Carolina Brights was an inexpensive 5 cent cigarette first made in 1899 by the Wells-Whitehead Tobacco Company of Wilson, NC. This small tobacco manufacturer was bought by James Duke's tobacco trust in 1903. There was a lot of anti-trust sentiment, so the true ownership of Wells-Whitehead was kept a secret. Duke was able to deceive smokers by producing cigarette and tobacco packets that didn't identify his monopoly. Organized labor union members who smoked Carolina Brights, thought they were buying a union made cigarette from an independent tobacco company. When the truth was learned, the tobacco workers' union withdrew their label, which pronounced a cigarette as being union made. One of these small blue labels had been glued to the back of each Carolina Brights packet. Advertising consisted of coupons, which were redeemable for free merchandise. A pocket watch worth $18 dollars was advertised as being sent post-paid to the 1907 smoker who returned 1200 coupons to the manufacturer. By 1909 baseball cards were the free premiums offered. Carolina Brights was one of the fourteen different brands of cigarettes and two brands of tobacco that issued the popular T-206 baseball cards. This large set of colorful cards was available in three different series, and one of the series contained the famous Honus Wagner card. The back of this legendary card advertised either Sweet Caporal or Piedmont Cigarettes. Less than 60 of these rare cards are known to exist. A beautiful example was auctioned on eBay July 2000. This near mint condition card sold for more than one million dollars, the most ever paid for a baseball card.

The T-206 baseball cards given free with Carolina Brights states that the cigarettes were made in Factory 25, 2nd District of Virginia. This was Allen & Ginter's old Richmond factory, which produced several different American Tobacco Company cigarette brands after the 1890 merger. Once the non-union cat was out of the bag, the Wells-Whitehead Tobacco Company was liquidated. Liquidation took place in 1908, and production of Carolina Brights was then shifted from North Carolina to Virginia.