A Hemp Life

Who used hemp back in the days?

Hemp has been grown for at least the last 12,000 years for fiber (textiles and paper) and food.

Oldest known records of hemp farming go back to 5000 years in China, although hemp industrialization probably goes back to ancient Egypt.
Scythians and Thracians used hemp to make linens and hemp seed oil to cleanse themselves.
Carthage and Rome fights for political and commercial power over hemp and spice trade routes in the Mediterranean.
Franks, Vikings, Germans all used hemp fiber to make rope, sails and paper.
Muslims used hemp to start Europe’s first paper mill. Most paper was made from hemp for the next 750 years, including Bibles.
Christopher Columbus carried hemp seed on his fleet for use in case of shipwreck to grow crops for raw materials and for use as a food source.
King Phillip of Spain ordered hemp grown throughout his empire, from modern-day Argentina to Oregon.
Dutch achieve the Golden Age through hemp commerce.
Between the 16th-18th century Hemp was a major fiber crop in Russia, Europe and North America.

Where is hemp mentioned throughout history?

3727 BC Cannabis called a “superior” herb in earliest Chinese medical text, in Shen Nung Pen Ts’ao Ching by China’s legendary emperor.
2800 BC Lu Shi (500 AD) mentions an Emperor who taught people to use hemp at 2800 BC.
450 BC Herodotus records Scythians and Thracians using hemp to weave their clothing. “Hemp garments are as fine as linen.”
1000 AD The English word ‘hempe‘ first listed in a dictionary.
2nd Century BC Roman writer Pausanaius noted hemp was grown in Elide.
1st Century AD Lucius Columella (roman farmer and writer) wrote in Res Rustica about hemp cultivation methods during the reign of Augustus.
Pliny the Elder wrote at length about hemp in his Natural History.

Famous people and hemp:

500BC Gautama Buddha survived by eating hemp seed during years of asceticism.
100 AD The Greek (but practicing in Rome) physician, pharmacologist and botanist Pedanius Dioscorides named the plant cannabis sativa and describes various medicinal uses.
Queen Elizabeth I declared that land owners with more than 60 acres must grow hemp or be fined 5 pounds.
US past presidents Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were both active hemp farmers.
Benjamin Franklin started one of the first paper mills in the US with cannabis hemp thus freeing US from dependence on paper or books from England.
Abraham Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation under light of hemp oil lamp since it is said to shine the brightest of all lamp oils.
Rembrandt and Van Gogh are just some of the few people that painted on hemp canvas.
1492 Hemp sails and ropes used Columbus’s trip to America.
Galileo’s scientific observation notes written on hemp paper.

Interesting…

The American Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights were all drafted on hemp paper.
Betsy Ross made the first flag of the United States of America out of the finest, strongest fiber available, hemp fabric.
1470′s Gutenberg Bible is printed on hemp paper.
1600 Rembrandt paints on hemp canvas.
1631 Hemp was used as money throughout American colonies and encouraged farmers to grow more to ensure America’s independence.
1215 Magna Charta was printed on Hemp paper.
300 BC A Carthaginian galley sank near Sicily was found with hemp onboard that was still identifiable after 2,300 years of salt water exposure.
The word canvas is originally derived from cannapaceus for “made of hemp,”. From Anglo-French canevaz and the Old-French canevas, from Latin cannabis, from Greek kannabis “hemp,” a Scythian or Thracian word.
Over 25,000 products can be manufactured from hemp, from cellophane to dynamite. (Popular Mechanics, 1938)
Hemp can be made into any building material, including fiberboard, roofing, flooring, wallboard, caulking, cement, paint, paneling, particleboard, plaster, plywood, reinforced concrete, insulation, insulation panels, spray-on insulation, concrete pipes, bricks, and biodegradable plastic composites which are tougher than steel. A 6th Century hemp-reinforced bridge found in the south of France is testimony to its stone-like strength and durability.
In 1619 it became illegal in Jamestown, Virginia not to grow hemp because it was such a vital resource. Similar laws passed in Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1631 and 1632.
In 1865 Alice in Wonderland is published on hemp paper1892 Rudolph Diesel invented diesel engine, intended especially for vegetable and seed oils.
1892 Rudolph Diesel invented diesel engine, intended especially for vegetable and seed oils.
Encyclopedia Britannica was printed on hemp paper for 150 years.