When I started documenting the great historical Pennsylvania hemp industry I was suspicious. I documented 108 hemp mills in Lancaster County, about three dozen hemp mills in York County, 16 hemp mills in Berks County and dozens more in Lebanon, Dauphin, Cumberland, Adams, Bucks, Chester, Northampton, Lehigh, etc. Plus dozens of rope factories and thousands of hemp farmers and much, much more relating to the industry. Lots of great, rich stories. There is so much of our history that is documented by thousands of historical scholars throughout the ages and yet the hemp industry barely got a mention by most historians and none have ever investigated the subject fully. As far as the entire historical community goes, the hemp industry did not really exist and was all but forgotten and there seemed to be an almost complete lack of interest in the subject. So I had always suspected that this was purposeful. It seemed like after it was made illegal the old timers felts ashamed of the past history of our close relationship with this plant that had suddenly become so notorious. I suspected a deliberate campaign to suppress this knowledge and completely wipe out the memory of hemp from the collective conscious. Either that or they just were too embarrassed and ashamed to investigate it. Why so little interest in something so huge? I mean, everything you could possibly want to know about is explored exhaustively, but not the hemp industry. People who studied old mills went on and on in every county about all the grist mills and saw mills and almost completely ignored 90% of all the hemp mills. People who studied clothing and textiles barely even mentioned hemp and if they did they practically completely dismissed it, some even teaching that hemp could not be spun on the spinning wheel, which is absolute nonsense. Plenty of historians only mentioned hemp to assert that it was unprofitable and it never really took off even though it was constantly encouraged by the early governors and general assemblies of Pennsylvania. After collecting a massive amount of data that PROVES that hemp was grown by virtually every farmer in Pennsylvania until around 1840 and LOTS of information detailing how profitable it was and integral to the very fabric of our culture I just could not believe how it was missed and completely overlooked. How could they miss it? Yet part of me though, well, you never know. Maybe the process of cultural amnesia was completely natural and there was no intentional effort to suppress the knowledge, it simply didnt come up and didnt seem important. Well, a month or two ago I found a really cool group page concerning the history of Hanover specifically and south central Pennsylvania in general. I enjoyed the posts about the area history a lot. My primary focus as a historian is of course the hemp industry but I like it all. So I poste this article below about the revival of hemp growing in the Hanover area in the early 1900s when farmers started growing hemp again after a lull of a few decades for use in the local Hanover Cordage company. Last night, I went to the page to check out any new posts and see if my post got anymore likes or comments. I had asked if any of the locals remembered the hemp growing or heard stories about it from the old timers. I was shocked. I couldnt believe it. Not only did they delete my post but I was booted out of the group! Imagine that! I went to the guys page and it turns out he is a religious nut, which I have no problem with in most cases but it really irritated me that he would delete my post and remove me from the group. I sent him a message expressing disappointment and he got back to me and said that he is not going to let his page be used to promote drug use and that marijuana is a gateway drug and so forth and he vehemently opposes its use. I just can not believe it. Thats how those guys operate. They think that somehow even the knowledge of the local hemp industry is going to make everyone turn to pot and then become heroin addicts. So freaking ridiculous. Thats how they operate. They are devious and full of lies and deception. They KNOW that knowledge of the hemp WILL make people question the wisdom of throwing people in jail for cannabis and they can not have that so they would rather suppress this knowledge out of some self righteous determination to throw people in jail for pot. Admittedly, they are in a tough spot that they can not win. Was that hemp they were growing actually psychoactive enough to be called marijuana? Because if it WAS then HOW CAN THEY JUSTIFY THROWING PEOPLE IN JAIL FOR IT? It it was NOT, then HOW CAN THEY JUSTIFY BANNING HEMP? Those questions are too hard for them to answer so they would rather just hush anyone who knows the truth. They would rather erase this part of our history and distance themselves as far as possible from William Penn, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and the countless thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania farmers who grew the hemp. They ask themselves, What would Jesus do?. Then they say, Well, never mind, I dont know what Jesus would do but Im going to lie and suppress so we can keep putting people in prison!. This is why I work so hard to get the word out, to restore our lost knowledge and to work for change. Im working against the brute stubborn ignorance of many religious nut conservatives who will do anything to stop the truth from spreading and anything that hinders their tyrannical judgmental insistence of throwing people in prison. They ought to be ashamed but instead they feel a justified pride. Its Christmas day and those people who today celebrate the birth of Jesus will tomorrow push for continued police state measures and harsh prison sentences all to make themselves appear righteous while they ruthlessly suppress the truth. Here is what they dont want you to know. This simple information. Its a shame. This is what got me banned. newspaperarchive/us/pennsylvania/gettysburg/gettysburg-compiler/1908/05-13/page-3
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 17:33:32 +0000
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