The
hemp trade was a fundamental driving force in the early colonization of
America, but its importance to mankind was established long before, at
the dawn of civilization. The Cannabis (hemp) plant was valued early on
for its strong Fiber, used for cordage, rope and cloth (linen), and for
its seeds, used in food, and their oil. As fiber, food, fuel, medicine,
and unquestionably as an intoxicant, Cannabis has been used by people
in ever)' part of the world. Carl Sagan even suggested that the rudimentary
beginnings of civilization may well have started with the cultivation
of Cannabis — since food was already plentiful, it is likely that
people started cultivating crops for other reasons.
In the Neolithic Revolution period, approximately 12,000 years ago, a
series of dramatic social and technological changes occurred, effectively
marking the end of the Stone Age and the beginning of civilization. These
changes included the cultivation of previously wild plants, the building
of permanent settlements, the domestication of animals, and the manufacture
of potter)' and cloth; all of this permitted a huge increase in the human
population and began the human domination of the earth. Ernest L. Able,
perhaps the foremost authority on the history of hemp, noted:
The first record of man's use of Cannabis comes from the island of Taiwan,
located off the coast of mainland China. In this densely populated part
of the world, archaeologists have unearthed an ancient village site, dating
back over 10,000 years to the Stone Age.
The discovery that twisted strands of fiber were much stronger than individual
strands was followed by developments in the arts of spinning and weaving
fibers into fabric — innovations that ended man's reliance on animal
skins for clothing. It was hemp fiber that the Chinese chose for their
first homespun garments.
During the course of its long history in China, hemp found its way into
almost every nook and cranny of life. It clothed the Chinese from their
heads to their feet, it gave them material to write on, and it became
a symbol of power over evil. VV. Eherland and Able also note the importance
of hemp for bowstrings, as a military weapon; — but those bowstrings
helped piwide meat, as well.
The plant has fed mankind directly, too. Hemp seeds used to be served
as porridge or gruel ("gruel" usually meant a porridge made
from the cheapest available ingredients), or ground into a flour and used
to bake cakes and bread; they could even be made into a nutritious and
good-tasting butter. In the early 1990s when there was mass starvation
in Africa due to armed conflict, it was reported that the Red Cross, CARE,
and other charitable organizations were feeding people "gruel,"
specifically because it had more protein than oatmeal or cream of wheat.
The report did not say it was hemp-based gruel, but of all the grains,
hemp produces perhaps the highest amount of digestible protein and is
very high in essential Fatty acids. It could very well be that historical
references to "gruel" more often meant hemp-based porridge than
oats or wheat or any other grain, and that it has become an obsolete word
specifically because hemp is no longer part of our diets — in large
part because of its illegal status.
The versatility and strength of the fibers of hemp made it one of the
raw materials most used by primitive man; and for well over 10,000 years
practically everything people had was made from hemp. It was hemp cloth
that replaced animal-skin coverings. It was strong hemp (later called
"manila," when it had to be imported from the Philippines) rope
and sail that enabled man to capture the power of the wind to explore
and inhabit the world — without it, even the discovery of America
would have come much later. Even the word "canvas" is derived
from Cannabis. Hemp-based paper (rag bond, nude from tattered hemp cloth)
appears to have been the paper that first enabled humanity to create books
and communicate ideas over time and distances. Paper money, first developed
by the Chinese, was made from hemp, and most of the world's paper money
today is still linen-based. Oil extracted from Cannabis seeds was used
to waterproof the hulls of wooden ships, as lamp oil, and as the base
for paints and varnishes. Medicinally, Cannabis has an equally prestigious
history. It w
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