.2: Explain the causes of the public reaction (Sacco and Vanzetti, labor, racial unrest) associated with the Red Scare.
  

Florida Standards

• LAFS.4.RI.1.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• LAFS.68.RH.1.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
• LAFS.68.RH.1.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
• LAFS.910.RH.1.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
• LAFS.910.RH.1.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
• LAFS.1112.RH.1.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
• LAFS.1112.RH.1.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.