We should be taught about Hemp in History Class...
- David Anthony
- Jul 10, 2016
- 4 min read
Hemp is an ancient plant that has been cultivated and used in may ways for decades. The Columbia History of the World in 1996 stated that the weaving of hemp fiber began more then 10,000 years ago! The use of wild hemp can be traced as far back as 8000 B.C.
In Great Britain, hemp was cultivated as early as 800AD. Henry VIII greatly encouraged farmers to grow the crop to provide materials for the British. The British were in need of hemp fibers for the construction of battleships and their components. Hemp fiber has many uses on the battleship like riggings, pendants, pennants, sails, and oakum were all made from hemp fiber and oil. Hemp paper was used for maps, logs, and even for the Bibles that sailors may have brought on board, were made of hemp paper. As far back as the 17th Century American farmers in Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut were ordered by law to grow Indian hemp. By the early 18th century, a person could be sentenced to jail if they weren’t growing hemp on their land! Hemp was considered to be legal tender. For over 200 years in colonial America, hemp was currency that one could use to pay their taxes with. Try doing that today, you'll be throw in jail and in some states just for growing Hemp you could get more jail time than if murdering someone.
The 1850 U.S. census documented that there were over 8,000 hemp plantations covering at least 2000 acres and three main strains cultivated. Which include China hemp, Smyrna hemp and Japanese hemp. Hemp farmers used a hand break operated machine when they harvested. In 1892 a machine was built that took care of all the processes, breaking down the fretted stalks and cleaning the fiber. Producing clean, straight hemp fiber which was equal to best hand broken materials. This machine harvested 1000 pounds or more of clean hemp fiber per hour. The breakthrough of this machine made cultivating more fiscally attractive by reducing labor costs. By 1920s hemp crop was entirely handled by machinery. Hemp was known since the late 1800s to have the capability of being fuel. In the 1896 Rudolph Diesel produced his famous engine. He like many others assumed that the diesel engine would be powered by a variety of fuels, especially vegetable and seed oils. Then in 1940 Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company operated a successful biomass conversion plant producing hemp fuel at their Iron Mountain facility in Michigan. Ford engineers wre able to extract methanol, charcoal fuel, tar, pitch, ethyl acetate and creosote, these being the key fundamental ingredients for the modern industry. Today most of these materials are supplied by oil industries. Other industries viewing hemp as a threat because of its ability to grow quickly and be used to produce so many different items or materials in as good or better quality than the industries that were currently producing them. So a campaign started by these competing industries. Harry J. Anslinger was one of the main promoters associating Hemp with Marijuana to tarnish the name of Hemp. These aligations started propaganda films like “Reefer Madness” furthering the demise of hemp. A plant use for decades in medicines, food and clothing fabrics.
When Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937, Hemps decline officially began. The tax and licensing regulations of the act made it hemp nearly impossible for American farmers to cultivation. Harry Anslinger, again the main promoter of the Tax Act, fought for anti-marijuana legislation around the world.
Then a very interesting situation had arose during World War II. American Farmers were prohibited from producing hemp because of the 1937 law, but when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor it halted the importation of Manila hemp from the Philippines. Forcing the USDA to rethink their agenda and releasing the film Hemp for Victory, trying to motivate American Farmers to grow hemp once again but solely in the name of war. The government then formed a company called War Hemp Industries to subsidize the cultivation of hemp for the time being. Over a million acres of hemp were grown across the Midwest as part of this program. War ended and all of the hemp processing plants were shut down and the industry once again was gone. However, wild hemp may have still been found across the country. In 1937 until the late 1960s the United States government recognized Industrial Hemp and Marijuana were two distinct varieties of the cannabis plant. After the Controlled Substances Act was passed, hemp was no longer recognized as being distinct from marijuana. Hemp was treated the same as Marijuana and cultivation was ended.
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