Making Indigo
Jutta Wimmler
BCDSS Research Group Leader
Cultivating and preparing indigo for transport to Europe was extremely hard work. Enslaved men and women from Africa labored on Caribbean plantations and in the indigo mills to cater to the high demand for the blue dyestuff in European dyeing and printing shops.
Early modern Europeans knew indigo primarily in the form of very light, water-insoluble “indigo cakes.” Due to this curious texture, they were for a long time unaware that they were dealing with a plant substance and assumed it was a mineral. From the seventeenth century onwards, enslaved laborers of African origin not only planted indigo on Caribbean plantations, but also produced these “cakes.” These would then be shipped to Europe, and reach European dyeing and printing shops. The techniques for making indigo were adapted from processes witnessed in Asia and required a highly exploitative labor regime to produce a high output.
Fig. 1: Cultivation of indigo: “Representation of a field being worked with a rake in order to plant indigo.” and “Representation of a field full of holes that have been made with a hoe in order to plant indigo.” Beauvais Raseau (1772), Die Kunst des Indigobereiters. IX. Copper, p. 412.
Figure 1 depicts enslaved men tilling a plot of land with hoes and rakes, while enslaved women plant seedlings in the ground. The men use planers to cover the seedlings with earth. Once the seedlings are fully grown, they harvest them with sickles and tie them into bundles, which they then carry to the local “indigo mill.”
Fig. 2: Indigo production: “Depiction of a simple indigo mil, the digestion vat of which is filled and covered with wood, but the beating vat with its assembled parts is prepared for beating with the beating bar.” Beauvais Raseau (1772), The Art of the Indigo Maker. IV. Copper, p. 397.
Figure 2 depicts one of these “mills.” These are three square boxes arranged in a cascading order. The enslaved place the plant in the first box, where it decomposes. The substance then moves to the second box. Here, the enslaved have to “beat” the liquid repeatedly. The liquid then rests in box three and ultimately has to be strained. Finally, this produces the square indigo cakes that the enslaved then have to load onto ships. Working the indigo mill was extremely hard work and also unhealthy and offensive to the senses: the indigo produced an unbearable stench that polluted the air for miles. Such images thus do not tell the whole story: they depict a “sanitized” and idealized version of the process.
Fig. 3: Indigo cakes: dried indigo pressed into cubes (photo: Shutterstock-ID 1980643148, license 2024).
Further Reading
Wimmler, Jutta, TBP 2025. “Environment and Materials. Extraction and Preparation of Materials.” In Marieke Hendriksen (ed.): A Cultural History of Technology in the Age of Expansion and Enlightenment. London: Bloomsbury Academic.