John Perceval, Second Earl of Egmont
Part Two of Two: Amelia's Indigo History
By Mary Beth Litrico

    Part one of this article was a brief biography of the second Earl of Egmont, John Perceval. During British occupation of Amelia Island from 1763 to 1783, he was granted the majority of the island's acres by Florida governor, James Grant. Although Lord Egmont never set a foot on this land, a weedy shrub that loved the island's soil and climate would thrive on his acres. This pea relative, Indigofera tinctoria, could be processed into a valuable substance, the dye, indigo. And then one day there was only a legacy of England on Amelia.
    Our earl, a prominent politician and citizen in England, had acquired 65,000 acres in Florida. Some of that land  on the St. Johns River became a settlement known as Mount Royal. Governor Grant was so impressed with Perceval's ambition for Mount Royal that he granted the earl 10,000 acres on Amelia Island.

Excerpt from A Plan of Amelia Harbour and Barr in East Florida,
surveyed in 1775 by Jacob Blarney, Master of His Majesty's Schooner
St. John. Reference points show Egmont property on Amelia Island.
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Perceval considered the Amelia River   and her naturally deep harbor to be exceptional for water transportation. The waterway was a final stop for ships leaving the St. Johns River area  before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Perceval offered the labor of ten Mount Royal slaves to clear land to establish a town site on the island. Perhaps he  hoped to reap some profit from suggesting that plantation owners maintain warehouses in his town. The town was know as Egmont Town and was laid out in 1770.
   However, in December of 1770, the second Earl of Egmont died. Executors of his estate decided to abandon Mount Royal and focus on using Perceval's Amelia acreage with its advantageous location for a plantation.
   What could the Egmont Plantation grow for profit? A crop suited to the land and weather that could easily be sold.
   Looking at European history, we know that a plant dye called indigo was in demand in the British marketplace.  Both the War of Jenkin's Ear (1739 - 1743) and the Seven Years War (1754 - 1763) made indigo more profitable than crops such as rice. The lowcountry colonies of South Carolina and Georgia could not get rice to many of their European markets while England was battling France, Spain and others, so planters there turned to indigo. Furthermore, this warring cut England off from indigo suppliers in the Caribbean and South America, so they needed the indigo from other colonies.
   Later, war would  force the American indigo plantations to lose their British market. But before that last war broke out, indigo would be East Florida's most valuable crop for the 1770s.
   What is indigo and why was it so valuable? Centuries ago, before the discovery of chemical dyes, dyes were limited to natural sources,  producing mostly muted browns, greys, greens and some purples. Usually, the color was not water or light fast, and one washing or exposure to elements erased the tint. But around the world, a select blue dye, indigo, was found to be pleasing and permanent.
   Looking at indigo etymology, we know cultures worldwide were familiar with this plant. Indigo gets its name from the latin, indicum, meaning "Indian." (Indigo tinctoria is native to India and Africa.) The word "indigo" is the same in French, German, Danish, Swedish, Russian and English languages. Other languages call it "anil" (Persian, Spanish and Portuguese), "indaco" (Italian), "indych" (Polish), "nile" (Arabic) and "tien laam" or translated, "sky blue" (Chinese).
   Indigo-dyed fabrics have been found in  ancient Egyptian tombs. Peoples of Asia and South America have used indigo for 4,000 years. Perhaps most amazing of all is that all these cultures discovered that they could attain this blue dye from a weedy, little green plant that in its organic form gives no indication that it could create a blue hue.
   In America's Indigo Blues, author Florence Pettit describes the indigo plant as such: "A rather slender plant with a single, brittle, stem, the color of which was shaded from gray at the base through green to reddish at the tip. The smooth oval leaves grew from short, spreading stems ranged around the main stem in pairs. Small, pale yellowish-pink blossoms grew in clusters, and when matured they were followed by bean-like pods that held extremely small, dark seeds."
   There are impostors of Indigo tinctoria. Indigofera anil is a plant native to Central and South America. Isatis tinctoria, commonly known as woad or pastel, can grow in the less tropical climes of southern Europe, but it is a weaker dye. Woad would give European indigo-importers legal woes in the 1600s.
   By 1615, indigo was a hot item for European trading companies, especially the Dutch. Spain and Portugal had begun to bring indigo into Europe after Vasco de Gama opened up sea travel to India in 1498.
   Meanwhile, woad had become commercially important in some European countries and woad growers sought protection of their interest. Indigo was lobbied  by some (perhaps woad growers) as a dangerous drug that could be harmful to fabrics (Early indigo dyeing techniques did involve the use of some toxic catalysts.). English law prohibited the use of indigo from 1558 to 1685. France declared its use illegal until 1737.  
   Returning our focus to Amelia Island in the 1770s, Perceval's executors chose to grow indigo on the plantation. It was marketable and well-suited to the island's warmth, moisture and "excellent hommocky soil" as described by naturalist, William Bartram on a visit in 1774.
Mr. Bartram's host during this visit to Amelia Island was Stephen Egan, formerly of one of Perceval's Irish estates, chosen to oversee the new indigo plantation. Of Egan, Bartram wrote "the gentleman is a very intelligent and able planter, having already greatly improved the estate, particularly in the cultivation of indigo."

Here a row of indigo thrives in sandy loam soil.
Insets show blooms (left) and bean-like seedpods (right).
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    Egan learned how to grow and produce indigo in St. Augustine at Governor James Grant's successful operation. Records of over 2,000 pounds of indigo in Amelia warehouses in 1774 indicate Egan was a keen learner.
   Letters between agents of the Earl of Egmont's widow and Egan indicate how much the success of the plantation depended on Egan and that his conduct greatly pleased the Countess Dowager. A January, 1772 letter notes that "The last Indigo did not sell for one half what Governor Grant sold...which is very discouraging..." But by December, 1772, the Countess' agent wrote that "this years [sic] crop [is] turning out better than imagined." In 1774, her agent writes, "Your whole conduct meets with universal approbation and which I make no doubt of its continuing to do."
   The successful venture would not last long. While indigo steeped in processing vats on Amelia Island, revolution brewed in the thirteen colonies to the north. Georgians loyal to the colonists made regular raids of Amelia residents. In late 1776, Egan sought help from Governor Patrick Tonyn and his "Rangers." Less than a year later, on May 18, 1777, continental troops landed on the island. (See the historic marker at the old railroad depot on Centre Street.) British troops killed a colonial Lieutenant and wounded two of his men. In retaliation, continentals burned every house on Amelia Island, having made camp in Egmont Plantation warehouses.
   The plantation enterprise ended. Stephen Egan would survive to build a naval stores business on the St. Johns River, but he and thousands of English settlers would soon have to leave Florida. At the end of the American Revolution, Amelia Island and the rest of Florida were returned to Spain. The British occupation of Amelia Island ended in 1783. The 10,000 acres that once belonged to the Earl of Egmont now belonged to Spain.
   Though Egmont Plantation is gone, her legacy remains today. There's Egan's Creek, named for the diligent superintendent, and the Egmont Houses on South 7th Street, whose lumber once made up the elegant Egmont Hotel in the late 1800s. Who knows? Some unsuspecting weed enjoying the warmth and nourishing soil of Amelia might be a descendent of Perceval's indigo.

   Still curious about indigo? Visit Kingsley Plantation on Fort George Island and see indigo seasonally grown and processed. Call (904) 261-3537 for information.