To say that Black women were an integral part of the United States textile industry is an understatement. From the beginning of the industry during the antebellum period to industrialization, Black women were a major part of the Nation’s business plan beginning as free enslaved labor to ultimately become low-wage workers.
Two things ‘revolutionized’ this continent’s textile industry in the 1700s: Enslaved women weavers and the flying shuttle. According to Vacation With An Artist (VAWAA), “Textile weaving was a crucial role for enslaved Black women in 18th century America. Responsible for the development and global success of American textile production, Black women are rarely credited with recognition for their contributions to this country’s early economic success. The matriarchs of American fabrics, Black women and their children, toiled in indigo and cotton fields, trained in the craft of weaving.”
As for the flying shuttle, the device made weaving more efficient by reducing the number of women it took to weave broader textiles. More flying shuttles meant more looms powered by one enslaved woman instead of a few. It also meant more money as time and other technologies, such as the cotton gin, progressed. The real money made by wealthy Southern planters was in the crops: cotton, wool, indigo, and hemp. Black women were picking those crops, processing wool sheared from goats and sheep, and spinning and dying the fibers into fabric. Some Black women made the clothes worn by their co-laborers on plantations.
“A few sleeveless jackets and a pair of trousers that survive at Shadows on the Têche in Louisiana were handed down in the family as examples of clothing made entirely by slaves, who spun the yarn, wove the fabric, and stitched the garments. The garments, sized for a boy perhaps 10-15 years of age, are unusual—perhaps unique—survivals.” – Madelyn Shaw, author
Child’s “slave cloth” sleeveless jacket and pants, unknown maker, Louisiana, 1850s. Cotton; hand spun and woven. From the Collections of Shadows-on-the-Teche, a Site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, New Iberia, Louisiana, acc. NT59.67.644. via Brown University Rosenberg Library
These women were highly skilled artisans who worked long hours most likely wearing garments made of cheap fabric that itched and made them hot in the summer. Mount Vernon provides an example of the ways in which planters exploited the artisans and their craft.
Ona Judge and Kitty, two women enslaved by George and Martha Washington, worked as a seamstress and fiber spinner respectively. There was an elaborate spinning house on the plantation, and a staff of enslaved and itinerant women to spin and make yarn as well as dye it. They transformed raw materials into textiles used on the plantation. Public historian Cynthia E. Chin, PhD identified other seamstresses and textile workers: Moll, Caroline Branham, Charlotte, and Betty. Branham was a housemaid who tended to guests, but according to Mount Vernon records, she was also “a seamstress, sewing household linens and such clothing as shirts and shifts for her fellow enslaved workers.” Charlotte was considered difficult and plantation records note that she once refused to sew for Mrs. Washington, which led to a beating. Betty was a seamstress and her daughter was Ona (Oney) Judge, a lady’s maid and seamstress. Ona (successfully) self-emancipated upon learning that Mrs. Washington was giving her to a granddaughter as a wedding present. Not much is known about Moll other than she was recorded as a nursemaid and had some hand in sewing for the Washingtons.
Martha Washington’s ballgown on the left, Dr. Chin’s replica on the right.
Dr. Chin replicated one of Martha Washington’s gowns and made some observations about the original. The fabric was most likely imported, the dress was sewn or constructed by one enslaved woman while others had a hand in repairing it over the years. She writes, “Through the enslaved seamstresses’ physical, captive labor embedded within, the gown becomes a powerful example of the constant relinquishment of their agency and selfhood to ensure the safeguarding of another’s.”
Elizabeth Keckley is perhaps the most famous of all textile artists to have been enslaved. She doubled as a nursemaid and seamstress, assisting her mother, Aggy. Aggy is said to have made clothing for her enslaver and the 70 or so enslaved people on the plantation. Keckley suffered every type of indignity possible while enslaved, including bearing a son after rape and shouldering the burden of being one enslaver’s financial savior by working for hire as a seamstress (they kept all of her earnings). She caught a break, when a patron lent her the money to buy her freedom. After she landed in Washington, DC another patron used her political connections to obtain a license required of all free people of color to stay in the city. Her initial client list was composed of the doyennes of the Confederacy: Robert E. Lee’s wife, Varina Davis (Jeff Davis’s wife), and a number of other referrals that eventually led to her most famous client, Mary Todd Lincoln. She was an amazing business woman who made commissions from selling imported fabrics. [Photos: Britannica]
Post-emancipation, Black women continued weaving and sewing for their own personal use and to make a living. Some enjoyed success as seamstresses like Elizabeth Keckley while others used their gifting to make high-end draperies and hand-made household linens. There were the women who worked at (when hired) textile mills such as Cone Mills, the mill that supplied Levi-Strauss denim for a number of decades.
Robin Caldwell
Robin Caldwell is the blogger behind freshandfriedhard.com and academic researcher focusing on Black history, heritage and culture. Public historian primarily in Black American historical foodways: antebellum and regional.
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Robin Caldwell is the blogger behind freshandfriedhard.com and academic researcher focusing on Black history, heritage and culture. Public historian primarily in Black American historical foodways: antebellum and regional.
