Life on a Cotton Plantation:
The Cotton Gin and Lowell Cloth
Document 11

Document 11: Statistics of Lowell Manufactures, Lowell Manufacturing Company, January 1, 1835

In the early nineteenth century, many Southern plantation owners purchased coarse cotton fabrics from Northern cotton manufacturers to make clothing for their enslaved people. This 1835 chart shows that the Lowell Manufacturing Company specialized in fabric known as “negro cloth,” sometimes called “Lowell cloth,” alongside rugs and carpets.

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