Post by spence on Apr 2, 2020 17:47:17 GMT -7
This doesn't seem a really appropriate topic for this forum, but I can't figure a better one, so here I are. It's way too long. I'm doing that on purpose to balance quite a few other topics which are way too short. What a taciturn bunch you are. 
_____________
Since I began dabbling in living history about 30 years ago, the party line
has been that cotton clothing was rarely used by the ordinary citizen
before the industrial revolution, that it was too expensive. That seemed
logical, but is it true, or another of those things some modern person has
'figured out'? Mark Baker's book _Sons of a Trackless Forest_, and many other sources raise doubts in my mind about the accuracy of this assumption. In going over the invoices of goods bought and sold by the company of Baynton, Wharton and Morgan, trading in southwestern Illinois in 1768, I find some very interesting entries in the invoices and personal accounts.
Here’s a list of cotton goods bought at Philadelphia, shipped via Fort Pitt to Kaskaskia for sale there to the French, Indian, military and civilian British populace, as well as the company hunters. Some of the goods were then shipped from Kaskaskia to Vincennes for sale there.
candle wicks (cotton and tow)
mixed Cotton Romats
blue Cotton Romats
5 lb. 15 oz. spun cotton
yard wide Cotton Cloth No. 1 (two entries, one 305 yds. the other 230 ells)
Cotton Romalls
light ground Cotton
yard Cotton Check
The following from one invoice:
1 2 purple
5 2 Purple ground
2 fine purple ground
1 fine 2 color fancy
1 2 reds and black
2 dark ground Chintz
1 super fine purple Copper plate
1 dark ground Chintz
1 fine purple ground
2 fine 2 colors fancy
1 fine 2 colors Pompadore
4 fine Pompadore with Green
3 fine 2 Kinds with black and green
3 ditto
1 fine Blue, Furniture Copper Plate
2 Pompadore ground Chintz
9/8 black Furniture Cotton
cotton cap (bought by a hunter)
red spotted Cotton
red flowered Cotton
with sprig
with red flowers
with Pompadore
yellow spriged Cotton
red grounded Cotton
single purple Cotton
32 Fine Bordered Cotton Caps
15 Blue and White Cotton handkerchiefs
1 cotton shirt (bought by the trader for his own use)
These items are listed in a small portion of the records of only one
trading firm, and for only one year.
******
From _Home Life in Colonial Days_, Alice Morse Earle, 1898:\
www.gutenberg.org/files/22675/22675-h/22675-h.htm
Cotton was planted in America, Bancroft says, in 1621, but MacMaster asserts it was never seen growing here till after the Revolution save as a garden ornament with garden flowers. This assertion seems oversweeping when Jefferson could write in a letter in 1786:—
"The four southernmost States make a great deal of cotton. Their poor are almost entirely clothed with it in winter and summer. In winter they wear shirts of it and outer clothing of cotton and wool mixed. In summer their shirts are linen, but the outer clothing cotton. The dress of the women is almost entirely of cotton, manufactured by themselves, except the richer class, and even many of these wear a great deal of homespun cotton. It is as well manufactured as the calicoes of Europe. Those 4. states furnish a great deal of cotton to the states North of them, who cannot make it, as being too cold.”
******
Here’s a post made to another discussion group several years ago, from Bryan P. Howard, Dept. of Anthropology, Texas A&M University.
“It is long, but facts were requested concerning cotton. I offer selections from my research which are relevant to lower classes, availability, and pricing.
“First though, I would like to say we must stop generalizing about all
areas based on information gathered in specific geographic regions.
“Information from New Jersey cannot be imposed on Virginia just as that
from Virginia is not valid for NJ or other northern colonies. What I
offer here is strictly from VIRGINIA. I think you will see it shows
cotton clothing was available to the lower classes at inexpensive prices
there.
“I offer raw data with no other interpretation by me, I leave that to
you. I also have data on the frequency of textile choice for clothing
in Virginia among runaway servants between 1774 and 1778 if anyone is
interested, but it won't be ready to send for several more days.
Citation info available on the following on request.
Bryan Howard”
__________________
JOHN HARROWER, indentured servant near Fredericksburg, Virginia: (his
diary)
8/7/74 (writing his wife): "As for myself I supose you wou'd scarce know
me now, there being nothing either brown, blew, or black about me but
the head and feet, I being Dressed in short cloath Coat, vest Coat, and
britches all made of white cotton without any lyning, and threads
stockins & wearing my own hair curled round like a wigg. At present a
suite of Cloaths costs five and twenty shillings here of making which I really think very high" (a servant's freedom suit looking almost exactly like he describes is preserved in the Smithsonian, dated to 1775 from Rhode Island. It is cotton lined with linen for both breeches and coat).
12/6/74 (letter to his wife): "There grows here plenty of extream fine
Cotton which after being pict clean and readdy for the cards is sold at
a shilling the pound; And I have at this time, a great high Gir[l]e
Carline as Black as the D--s A--se spinning some for me for which I
must pay her three shillings the pound for spinning it... Im determined
to have a webb of Cotton Cloath According to my own mind, of which I
hope you and my infants shall yet wear apart."
5/21/75 "This day I hade sent me a present from Mrs. Porter in Fredg.
two silk Vestcoats and two pair cotton britches all of them having been
verry little wore by Mr. Porter."
1/13/76 After 12 O Clock I went six Miles into the Forrest to one
Daniel Dempsies to see if they woud spin three pound of Cotton to run 8
yds. per lb., 2/3ds. of it belonging to Miss Lucy Gains for a goun &
1/3d. belonging to myself for Vestcoats" (Gaines was a house servant).
1/15/76 "Miss Lucy spinning my croop of Cotton at night after her work
is done to make me a pair of gloves"
2/10/76 Harrower buys indigo and hard soap (presumably for dying his
cotton cloth he is having woven)
2/16/76 "At night Delivered to Jno McDearman (a local weaver) +1 1/2
lb. pickt Cotton at 1/6 per lb. (1 shilling sixpence).
2/23/76 Reports of McDearman that the "Cotton [is] to run nigh five
yds. per lb."
2/25/76 "In the evening Mr. Frazer... made me a present of a new Cotton
Handkierchiff worth 2/ of his Mother's spinning & weaving & hemed for me
by his sister"
3/30/76 "went to Daniel Dempsie's & agreed with his wife to spin the 3
lb. Cotton I carried there 27th Jany. last to run 6 Yds. per lb. at 3/
per."
4/27/76 "I went to Christr. Becks & his wife promised to spin for me
[blank] lbs. Cotton to make me Vaistcoats"
6/14/76 "Went to Jno. McDearmans & had 6 Yds. stript Cotton warped for
2 Veastcoats and two handkercheifs, all preparred at my own expence"
6/22/76 "At noon carried 4 Yds. Cotton Jeans (I had spun & wove here)
to Mr. Becks to make me a short Coat for sumer wear"
6/26/76 "At 5 pm I went to Mr. Becks & hade a short Coat cut out of
cotton cloth wove Jeans. I bought the cotton and paid for spinning it at
the rate of 2/6 per lb. and one shilling per Yd. for Weaving".
7/3/76 "recd. my short Coat made and paid 5/ for doing it"
------------------
THOMAS ANBUREY (British officer near Charlottesville)
"The shrub which supplies our manufactures with cotton, is much
cultivated in this Province [VA], and the inhabitants of the lower sort,
through the scareness and difficulty of procuring clothing for
themselves and their negroes, pay greater attention to it at present
than tobacco..."
He goes on; "for since the inhabitants have been deprived of our English
cottons, they manufacture a sort themselves, little inferior to that
made at Manchester, and almost all the families in this Province, both
male and female, are cloathed with their own manufacture, the superior
class as an example to their inferiors, who are compelled by
necessity..."
Finally: "The weather being so extremely hot, woollen cloaths are
insufferable, therefore from necessity, and as is the custom of the
country, the officers wear cotton habiliments; the cotton of which mine is
made I obtained from my landlord, and saw the whole process of its
growth and manufacture, from the seed being sown, till it came out of the loom" (all from letter 68, 8/4/79 Anburey 1789(2):426-427).
Examples from a weaver's ads in the Virginia Gazette:
Gardiner Flemming, Richmond, between 1773 and 1776 advertised the
following cotton textiles: "Manchester stuffs [cottons], cotton velvets,
callimancoes, plain and striped cotton cloth, and figured cotton
counterpane".
In addition he offered jean and fustian, as well as other fabrics which
often used cotton fibers. Many other ads in the VA gazette offer cotton
in various forms throughout the war.
Johann Dohla (captive Hessian in VA) on cotton:
"[Cotton] grows abundantly here at Yorktown and in the region. Our
entire camp stood in such a cotton field... A stalk often bears ten or
fifteen balls... [and] a ball gives a handful of cotton, because it is
pressed and held so tightly therein... We made bed covers and floor
mats of it in our tents, on which we slept..." ([September 11, 1781]
1990:162).
And now for some textile pricing:
George Washington's weaver Thomas Davis, between the late 1760's and the
early 1770's wove and sold the following:
"linen, cotton filled with wool, linen filled with tow, woolen cloth at four pence per yard; woolen plaided, wool birdeye, linen, linsay plaided, woolen, plain or striped
cotton, cotton and wool, herringbone at sixpence per yard; plain,
striped, and plaided cotton, bed ticking at ten pence per yard; striped
or plain cotton, cotton M's and O's counterpane, cotton birdeye, Roman
M, huccabuc, linen, fustian at one shilling per yard; cotton birdeye, Roman M.,
huccabuc, plain or striped cotton, jeans twilled at one shilling three pence per yard; cotton jump, stripe cotton birdeye, cotton striped with silk, jeans twilled, birdeye diaper, plain cotton, carpet at two shillings per yard; India dimity, cotton, cotton jeans twilled, jump stripe, cotton and silk, striped cotton at two shillings sixpence per yard; jean twilled, plain or striped silk and cotton at three shillings per yard (Washington accounts of Thomas Davis, in Gibbs 1978:89).
If you are interested in cheap cotton and its use among the lower
classes in Britian in this period, I highly recommend reading _Fashion's
Favourite_ (1991) by Beverly Lemire ISBN 0-19-921062-4. It will open
your eyes if you think cotton was restricted to the upper classes there.
Bryan P. Howard
Dept. of Anthropology
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843
bph3213@acs.tamu.edu
p.s. by offering this info on VA I am NOT saying cotton was used more
than any other textile, only pointing out it was there. Just because it
wasn't as available up north doesn't mean the same applies everywhere.
_____________________
I have personally collected dozens of runaway ads mentioning cotton throughout the 18th century.
You can see why I'm suspicious of the well-accepted dogma in the hobby about the scarcity and expense of cotton.
Spence
_____________
Since I began dabbling in living history about 30 years ago, the party line
has been that cotton clothing was rarely used by the ordinary citizen
before the industrial revolution, that it was too expensive. That seemed
logical, but is it true, or another of those things some modern person has
'figured out'? Mark Baker's book _Sons of a Trackless Forest_, and many other sources raise doubts in my mind about the accuracy of this assumption. In going over the invoices of goods bought and sold by the company of Baynton, Wharton and Morgan, trading in southwestern Illinois in 1768, I find some very interesting entries in the invoices and personal accounts.
Here’s a list of cotton goods bought at Philadelphia, shipped via Fort Pitt to Kaskaskia for sale there to the French, Indian, military and civilian British populace, as well as the company hunters. Some of the goods were then shipped from Kaskaskia to Vincennes for sale there.
candle wicks (cotton and tow)
mixed Cotton Romats
blue Cotton Romats
5 lb. 15 oz. spun cotton
yard wide Cotton Cloth No. 1 (two entries, one 305 yds. the other 230 ells)
Cotton Romalls
light ground Cotton
yard Cotton Check
The following from one invoice:
1 2 purple
5 2 Purple ground
2 fine purple ground
1 fine 2 color fancy
1 2 reds and black
2 dark ground Chintz
1 super fine purple Copper plate
1 dark ground Chintz
1 fine purple ground
2 fine 2 colors fancy
1 fine 2 colors Pompadore
4 fine Pompadore with Green
3 fine 2 Kinds with black and green
3 ditto
1 fine Blue, Furniture Copper Plate
2 Pompadore ground Chintz
9/8 black Furniture Cotton
cotton cap (bought by a hunter)
red spotted Cotton
red flowered Cotton
with sprig
with red flowers
with Pompadore
yellow spriged Cotton
red grounded Cotton
single purple Cotton
32 Fine Bordered Cotton Caps
15 Blue and White Cotton handkerchiefs
1 cotton shirt (bought by the trader for his own use)
These items are listed in a small portion of the records of only one
trading firm, and for only one year.
******
From _Home Life in Colonial Days_, Alice Morse Earle, 1898:\
www.gutenberg.org/files/22675/22675-h/22675-h.htm
Cotton was planted in America, Bancroft says, in 1621, but MacMaster asserts it was never seen growing here till after the Revolution save as a garden ornament with garden flowers. This assertion seems oversweeping when Jefferson could write in a letter in 1786:—
"The four southernmost States make a great deal of cotton. Their poor are almost entirely clothed with it in winter and summer. In winter they wear shirts of it and outer clothing of cotton and wool mixed. In summer their shirts are linen, but the outer clothing cotton. The dress of the women is almost entirely of cotton, manufactured by themselves, except the richer class, and even many of these wear a great deal of homespun cotton. It is as well manufactured as the calicoes of Europe. Those 4. states furnish a great deal of cotton to the states North of them, who cannot make it, as being too cold.”
******
Here’s a post made to another discussion group several years ago, from Bryan P. Howard, Dept. of Anthropology, Texas A&M University.
“It is long, but facts were requested concerning cotton. I offer selections from my research which are relevant to lower classes, availability, and pricing.
“First though, I would like to say we must stop generalizing about all
areas based on information gathered in specific geographic regions.
“Information from New Jersey cannot be imposed on Virginia just as that
from Virginia is not valid for NJ or other northern colonies. What I
offer here is strictly from VIRGINIA. I think you will see it shows
cotton clothing was available to the lower classes at inexpensive prices
there.
“I offer raw data with no other interpretation by me, I leave that to
you. I also have data on the frequency of textile choice for clothing
in Virginia among runaway servants between 1774 and 1778 if anyone is
interested, but it won't be ready to send for several more days.
Citation info available on the following on request.
Bryan Howard”
__________________
JOHN HARROWER, indentured servant near Fredericksburg, Virginia: (his
diary)
8/7/74 (writing his wife): "As for myself I supose you wou'd scarce know
me now, there being nothing either brown, blew, or black about me but
the head and feet, I being Dressed in short cloath Coat, vest Coat, and
britches all made of white cotton without any lyning, and threads
stockins & wearing my own hair curled round like a wigg. At present a
suite of Cloaths costs five and twenty shillings here of making which I really think very high" (a servant's freedom suit looking almost exactly like he describes is preserved in the Smithsonian, dated to 1775 from Rhode Island. It is cotton lined with linen for both breeches and coat).
12/6/74 (letter to his wife): "There grows here plenty of extream fine
Cotton which after being pict clean and readdy for the cards is sold at
a shilling the pound; And I have at this time, a great high Gir[l]e
Carline as Black as the D--s A--se spinning some for me for which I
must pay her three shillings the pound for spinning it... Im determined
to have a webb of Cotton Cloath According to my own mind, of which I
hope you and my infants shall yet wear apart."
5/21/75 "This day I hade sent me a present from Mrs. Porter in Fredg.
two silk Vestcoats and two pair cotton britches all of them having been
verry little wore by Mr. Porter."
1/13/76 After 12 O Clock I went six Miles into the Forrest to one
Daniel Dempsies to see if they woud spin three pound of Cotton to run 8
yds. per lb., 2/3ds. of it belonging to Miss Lucy Gains for a goun &
1/3d. belonging to myself for Vestcoats" (Gaines was a house servant).
1/15/76 "Miss Lucy spinning my croop of Cotton at night after her work
is done to make me a pair of gloves"
2/10/76 Harrower buys indigo and hard soap (presumably for dying his
cotton cloth he is having woven)
2/16/76 "At night Delivered to Jno McDearman (a local weaver) +1 1/2
lb. pickt Cotton at 1/6 per lb. (1 shilling sixpence).
2/23/76 Reports of McDearman that the "Cotton [is] to run nigh five
yds. per lb."
2/25/76 "In the evening Mr. Frazer... made me a present of a new Cotton
Handkierchiff worth 2/ of his Mother's spinning & weaving & hemed for me
by his sister"
3/30/76 "went to Daniel Dempsie's & agreed with his wife to spin the 3
lb. Cotton I carried there 27th Jany. last to run 6 Yds. per lb. at 3/
per."
4/27/76 "I went to Christr. Becks & his wife promised to spin for me
[blank] lbs. Cotton to make me Vaistcoats"
6/14/76 "Went to Jno. McDearmans & had 6 Yds. stript Cotton warped for
2 Veastcoats and two handkercheifs, all preparred at my own expence"
6/22/76 "At noon carried 4 Yds. Cotton Jeans (I had spun & wove here)
to Mr. Becks to make me a short Coat for sumer wear"
6/26/76 "At 5 pm I went to Mr. Becks & hade a short Coat cut out of
cotton cloth wove Jeans. I bought the cotton and paid for spinning it at
the rate of 2/6 per lb. and one shilling per Yd. for Weaving".
7/3/76 "recd. my short Coat made and paid 5/ for doing it"
------------------
THOMAS ANBUREY (British officer near Charlottesville)
"The shrub which supplies our manufactures with cotton, is much
cultivated in this Province [VA], and the inhabitants of the lower sort,
through the scareness and difficulty of procuring clothing for
themselves and their negroes, pay greater attention to it at present
than tobacco..."
He goes on; "for since the inhabitants have been deprived of our English
cottons, they manufacture a sort themselves, little inferior to that
made at Manchester, and almost all the families in this Province, both
male and female, are cloathed with their own manufacture, the superior
class as an example to their inferiors, who are compelled by
necessity..."
Finally: "The weather being so extremely hot, woollen cloaths are
insufferable, therefore from necessity, and as is the custom of the
country, the officers wear cotton habiliments; the cotton of which mine is
made I obtained from my landlord, and saw the whole process of its
growth and manufacture, from the seed being sown, till it came out of the loom" (all from letter 68, 8/4/79 Anburey 1789(2):426-427).
Examples from a weaver's ads in the Virginia Gazette:
Gardiner Flemming, Richmond, between 1773 and 1776 advertised the
following cotton textiles: "Manchester stuffs [cottons], cotton velvets,
callimancoes, plain and striped cotton cloth, and figured cotton
counterpane".
In addition he offered jean and fustian, as well as other fabrics which
often used cotton fibers. Many other ads in the VA gazette offer cotton
in various forms throughout the war.
Johann Dohla (captive Hessian in VA) on cotton:
"[Cotton] grows abundantly here at Yorktown and in the region. Our
entire camp stood in such a cotton field... A stalk often bears ten or
fifteen balls... [and] a ball gives a handful of cotton, because it is
pressed and held so tightly therein... We made bed covers and floor
mats of it in our tents, on which we slept..." ([September 11, 1781]
1990:162).
And now for some textile pricing:
George Washington's weaver Thomas Davis, between the late 1760's and the
early 1770's wove and sold the following:
"linen, cotton filled with wool, linen filled with tow, woolen cloth at four pence per yard; woolen plaided, wool birdeye, linen, linsay plaided, woolen, plain or striped
cotton, cotton and wool, herringbone at sixpence per yard; plain,
striped, and plaided cotton, bed ticking at ten pence per yard; striped
or plain cotton, cotton M's and O's counterpane, cotton birdeye, Roman
M, huccabuc, linen, fustian at one shilling per yard; cotton birdeye, Roman M.,
huccabuc, plain or striped cotton, jeans twilled at one shilling three pence per yard; cotton jump, stripe cotton birdeye, cotton striped with silk, jeans twilled, birdeye diaper, plain cotton, carpet at two shillings per yard; India dimity, cotton, cotton jeans twilled, jump stripe, cotton and silk, striped cotton at two shillings sixpence per yard; jean twilled, plain or striped silk and cotton at three shillings per yard (Washington accounts of Thomas Davis, in Gibbs 1978:89).
If you are interested in cheap cotton and its use among the lower
classes in Britian in this period, I highly recommend reading _Fashion's
Favourite_ (1991) by Beverly Lemire ISBN 0-19-921062-4. It will open
your eyes if you think cotton was restricted to the upper classes there.
Bryan P. Howard
Dept. of Anthropology
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843
bph3213@acs.tamu.edu
p.s. by offering this info on VA I am NOT saying cotton was used more
than any other textile, only pointing out it was there. Just because it
wasn't as available up north doesn't mean the same applies everywhere.
_____________________
I have personally collected dozens of runaway ads mentioning cotton throughout the 18th century.
You can see why I'm suspicious of the well-accepted dogma in the hobby about the scarcity and expense of cotton.
Spence
