Spiritual Roots & Earth Medicine

The history of hemp dates back to ancient Kemet (Egypt) and ancient China story but in Europeon history hemp production begins in 1629 with the Massachusetts Bay Company, the first ship building company in the new colony.  Hemp production was crucial in the to ship building industry in the  making of rope, sails and other ship building materials.  Ironically and insidiously, the Europeans depended on the slave system for the labor necessary in ship building that would sail to the African continent to round up even more enslaved African people. The rapid growth in commercial agriculture increased the demand for more slave labor.  As a function of that demand, there was increased pressure for supplies, and raw materials needed for the industrial products that came from America.  Thus, the trans-Atlantic trade rose to prominence. The trans-Atlantic slave trade relied on enslaved African people, raw materials, hemp, and industrial goods from Europe.  Thus the shipping industry and the hemp industry were inseparable.  
Mr. Davis will talk about who the primary growers and handlers of hemp were before and after the Civil War. Do you know which two states in the U.S. produced the best quality hemp?  Find out how the word Marijuana was used to cover up the history of hemp and criminalize this once sacred and highly valued plant.  Learn how hemp was used to demonize African American and Mexican people, men in particular.  How is marijuana still being used today by the criminal justice system to imprison African Americans who farmed hemp for the past four centuries.  Now that we are seeing the legalization of hemp and marijuana, how are African Americans being kept out of this multi billion dollar industry. Join Lezlee, Gagan and our guest Mr. Nathaniel Davis for a powerful, captivating, and riveting topic. Tuesday February 7th at 8pm