|
Post by Black Hand on Jul 1, 2020 5:22:08 GMT -7
Profit I'd guess. IIRC, Boone did the same.
|
|
ewoaf
City-dweller
Posts: 203
|
Post by ewoaf on Jul 1, 2020 5:24:37 GMT -7
Profit I'd guess. IIRC, Boone did the same. It was a huge export commodity. Natives were gathering it up like gangbusters as well.
|
|
|
Post by lenapej on Jul 1, 2020 14:29:32 GMT -7
Kinda late, but I just got through reading the journal of James Kenny in 1761 he said, "I took the courses of the river as we went, by a good pocket compass" thought of this post when I read it. LenapeJ, Interesting!! I have been pecking at Kenny's journal slowly between other stuff and noticed something, Page 15 on the 26th, he had been out gathering Ginsang. I am wondering if this was for profit or for personal use... I have read all three journals, and found all of them very interesting as they are all in my preferred place and time period, I also noticed the reference to Ginsang but know nothing about it, so I'm glad Blackhand and ewoaf commented.
|
|
|
Post by spence on Jul 1, 2020 17:51:00 GMT -7
Yes, the journals are very interesting. I'm a sucker for them, never read one I didn't find fascinating.
James Kenny seems to have been interested in and knowledgeable about plants, and both the doctor at Fort Pitt and John Bartram the famous American botanist asked him to go with them to collect or identify plants in the area. It's also possible he did some traditional or herbal medicine, he bled and gave an emetic to his ailing brother, and bled some Indians. I say all that to bolster my idea that he may have been gathering ginseng for private use, not for profit.
Spence
|
|
|
Post by Sicilianhunter on Jul 2, 2020 1:44:53 GMT -7
Spence, Woodland resources like ginsang even to this day are a huge commodity. In NY, if I recall correctly, Gensing is a protected plant and can't be wildcrafted on state land due to over harvesting. It makes sense in both ways as mentioned in this thread for Kenny to have harvested the "ginsang" for profit or to have saved himself the expense and harvested for himself. I also remember him harvesting "tea" of an unknown variety...for medicinal purposes I wonder ? Personal use or profit again ? Was the value of these resources more or less valuable than fur ?
|
|
|
Post by spence on Jul 2, 2020 12:11:16 GMT -7
As with the ginseng, I guess we will never know. The tea was used for both. An interesting reference from "Travels in the Confederation, 1783-1784", Johann David Schoepf, translated from the German and edited by Alfred J. Morrison, 1911. Schoepf was Chief Surgeon for the Ansbach Regiment during the revolutionary war, also a zoologist and botanist, and stayed on afterward to travel in the country to study. In traveling through the area around Fort Pitt he made this observation: pg. 272 "A domestic tea is prepared from the leaves of the Red-root (Ceanothus americana), which is really not bad to drink, and may well take its place along with the inferior sorts of Bohea tea. Jonathan Plummer in Washington county on the Monongahela during the war prepared himself more than 1000 pounds of this tea, and sold it for seven and a half to ten Pennsylv[ania] shillings the pound. His method of preparation he kept secret ; probably he dried the leaves on or in iron-ware over a slow fire. By better handling, more careful and cleanly this tea could likely be made greatly more to the taste than it is. At the beginning of the war, what with general prohibitions and the enthusiastic patriotism, the importing of Chinese tea was for some time rendered difficult, and attempts were made everywhere to find substitutes in native growths ; this shrub was found the most serviceable for the purpose and its use is still continued in the back parts. Along the coast this patriotic tea was less known and demanded, but it will soon banish from many houses in the mountains the foreign tea which is now become cheaper. The use of tea is everywhere quite common." Notice that he is speaking of the same general area James Kenny collected his "mountain tea" from, and it might be the same plant. In Schoepf's account it was being used as a drink, not as a medicine. Spence
|
|
|
Post by spence on Jul 2, 2020 12:40:27 GMT -7
Woodland resources like ginsang even to this day are a huge commodity. I find it difficult to really appreciate the scale on which the old boys operated, considering that it was all hand labor. In Frontier Memories, interviews by John Dabney Shane, James Wade discusses ginseng in the 1790s period. pg. 64 "I dug ginseng in Greenbriar [county, WV]. Trimble of Hazel Green paid a debt of $3000 with it in Maysville. Two wagons and 6 horses were here last night with ginseng from off the Kentucky [river] in Breathitt Co. Three teams will come next time and two more, making seven have all passed since. 25 cents a pound they get. In Greenbriar we got 50 cents a pound, could dig 2 lb. A day. It took 2 lb. of green to dry a pound of dry. It was scarce in Greenbriar." From the same Schoepf reference as in the above post, Schoepf also mentioned ginseng, and also in the area of Fort Pitt: 236 "A man met us who was taking to Philadelphia some 500 pounds of ginseng-roots (Panax quinquefolium L.) on two horses. He hoped to make a great profit because throughout the war little of this article was gathered, and it was now demanded in quantity by certain Frenchmen. The hunters collect it incidentally in their wanderings; in these mountains the plant is still common, but in the lower parts it has pretty well disappeared." Spence
|
|
|
Post by spence on Jul 2, 2020 21:22:53 GMT -7
Here's an interesting instance of ginseng being used in a medicinal way. It's from the journal of Nicholas Cresswell, the incident took place on the Ohio River in July, 1775. Their supplies were expended and they had almost nothing to eat for about 3 days.
"Tuesday, July 4th, 1775. Got to mouth of the Little Conhaway [Little Kanawha] about noon when I found myself very sick at the stomach for want of meat. Went ashore and got a little Ginseng root and chewed it which refreshed me exceedingly."
Spence
|
|