Who put the Hemp in Hempstead? Before the cotton gin, hemp was an essential raw material valued for its fiber and oil, as a fuel and a medicine. This colorful socio-economic history clears the smoke obscuring hemp's role in battles between Britain and the colonies, the North and South, the haves and have-nots, and the marijuana lobby and their foes. Deitch offers a look at major events in US and world history as they influenced, and as they may have been influenced by, the cultivation and use of hemp.