Small Collections Box 18
Given by Colonel H.A. Oatts
TS copy of memoir: Indigo Saga. 1845-95.
Foreword; note on his family and their connection with indigo production in Bengal; early history of the trade, details of growing the crop, the life of the planters, the losses caused by drought; James Tweedie and Henry Oatts partnership; extracts from letters written by Oatts about the industry and the mutiny; forming of the Indigo Planters Corps as a volunteer movement; wife and children sent to Calcutta for safety by the indigo boats; the years following the mutiny; transfer of the Government of India to the Crown; difficult position of the planters after the mutiny and transfer of Government; later improvement in the industry; deaths of planters and families from dysentry; final collapse of the indigo planters caused by the German discovery of aniline dye. 20pp.
