Ginseng Diggers

The history of American ginseng ( panax quinquefolium), the gnarled, aromatic herb known for its therapeutic and healing properties, is deeply rooted in North America, but nowhere in the United States has it played a more important role than in the southern and central Appalachian Mountains. As the production of patent medicines and botanical pharmaceutical products escalated in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, southern Appalachia emerged as the United States' most prolific supplier of many species of medicinal plants. The region achieved this distinction due to both its biodiversity and the persistence of certain common rights that guaranteed widespread access to the forested mountainsides, regardless of who owned the land. Following the Civil War, root digging and herb gathering became the most important way for landless and smallholding families to earn income from the forest commons. This boom influenced class relations, gender roles, forest use, and outside perceptions of Appalachia, and it began a widespread renegotiation of common rights that eventually curtailed access to some plants such as ginseng. In Gingseng Diggers: A History of Root and Herb Gathering in Appalachia, Thomas Luke Manget explores how and why Appalachia became the nation's premier purveyor of botanical drugs in the late nineteenth century and how the trade influenced the way human residents of the region interacted with each other and with the forests around them. This work unearths the unique relationship between the Appalachian region and the global trade in medicinal plants to explain how and why the region became so integral to the trade.