Cotton was not simply a Southern phenomenon. Cotton was one of the world’s first luxury commodities, after sugar and tobacco. Cotton was the first mass consumer commodity.
In 1769, Englishman Francis Levett established his Julianton plantation on the St. Johns River in the Bristish colony of East Florida where he grew indigo and produced terpentine. In 1783, Florida fell back to Spanish rule after the signing of the Treaty of Paris forcing Levett to flee with 100 slaves to the Bahamas where sugar cane had become a commodity crop. In 1790, Levett reestablished his Julianton plantation on the Harris Neck peninsula overlooking Sapelo Island in McIntosh County, Georgia where he became one of the first planters of Sea Island cotton. It was later cultivated on the islands of South Carolina. Cotton exports increased from 10,000 pounds in 1790 to 6.4 million pounds in 1800. Levett died in 1802, leaving the Julianton plantation to his wife, Charolette.
The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) was a successful anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in St. Dominique. It involved blacks, mulattoes, French, Spanish and British participants with the ex-slave, Toussaint L'Ouverture emerging as Haiti's hero. It was the only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery, and ruled by non-whites and former captives. It was a defining moment in the history of racism in the Atlantic World. It also resulted in a global cotton shortage. England would need a new source of cotton.
On the eve of the Civil War, New England’s economy was entirely dependent upon slaves in the South. Cotton grown in the agrarian South was woven in the industrial North. Northern mills spat out bolts of coarse cloth, which were shipped back down the Mississippi and onto the backs of the very slaves who worked the fields.
The fact that cotton had become such a staple gave rise to one of the great ironies of the Civil War: Yankee troops wearing Southern cotton. As the fighting wore on, supplies on both sides became scarcer, and the two governments squeezed cottage industries for all that it was worth. As men and supplies exhausted themselves on the front lines, demand for mourning clothing at home went up while textile supplies went down. Confederate women began weaving their own fabrics. Just for fun or for historic accuracy, you may want to dye your own fabric and wool for making your Civil War quilts.
Gossypium barbadense (Extra Long Staple cotton) is called Real Alto and is native to South America. It was domesticated on the coasts of Ecuador and Peru around 4400 BC. It was named Sea Island cotton after John Levett planted it in the islands of Georgia and South Carolina.
It was renamed Pima in honor of the Pima Indians who helped the USDA raise it on experimental farms in Arizona during the early 1900s. It requires full sun, high humidity and rainfall. It also naturally contains the chemical, gossypol, making it less susceptible to insects and fungal damage.
Gossypium hirsutum (Upland or King) cotton is native to Central America, Mexico and southern Florida. Archeological evidence shows the cultivation of this species began circa 3,500 BC in the Tehuacan Valley, Mexico. Hirsutum includes a number of varieties or cross-bred cultivars with varying fiber lengths and tolerances to growing conditions. The longer length varieties are called "long staple upland" and the shorter length varieties are referred to as "short staple upland". The long staple varieties are the most widely cultivated in commercial production.
Planters attempted to grow Sea Island cotton in the uplands of Georgia, but the quality was inferior. The invention of the roller cotton gin in 1840 made the processing of short staple cotton successful. It became the prime commodity crop of the Deep South and continues to comprise 95% of US cotton production.
After the Civil War, literally everyone picked cotton until after WWII—young and old, black, white and Native American all picked cotton together on tenant farms. My great-great grandfather, along with many other Watsons were tenant farmers or sharecroppers in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
The International cotton harvester was invented in 1944. Hand harvesting broomcorn continued until 1985 when it was replaced by plastic. I guess you could say that’s truly when slavery died in the United States except for the seasonal citrus harvesters who immigrated to California from Mexico and Florida from Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Dye
During the period when both India and the American colonies were under British control, East Indians were brought to the colonies as slaves for their knowledge of Turkey red dye. Most of the Indian slaves were already converted to Christianity, were fluent in English, and took western names. Their descendants have mostly merged with the African-American community.
Indigo was the foundation of a centuries-old textile tradition in West Africa where clothing dyed with indigo signified wealth. Women dyed the cloth in most areas, with the Yoruba of Nigeria and the Mandika of Mali particularly well known for their expertise. West Africans weren't enslaved solely for labor, but for their knowledge of indigo and their ability to work with it.
In the 16th century, France and Germany outlawed the importation of indigo to protect the local woad dye industry.
In 1738, 16 year old Elizabeth "Eliza" Pinckney became responsible for managing three plantations in South Carolina. One upland plantation produced tar. She developed Carolina Gold rice on the Waccamaw River plantation and indigo (I. caroliniana) on her home Wappoo plantation with 20 slaves. In 1740, her father sent her seeds of the I. indigofera from Antigua which she cultivated with the assistance of a processing expert from Montserrat and slaves from West Africa and the French West Indies. The resulting cultivar is known as Carolina Indigo. In 1744, she shared seeds with other planters, leading to an expansion in indigo production. It became Carolina's chief commodity, second only to rice. In 1753 on a visit to London, she presented Augusta, the Dowager Princess of Wales, with a silk dress that was produced on the Pinckney plantation. She died in Philadelphia in 1793 while researching a cure for breast cancer. President George Washington was a pallbearer at her funeral at St. Peter's Church. In 1989, she was the first woman to be inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame.
In 1859, peasants in Bengal, India revolted against unfair treatment by the East India Company in what became known as the Indigo Revolt. Europe would need a new source of indigo.
Turkey Red
Faded Turkey red cloth, 1870
Early evidence of dyeing cotton with madder comes from India where a piece was recovered from the site at Mohenjo-daro (3rd millennium BC). The oldest European textiles dyed with madder came from the grave of the Merovingian queen Arnegundis in Saint-Denis near Paris between 565 and 570 AD.
Turkey Red was made using the root of the Rubia tinctorum plant or Madder through a long and laborious process that originated in India and Turkey. In 1747, Greek workers familiar with its method of production were brought to France where Dutch and English spies discovered the secret.
Wool and silk are protein fibers that take botanical protein based dyes easily. Cotton is a cellulose fiber that has differently shaped molecules than the protein molecules of natural dyes so they naturally repel one another. This made dyeing cotton difficult. The dye would sit on top of the fiber and fade quickly. Cotton required a mordant to force the dye to bond with the fibers. It was believed that adding animal proteins to the process would solve the problem. Animalizing meant adding urine, blood, dung, milk or egg white into the fabric prep or dye solution.
Argol is potassium acid tartrate (cream of tartar) which forms on the side of wine vats, also called wine stone. It consists of 50-85% potassium hydrogen tartrate and 6-12% calcium tartrate, and will be colored by the grapes. So, white argol came from white grapes and red argol came from red grapes. It was used in vinegar fermentation, in the manufacture of tartaric acid and as a mordant in dyeing.
A sanitized version of Turkey Red was produced in Manchester by 1784. The fabric was widely exported to Africa, the Middle East and America. Roller printed red dresses were fashionable in England by the 1820s.
The process of dyeing cotton Turkey red, as it was practiced in Turkey in the 18th century, was described in a text by a Manchester dyer in 1786:
1) Boil cotton in the lye of Barilla ash.
2) Wash and dry.
3) Steep in a liquor of Barilla ash mixed with sheep's dung and olive oil.
4) Rinse. Let stand for 12 hours and dry.
5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 three times.
6) Steep in a fresh liquor of Barilla ash mixed with sheep's dung, olive oil and white argol.
7) Rinse and dry.
8) Repeat steps 6 and 7 three times.
9) Treat with gall nut solution.
10) Wash and dry.
11) Repeat steps 9 and 10.
12) Treat with a solution of alum mixed with ashes and Saccharum Saturni (lead acetate).
13) Dry. Wash and dry again.
14) Soak in madder to which a little sheep's blood is added.
15) Wash.
16) Boil in a bath made of soda ash or dung liquor.
17) Wash and dry.
The Barilla plant (Salsola soda or saltwort) was the primary source of soda ash that was used in the manufacture of the dye. It was also crucial in making glass and soap. The famed clarity of 16th century cristallo glass from Murano and Venice depended on the purity of Levantine soda ash and the nature of this ingredient was kept secret. The plant was so heavily guarded that the exportation of the seed was punishable by death. By the 18th century, Spain's barilla industry was exporting large quantities of soda ash of exceptional purity for glass.
Madder (Chayroot), Turkey Red
Kermes / Crimson / Scarlet / Vermilion
Equally ancient and commercially important is Kermes or Crimson made from the Kermes vermilio or ilicis insect that is found on the evergreen Kermes oak (Quercus coccifera) or Ilex oak tree. The insect is the source of the scarlet dye mentioned in the Bible. It is the source of the vermilion dye used in China, also called Chinese red. Europeans used toxic cinnabar as a substitute, though the color is warm rather than cool. True crimson or Chinese red/vermilion is a blue-red that ranges between red and rose. It fell out of use with the introduction of cochineal. Although the dyes were comparable in quality and color intensity, crimson required ten to twelve times as much kermes to produce the same effect as cochineal. Today, Kermes and Carmine are often marketed as the same dye.
Kermes lice are $53.00 per gram from Kremer Pigments
Carmine
Spain needed a replacement for Turkey red dye so as not to waste its coveted soda ash on clothing. Turkey red was also very fugitive and not worth the hassle of making it. The Canary Islands faced stiff competition from Spain's Cuban sugar colonies. The discovery of beet sugar in 1741 decreased sugar prices in Europe and caused a severe recession. In 1821, a new cash crop, cochineal from the Dactylopius coccus insect that lives on prickly pear cactus came into cultivation, saving the islands' economy. Cochineal was shipped to Veracruz and Havana and then, transported to Canarian colonies in Florida where it was mixed with calcium or aluminum salts to produce carmine dye.
The insects are processed by immersion in hot water or exposure to sunlight, steam, or the heat of an oven. Each method produces a different color that results in the varied appearance of commercial cochineal. The insects must be dried to about 30% of their original body weight before they can be stored without decaying. It takes about 80,000 to 100,000 insects to make one kilogram of cochineal dye.
The two principal forms of the dye are cochineal, a coloring made from the dried and pulverised bodies of insects, and carmine, a more purified coloring made from the extract. To prepare carmine, the powdered insect bodies are boiled in ammonia or a sodium carbonate solution, the insoluble matter is removed by filtering, and alum is added to the clear salt solution of carminic acid to precipitate the red aluminium salt. Purity of color is ensured by the absence of iron. Stannous chloride, citric acid, borax, or gelatin may be added to regulate the formation of the precipitate. For shades of purple, lime is added to the alum.
Ecuadorians collect D. confusus, from the wild, press them into cakes, and use the dried cakes to dye garments three at a time. One is left crimson, one is soaked in lemon juice to turn it scarlet, and the third is rubbed with wood ashes to turn it purple. D. opuntiae is another economically important pest of this cactus in many regions.
Carmine is one of the few water-soluble colorants to resist degradation with time. It is one of the most light- and heat-stable, and oxidation-resistant of all the natural organic colorants and is even more stable than many synthetic food colors. It remains an important dye today.
Congo Red
Congo red was first synthesized in 1883 by Paul Böttiger. He was looking for textile dyes that did not require a mordant step. He filed the patent under his own name and sold it to the AGFA company of Berlin. AGFA marketed the dye under the name "Congo red", a catchy name in Germany at the time of the 1884 Berlin West Africa Conference, an important event in the Colonization of Africa. The dye was a major commercial success. In the following years, for the same reason, other dyes were marketed using the "Congo" name: Congo rubine, Congo corinth, brilliant Congo, Congo orange, Congo brown, and Congo blue. It gained widespread use as a leather dye and was used as a pH indicator or reagent. Once of economic significance, Congo red has fallen into disuse as have all benzidine-derived dyes, owing to their carcinogenic activity.
Let it serve as a reminder of the millions of Congolese who died under King Leopold’s colonial rule. It probably isn’t available in the United States, but it can still be obtained from China.
Alizarin Crimson
In 1869, the German chemists, Graebe and Liebermann synthesized alizarin, which was produced from 1871 onward.
Indigo
Indigo is among the oldest textile dye in existence. The oldest indigo dyed fabric was discovered in 2009 at Huaca Prieta, Peru. It is 6,000 years old. It has been cultivated in Japan since the 16th century. Samurai wore indigo cloth under their armor to keep bacteria out of wounds. Japanese firefighters wore it because of its flame retardant property. Today, there are only 5 indigo farmers and one dyer left in Japan. The different varieties of the indigo plant has been cultivated all over the world for centuries, but primarily in India where the plant got its name. Indigo is flame retardant up to 1500F, antibacterial and it resists odor and dirt. Because of its high value as a trading commodity, indigo was often referred to as Blue Gold. All of the indigo used for dyeing came from India until the 19th century. In 1859, peasants in Bengal, India revolted against unfair treatment by the East India Company in what became known as the Indigo Revolt. Europe would need a new source of indigo. In colonial North America, three commercially important species were cultivated: I. caroliniana, I. tinctoria and I. suffruticosa.
CSA Marine Dark Blue
In 1865, the German chemist, Adolf von Baeyer, synthesized indigo. Indigo Carmine is an organic salt derived from indigo through sulfonation which renders the compound soluble in water. It is approved for use as a food colorant and a pH indicator. The plant and the slaves required to cultivate the plant and convert it to dye were no longer necessary. However, indigo carmine does not have the properties of real indigo.
Logwood Black
Widow's bonnet that belonged to
Agnes Baliques (1641 - 1700)
who was the daughter of
an Antwerpian cloth merchant
The bark extract is brown when neutral; reddish yellow in acid and purple when concentrated with ammonia. When dyed with a copper mordant, it turns black. Despite changing fashions in color, logwood was the most widely used dye by the 19th century, providing the sober blacks of formal and mourning clothes. The thread was used for making Spanish blackwork embroidery.
Aniline Black
In 1840, Carl Julius Fritzsche treated indigo with caustic potash and obtained a yellow oil that he named aniline. The principal use of aniline in the modern dye industry was as a precursor to indigo. Aniline black dye was patented by J.Lightfoot in 1863. It is composed of oxidized aniline hydrochloride. Silk, was soaked in an aqueous solution of aniline hydrochloride and an oxidizing agent, such as chromic acid. This resulted in a strong black color that is not lightfast. Aniline black replaced logwood dye as an additive to iron gall ink. Both dyes were once added to iron gall ink to produce a strong, initial black color. Once the dye faded, the iron and gallic acid color had developed a strong black tone. Aniline or acid dyes work best with animal or protein fibers.
Black Walnut Brown
The Cherokee of Tennessee and Kentucky used the green hulls of the black walnut to produce a deep brown. I believe southern planters would've learned this.
Black walnut hull extract (or fresh)
Cutch Brown
Brown as a dye existed in Europe, but was obtained from the imported Catetchu bark. Cutch was discovered in the early 19th century by Sir Humphrey Davy. It dyes yellow brown naturally; turns grayish brown with iron and olive brown with copper.
Cadet Grey
A blueish gray color derived from the bark of the Butternut tree was only used in military uniforms. In 1835 and 1840, it was the color chosen by the Army of the Republic of Texas. Both armies of the Civil War had grey uniforms, but it was primarily associated with the Confederate Army. By 1863, all Confederate soldiers were required to have Cadet Grey uniforms. The coats were made of wool and I believe the pants were either Kentucky Jean or French gray twill.
CSA Navy Steel Grey
Navy steel grey is butternut grey overdyed with pale indigo.
Chrome Yellow and Chrome Orange or Cheddar
In 1797, the mineral crocoite (lead chromate) was discovered by Louis Nicolas Vauquelin. The chrome colors were in use by 1816 on a limited basis because the pigments tend to oxidize and darken with exposure to air over time and they contain lead. After the discovery that the mineral chromite also contained chromium, this latter mineral was used to produce pigments as well. Chrome orange called Cheddar as a textile was introduced in 1809 and was in production until only a few years ago. It is now an obsolete pigment.
Arsenic Green or Emerald Green
There's a lot of truth to the term, "arsenic and old lace." One of the first green dresses in the Bata Shoe Museum tested positive for arsenic. Emerald green was a poisonous copper-acetoarsenite developed in an attempt to improve Scheele's green in 1808 and became commercially available in 1814. It was also used in wallpaper and housepaint and resulted in the sleeping deaths of children during the 1860s. It's believed to have hastened Napoleon's death as well. The effects of arsenic exposure are horrific. In addition to being deadly, the dye produced ulcers all over the skin. Those who come in close contact with it might develop scabs and sores wherever it touched. It can also make your hair fall out, and can cause people to vomit blood before shutting down their livers and kidneys. Many dyers and seamstresses died while working with it. Its use was discontinued by 1900.
Viridian
In 1859, Guignet of Paris patented he process for manufacturing viridian or the transparent oxide of chromium (chromium oxide green). Its excellent permanence and lack of toxicity replaced Emerald green.
Mauve
The first synthetic dye was discovered by a teenager in 1856, who accidentally made a purple dye that would soon become the height of fashion in Victorian England. William Henry Perkin originally set out to discover a synthetic alternative to quinine. As he cleaned up his experiments with aniline, he noticed a thick black residue at the bottom of a flask. After further experimentation with diluting the sludge, Perkin realized that the mixture could be used to dye silk and that the dye would retain its color. Mauve quickly became all the rage in English high fashion. Aniline dyes went on to become laboratory pH indicators. They are also used to dye textiles, leather and used to make shoe polish. This was the true beginning of the end of slavery. The first fiber reactive dyes for cotton would not be produced until the 1950s.
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