“Indigo [in the eighteenth century] . . . became an important commodity, especially in the district around Baton Rouge. This tropical plant, imported to Louisiana from the West Indies, produced a blue dye vital to the European textile industry. Durable cotton fabric colored witih this dye became extemely popular, and its descendant exists today in the denim of American blue jeans.”

—Bennet H. Wall, editor, Louisiana: A History, third edition, 1997.