Appendix 4 Processing by Hand of Indigo Plants and Maize

Processing by Hand of Indigo Plants and Maize

Indigo (December 23rd. 1805)

An open cask was filled with indigo plants just about to bud and the plants covered with water and with two or three stones on top to hold them down. After standing for 24 hours, the water was yellowish green and had fermented considerably. It was then drawn off, the plants thrown away and the cask washed out before returning the water to it. The water was then mechanically agitated, whence it became darker and blue in colour. After a while, samples of the water were taken off into a saucer and a little lime water added to observe the size of particles being precipitated and the speed of precipitation. Agitation was continued and sampling repeated until the particles were large enough and the speed of precipitation fast enough. At that point, agitation was ceased, usually after an hour and forty minutes. Precipitation continued for a further twenty minutes. A further test in the saucer with added lime water showed that the remaining precipitation was less complete and the water which remained on top had a red colour and was becoming turbid, indicating a new combination between the particles of indigo and the water. Churning was then stopped and two lids full of lime water put into the cask to ensure the full precipitation of the indigo. After standing four hours, holes in the side of the cask were then opened from the top downwards, leaving the indigo at the bottom, still mixed with some water to the consistency of a cream. After passing that through a hair sieve and pouring it into small bags of close texture, the bags were hung up and the water allowed to drain away. By the following morning, the indigo had the consistency of blue mud. It was emptied into a small square box with holes in it and a cloth spread on the bottom. The small quantity of indigo was wrapped in the cloth and the top pressed down on it to expel the remaining water. After four hours, the indigo was taken out, cut into squares of an inch and a half and put to dry in a shady place. The quantity of indigo so obtained was about a pound with a value of five or six shillings.

Maize milling (March 3rd. 1807)

Maize was ground between two stones and sifted three times. A negro seated on the ground with a sack of maize meal on one side and three or four pieces of sacking spread around him, took a pound or two of the meal into the flat basket he was holding and, with a side to side movement and a slight movement forwards, the light husks rose at the top in the forepart. Those husks would be thrown aside onto one of the sacks. Then by a movement from NE to SW and a cant of the basket after each double movement, the yellow maize grits became separated from the fine white flour. The yellow maize was thrown out onto a second sack and the fine white flour sacked up as a finished product. The yellow maize grits were then taken back into the basket, when, by a movement backwards and forwards, the larger particles came to the nearer part of the basket and the finer to the further part. By a cant of the basket, after each of the double movements, the heels of the grain still mixed with the grits were made to fly at the same time upon a sack directly in front. The product was bran with some flour and a little of the finest grits mixed. The finest maize grits were put on one side and the coarse on the other. The husks were fed to hogs, the bran was boiled in water for the ducks, the coarse grits fed to fowls, the white flour was sometimes made into cakes with sugar, but more commonly boiled up for the dogs, whilst the fine grits were boiled up and served like rice upon the table of the planter.

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