The Tobacco Lords (or “Virginia Dons”) were Glasgow merchants who in the 18th Century made enormous fortunes by trading in tobacco from Great Britain's American Colonies. Many of them became sufficiently wealthy that they adopted the lifestyle of aristocrats, lavishing vast sums on great houses and splendid churches. Many would suffer severe losses during and after the American Revolution.
Read more about Tobacco Lords: History, American Revolution, Legacy, Notable Tobacco Lords, See Also, References
Famous quotes containing the words tobacco and/or lords:
“Sure smokers have made personal choices. And they pay for those choices every day, whether sitting through an airline flight dying for a smoke, or dying for a smoke in the oncology wing of a hospital. The tobacco companies have not paid nearly enough for the killing.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“Men of England, wherefore plough
For the lords who lay ye low?”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)