THE TOBACCO WAR

On May 16, 1896, during Cuba’s 1895 Revolution against Spanish rule, the Captain General of Cuba, Valeriano Weyler, enacted an embargo against exporting Cuban tobacco to the United States. He was enraged by the revolutionary activities of the Ybor City tobacco workers, who donated a day’s wages from every work week (El Día De La Patria) for the cause of “Cuba Libre.” Though a tremendous amount of tobacco was brought from Cuba just before the embargo took effect, it still caused a blow to Tampa’s cigar industry.

On this site, along a stream known as “Two Mile Branch,” the Neyland family established a tobacco plantation under glass producing 350 bales yearly. The Neylands helped save the cigar industry, and “tabaqueros” continued to contribute El Día Del La Patria through the end of the war.

ORIGINALLY ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF SALVATORE M. ITALIANO BY THE TAMPA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 1995
REPLACEMENT MARKER FUNDED BY THE WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION
REPLACEMENT MARKER ERECTED BY THE HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY HISTORICAL ADVISORY COUNCIL, 2020