The plantation grew to a phenomenal 340,000 acres, manned by 780 slaves. It was rivaled only by the decidedly second-place plantation of Robert “King” Carter (a mere 300,000 acres and 700 slaves). One branch of the family moved to Boston where, in 1759, Samuel Badcock opened a small snuff mill. The Virginia Badcocks derided snuff as a foppish fad which would never last. Israel Badcock of Jamestown wrote: The habit of taking fnuff is no more than an Affectacion of the French, brought back to England by Charles II and fpread throughout his Court. Thofe Boftonians who fancy themselves to be Gentlemen will of courfe haften to take up this Frivolity, but it hath no ftaying power. In fact, it was the Virginia Badcocks who had no staying power, while the General Snuff Company of Boston (America’s first tobacco company) would form the basis of a world tobacco empire. But that’s getting ahead of our story. First came a slight contretemps with Britain. Samuel Badcock The oppressive English tobacco tax was weighing ever more heavily on the American growers along the Chesapeake Bay (nicknamed the “Tobacco Coast”).
