By Olivia Belande,
As long as textiles continue to be manufactured and produced for the mass market, there must be a hand behind these productions who works tirelessly and woefully to nurture raw fibre to garment. In contemporary North America, we are fortunate enough to have no close connection to the workers in impoverished countries who make our clothing. But what if feigning ignorance wasn’t so simple, and the same people who made our wardrobes lived right in our backyards? Our plantations, even? Furthermore, how can this sensitive piece of history be visualized when the people who it is centered around were, for the most part, not allowed to hold onto their belongings and pass pieces of their heritage down to the next generations? Let’s examine the tradition of garment creation by black clothing slaves in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.
“Clothing slaves,” as they were known, had a special job on a plantation. They fostered an exceptional degree of knowledge in textile production, which began from seed and ended in impeccably tailored dress. Those who were indentured to create clothing hand sowed and grew the cotton and flax seeds which would eventually be harvested, picked apart, treated and woven to create completely wearable garments (Aldridge, 2012). More often than not, slave women worked to create textiles from beginning to end, with the exception of leatherwork, which was a task often passed onto slave men (Aldridge, 2012). Well woven linen and cotton created from long filament fibres were often reserved for the elite (white) class. Slaves themselves usually dressed in a textile known as “Osnaburg”, which was a coarse, roughly woven linen made from scraps (Stowell, 2013). Osnaburg was the preferred choice by slaves as it was easier to make, durable and long lasting. In the winter, it was easy to layer and stuff with other organic fibres in order to keep warm. The wool textiles that slaves layered over Osnaburg in the chilly months were referred to as “Negro Cloth”, and similar to Osnaburg’s content of coarse material, was also made up of wool scraps (Aldridge, 2012), and was known to be very itchy against bare skin.
The labour of creating textiles and garments was done in addition to field work. That is to say that the women who worked tirelessly to make full seasonal wardrobes did so after the full day’s labour was complete. Not every slave desired to work more than necessary, though those who did, had access to a few additional benefits. Women slaves who produced clothing not only had slightly more social prestige among other slaves, but they also had close access to the mistress of the house for garment fitting, and upped their own value as a working object, should they need to switch plantations (Aldridge, 2012).
How, though, are we still able to revisit some of this information? How is it possible that those who were enslaved were also able to preserve tidbits of their history, when so much else was never allowed to be kept sacred? The bulk of resources on paper that are currently available for reference generally come from the journals, memoirs and biographies of slave owners and other elite, aristocratic members of eighteenth and nineteenth century society. Much was lost in the move to liberation, and understandably not all those affected by slavery were comfortable speaking out. Therefore, the history of the enslaved comes to us now in bits and pieces of fragmented memories– a worn leather boot here, a holey linen dressing gown there. Much like Canada’s Indigenous culture, the history is one mainly shared through oration, and those who were enslaved must rely on the younger generation to keep their stories ignited through the gift of storytelling. Those who were enslaved were often kept illiterate as a means to prevent them from straying too close to the line of independence and freedom (Santos, 2018). Still, their stories lived on within their underground communities, and their tales were often littered with bits of hope and silver linings in order to keep morale high. The stories were often gentle to the ear, featuring anthropomorphised animals who spoke and shared very special lessons to the listener. Usually, this sort of activity was allowed as plantation owners themselves found the stories entertaining to hear. The same stories in Africa that featured characters like the lion, the elephant and the monkey now featured new heroes such as the bear, the fox, the lamb– this was to accommodate the new land in which those who were enslaved found themselves (Rasson, 2017). The characters in these stories often overcame intense hardship and fought for their freedom, a subtle reminder to those who were enslaved that the end goal was always to be liberation.
In The New Annotated African American Folktales (edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar), a book that aims to transcribe the stories of those enslaves, one particular chapter focuses on an enslaved man from Guinea. The enslaved man asks the plantation owner, in perhaps a final act of mercy, to bury him face down when he is inevitably killed, so that he may face his home in Africa on the other side of the world (Santos, 2018).
It seems that the tradition of garment creation at the hands of underpaid labourers is not one that has been forgotten, as its roots are deeply entrenched in the uncelebrated work of clothing slaves. Perhaps a revisit to our history can inspire change, or at the very least lessen our ignorance.
“Dress Made by an Unidentified Enslaved Woman.” National Museum of African American History and Culture (Accession notes):
“Dress Made by an Unidentified Enslaved Woman.” National Museum of African American History and Culture:
“This is a handstitched long-sleeved dress with a full skirt made from a balanced plain-weave printed cotton. The sleeves are gathered at the back shoulder seam and the shoulder seam is dropped in the back. The bodice is gathered at the front waist and has a neck band with no collar. Both the neck band and the waist band are fussy cut to display the printed design. Piping is attached at the armholes and along the bottom of the waistband. The skirt is gathered at the front hips and the back with a flat panel along the centre front waist. On the proper back bodice, three (3) glass buttons are sewn on the left side of the back opening (placket), with four (4) button holes on the right side. At the waist, two (2) decorative buttons are sewn on the right side of the opening, without corresponding button holes on the left side. The hem is turned up 3 1/2″. The bodice and sleeves are lined with muslin, while the skirt is unlined. The printed pattern on the fabric is four (4) colours and black, with a base colour of reddish brown, on top of which is a repeating pattern of columns of red roses alternating with columns of diamonds and clubs on a cream background inside a black, orange, and red border.”
“Dress Made by an Unidentified Enslaved Woman.” National Museum of African American History and Culture, https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2007.3.4.
“Dressed up and Laying Bare: Fashion in the Shadow of the Market | Department of African American Studies.” Princeton University, The Trustees of Princeton University, https://aas.princeton.edu/news/dressed-and-laying-bare-fashion-shadow-market.
Slave Cloth and Clothing Slaves: Craftsmanship, Commerce, and Industry – the Fashion and Race Database™.” The Fashion and Race Database™ – It’s Time to Decentralize the Study of Fashion, 23 July 2020, https://fashionandrace.org/database/library/slave-cloth-and-clothing-slaves-craftsmanship-commerce-and-industry/.
Should Black Americans Get Slavery Reparations?” BBC News, BBC, 21 Mar. 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47643630.
Citations
Aldridge, Ryan Jerel, “The responsibility of clothing slaves in the United States as described in slave petitions, 1775 to 1867” (2012).
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/468
Stowell, L. (2013, March 4). What is osnaburg? American Duchess Blog. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://blog.americanduchess.com/2013/03/what-is-osnaburg.html
dos Reis dos Santos PhD Candidate, Jennifer. “How African American Folklore Saved the Cultural Memory and History of Slaves.” The Conversation, 4 Oct. 2021, https://theconversation.com/how-african-american-folklore-saved-the-cultural-memory-and-history-of-slaves-98427.
Rasson, Nathaniel. “The Importance of Storytelling.” The Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City, 7 Sept. 2017, https://www.brtkc.org/the-importance-of-storytelling/.
Photo Citations
“Dress Made by an Unidentified Enslaved Woman.” National Museum of African American History and Culture, https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2007.3.4.
“Dressed up and Laying Bare: Fashion in the Shadow of the Market | Department of African American Studies.” Princeton University, The Trustees of Princeton University, https://aas.princeton.edu/news/dressed-and-laying-bare-fashion-shadow-market.
“Should Black Americans Get Slavery Reparations?” BBC News, BBC, 21 Mar. 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47643630.
“Slave Cloth and Clothing Slaves: Craftsmanship, Commerce, and Industry – the Fashion and Race Database™.” The Fashion and Race Database™ – It’s Time to Decentralize the Study of Fashion, 23 July 2020, https://fashionandrace.org/database/library/slave-cloth-and-clothing-slaves-craftsmanship-commerce-and-industry/.