Tobacco, cacao and the black drink: the trade plants
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line up
Year: 1050 · Places: Florida, Virginia, Gulf Coast, Caribbean, South America
The case
Our case: tobacco, cacao and the black drink were our ancestors' trade plants, moving along our own trade roads long before 1492, before the colonies turned them into cash crops.
Background
Tobacco is a plant smoked or used in ceremony; cacao is the plant chocolate comes from; the black drink is a ritual drink made from yaupon holly, a plant with caffeine. Residue is the chemical trace left inside a pot or pipe, which scientists test to learn what it held. The Wishbone site is in Utah; Santa Ana-La Florida is in Ecuador; Cahokia is an ancient city of this land; the Feltus mound site is in Mississippi. Jamestown was an English colony in Virginia. A cash crop is a plant grown to sell for money.
Our evidence
Exhibit A · Record: Tobacco at Wishbone, UtahFour tobacco seeds in a hunters' hearth at the Wishbone site, Utah, about 12,300 years old, are the oldest human tobacco use known (Duke et al., Nature Human Behaviour, 2021).
Exhibit B · Record: Cacao in EcuadorCacao residue on Mayo-Chinchipe pots at Santa Ana-La Florida, Ecuador, is about 5,300 years old (Zarrillo et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2018).
Exhibit C · Record: The black drink at CahokiaCahokia beakers (1050-1250) carry the black drink of yaupon holly, a plant that grew more than 300 miles south: a traded ritual caffeine (Crown, Hurst et al., PNAS, 2012).
Exhibit D · Record: Nicotine at FeltusNicotine was found in six pipes from the Feltus mound site, Mississippi, AD 700-1150 (Carmody et al., 2018).
Exhibit E · Record: Jamestown's tobaccoJohn Rolfe planted Caribbean-seed tobacco at Jamestown in 1612; it became Virginia's money. The colony's wealth grew from a plant and seed of this land.
Exhibit F · Pattern: Our trade roads, then their cash cropsThe plants moved along our own trade roads long before 1492, then became the colonies' cash crops.
Verdict: we won
Peer-reviewed science records tobacco use about 12,300 years old in Utah, cacao about 5,300 years old in Ecuador, the black drink traded more than 300 miles to Cahokia, and nicotine in Feltus pipes. The record then shows Rolfe planting Caribbean-seed tobacco at Jamestown in 1612. The case is answered by the record.
The original card
SUMMARYTobacco, cacao and the black drink: the trade plants (Nov 12, 2026; Plant medicine line)
RECORDfour tobacco seeds in a hunters' hearth at the Wishbone site, Utah, about 12,300 years old, the oldest human tobacco use known (Duke et al., Nature Human Behaviour, 2021)
RECORDcacao residue on Mayo-Chinchipe pots at Santa Ana-La Florida, Ecuador, about 5,300 years old (Zarrillo et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2018)
RECORDCahokia beakers (1050-1250) carry the black drink of yaupon holly, a plant that grew more than 300 miles south: a traded ritual caffeine (Crown, Hurst et al., PNAS, 2012)
RECORDnicotine in six pipes from the Feltus mound site, Mississippi, AD 700-1150 (Carmody et al., 2018)
RECORDJohn Rolfe planted Caribbean-seed tobacco at Jamestown in 1612; it became Virginia's money
PATTERNthe plants moved along our own trade roads long before 1492, then became the colonies' cash crops.