# Did Thomas Jefferson Prove Tomatoes Weren't Poisonous? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 15, 2000, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-thomas-jefferson-prove-tomatoes-werent-poisonous/29416 "2000-08-15T12:06:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-thomas-jefferson-prove-tomatoes-werent-poisonous/29416/1 "2000-08-15T12:06:31Z")
I was thumbing through a plant book last night, looking up nightshade, when I came across a reference to the “well-known story” that **Thomas Jefferson ate a tomato in public to prove it wasn’t poisonous** (the idea being that the general public, up until that time, thought tomatoes _were_ poisonous). I’ve heard this story before, with additional details, but I also recall hearing that it was an urban legend. I can find some other sites that mention this as true (like [this one](http://www.silive.com/community/black_history/0222nie7side.html)), but I can’t find any place, including Snopes, that claims the story is false. Still, the story just seems like, well, a story. What’s the straight dope? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-thomas-jefferson-prove-tomatoes-werent-poisonous/29416/2 "2000-08-15T12:44:57Z")
I’ve seen reports that someone did indeed eat tomatoes at the town square to prove they weren’t poisonous, but it wasn’t Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson grew tomatoes, and may have eaten them, but did not perform the demonstration. ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-thomas-jefferson-prove-tomatoes-werent-poisonous/29416/3 "2000-08-15T13:36:04Z")
Yeah, the “town square” was one of the additional details I remember about the story, along with the town constable trying to put a stop to the demonstration, and the (eventually disappointed) citizens hanging around for hours waiting for TJ to drop dead. Unless, of course, it wasn’t TJ. I wonder not only if _Jefferson_ was the protagonist in this particular story, but also if the story has _any_ basis in fact. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-thomas-jefferson-prove-tomatoes-werent-poisonous/29416/4 "2000-08-15T14:09:31Z")
I’ve also heard this story being attributed to George Washington Carver. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-thomas-jefferson-prove-tomatoes-werent-poisonous/29416/5 "2000-08-15T14:13:41Z")
Try this. He’s written 3 tomato books. [http://www.concentric.net/~1tarkus/ccex10.htm](http://www.concentric.net/~1tarkus/ccex10.htm) Here’s a magazine article. [http://www.attachemag.com/stories/archives/07-99/passion2.htm](http://www.attachemag.com/stories/archives/07-99/passion2.htm) A serious academic institution. [http://www.uga.edu/vegetable/tomato.html](http://www.uga.edu/vegetable/tomato.html) None of these websites mention Jefferson as being “the one” to stand there and eat the tomato. I think you got hold of a “factoid” rather than a “fact”. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-thomas-jefferson-prove-tomatoes-werent-poisonous/29416/6 "2000-08-15T15:44:33Z")
It had nothing to do with Thomas Jefferson. There was a fellow in the 19th century who ate a whole bushel of tomatoes at noon on the courthouse steps. Strong men gasped and women fainted to see the man boldly committing suicide. He had publicized it in advance and drew a crowd. After he survived with no ill effects, tomatoes became popular to eat. I forgot the man’s name, but the story was told in _The People’s Almanac_, which I don’t have handy any more. When stories get handed around, they develop embellishments, added either by the ignorant or the sensationalist. As to why Jefferson’s names was associated with this event which took place after his death, it’s probably because Jefferson did so much to advance horticulture in this country, importing and experimenting with new crops. I visited the gardens at Monticello and saw many European species growing there, but I don’t recall seeing tomatoes. ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-thomas-jefferson-prove-tomatoes-werent-poisonous/29416/7 "2000-08-15T16:24:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ishmintingas \* > It had nothing to do with Thomas Jefferson. > > There was a fellow in the 19th century who ate a whole bushel of tomatoes at noon on the courthouse steps… I agree with your assessment of how Jefferson’s name became associated with this particular stunt. However, the first site that **Duck Duck Goose** gives says the following, > [@](#): > > Q: Many people believe that the first person to eat a tomato in America was Robert gibbon Johnson. Legend had it that he stood before a crowd on the courthouse steps in Salem, N.J. On September 26, 1820 and ate the first tomato in America, proving that it wasn’t poisonous. You say this story is false. What’s the true story behind this legend? > > A: Robert Gibbon Johnson was a prominent leader in Salem and new Jersey during the first half of the 19th century. He was interested in agriculture and promoted agricultural innovation and the introduction of new crops. He probably did eat tomatoes, but there is no historical evidence proving that Johnson did so. The courthouse step story has been frequently repeated, but all the details of the story were made up in the 20th century. Even if Johnson first ate a tomato in 1820, he would not have been the first to do so in America. Tomatoes were eaten probably since the late 17th century in the southern parts of what is today the United States. Some Americans in New England were eating tomatoes by 1800, although not everyone like their taste. This suggests to me that not only was Thomas Jeffereson not associated with this stunt at all, but also the stunt never occured in the first place. On the other hand, the third site says that > [@](#): > > George Washington Carver was known for standing in front of crowds and eating tomatoes, trying to introduce tomatoes into the diet. (note he was _not_ trying to prove they weren’t poisonous.) So perhaps this is the original historical fact that gave rise to the later legends? ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-thomas-jefferson-prove-tomatoes-werent-poisonous/29416/8 "2000-08-15T17:38:07Z")
According to [Lynchburg Online](http://www.lynchburgonline.com/index.html?attractions), Mr. Jefferson was said to have eaten a “love-apple” at the Miller-Claytor House. It seems to be M-C House’s only claim to fame. I also remember hearing a story about a servant who believed he had poisoned George Washington because he had served the General a tomatoe. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-thomas-jefferson-prove-tomatoes-werent-poisonous/29416/9 "2000-08-15T17:42:20Z")
When I toured Salen back in the 1970s there was an exhibit at one of the privately-owned historic houses (now closed and in the hands of the Peabody-Essex museum) that had a “talking” mannikin playing an Italian resident who “proved” tomatoes were not poisonous by eating one in public. I suppose the fact that tomato sauce is used in a lot of Italian food that Americans are familiar with made this seem plausible, but I suspect that this story is as phone as all the others in this thread. A book I had as kid told how in colonial days the tomato was considered poisonous because it was related to the Deadly Nightshade. How much truth there is in this I do not know, but I’m trusting such unsupported “facs” less and less. ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-thomas-jefferson-prove-tomatoes-werent-poisonous/29416/10 "2000-08-15T18:12:54Z")
**Cal** , if it’s any help, I found an article, [From Wolf Peach to Outer Space: Tomato History & Lore](http://www.bbg.org/gardening/kitchen/tomatoes/cutler.html), on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden site. It has this to say: “Or I might have called the tomato a wolf peach, from its genus name Lycopersicon, a reflection of a long-held belief that the tomato – a member of the nightshade family – was poisonous. That view was largely the result of Renaissance botanists, who, relying on Greek and Roman texts, misidentified and misclassified the tomato. Their errors were copied by popular 16th-century English herbalists, such as John Gerard, who saw no contradiction in writing that while Spaniards and Italians ate tomatoes, the plant was nevertheless ‘of ranke and stinking savour.’” And “The tomato’s reputation was partially rescued among English-speaking peoples in the 1750s, when _esculentum_, which means edible, was designated its species name.” The article also mentions Salem’s Robert Johnson, but says the story has no basis in fact. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-thomas-jefferson-prove-tomatoes-werent-poisonous/29416/11 "2000-08-16T09:06:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ishmintingas \* > \*\* > There was a fellow in the 19th century who ate a whole bushel of tomatoes at noon on the courthouse steps. \*\* A bushel of tomatoes would weigh about 53 lb. I’m reminded of a line from an old American folk song, “Why, a bushel’ll kill you, my good old man.” The song meant a bushel of eggs, I think the same would apply to 53 lb. of tomatoes. Tomatoes are related to the deadly nightshade, but so are potatoes, which were eaten widely long before Jefferson’s time. The tomato is native to the equatorial highlands of South America. It was first grown in Italy no later than 1554. In France it was thought to be an aphrodisiac. I wonder if it wasn’t this supposed trait that made it verboten to Puritanical Americans.