James Nathan Calloway (1865after 1930) was an American agriculturalist. Born in slavery in Tennessee, Calloway graduated from Fisk University before joining the faculty of the Tuskegee Institute. Initially a lecturer in mathematics, he became involved in agricultural science and was appointed manager of the institute's largest farm in 1897. He was selected to lead an expedition to German Togoland in 1900 to promote the production of cotton there. Calloway bred a special strain of the plant suited to local conditions but returned to the United States a year later. The experimental station that he founded remained in use until 1919 and established cotton as a staple crop of the colony. He returned to Tuskegee as farm manager and taught agriculture there until at least 1930.
Early life and career
James Nathan Calloway was born in slavery in Cleveland, Tennessee in 1865, but his family later lived near to Tuskegee, Alabama. He studied at Fisk University in Tennessee, where he learned German, and graduated in 1890.
Immediately after graduation he joined the Tuskegee Institute, which sought to educate African Americans in the Southern United States, as a mathematics lecturer. Calloway was appointed inspector of the institute's Home Farm in 1892 after George Washington Carver perceived failings in its management under Charles W. Green. Calloway reported that the farm suffered from neglect of its tomato, sweet potato, and grape crops, but described the management of its cabbage crop and dairy farm as good. Calloway became a business agent for the Institute in 1893 and in 1897 was appointed manager of its Marshall Farm, its largest agricultural site.
Togo expedition
In 1900, Calloway was chosen as leader of the Tuskegee-Togo Cotton Scheme. This scheme was carried out by the Institute in conjunction with the German government's Kolonial-Wirtschaftliches Komitee (Colonial Economic Committee), with the stated aim "to train Africans in cotton culture and to experiment with the cloning of local and imported cotton in order to develop a strong commercially successful hybrid". The Germans hoped to transform their newly expanded colony of Togoland into a cotton-producing agricultural state and reduce their reliance on imported American-produced cotton. The cotton industry was chosen since, being a high-labour and low-value crop, it would limit the wealth of the African farmers who might otherwise engage in political resistance. The Germans had hoped the scheme would instil obedience into the Togolese population, reduce the autonomy of women, and tie the previously migratory population to the land. The Tuskegee Institute's leader Booker T. Washington, though generally opposed to colonialism, was willing to assist the German authorities in this manner to progress the welfare of the African population. It marked the first occasion that a major African American institution from the Southern US engaged in an economic or scientific endeavour with a major foreign power.
In preparation for the expedition, Calloway bred a new strain of cotton which was better suited to mechanical spinning and weaving than the native variety. His role on the expedition was described by the German agricultural attaché in Washington, D.C., Baron Beno von Herman auf Wain, as "finding the necessary authority towards the native population and in having at the same time the necessary respect towards the German government official". Calloway and a party of three Tuskegee students left New York on November 3, 1900, and travelled by boat via Hamburg, arriving in Togoland on January 1, 1901. Their intention was to establish an experimental cotton-growing station at .
Upon arrival in Togo, it was found that the Africans were unwilling to pull the expedition's wagons but were happy to carry loads on their heads. This meant that Calloway had to source draft animals (cattle and horses) from French Sudan to carry the heavier loads. These animals, however, died from the effects of the Tsetse fly before they could be put to use on the station in harnesses. This meant that the station's plows and machinery had to be driven by manpower. Four Togolese men were harnessed to each plow and 36 to the station's cotton gin, in a move described by historian Clarence Lausane in 2003 as "inhumane". The station was also blighted by locusts, ants, "bug-a-bugs", and "jiggers".