Red, white, & black make blue [electronic resource] : indigo in the fabric of Colonial South Carolina life / Andrea Feeser.

Issued as part of UPCC book collections on Project MUSE.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Why South Carolina indigo? -- South Carolina indigo in British and Colonial wear -- South Carolina indigo in British textiles for the home and Colonial market -- South Carolina indigo in the dress of slaves and sovereign Indians -- Indigo cultivation and production in South Carolina -- Botanists, merchants, and planters in South Carolina : investments in indigo -- The role of indigo in native-colonist struggles over land and goods -- Producing South Carolina indigo: colonial planters and the skilled labor of slaves -- Indigo plantation histories -- Indigo and an East Florida plantation: overseer Indian Johnson walks away -- Slave John Williams: a key contributor to the Lucas-Pinckney indigo concern -- Conclusion. South Carolina indigo: a history of color.

Like cotton, indigo has defied its humble origins. Left alone it might have been a regional plant with minimal reach, a localized way of dyeing textiles, paper, and other goods with a bit of blue. But when blue became the most popular color for the textiles that Britain turned out in large quantities in the eighteenth century, the South Carolina indigo that colored most of this cloth became a major component in transatlantic commodity chains. In Red, White, and Black Make Blue, Andrea Feeser tells the stories of all the peoples who made indigo a key part of the colonial South Carolina experience as she explores indigo's relationships to land use, slave labor, textile production and use, sartorial expression, and fortune building. In the eighteenth century, indigo played a central role in the development of South Carolina. The popularity of the color blue among the upper and lower classes ensured a high demand for indigo, and the climate in the region proved sound for its cultivation. Cheap labor by slaves--both black and Native American--made commoditization of indigo possible. And due to land grabs by colonists from the enslaved or expelled indigenous peoples, the expansion into the backcountry made plenty of land available on which to cultivate the crop. Feeser recounts specific histories--uncovered for the first time during her research--of how the Native Americans and African slaves made the success of indigo in South Carolina possible. She also emphasizes the material culture around particular objects, including maps, prints, paintings, and clothing. Red, White, and Black Make Blue is a fraught and compelling history of both exploitation and empowerment, revealing the legacy of a modest plant with an outsized impact.

Description based on print version record.