James Nathan Calloway

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.

Immediately after graduation he joined the Tuskegee Institute, which sought to educate African Americans in the Southern United States, as a mathematics lecturer. 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. 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 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. 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 project suffered heavy losses among Tuskagee students, with four out of eight sent dying by 1909 and others returning home. He remained a teacher of agriculture at Tuskegee until at least 1930.

Family Calloway had five children, including Nathaniel O Calloway, who taught at the University of Illinois medical school and served as a major in the US Army Medical Corps during the Korean War. Calloway's younger brother Thomas Junius Calloway was also a Fisk graduate and a friend of W. E. B. Du Bois; another younger brother, Clinton Joseph Calloway, joined the agricultural department at Tuskagee during Calloway's period in Togoland.