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Indigo Dye Research Paper

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“In 1775, more than a million pounds of indigo was exported from South Carolina to England” (Indigo’s Political, Economic, Cultural History 1). This massive amount of dye being traded was due to many factors that made it nearly the perfect trade commodity. The process of indigo dye being made by slaves in South Carolina in the 1700s is shown very well in the book Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill. The production of this indigo dye has an extensive history of being extremely arduous to produce naturally, but results in a compact substance that will last a long period of time and be very valuable. Indigo farming and dye creation in the 1700s was a long, tiring process often done by slaves. The slaves had to do all the work themselves, which …show more content…

First, the slaves cut the indigo plants and brought the cuttings to three large vats that descended in the order for which the process is completed. They put the cuttings into the highest vat which is filled with water. An enzyme called indimulsin, which occurs naturally in the indigo plant, breaks down indican in the plant into indoxyl and glucose. Over the course of about 14-18 hours, the indigo plant ferments and the water turns yellow because of the carbon dioxide released due to the indican being broken down. This liquid is then drained into the second tank which is the next step lower than the first. This liquid is mixed using large paddles to mix air into the mixture and oxidize it. When the indoxyl is oxidized, it turns into indigotin. Indigotin is denser than the rest of the liquid, so it settles to the bottom of the vat. This pigment is then sent to the third and lowest vat. To prevent the pigment from fermenting, it is heated in the vat. The rest of the liquid from the second vat is first siphoned away, however. To remove impurities, the pigment is then filtered. Finally, it is dried to a paste and is now ready to be packaged and shipped to England (Indigo 1). It is interesting that this entire rather complicated process was done by uneducated slaves. It is commonly thought that slaves were only good for unskilled labor yet many people today would …show more content…

It was not only a dye, but it was an idea of wealth that millions of people craved. They craved that dye so bad that they were willing to take random people 's lives away from them and reduce them to nothing more than machines created to produce dye. There is not another substance so utterly pointless that has caused so much despair and death to so many innocent

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