HOW KENTUCKY’S HEMP EMPIRE WAS BUILT ON THE BACKS OF SLAVES

For Black History Month, it was our intention to spotlight some famous black hemp farmers of the 1800s. 

After all, prior to the abolition of slavery, it wasn’t white folks out in the hemp fields.  And while there are plenty of old pictures of slaves in the cotton fields, slaves in the hemp fields have been less documented.

Certainly this became apparent after spending hours upon hours trying to locate at least one black farmer known for growing hemp during the 1800s, and finding nothing.  Which is odd, considering that it’s unlikely that anyone without shackles and a bill of sale was growing this incredibly valuable crop in the 19th century. 

And this got us thinking …

There must’ve been thousands of black hemp farmers who were never properly recognized for their talent and mastery. 

Like most slaves that enabled the United States to become an economic superpower, their names have been forgotten, and likely never even acknowledged by the white slaveowners who profited off their servitude. 

But through our research, we did make one interesting discovery regarding the history of slavery and hemp farming in Kentucky in the 1800s. 

Turns out, according to historian James F. Hopkins, it is possilbe that it was a flourishing hemp industry that allowed slavery to exist as it did in Kentucky during the time. 

In his 1951 book, “History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky,” Hopkins writes …

“Without hemp, slavery might not have flourished in Kentucky, since other agricultural products of the state were not conducive to the extensive use of bondsmen. On the hemp farm and in the hemp factories the need for laborers was filled to a large extent by the use of Negro slaves, and it is a significant fact that the heaviest concentration of slavery was in the hemp producing area.”

It’s also worth noting that few white slave owners even had the knowledge or expertise on how to properly grow and handle hemp, which left slaves to become the experts on the crop. This is why Kentuckians used to refer to hemp as a “nigger crop.” 

Hopkins also writes …

“A Lexingtonian 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.”

The black men and women who grew hemp during this time in Kentucky were merely considered property by slave owners.  Not farmers, agronomists or ranchers.  

Not laborers, hired hands, or gardners.

They weren’t even considered human.

Yet it was because of their ability to grow hemp that the crop eventually ended up becoming one of the country’s most valuable commodities. A bitter irony, to be sure.

So today, instead of giving props to our modern day cannabis champions, advocates, and protectors, we thought it appropriate to honor those who never had the chance to be recognized.

The black men and women who were forced to use their knowledge and skill to produce the nation’s earliest hemp crops. 

You won’t find their names or family trees in a Google search, but they existed.  And they deserve to be acknowledged.