Volume 15 , Issue 13

Rockbridge County, Virginia & Hemp Farming

I did not realize this about the history of Hemp until I was reading the History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, compiled by Oren F. Morton, and published in the early part of 1900s. I would assume many of you did not know that Hemp in America from 1631 until the early 1800s was used as legal tender and paying taxes.

Another juicy Hemp tidbit is George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers were a part of those plantations that were order to grow Hemp. It you refused to grow it, you were arrested and jailed.

We did find where Jefferson smuggled Hemp seeds from China to France then to America. Benjamin Franklin owned one of the first paper mills in America, and it processed Hemp.

On page 38 of History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, there is mention of Hemp was a staple crop, and it was the one most immediately a source of ready money. Only the well-to-do could afford clothes of imported cloth, which was woven into linen and linsy-woolsy. The flax patch was consequently a feature of the frontier farm. The cultivation of it was encouraged by the colonial government, and its fiber brought $5 a hundred weight, with a bounty of $1. More Hemp seemed to have been grown in Rockbridge than in other parts of Old Augusta. Other pages concerning Hemp farm & plantations can be found on pages 49, 57-59, 101, 104, 107, 170-171, 277, 287, 322 of Oren F. Morton's book, History of Rockbridge County, Virginia.

We also find that the Hemp that was not sent to market was made into sacking, or into a hard, strong cloth of a greenish hue that slowly turned to a white. The unbleached cloth was of the color of flaxen hair. The homemade linen was of two grades, one for fine and one for coarse cloth, and actually blocked out more of the UV rays than the clothes of today. Six yards a day was about the utmost the weaver could accomplish, if the weaving were to be tight enough.

The flax patch was seldom of more than one acre. Before and during the Revolution a great deal of Hemp was grown, requiring good soil. After Kentucky was comfortably open to settlement, Hemp culture disappeared from Virginia, and migrated to the Bluegrass State and onto Missouri.

There was no change in the agriculture, aside from the discontinuance of Hemp about 1825. Flax growing disappeared with the arrival of the great city factory, and was but a fast fading recollection to many. The fiber crops had become extinct.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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