A Short History of Hemp Growing in the US
George Washington pushed for the growth of hemp as it was a cash crop commonly used to make
rope and fabric. In May 1765 he noted in his diary about the sowing of seeds each day until mid-
April. Then he recounts the harvest in October which he grew 27 bushels that year.
It is sometimes supposed that an excerpt from Washington’s diary, which reads “Began to seperate [sic] the Male from the Female hemp at Do.&—rather too late” is evidence that he was trying to grow female plants for the THC found in the flowers. However, the editorial remark accompanying the diary states that “This may arise from their [the male] being coarser, and the stalks larger”. In subsequent days, he describes soaking the hemp (to make the fibers usable) and harvesting the seeds, suggesting that he was growing hemp for industrial purposes, not recreational.
George Washington also imported the Indian hemp plant from Asia, which was used for fiber and, by some growers, for intoxicating resin production. In a 1796 letter to William Pearce who managed the plants for him, Washington says, “What was done with the Indian Hemp plant from last summer? It ought, all of it, to be sown again; that not only a stock of seed sufficient for my own purposes might have been raised, but to have disseminated seed to others; as it is more valuable than common hemp.”
Other presidents known to have farmed hemp for alternative purposes include Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, and Franklin Pierce.
Historically, hemp production had made up a significant portion of antebellum Kentucky’s economy. Before the American Civil War, many slaves worked on plantations producing hemp.
In 1937, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed in the United States, levying a tax on anyone who dealt commercially in cannabis, hemp, or marijuana. The passing of the Act to destroy the U.S. hemp industry has been disputed to involve businessmen Andrew Mellon, Randolph Hearst and the Du Pont family.
One claim is that Hearst believed that his extensive timber holdings were threatened by the invention of the decorticator that he feared would allow hemp to become a cheap substitute for the paper pulp used for newspaper. Historical research indicates this fear was unfounded because improvements of the decorticators in the 1930s – machines that separated the fibers from the hemp stem – could not make hemp fiber a cheaper substitute for fibers from other sources. Further, decorticators did not perform satisfactorily in commercial production.
Another claim is that Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury and the wealthiest man in America at that time, had invested heavily in DuPont’s new synthetic fiber, nylon, and believed [dubious – discuss] that the replacement of the traditional resource, hemp, was integral to the new product’s success. DuPont and many industrial historians dispute a link between nylon and hemp, nylon became immediately a scarce commodity. Nylon had characteristics that could be used for toothbrushes (sold from 1938) and very thin nylon fiber could compete with silk and rayon in various textiles normally not produced from hemp fiber, such as very thin stockings for women.
While the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 had just been signed into law, the United States Department of
Agriculture lifted the tax on hemp cultivation during WW II. Before WW II, the U.S. Navy used Jute and Manila Hemp from the Philippines and Indonesia for the cordage on their ships. During the war, Japan cut off those supply lines. America was forced to turn inward and revitalize the cultivation of Hemp on U.S. soils.
Hemp was used extensively by the United States during World War II to make uniforms, canvas, and rope. Much of the hemp used was cultivated in Kentucky and the Midwest. During World War II, the U.S. produced a short 1942 film, Hemp for Victory, promoting hemp as a necessary crop to win the war. By the 1980s the film was largely forgotten, and the U.S. government even denied its existence. The film, and the important historical role of hemp in U.S. agriculture and commerce was brought to light by hemp activist Jack Herer in the book The Emperor Wears No Clothes. U.S. farmers participated in the campaign to increase U.S. hemp production to 36,000 acres. This increase amounted to more than 20 times the production in 1941 before the war effort.