“This may be hard to believe in the middle of the War on Drugs, but the first law concerning marijuana [hemp] in the colonies at Jamestown in 1619 ordered farmers to grow Indian hemp. Massachusetts passed a compulsory ‘grow’ law in 1631. Connecticut followed in 1632. The Chesapeake Colonies ordered their farmers, by law, to grow marijuana [hemp] in the mid-eighteenth-century. [Town] names like Hempstead or Hemp Hill dot the American landscape, and reflect areas of intense marijuana cultivation.”
– Hugh Downs, ABC News, 1991
“Make the most you can of the Indian hempseed. Sow it everywhere.”
– George Washington, in a letter to his farm manager, 1794
“What was done with the seed saved from the India hemp last summer? It ought, all of it, to have been sown again; that not only a stock of seed sufficient for my own purposes might have been raised, but to have disseminated the seed to others; as it is more valuable than the common hemp.”
– George Washington, in a letter to his farm manager William Pearce, May 29, 1796
“Let particular care be taken of the India Hemp seed, and as much good ground, allotted for its reception next year as is competent to sow.”
– George Washington, in letter to his farm manager William Pearce, November 5, 1796
[hemp is] “an article of importance enough to warrant the employment of extraordinary means in its favor.”
– Alexander Hamilton, 1791, first secretary of the U.S. Treasury
“The fact well established in the system of agriculture is that the best hemp and the best tobacco grow on the same kind of soil. The former article is of the first necessity to the commerce and marine, in other words, to the wealth and protection of the country. The latter, never useful and sometimes pernicious, derives its estimation from caprice, and its best value from the taxes to which it was formerly exposed. The preference to be given will result from a comparison of them: Hemp employs in its rudest form more labor than tobacco, but being a material for manufactures of various sorts, becomes afterwards the means of support to numbers of people, hence it is to be preferred in a populous country.”
– Thomas Jefferson, March 16, 1791
“Flax is so injurious to our lands and of so scanty produce that I have never attempted it. Hemp, on the other hand, is abundantly productive and will grow forever on the same spot.”
– Thomas Jefferson, December 1815
Throughout history the use of hemp has been closely associated with human societies. From China to Africa to Europe, hemp has been known as a versatile plant. Hemp has also been found in mounds built by ancient people in what is now the state of Ohio.
The relationship between hemp and what would become the United States of America is an interesting one.
Nobody seems to know exactly how hemp came to the Americas. Some think it may have been by way of birds or other wildlife. Others think it was brought by the Chinese, the Vikings, or other travelers.
What is known is that hemp is what brought Europe to America.
The sails of clipper ships were made of hemp fabric, and the maps and logbooks on board were made of hemp paper. By 1545 hemp was being cultivated in Chile, and varieties containing psychoactive substances were being grown in Central America where it became known as a spiritually enlightening substance.
Hemp was planted at Jamestown in 1607. Because hemp was such an important crop it is not unlikely that the Spanish planted hemp seed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1610.
By 1611 by order of King James I, hemp farming was required of the colonists in northeastern America. While many colonists turned to growing tobacco because that crop commanded higher prices, it is known that hemp was one of the first crops to be cultivated in the New World, and continued to be an important crop for hundreds of years. In 1619 the Virginia Company ordered the colonists to grow hemp. In addition to Pilgrims, the Mayflower carried bundles of hemp seed to America in 1620. The Puritans grew hemp and found that it grew better in the soil and climate of their new land than it did in Europe. The Virginia General Assembly of 1619 required colonists to grow hemp. Other specific laws requiring hemp farming were passed in the colonies. In 1637 the General Assembly Court of Hartford ruled “every family within this plantation shall procure and plant this present year one spoonful of English hemp seed in some soyle.” By 1635, Colonists in Salem, Massachusetts had built a “rope walk” (rope factory), and by 1639 they were required to grow hemp for their own use as well as for trade. Other rope factories were being built in other settlements along the Atlantic coast (in 1854 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his poem The Ropewalk about a hemp factory). In the late 1600s William Rittenhouse and William Bradford built the Rittenhouse mill alongside Wissahickon Creek near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They began making paper out of hemp rags. England was pleased that hemp grew so well in America, and it was imported back to England in exchange for other goods. By the late 1600s hemp was being used as a form of payment for goods and debts.
“Industrial hemp was a cornerstone crop in early America. In fact, due to its versatility, Americans were legally bound to grow it during the Colonial Era and Early Republic.”
– Organic Consumers Association, Organic Bytes #55; April 12, 2005; OrganicConsumers.org
Farmers learned early that hemp could improve soil quality while choking weeds. This is one of the many reasons why hemp became so popular in the early years of what was to become the U.S. Hemp was used by farmers as a rotation crop and helped farmers manage their land.
France required the early Quebecois to grow hemp that was to be sent back to France. While the Europeans had been cultivating hemp in Canada since 1606, it apparently was not enough. The story goes that in 1666 King Louis XIV’s representative in Quebec encouraged the growing of hemp by seizing all the thread from the colonists. In a letter, the king’s representative, Jean Talon, wrote, “I will only distribute it [the thread] to those who agree to return a stated quantity of hemp.”
England would soon find out how well hemp grew in the rich soil across the Atlantic.
Britain’s reliance on hemp grown in the colonies helped turn the tides of politics. The colonists were growing hemp, sending the raw materials to England, then having to import the products made from the hemp back to America. This was because England had banned weaving and spinning in the colonies. The colonists were also required to purchase wool products imported from England. The colonists reasoned that they shouldn’t have to buy materials made from what they were growing.
By the 1600s the colonists had been making their own fabric, rope, sails, and other materials from hemp. When the British Parliament passed the Wool Act of 1699 forbidding the colonists to import wool for spinning, the colonists simply began to rely more on making their fabrics from flax and hemp.
The American textile industry began to flourish as Irish textile workers began immigrating to America. Ireland had both hemp and wool industries, and these workers were a benefit to the American businesses that hired them. With their own textile industry, the colonists were becoming more independent.
By the 1760s Britain tried to enforce heavier tariffs on goods being imported into the colonies.
In 1765 the Massachusetts House of Representatives paid Edmund Quincy to write “A Treatise of Hemp-Husbandry.” It stated that the most important materials were hemp and flax.
In Thomas Paine’s Common Sense he wrote that hemp was important in gaining America’s independence.
The colonists had been making their own paper from flax and cotton, and mostly from the most abundant crop, which was hemp.
George Washington grew hemp at Mt. Vernon and was an outspoken advocate for its use in textiles, paper, oils, and other uses to help America gain its independence.
By 1760 the British had essentially taken control of India, and by 1763 they had defeated France. With those tasks accomplished, the British government turned their attention to gaining more control over America. Having established their presence in India and Ireland, where hemp grew in abundance, Britain no longer was dependant on American hemp. But it knew that America held other resources, and a growing number of colonies, each of which could be taxed to raise revenue.
While increasing its military foothold in America, Britain took measures to regulate the resources, finances, and import/export businesses in America. It did so by creating a number of laws, including those that taxed the colonists to help finance British rule over America. As it was worded in Parliament, these revenue-raising regulations were for “for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing” both the colonies and the Kingdom. In other words, the colonists were being taxed not only to finance Britain’s rule in America, but also to fund Britain’s rule in other lands. Revenue was also needed because, since the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 (also known as the Seven Years War), Britain sought to maintain an army of 10,000 troops in the colonies, and more in Canada and the British West Indies.
To avoid conflict with the Indigenous societies, the colonists were supposed to stop migrating west of the Appalachian Ridge. To maintain the agreement, thousands of British troops were stationed in the west to both regulate commerce with the Native peoples and keep Whites from settling in “Indian territory.” Some Whites, and also those Blacks who had been slaves did move into the territory of the Indigenous societies, not to live separately, but to become part of the communities. In the 1700s, what was then the “Western frontier,” and what are now the Midwest and mountain states of America were becoming more of a mix than many people today seem to understand. There were immigrants from Spain, France, Germany, and other European countries living with and adopting the lifestyles of the Indigenous peoples. Many of the immigrants found the Indigenous cultures to me more agreeable, tolerant, fair, and peaceful than what they left behind in European societies, including in the so-called “civilized” colonies. Also, some Chinese immigrants had been adopted into Indigenous groups, especially in the 1800s after having left the brutal conditions of the labor forces undertaking the construction of the railroads. When the Whites were slaughtering the Native Americans, they were also slaughtering some of the European and Asian immigrants who had become part of the Indigenous communities, some were thought of as tainted blood because they had mingled and had children with the Native Americans.
Many of those living in the colonies viewed the Parliamentary Acts dictatorial. Colonists felt they were being ruled over with no say in how their government was to be run. And they were being taxed without having a say in how the tax laws were to be formed. They felt that, and I’ll say this in my best American English, nobody from the colonies was speaking for them in Parliament. In other words, it was taxation without representation and without consenting colonial legislatures.
On April 5, 1764 the Parliament of Great Britain passed the Sugar Act. Also known as the American Revenue Act, the Sugar Act placed a three-cent tax on foreign-refined sugar, increased taxes on coffee, indigo, and certain types of wine while banning the importation of rum from non-British islands, and of wine from France. This was an attempt to overhaul an earlier Act, the Sugar and Molasses Act of 1733, which was ineffective and a great failure, and had expired in 1763. The Sugar Act reduced the tax on molasses by half, with the reasoning that the tax would be easier to pay. But, the colonists, who were experiencing economic hardships, were not happy with the Sugar Act. But, their loss was the gain of the British West Indies. This Act was a failure for Britain because increased American domestic manufacturing, and decreased America’s reliance on imported goods. In August of 1764, a group of Boston merchants agreed to stop purchasing certain imported British goods.
Also in 1764, Parliament passed the Currency Act. This Act was meant to protect British creditors from being paid with inflated colonial currency. The Act required colonial currency to be based on gold and silver with a one-to-one ratio value equal to British currency.
The Sugar Act was repealed in 1766. In its place, Parliament enacted the Revenue Act of 1766, which reduced the tax on molasses to one pence per gallon, including from British or foreign sources.
On March 22, 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act, and it became law on November 1st of that year. The Act required all contracts, court and legal document, permits, newspapers, and playing cards produced or sold in the colonies to carry a tax stamp. Legal documents lacking a legal stamp were to be considered null and void. Countries, particularly in Europe and within Great Britain, had long since enacted Stamp Acts to raise government revenue, so it was no surprise that Britain enacted a Stamp Act for the American colonies. Stamp Acts had already been considered for the colonies, but this was the first time Britain had passed and sought to enforce such an Act in the colonies. The Stamp Act was another way that Britain sought to both gain control over America while also maintaining the colonial military presence.
In the March 1765 Parliamentary debates to negotiate the formation of the Stamp Act, Charles Townshend posed, “Will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished of strength and opulence, and protected by our arms, will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from heavy weight of the burden which we lie under?”
The actions of the colonists after the Stamp Act became law pretty much answered Townshend’s assumptive question.
Tonwshend’s view that Britain nourished the colonists with such delicate care was hardly how the colonists viewed Britain. Many of the colonists had never set food in England or on any other foreign soil. An increasing number of colonists had been born in America, and it was all they knew. Having some country across an ocean trying to rule over them was not something they viewed lightly.
Many of the colonists viewed Britain’s growing interests in ruling over them, including the British military forces, as a warning. They also did not like the wording of the Stamp Act in that it mentioned “ecclesiastical jurisdiction.” Many of the colonists, or their ancestors, came to America to escape the presence of the Anglican Church. Although the colonies did not have Anglican bishops presiding in the courts, some American Anglican Church members in the north were promoting the prospects of a greater church presence. The colonists largely did not care for the idea of Anglican bishop presiding in court. And they did not want the British admiralty courts to take over the colonial courts.
The Stamp Act impacted everyone in all of the colonies, and it became a common concern that all could relate to. Merchant and landowner groups in the colonies began to correspond and become more organized. In June 1764, a five-member Committee of Correspondence was formed in Massachusetts. The Committee was to coordinate information and activities in response to the Stamp Act. In October 1764, a similar committee was also formed in Rhode Island. Hundreds of merchants in New York City organized and agreed to stop importing British goods. Demonstrations and violent protests arose against the Stamp Act and these caused the Stamp Distributors resigned. In response to the Stamp Act, the colonists organized and sent protest petitions to Parliament and the King.
“If taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves?”
– Samuel Adams, Boston, May 1964
If any of the leaders in Parliament lacked an understanding of how the colonists were becoming organized and rallying behind a growing number of their own domestic concerns, the response to the Stamp Act brought them to understand.
Because they were losing money caused by the refusal of Americans to import British goods, manufacturers and merchants in Brittan also spoke out against the Stamp Act. This helped to bring Parliament to repeal the Act on March 17, 1766, and the King agreed to it.
The protests and concerns of colonists that resulted in response to the Stamp Act directly influenced the organization of the Sons of Liberty. Within months there were branches with delegates in colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia. This was another step toward American independence. Four of the delegates were signers of the Declaration of Independence.
In persisting to carry on its rule over the colonies, and affirming its right to tax and to create laws governing the residents of the colonies, on March 18, 1766 Parliament passed the Declatory Act. To put it simply, this Act was also not welcomed by the colonists and helped them to become even more organized and independent.
The colonists also did not care for the Townshend Acts. These were a group of Acts passed in 1767 and 1768. They were far-reaching in that they covered taxes, trade regulations, and legal issues, including judges and governors who were to be independent of colonial control.
In response to the Townshend Acts, John Dickinson wrote a series of twelve essays titled, “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania.” The first essay appeared in December 1767. They advised people to avoid paying the taxes imposed by the Townshend Acts as paying the taxes would lead to other taxes, which would all impose hardships on the colonists. Dickenson sent copies of his essays to James Otis of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Eventually the Massachusetts House of Representatives petitioned King George to repeal the Revenue Act. The Massachusetts House of Representatives also sent out the Massachusetts Circular Letter to other colonial assemblies, which than also petitioned the King.
Dickenson’s essays were printed on hemp paper, and it is likely that the paper was produced at the paper mill owned by Benjamin Franklin, who flew his kite using hemp string. The colonists were supposed to be purchasing their paper from Britain. Franklin was the leading producer of paper, and his hemp paper helped reduce Britain’s rule over the colonies. As Britain’s aggression toward the colonists increased, so did the amount of goods that America was producing for its own use, including hemp for fabric, oil, fuel, paper, paint, varnish, food, bedding, insulation, and animal bedding.
The various Acts passed by Parliament to establish their domain over the American colonists backfired. How the colonists reacted, including the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the colonial boycott of British goods, and various other agreements, resolutions, meetings, protests, and events, brought about the American Revolutionary War.
Since it took control of Ireland and India, England had access to all the hemp it needed. But the growing number of military and trade ships among European countries needed hemp sails, hemp rope, hemp caulking, and hemp oil. By the 1770s America was exporting hemp to Europe and using this to purchase weaponry for the War of Independence. America had also formed an alliance with France, which imported hemp from America.
The first American flags were made out of hemp fabric. The Declaration of Independence was written on Dutch hemp paper, as was the Bill of Rights. The first two drafts of the U.S. Constitution were on hemp paper, with the final draft being on animal skin.
As the U.S. established its own military, more hemp was grown for paper, clothing, uniforms, tents, bedding, blankets, lamp oil, sails, rigging, and caulking.
In 1781, Benedict Arnold, who originally fought for the American Continental Army, but switched sides, led British troops to destroy a hemp rope manufacturing facility in Warwick, Virginia. This was done because the rope being produced was used for America’s military forces.
In 1777 Edward Antil wrote Observations on the Raising and Dressing of Hemp. In this he wrote that hemp is worthy of the attention “of every trading man who truly loves his country.”
“Flax and hemp: Manufacturers of these articles have so much affinity to each other, and they are so often blended, that they may with advantage be considered in conjunction.”
– Alexander Hamilton
American money was once printed on hemp paper. President John Quincy Adams wrote a report in 1810 titled On the Culture and Preparing of Hemp in Russia.
While some say that hemp was second to cotton as the most important agricultural crop in the U.S., they aren’t taking into consideration that hemp provided more than just fabric. Unlike cotton, hemp also provided oil that is better than cotton oil because hemp oil has more uses, and hemp also provides food and paper. To its benefit, hemp takes longer to degrade under the sun than cotton, and its fibers are longer and stronger than cotton fibers. Because of this, hemp makes strong fabrics for outside use, including sails, nets, tents, and rope. With that, hemp could easily be considered as the most important crop in the early days of the U.S. Interestingly, cotton bales were often wrapped in hemp fabric because hemp fabric is sturdier than cotton fabric. Hemp twine was also used to tie the cotton bales. Only after slavery ended, which greatly reduced hemp farming, did cotton bales begin commonly to be tied with wire.
While hemp was important in the U.S., it also remained an important article of trade in Europe. By the late 1700s Russia, on the back of serf labor, had developed a hemp industry that became their number one export, supplying many countries with hemp products. As both military and merchant shipping fleets grew, the demand for hemp sails and rigging continued to grow, and this greatly benefited Russia’s hemp industry.
After the French monarchy was overthrown in the French Revolution of the late 1700s, the British navy blockaded the French in the early 1800s in fear that the working class would also oust the British monarchy.
Napoleon partially financed his military by selling the Louisiana Territory to the U.S. This greatly increased the landmass of the U.S. and gave Napoleon leverage. He formed an alliance with the Russian czar Alexander. The signing of the Treaty of Tilset in 1807 was a great strategy. It cut off Russia’s trade with England. The British navy fleet as well as the merchant ships needed a constant supply of hemp sails and rope and had long built a reliance on Russia’s quality hemp. England then considered any ship that traded with Napoleon’s Continental System to be an enemy, which meant that American ships were subjected to blockade and seizure.
While some American sailors from seized ships were sent back to the U.S., others, in one way or another, became part of the British navy. The British used American ships to purchase the hemp products from Russia that the Brits needed for their navy fleet. Napoleon became aware of these dealings that provided England’s navy with hemp sails and rigging. In 1810 Napoleon insisted that it be stopped, but the czar refused as his country was greatly benefiting from the trade. Then Napoleon invaded Russia to destroy the hemp crops and to work to stop the supplies of hemp fabric and rigging going to British navy ships.
Meanwhile, England continued to stop American ships from trading with the European continent, continued its blockade, and forced ships to purchase supplies from Mediterranean ports, including from Napoleon and his allies, who needed the trade.
As America suffered from these blockades and seizures, Congress debated going to war, which included plans to permanently or temporarily take part or all of Canada. By this time the U.S. had been planting many acres of hemp to supply both its domestic needs and those of its growing navy.
On June 18, 1812, the U.S. Congress voted to go to war with Britain.
In Europe, Napoleon’s armies suffered great losses, mostly due to exposure and inadequate supplies.
In the U.S. Britain burned Washington, D.C. But Britain faltered as its military was stretched too thin with war against a well fortified U.S. navy while also fighting against France.
On December 24, 1814, Britain and the U.S. signed the Ghent treaty in Belgium. Britain agreed never to interfere with American merchant ships. The U.S. agreed to give up on its idea of taking Canada.
Unfortunately, the news that the war was over hadn’t reached New Orleans, where the Americans defeated British armies in January 1815; two weeks after the treaty had been signed. But the treaty wasn’t finalized until February 18.
The U.S. was finally at peace with England. It also demilitarized the border with Canada.
As the United States settled in to being its own country, the population of the country expanded westward. As it did, hemp was being utilized in many different ways.
The covered wagons used to cross the Great Plains were covered with hemp fabric, and hempseed oil was used to lubricate the axles and to fuel the lamps. The clothing of the pioneers was made of hemp, flax, and cotton.
“In the 1800s, Kentucky regularly accounted for one-half of the industrial hemp production in the United States.”
–A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky, by James F. Hopkins; University of Kentucky Press, 1951
Americans were literally wrapped in hemp. Millions of American soldiers have worn hemp fabric clothing and shoes. Although early work jeans were originally made from thick cotton, some of the first denim jeans made by the German-born dry goods merchant Levi Strauss were made of discarded hemp-sail fabric from clipper ships in San Francisco. He also made cotton jeans at the same time. He fastened them with copper pocket rivets to improve their durability for California gold rush miners.
By mid-1800s there were hemp farms from Massachusetts to California. In addition to “amber waves of grain,” America the Beautiful should have mentioned the significant brilliant fields of green hemp.
It was during the middle 1800s that the industrialists began emerging as major financial and political players. With massive numbers of people migrating west, the railroads became a major business. Tracks were laid across the continent using cheap labor, including horribly abused Chinese immigrants. Those who owned the railroad companies became wealthy. The owner of the New York Central Railroad, Cornelius Vanderbilt, became the richest person in America. Other players, including those who made their fortunes in the petroleum industries, which, as I explain elsewhere, played a major role in creating laws that obliterated the hemp industry while making them even wealthier.
Hemp farming and the production of hemp products peaked in the middle of the nineteenth-century. At that time it was being made into everything from clothing, food, animal feed, paper, rope, and wood preservative, to lantern fuel and lubricant oil.
The hemp industry was flourishing. In 1852 money allocated by Congress was used to build a hemp rope factory in Memphis. Some people in the southern states saw this as a slight because the South had more cotton farms, while the northern states had hemp farms.
Abraham Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd, was from a hemp farming family.
And that was the era when the North fought with the South.
Some people held the opinion that the north wanted to abolish slavery because it would make cotton more expensive to produce, and would even out the competition between the southern cotton industry and northern hemp industry. To validate their point, they mention that the economic competition between hemp and cotton was obviously an issue in the Civil war based on the fact that invading Confederate armies targeted and destroyed hemp processing facilities. But, when taking many other factors into consideration, it is unlikely that hemp was a major factor. Hemp had many more uses than cotton as it was used to create a stronger and more versatile fabric while also providing seed oil for fuel, paint, varnish, wood preservative, and food. Hemp grew easily in all states, while cotton grew only in the warmer climates. What really increased the production of cotton was the invention and use of the machines used to process it. Until the 1900s, there was no machine that could process large quantities of hemp. Also of note is that there were some slaves used in the north, including in the hemp industry. Slavery wasn’t only a southern thing.
The southern states were at a disadvantage as they had a lack of skilled workers in a competitive workforce. It was mostly slaves that were used for the labor in the south, while the north had fewer slaves and more workers who were paid to do their jobs and did so at more competitive wages that may have been considered low, but they weren’t as low as slavery. The lack of a skilled workforce, and of diverse industries, and the development of the railroads to the west all played a part in the fall of the south and of a united country.
However, hemp did have a role in the war as it supplied fabric and other materials for both sides. But hemp also played another role in this war, which included the 1861 Battle of the Hemp Bales.
Lexington, Missouri, was home to hemp farms and factories that processed hemp. Northern troops had set up fort at a Masonic college on a hill near the town of Lexington. The rebel soldiers took shelter behind rolled bales of hemp taken from storage barns and wet down to absorb gunfire. Winning this on September 26, the Confederates had temporarily gained control of the state. Seventy-three soldiers were killed in the battle. To this day, the Lafayette County courthouse still features a cannonball imbedded in a column of its face.
“Kentuckians sometimes referred to hemp as a ‘Nigger crop,’ owing to the belief that no one understood its eccentricities as well or was as expert in handling it as the Negro. A Kentuckian stated in 1836 that it was almost impossible to hire workmen to break a crop of hemp because the work was ‘very dirty, and so laborious that scarcely any White man will work at it,’ and he continued by saying that the task was done entirely by slave labor.”
– James F. Hopkins, A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky, Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1951
Farms in the South used slave labor to plant, grow, harvest, and process hemp. They often grew it next to fields of other crops including corn, wheat, and tobacco. This was particularly true in Kentucky and Missouri, which were the leaders in American hemp production of the 1800s. Female slaves were often used in manufacturing products from hemp, including fabric and rope. Many slaves who earned their freedom did so while working on hemp plantations. As the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished, the hemp industry shrank as the cost of farming and processing hemp increased. There was no machine that had been invented to speed up the processing of hemp as had been done with cotton and wool. The invention of the steam engine and its increasingly common use in ships in the late 1800s reduced the demand for hemp fabric sails and rigging. Many farms that had grown hemp went on to grow other crops, including tobacco, while others took on cattle and dairy farming, or sold their farms, or turned them into industrial sites.
Unfortunately, in collusion with the government, the paper industry turned to using trees for paper. The destruction of the forests sped up in sync with the advances in paper technology.
According to the American Forest and Paper Association, in the early 1800s a Frenchman by the name of Nicholas-Louis Robert invented the Fourdrinier machine that sped up the paper manufacturing process by using pulverized hemp and plant matter spread across a continuous wire screen.
By the mid-1800s a German chemist by the name of D.F. Dahl invented a way of creating paper from tree pulp. His process worked in combination with a sulfite process developed in 1866 by an American named Benjamin Tilghman. In 1874 a paper mill in Sweden began using this process. Named the kraft process, it used sulfites to dissolve the lignans in wood. The process spread to America with the 1911 construction of the first kraft process paper mill in Pensacola, Florida. The process was especially successful with the wood of the southern pine. The spread of this paper-making process using wood further impacted the future of hemp, leading to the destruction of millions of acres of ancient forests throughout North America.
Although hemp farming continued after slavery ended, it had become a trickle compared to the hemp industry of the mid-1800s.
“Several [varieties of hemp] are grown in this country, that cultivated in Kentucky and having a hollow stem, being the most common. China hemp, with slender stems, growing very erect, has a wide range of culture. Smyrna hemp is adapted to cultivation over a still wider range and Japanese hemp is beginning to be cultivated, particularly in California, where it reaches a height of 15 feet. Russian and Italian seed have been experimented with, but the former produces a short stalk, while the latter only grows to a medium height. A small quantity of Piedmontese hemp seed from Italy was distributed by the Department in 1893, having been received through the Chicago Exposition.”
– U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Fiber Investigations. Report No. 8, Page 7; 1896