HEMPSTORY:
A Hemp History TIMELINE
The History of Cannabis Hemp
Our most ancient plant ally – thousands of years, tens of thousands of products!
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Welcome to our Hemp History Timeline! We are honored to see you are getting hempducated.
We need more people like you spreading the good word about HEMP and all it’s glorious benefits for food, clothing, energy, plastics, fuel medicine and so much more!
Thank you to all the sources online and offline – all the people who are supportive and speak out for this MIRACULOUS GOD-GIVEN PLANT OF LIFE, known as Cannabis Sativa Hemp, aka: Industrial Hemp, or just Hemp!
Thank you to all the sources online and offline – all the people who are supportive and speak out for this MIRACULOUS GOD-GIVEN PLANT OF LIFE, known as Cannabis Sativa Hemp, aka: Industrial Hemp, or just Hemp!
Without the hemp plant humanity would have a MUCH DIFFERENT STORY!
Little do most people know that it has been literally woven into the fabric of our lives for thousands of years.
We are eternally thankful for the awareness about the gigantic VALUE and BENEFITS Cannabis Hemp brings to this world and has brought here for so long. Let’s get hempducated about Hemp History!
HEMP HISTORY TIMELINE
A Long Time Ago
Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky is also known colloquially as the "Dog Star." It's glowing brightly in its constellation, Canis Major (Big Dog).
The heliacal rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in Ancient Egypt and the "Dog days" of summer for the Ancient Greeks. To the Polynesians it marked winter and was an important star for navigation around the Pacific Ocean.
Sirius was the most important star in the sky to the ancient Egyptians.
The ancient Egyptian calendar was based on the rising of Sirius. It is established for certain that Sirius was sometimes identified by the ancient Egyptians with their chief goddess Isis.
Sirius was astronomically the foundation of the Egyptian religious system. It was the embodiment of Isis, wife and consort of the god Osiris, who appeared in the sky as Orion.
Egyptian Hemp History
'The Dog Star' commonly referrs to the star system Sirius throughout antiquity.
The iconic Egyptian god Anubis was depicted having a dog's (canine) head. Not to mention 'anubis' sounds and looks similar to (c) 'annabis'.
Lastly, Seshat, is known to have brought mathematics, measurement, education and cannabis! Hence the 7 pointed crown, atop her head.
A greek traveler and chronicler by the name of Herodotus visited the cannabis-loving tribe. They hold a year long cannabis festival every fifty years, which he attended.
Explaining the celebration of the Dogons pointing to the brightest star in the winter sky, he said it was the "Two Dog Star".
Cannabis is a Greek word though its origins are African. The word translates to "Two Dog." So the 'Two Dog Star' was said to be the original home of the Two Dog Plant.
The year long cannabis celebration was in honor of that star and the medicinal herb that was brought to them.
Canis is Latin for "dog". Canine - dog . - latin.
Bis = Two - As in 2 stars. Sirius A & Sirius B
Cannabis Appears in Central Asia
Cannabis Sativa appears to have been first written about in Central Asia and was probably first cultivated for its long, strong fibres. It has been grown in China for at least 4,500 years. It is thought to have reached Europe by 1500 BC.
SCYTHE WAS USED FOR HEMP
Scythia was located in Eurasia at this time; Scythians, inventors of the Scythe, were harvesters of hemp.
one hemp SEED grain
It has been written that during his travels and path to enlightenment, Gautama Buddha survived by eating each day one hemp seed grain only. The plant grows well in the area of the world he traveled.
Reference:
Reference:
Scythian
Herodotus records that the Scythians are making fine linens from hemp (at this time it is believed that he was writing about the Scythians living near Persia).
A cave painting
A cave painting found in coastal Kyushuu depicts tall stalks and hemp leaves. It too is from this Jomon period, and indeed is one of the earliest artworks uncovered in Japan. The richly colored painting depicts several, somewhat strangely dressed people in baggy short-pants and tall curved hats. Horses and ocean waves are also clearly rendered in the cave art. In all, the picture seems to depict Korean traders bringing a plant by boat. Along the stem of the plant are small pairs of budding leaves or branches.
The plants themselves are tall and at the top bear large, distinctive, seven-fingered hemp leaves. (Personal Collection) Surrounding the top of this hemp plant figure is a sunlike aura suggesting the connection between the sun and hemp in Shinto and strikingly similar to the hieroglyphic carvings from Mediterranean cultures which show a similar sun/hemp motif. (Bennet)
The plants themselves are tall and at the top bear large, distinctive, seven-fingered hemp leaves. (Personal Collection) Surrounding the top of this hemp plant figure is a sunlike aura suggesting the connection between the sun and hemp in Shinto and strikingly similar to the hieroglyphic carvings from Mediterranean cultures which show a similar sun/hemp motif. (Bennet)
China makes hemp paper.
Excavated from the Han Tomb of Wu Di (140-87 BC) at Baqiao, Xi'An. Photo by Yannick Trottier, 2007
Manual about hemp
Pliny the Elder, a Roman official and historian and writes a manual about the uses of hemp and how to grow and harvest hemp.
Hemp fiber is popular and used widely by Germans, Franks, and the Vikings.
Muslims adopted the Chinese process of making hemp paper.
Paper mill
Africa saw its first paper mill built in Egypt. (from this point onward, until around the 1800s, it was common to make paper from hemp).
Hemp sails, ropes, and caulking are used on the ships Columbus used to sail to America.
Hemp agriculture makes its way to Chile and other parts of South America.
King Philip of Spain orders cannabis to be grown throughout the empire from Argentina to Oregon.
Cannabis is a widespread commerce for the Dutch.
Virginia makes hemp cultivation mandatory.
Hemp used as currency throughout the American colonies.
The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper.
replace tobacco with hemp
George Washington encourages domestic hemp industries; Thomas Jefferson urges farmers to replace tobacco with hemp, calling hemp a ‘necessity’.
Quotes about hemp
“Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country.”
– Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President
"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere."
- George Washington, U.S. President
"We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption."
- John Adams, U.S. President
– Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President
"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere."
- George Washington, U.S. President
"We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption."
- John Adams, U.S. President
George Washington grew hemp!
George Washington says, "make the most of the hempseed... sow it everywhere." Washington grew hemp at his Virginia home and encouraged its growing to bypass reliance of importing from other countries...especially England.
For over ten thousand years...hemp was undeniably man's most useful plant. Our ancestors depended upon hemps exceptionally strong fiber, cellulose rich pulp, and highly nutritious seeds.
The plant was cultivated and used throughout history for food, clothing, fuel and medicine, as well as ship sails, rope, shelter, and paper. In colonial America, hemp was not only legal but essential to survival.
For over ten thousand years...hemp was undeniably man's most useful plant. Our ancestors depended upon hemps exceptionally strong fiber, cellulose rich pulp, and highly nutritious seeds.
The plant was cultivated and used throughout history for food, clothing, fuel and medicine, as well as ship sails, rope, shelter, and paper. In colonial America, hemp was not only legal but essential to survival.
free colonial press
America’s first cannabis law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia, “ordering” all farmers to “make tryal of” (grow) Indian hempseed. More mandatory (must-grow) hemp cultivation laws were enacted in Massachusetts in 1631, in Connecticut in 1632, and in the Chesapeake Colonies into the mid-1700s.
Even in England, the much-sought-after prize of full British citizenship was bestowed by a decree of the crown on foreigners who would grow cannabis, and fines were often levied against those who refused.
Benjamin Franklin started one of America’s first paper mills with cannabis. This allowed America to have a free colonial press without having to beg or justify paper and books from England.
Even in England, the much-sought-after prize of full British citizenship was bestowed by a decree of the crown on foreigners who would grow cannabis, and fines were often levied against those who refused.
Benjamin Franklin started one of America’s first paper mills with cannabis. This allowed America to have a free colonial press without having to beg or justify paper and books from England.
Hemp was considered among plants to have Great Commercial Value!
the second cash
Before the Civil war, hemp was the second cash crop next to cotton. But while cotton could be processed by machine, slaves were the only cost effective way to separate the hemp fiber from the pulpy core that was used to make paper. When slavery ended after the war, the hemp industry went into decline. In the late 1800's paper makers such as The Hearst Corporation converted to tree-based pulp.
It was easier to chop down a forest than to pay for laborers to process the hemp, however, it takes four acres of trees to produce one acre worth of hemp to make the same amount of paper. And, it takes a generation to produce the trees whereas it only takes one half a year to produce the hemp...
It was easier to chop down a forest than to pay for laborers to process the hemp, however, it takes four acres of trees to produce one acre worth of hemp to make the same amount of paper. And, it takes a generation to produce the trees whereas it only takes one half a year to produce the hemp...
production of hemp fiber
America used an average of 11,000 tons of hemp fiber each year, evenly divided between imports at 5,555 tons/year, and domestic production at 5,549 tons/year. This is 4% of the average of 254,462 tons of other imported "hemps" (jute, Manila and sisal).
Kentucky Hemp Fields
HEMP: The Billion Dollar Crop
Popular Mechanics Magazine published an entire article in 1938 about the amazing and vast benefits and uses for industrial hemp. They even stated that there are over 25,000 uses for this miraculous plant.
marihuana the assassin of youth
William Randolph Hearst's newspaper empire promulgated marijuana horror stories and other works of pure fiction as staples of sensationalistic newspaper headlines which would put today's National Enquirer and other gag mags to shame.
This guy hated minorities, and used his newspaper empire to aggravate racial tensions at every possible opportunity. He especially hated Mexicans and portrayed them as lazy, degenerate and violent. He also depicted them as "Marihuana smokers" and job stealers. The real fire under his buzongo was that he had lost 800,000 acres of prime timberland to Pancho Villa.
This guy hated minorities, and used his newspaper empire to aggravate racial tensions at every possible opportunity. He especially hated Mexicans and portrayed them as lazy, degenerate and violent. He also depicted them as "Marihuana smokers" and job stealers. The real fire under his buzongo was that he had lost 800,000 acres of prime timberland to Pancho Villa.
Prohibition
The Eighteenth (Prohibition) Amendment is added to the U.S. Constitution. Later repealed in 1933 only after billions ($22) of tax payers money was spent for enforcement during 1919-1933, and countless lives were destroyed by the mob controlled under-market thereby created.
An old Hemp Seed bottle
The U.S. Department of Agriculture publishes a pamphlet urging Americans to grow cannabis (marijuana) as a profitable undertaking. [David F. Musto, An Historical perspective on legal and medical responses to substance abuse. *Vilanova Law Review* 18-808-817 (May), 1973; pg 816]
An old Hemp Seed drug pharmacy medicine bottle from around 1927. The A H Williams Co. in Utica, NY was closed by the end of that decade
An old Hemp Seed drug pharmacy medicine bottle from around 1927. The A H Williams Co. in Utica, NY was closed by the end of that decade
The U.S.S. Constitution “Old Ironsides”
There were at least 60 tons of Hemp on the U.S.S. Constitution alone.Partial list of rigging (rope) required for the 1927 restoration of the U.S.S. Constitution from “The Frigate Constitution” by F. Alexander Magoun, S.B., S.M. The Southwest Press. ©1928 by the Marine Research Society, Boston, Massachusetts, Pgs. 96, 97. Each mast (fore, mizen, main, etc.) required lifts, braces, reefs, jiggers, tackles, etc. The Constitution carried well more than four miles of hemp rope.
prohibited agents
The Federal Bureau of Narcotics is formed. Many of its agents, including its first commissioner, Harry J.
Anslinger, are former prohibition agents with nothing better to do with their time than to fabricate a new way to harass the American public rather than getting a real job. Anslinger is on the far left in below photo.
Anslinger, are former prohibition agents with nothing better to do with their time than to fabricate a new way to harass the American public rather than getting a real job. Anslinger is on the far left in below photo.
conspiracy
Was there a high-level conspiracy revolving around Harry J. Anslinger, United States Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, the DuPont chemical company and hemp?
Coincidence #1
A German immigrant invented a machine called a decorticator in 1916. In February, 1938 Popular Mechanics magazine recognized the potential bonanza for American farmers and entrepreneurs. The article went on to declare that hemp could be processed quickly and cheaply for the first time in its history, much like the Cotton Gin created by Eli Whitney in 1793, which helped the south get back on it's feet. The magazine Mechanical Engineering called hemp "the most profitable and desirable crop that can be grown."
Coincidence #2
In the 1920's, The DuPont Chemical company developed and patented petroleum fuel additives such as tetraethyl lead, as well as the sulfate and sulfite processes for manufacture of pulp from trees, and numerous new "synthetic" products such as nylon, cellophane, and other plastics. At this same time other companies were developing "synthetic" products from renewable biomass resources; namely hemp. The hemp decorticator promised to eleminate much of the need for wood-pulp paper thus threatening to drastically reduce the value of the vast timberlands still owned by Hearst.
Coincidence #3, #4 & #5
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Millionaire-Financier Andrew Mellon was DuPont's banker, Anslinger's
boss and Anslinger's wife's uncle.
For the SOURCE of this Coincidence Chart
For the SOURCE of this Coincidence Chart
the Madness movie
Reefer Madness, the movie, promulgated placing users in an institution for the criminally insane for the remainder of their natural lives. Complete hearsay and no empirical evidence backing any of the claims made in this short film.
Lammont DuPont
Wallace H. Carothers patents nylon (for the DuPont company) When asked what to call their new fiber, they decide on a combination of "Ny" (short for New York) and "Lon" (short for London) where their headquarters were located. This new fiber made from petroleum was to be jealously protected from the all-natural hemp fibers.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Despite opposition by the American Medical Association, Congress passed the law unanimously after debating the law for a grand total of 90 seconds. In the Spring of 1937 Dr. James Woodward, representing the A.M.A. testifies that the law would be denying the world a potent medicine.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law on August 3rd, 1937. It did not prohibit marijuana and hemp, only a constitutional amendment can do that. By imposing "prohibitive taxes" and mountains of red tape, it made cultivation, processing, sales and any use of the hemp plant virtually impossible. This law is still in effect today.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law on August 3rd, 1937. It did not prohibit marijuana and hemp, only a constitutional amendment can do that. By imposing "prohibitive taxes" and mountains of red tape, it made cultivation, processing, sales and any use of the hemp plant virtually impossible. This law is still in effect today.
expert witness
The Marijuana Tax Act is enacted, by the unrelenting promotion of Harry J. Anslinger. He was the governments "expert witness" during the congressional hearings on the proposed Marijuana Tax Act. As proof of Marijuana's malevolence, he introduced into evidence the bogus Hearst newspaper headlines that trumpeted the "violence, insanity and death" caused by marijuana.
This poster (17"x22") was widely distributed in agricultural areas of the U.S. during WWII.
Rmpant propaganda against hemp
New machines are constructed to process hemp hurds and fiber, for use in textiles, paper, and fuel. Henry Ford built a hemp car, powered with hemp fuel, grown with hemp on his own farm.
Popular Mechanics magazine (1938) touted hemp as the new ‘Billion Dollar Crop’. Unfortunately, it did not happen. Hemp was a threat to those who had investments in timber, oil, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.
There was rampant propaganda against hemp; hemp farming was subsequently outlawed (illegal to farm hemp without the proper permits from the DEA.
Popular Mechanics magazine (1938) touted hemp as the new ‘Billion Dollar Crop’. Unfortunately, it did not happen. Hemp was a threat to those who had investments in timber, oil, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.
There was rampant propaganda against hemp; hemp farming was subsequently outlawed (illegal to farm hemp without the proper permits from the DEA.
Hemp For Victory
Hemp For Victory – the government allows hemp farming to aid in the war effort and creates a film showing the uses of hemp. After the war, hemp was banned again.
vote hemp
The Canadian government legalizes commercial farming of industrial hemp. U.S. imports hempseed and hempseed oil (mainly from Canada and China).
New Hemp Bill Introduced
A bill is introduced in the U.S. Congress for the first time to allow states to regulate hemp farming, but to date no committee hearing or floor vote has taken place
First Hemp License
The first hemp licenses in over 50 years are granted to two North Dakota farmers.
a beneficial plant
HIA uncovers diaries and photographs of the USDA’s Chief Botanist Lyster Dewey, who grew 5 varieties of hemp on the current site of the Pentagon. Rep. Ron Paul makes Congressional statement in support of Hemp History Week.
As you can see, hemp has had a rich history on our planet for possibly up to 10,000 years. No other plant has had such a beneficial, commercial, economical, environmental, and, of course, political impact…than hemp.
As you can see, hemp has had a rich history on our planet for possibly up to 10,000 years. No other plant has had such a beneficial, commercial, economical, environmental, and, of course, political impact…than hemp.
David Bronner at the Capitol
David Bronner locks himself in a prison-like cage filled with hemp plants outside the White House to protest to ludicrous laws criminalizing hemp.
hemp is legal for research purpose
President Obama signed the Agriculture Act of 2014 into law. In Section 7606 of the act, Legitimacy of Industrial Hemp Research, industrial hemp is redefined and is authorized for institutions of higher education or state departments of agriculture in states where hemp is legal to be grown for research and or agricultural pilot programs.
Celebrating the Hemp Movement
Congress Introduced the Industrial Hemp Farming Act
with Bi-partisan Support. S. 134 and H.R. 525 Would Remove Federal Restrictions on Industrial Hemp Farming
in the U.S. and Allow States to Regulate the Crop.
And now we are celebrating and REVIVING the Hemp Movement and Industry and Markets in the U.S.A. with Hemp History Week!
And now we are celebrating and REVIVING the Hemp Movement and Industry and Markets in the U.S.A. with Hemp History Week!
Industrial Hemp Farm Bill Was Based in the USA
The United States Government passed the Industrial Hemp Farming Act which essentially removed hemp from the Schedule 1 Drug classification and made it legal in all 50 states to be grown. However, they did leave it up to each state to enact their own hemp laws, which happen to vary quite a bit. So check your local State Department of Ag for information on hemp farming in your area.
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It’s VITAL to our Future and to Mother Earth!
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