Indigo: The Devil’s Dye | Riveted: The History of Jeans

Enslaved Africans transform the indigo plant into a southern cash crop.

Learn how the production of indigo and denim relied on the skills and labor of enslaved people brought to colonial America from Africa and how these products became vital to the economies of the South and the North in these videos excerpted from Riveted: The History of Jeans | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. The history of denim reveals the economic contributions of enslaved people as well as their cultural and social connections to clothing that became closely associated with America.