Sorry to correct you Thom.. But the cotton that was grown in the colonies was NOT used to make clothing. The fibers of the variety of cotton grown in the colonies was too short to be spun into thread. It could only be used for STUFFING in quilts or pillows... Only cotton grown in India and Egypt could be used for that. It was also illegal for the colonists to raise sheep, whose wool was suitable for spinning as well, they were only permitted to raise sheep for food. The colonists could only spin their own flax and their own HEMP.
I didn't know that myself until this past weekend when I spoke to the weavers at Colonial Williamsburg. One of many facts I learned over my spring vacation!
Comments
So we did not invent Corporate Domination and Pillage. I feel better.
As a kid I learned the colonists had a home-spun fabric called "linsey-woolsey". I was under the impression it was made of either hemp or flax.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linsey-woolsey tho it may be "immaterial". :D
Jeffinator
lol what a sign on!
If you're sorry about correcting Thom, why do you start a thread with that message?
Just curious
Not all the colonists were English, or controlled by them. Some, the New Sweden Colony and New Netherland [which had Finns and Germans] joined with a Delaware tribe [Susquahatche -sic]to fight the English at Maryland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden
Swedes brought the Log Cabin, too. Americans and English didn't know about log cabin construction until Swedes brought it to Ft Christianson, Delaware [now Wilmington], Port Richie was Swedish, too [and St Barts.. the cheeseburger in paradise island]
btw, it had nothing to do with religious freedom either, they came to make money for the New Sweden Company. [silver, gold, furs]
Linsey-woolsey is a blend linen (made from flax) and wool. I didn't think that became popular until later, so something else I've learned!. The experts at Williamsburgh explained to me that they could import wool for spinning and dying.... of course there were some colonists who got wool sheep illegally on the black market and spun there own in defiance of the law!