Workers in the fields harvest the indigo plant during the hot summer months. Engraving from a French book, around 1760. Indigo was a good complement to rice as a crop. Indigo grew well in the high ground in between the low lying marshy areas where rice fields were located. Both were labor intensive crops. The manufacture of the indigo dye took place when the rice fields had been flooded and no longer needed intensive cultivation, but before the rice harvest.
Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
