For 50 years, starting in the late 1740s, indigo was a crucial commodity, second only to rice. At one time, the extracted pigment, dried and shaped into circular cakes, was so prized that it was sometimes called blue gold, and used as currency. While Charleston’s popular history primarily focuses on the planting class in cultivating the cash crop, there is much more to learn about the community that had the knowledge and skill to create such an innovation from this special seed. With growth and expansion into Johns Island where more history has been uncovered, and the growing interest in alternatives to petroleum-based dyes, indigo is having a resurgence.
Portuguese records dating to 1342, before the establishment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, detail West Africa’s textile production, fabric dyeing and cloth trade. Hundreds of years later, when people from that region were enslaved and moved from their homeland to the United States, they carried with them the knowledge of indigo cultivation. Inspired by an article in Smithsonian Magazine, “The Blue that Enchanted the World,” we are honored to invite several experts and members of generational families who continue the tradition of indigo for a special discussion about its true origins. Virginia Theerman, Curator of Historic Textiles for the Charleston Museum, will host a conversation with Arianne King Comer, indigo and community arts advocate, with Andrea Feeser, Professor of Art History, on how the innovation of the indigo crop is being revived by artisans and farmers, with a modern take on its forgotten history.
