Ginseng

Ginseng, a valuable commodity on the global market since the mid-18th century, grew abundantly in the rich deciduous forests of the Southern Appalachians, especially on north facing slopes above 1,500 feet. The Cherokees,like the Chinese who readily purchased the root, believed it to have important medicinal qualities. In fact, ginseng was used by the Cherokees as a general tonic and treatment for a variety of ailments, including headaches, menstrual problems, andinfections.

American ginseng

Although the trading of the root initially got off to a slow start, ginseng became by far the most important plant of the mountain forest. In the mid-1740s ginseng was still bringing a relatively small price in the markets of Charleston and Williamsburg, partly because the Indians did not dry the root according to strict Chinese standards. In fact, a trader living in North Carolina sadly told Georgian James Adair that he could not sell it for more than "one shilling sterling a pound, though his people brought it from the Alegany and Apalache mountains, two hundred miles..." (Fries 1968, p. 57) Adair, convinced of its importance to the region, wondered if some "public spirited gentleman" might inform the regions inhabitants about "how to preserve the ginseng, so as to give it a proper colour; for could we once effect that, it must become a valuable branch of trade" (Fries 1968, p. 57).

Ginseng did not become a significant commodity in the Southern Appalachians until the 1750s, after the Chinese begin to lose faith in Canadian suppliers. The Chinese turned to southern markets in order to fill the void, and the Cherokees immediately took advantage of the situation. In the interim, white traders, or the Cherokees themselves, had received instruction about proper methods of gathering and drying the root. As English merchants were soon shipping ginseng acquired from Cherokees living in the mountains of Southern Appalachia halfway around the world. By the end of the18th century, ginseng was so scarce in the Blue Ridge that John Drayton, the governor of South Carolina, commented that "ginseng had been so much sought by the Cherokee Indians for trade, that at this time it is by no means so plenty as it used to be in this state" (Davis 1997, p. 43).

In much of southern Appalachia, ginseng was gathered from the late18th century by settlers who must have learned of the plants medicinal properties from Cherokees. The Cherokee believed the plant to be a sentient being: on digging it, they dropped a single seed of the plant in the ground as repayment "to the plant spirit." Even though most white settlers used it sparingly because of its market value, ginseng was reputed to cure anything from a cough to a boil to an internal disorder (Dykeman 1955). In the north Georgia mountains, settlers generally boiled two or three roots in a pint of water, which was givento children as cure for colic (Wigginton,1972).

Ginseng digging remains an important pasttime for local residents and represents a regional cash-crop today valued at more than$10 million. One commercial firm in the region collects more than 13,000 pounds of ginseng annually (Davis 1999).

See: Medicinal plant use in the Southern Appalachians