The legend of Colonel Johnson

RECENTLY I came across a story that claimed the vegetable industry was changed forever when a man publicly risked his life by eating a tomato. You can't read something like that and not want to know more, so I did a little research and found a multitude of sources, each with its own version of the legend. The general consensus of the event is as follows:

In the early 1820s, Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson of Salem, NJ, went public with his controversial assertion that the tomato was a food. I know, you're thinking "Wow - this guy's really going out on a limb!" At the time, though, many people reportedly considered the fruit of the tomato plant to be highly toxic. We complain about industry headaches like import pressures, low prices, and food safety issues? Imagine trying to market tomatoes at the turn of the 19th century.

One day, the colonel put his stomach where his mouth was and declared he would prove his theory by eating a tomato on the steps of the local courthouse. Not something I'd leave work early to see, but legend has it that 2000 spectators showed up that afternoon. Hey, it was the 1820s - the Jerry Springer show hadn't been invented yet, so the prospect of watching a man kill himself with a tomato was apparently the best they could do in the cheap thrills department.