In the early mid-nineteenth century, many Southern plantation owners purchased coarse cotton fabrics from Northern cotton manufacturers to make clothing for their enslaved people. One type of fabric widely used in the South was called “Lowell” cloth “negro cloth” or “Appleton cloth.” Produced in mills throughout the North, “Lowell” and “Appleton” cloth were named after inexpensive cotton cloth produced in factories established by Francis Cabot Lowell and Nathan Appleton.
This record is for purchases made for the Evans Plantation in Louisiana between 1858 and 1859. The third column's total is the allotment of cloth per enslaved person for a year of clothing and the fourth is the total yards purchased that year.
Linsey: A linen and wool blend fabric
Chemise: Historically, a chemise was a simple garment, which looked like a nightgown, worn next to the skin to protect clothing from sweat and body oils, the precursor to the modern undershirts
Sack: A coarse canvas made of jute or hemp
Kentucky jeans: Cloth woven with a cotton warp and a wool weft
What can you tell about how many men and women the Evans Plantation enslaved, based on these orders?
Multiply the amount of Lowell/Appleton cloth purchased by this plantation by the four million enslaved people in the United States in 1860. How does that figure help explain the reluctance of some textile manufacturers to advocate for the abolition of slavery? How did textile manufacturers benefit from this arrangement?