A History of Root and Herb Gathering in Appalachia
Luke Manget, Author
The Appalachian region, with its biodiversity, has long been a place where residents appreciate the gifts of the land, gathering herbs and plants and passing the lore on through generations. In researching his forthcoming book, Ginseng Diggers, Luke Manget said that learning how important the region was to the pharmaceutical industry in the 19th century surprised him. “I think most readers will know that mountain people have dug roots and herbs for a long time, but my research has shown that those herb gatherers were an important component of the supply chains for some of the largest drug firms in the United States,” says Manget. “Perhaps as many as 40,000-50,000 Western North Carolinians traded roots and herbs to entrepreneurs who sold them to firms like Eli Lilly and Parke, Davis, & Co. The extent and scope of the trade were remarkable.”
Manget grew up hearing about root digging and herb gathering from his grandmother, who was raised in eastern Kentucky during the Depression. An anonymous newspaper article from 1877 describing ginseng gatherers in West Virginia as a “race of Tom Thumbs” with rather bizarre lives further piqued his interest. “This did not necessarily square with what I knew about the ginseng diggers in my family, so I began this adventure in the archives to try to understand exactly who these ‘sang diggers’ were,” says Manget.
Ginseng Diggers: A History of Root and Herb Gathering in Appalachia, March, 2022, nonfiction, hardcover, $27.95, by Luke Manget, and published by University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY. Find the book online and at regional bookstores. Learn more at TheSouthernHighlander.org.
