Promoters of indigo highlighted the profits to be gained by producing the crop, and some detailed the steps in its cultivation and the problems posed for planters. But almost none of them described the intensive labor demanded of the slaves who produced the crop or the putrid smell of the fermented plant and the swarms of flies it attracted. However, in this pamphlet, dedicated to “A Friend to Carolina,” the author briefly describes the backbreaking labor required for planting and the dangers of imbibing indigo dust in the drying process.
They [the slaves] weed and cleanse the Ground where they intend to plant the Indigo-seed, five times over. They sometimes carry their Neatness to such a Pitch, that they sweep the Piece of Ground, as they do a Room. After that, they make the Holes or Pits, wherein the Seeds are to be put; for this Purpose, the Slaves . . . range themselves in the same Line . . . and going backwards, they make little Pits of the Breadth of their Hough, of the Depth of three or four Inches, at about a Foot Distance every Way, and as much as possible in a strait Line. When they are come to the End of the Ground, each furnishes himself with a little Bag of Seeds, and returning that Way they came, they put eleven or thirteen Seeds into each of the Holes. . . .
This Work is the most toilsom of any in the Manufacture of Indigo; for those who plant it, must be always stooping, without riseing up, till the planting of the whole Length of the Piece is ended; so that, when that is large, (which almost always happens) they are obliged to remain two Hours, and often more, in this Posture. . . .
[The indigo is then soaked, fermented, and dried.]
. . . M. Tavernier observes, in his Book, Page 242, that the Indigo Dust is so subtile [subtle], and so penetrating, that those who sift it are obliged to have their Faces covered, and drink Whey very often: And to confirm this, and make good the Penetration of the Indigo-Powder, he says, having put several Times an Egg, in the Morning, near the Sifters of Indigo, and at Night breaking it, the Inside should be all stained thro’ with a blue Colour.
Source: “Observations Concerning Indigo and Cochineal” (London, 1746), 7–8, 21–22.