>>Make ready.

Take aim.

Fire!

(rifle firing) >>So we have set up three dye pots today to show you.

And the one right behind you is a really popular dye at the time called Madder.

And it's actually the root of the Madder plant that creates everything from peach to kind of a carrot orange to a brick red.

And that's a really popular dye for centuries.

And even though it's not native here, it's growing quite well in Virginia and other parts of the world by the 1770s.

And we've actually got some growing in our garden right here at Yorktown.

>>Amazing.

>>And then behind us is a yellow dye pot, but it comes from the heartwood of a tree called Osage Orange.

>>Oh, beautiful.

>>And a lot of people.

It is, it's such a great yellow.

It's actually the heartwood or the pulp of the tree that creates this beautiful yellow, and that's something that's native to North America.

And so Indigenous people would've been using this and dyeing with it long before any European contact.

That's what's so neat about dye stuff, is that everybody around the world has put color on things, has decorated with color.

And so everybody would be familiar with it before they had that convergence of contact.

But we are standing next to what I think is probably the most special dye, the most magical dye, if you can say that.

So if you were to look at the top, what color would you say this dye pot was?

>>It looks a little purple or lavender-ish.

>>Yeah, it does have like a purple-ish hue to it.

And that's because this is sitting on the outside where the oxygen has already hit it.

But if I blow on this (blowing), can you see how it looks almost like- >>It looks green.

>>It does.

It looks kind like a sickly green, almost like pond scum.

Or if I was using a modern equivalent, I would say something like antifreeze.

>>And this is gonna actually make blue.

>>It's gonna make blue.

>>Wow.

>>So for these dye pots, when we're dying with 'em, you're gonna notice that we are kind of submerging 'em in the dye pot and keeping 'em there for as long as we want.

So the longer in the dye pot, the darker it gets.

>>Okay.

>>For Indigo, it doesn't work like that because it has to oxidize, it has to be brought out and let oxygen hit it before it turns blue.

So if you left it in for 20 minutes or 2 hours, the first time you pull it out, it'll be the same shade of blue.

And you just have to keep over dying it.

>>Okay, let's do it.

>>All right, so I'm gonna slowly put it in because we are trying not to introduce any more oxygen than need be.

And you can kind of see that kind of sickly green color.

And Indigo, you're able to purchase it.

So even though we don't grow it here, you can grow it in Virginia, but it's a cash crop in South Carolina, so it would probably be purchased.

And what's neat about this little farm that we portray here at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown is that it's the middling sort.

And so they would be obviously growing a lot of things and foraging for dye stuffs, but they could also purchase them in town if they want to.

>>Okay, I noticed you mentioned that you had to keep it at a certain temperature.

>>Exactly right.

>>And what is that?

>>So the Indigo is just kind of fussy.

So there's a secret ingredient you put in here, in the time it's called Sig, but it's really stale human urine, and which is free and in abundance.

So you can get that pretty easily if you want to, but that is the catalyst that causes it to turn blue when it's oxidized.

>>Got it.

>>This is something that, I think one of the fascinating things about this is that it's ancient.

So people figured this out thousands of years ago.

And all people have a different version of Indigo.

>>Wow.

>>So we're gonna slowly pull it to the edge, and when we pull it out, you might be, you might like the color or you might be slightly horrified by it, but as the oxygen hits it, it's gonna turn blue right before your eyes.

And don't worry about all the little schmutz and all the different colors.

>>Absolutely, it looks amazing.

>>Isn't that neat how that happens?

And you can still see- >>It's kind of a tie dye type.

>>It does look like that now.

But that is not what we're going for.

Although, they do have a version of that in the 18th century too.

>>Wow.

>>How beautiful.

>>Amazing.

>>And it's got those little pieces on there, but we'll over-dye it again.

And those little spots and speckles will come out.

>>That is absolutely isn't amazing.

>>That's just one dip.

And we didn't even leave it in very long.

>>Right.

Now are you able to show us where these plants are grown?

>>Absolutely.

>>And how you actually get the plants and harvest them, and what are you use them for?

>>We sure can, come with me, and I'll show you.

>>All right, let's go.

So this would be considered the farm area of the space?

>>Yes, so at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, we have two outdoor living history areas, and one is the recreated military encampment, and one is our recreated tobacco farm.

And so we're headed over to the kitchen garden.

Inside of the perimeter are all different, some medicinal herbs, some culinary herbs, and as you pointed out, some dye herbs.

And then the center, we have mostly vegetables growing.

>>All of my favorite veggies, cucumbers, beans, lettuce.

Now who takes care of this, and how often do they have to maintain this space?

>>So it's a great question.

All the living history interpreters here, people dress like me that work here on the farm that are stationed here, they are the ones that are taking care of this daily.

They are out here every single day in all seasons tending the gardens and the fields.

>>Wow, and this looks like an outside tool shed.

>>That's exactly right.

So tool shed's obviously for woodworking, but it could be just any messy project you don't wanna do inside your house, so woodworking, but maybe you're prepping your dye stuffs here, maybe you're doing butchering over here.

So just kind of outdoor work.

>>Now, this building is a significant space here on the farm, and it's called the enslaved people's quarters?

>>Absolutely, so it is, you know, a reconstruction of what a building may have looked like that housed people that were enslaved on a farm this size.

And what a lot of people don't maybe realize is that, where the last major battle of the revolution was fought in York County, Virginia, slightly more than half the population was enslaved.

Right.

So even though this is the place where we talk about how people won their freedom and independence, you know, and had liberties, the majority of people living here at the time wouldn't have experienced that.

>>Wow, that is such important information.

Thank you so much for sharing.

>>Thank you.

>>Now what do we have going on in this space?

>>So these are a couple more examples of some of the dye stuffs that we grow here on our farm.

And the one that's closest to us is Coreopsis.

So it might not look much like a dye plant at this stage, the way it's growing now, but soon, we're gonna get really pretty little yellow flowers at the top, some actually have kind of a red center.

And so unlike other dyes or some of the other dyes we talked about today, these are the flowers themselves that make the dye.

And so they would kind of steeped down in hot water and kind of release that dye.

And then that would be used just like we were using the yellow dye stuffs out there today, the Osage Orange.

>>Wow.

Now I also notice you have a few things going on over there.

Tell us a little bit about that.

>>Sure, so in the front section, that's the Calendula, and that is an import as well.

So that's from kind of Western Europe, but that would've been a yellow dye stuff.

And those have really pretty little yellow flowers.

It's also used medicinally in some cases too.

And then behind it is Woad, W-O-A-D. And that is neat because that is kind of an ancient blue dye, much like the Indigo that we were working with.

And it actually has some of the same properties to it.

And so right now you see all the little seed heads popping up.

At this point, it would be past the point of usefulness for dyeing.

So it's actually the leaves of the plant, just like the Indigo plant.

And so we would ferment them down into kind of like a paste, and it would be in water, and the sediments are kind of pulled up.

So that's how Indigo works.

And Woad is working like that too.

And this is not as high of a concentration, so you're not gonna get as deep of a blue with Woad as you would with Indigo.

>>Well, Gretchen, it has been my pleasure being here.

Thank you so much for having us.

Now tell others how can they get involved and hands-on with the farm?

>>Yeah, we'd love to have folks come out.

We're actually open 362 days a year.

So as long as you don't show up on Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's, we are open to the public.

We've got great indoor things to do and activities and great outdoor activities at both the encampment and here on the farm, and it's hands-on history.

So you're welcome to try your hand at any of the things we've got going on out here.

>>This is so exciting.

Thank you again for having us.

>>Thank you.

>>We appreciate you.

>>Thank you for coming.