So, cowboys are popularly credited as being the ones to wear denim jeans, but enslaved Africans wore denim well before that. In fact, denim was initially called “negro cloth,” because the material could stand up to forced labor…ain’t that some sh-? Anyway, denim’s traditional blue color came from indigo — a temperamental tropical plant native to the Caribbean and West Africa — which the enslaved men and women, who came from these regions, taught plantation owners how to grow. Eliza Lucas has been credited as literally producing indigo in America. She's been credited as a botanist. She's even written about in elementary school and high school textbooks. Once Eliza gets her hands on the indigo seeds, it takes off in terms of production. On the eve of the American Revolution, more than a million pounds of indigo was being shipped overseas. Lucas was probably one of the most well-known producers of indigo in colonial America. But Eliza's hands weren't blue. She didn't get her hands dirty with the indigo crop. The knowledge to grow indigo came from enslaved people. They’re the ones that did the work that allowed her to become this great planter that she's been credited for. They’re the ones that had the knowledge of indigo and created generations of wealth for these white slave-holding families. History repeats itself.