Osnaburg Overalls,Calico Frocks,and Homespun Suits: The Use of 19th Century Georgia Newspaper Notices to Research Slave Clothing and Textiles

Abstract

This paper discusses the value of newspaper notices in the search for data on slave clothing. Two hundred and seventy-three fugitive slave notices, 10 sheriff notices, and 79 store advertisements were examined from 34 Georgia newspapers published from 1800 to 1865. Although these sources provide us with, in most cases, extremely detailed information about slave clothing and textiles, researchers should also recognize the limitations these sources have. These include a narrow picturing of the slave runaway population (mostly male slaves) as seen in a relatively small number of extant newspapers that carry notices. If researchers keep these restrictions in mind when drawing conclusions based on these sources, extant newspapers of the times can reveal much about the slave clothing which is no longer available for research.

Keywords

newspaper sources slave textiles

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Baumgarten, L. (1988). Clothes for the people: Slave clothing in early Virginia. Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 16(2), 26-70.

Blassingame, J.W. (1979). The slave community: Plantation life in the antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press.

Coleman, J.W. (1940). Slavery times in Kentucky. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Columbian Sentinel. (1806, 29 November).

Daily Sun. (1859, 20 May).

Flanders, R. (1967). Plantation slavery in Georgia. Cos Cob, CT: John E. Edwards.

Kidwell, C. (1978). Short gowns. Dress, 4, 30-65.

Meaders, D.E. (1975). South Carolina fugitives as viewed through local Colonial newspapers with emphasis on runaway notices: 1732-1801. The Journal of Negro History, 60,(2), 288-319.

Ordonez, M.T. (1982). Plantation self-sufficiency in Leon County, Florida: 1824-1865. Florida Historical Quarterly, 60,(4), 428-439.

10.

Prude, J. (1991). To look upon the 'lower sort': Runaway ads and the appearance of unfree laborers in America, 1750-1800. The Journal of American History, 78(1), 124-159.

11.

Schafer, J.K. (1981). New Orleans slavery in 1850 as seen in advertisements . The Journal of Southern History, 47(1), 33-56.

12.

Smith, J.F. (1985). Slavery and rice culture in low country Georgia 1750-1860. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press.

13.

Tandberg, G. (1980). Field hand clothing in Louisiana and Mississippi during the Ante-Bellum period. Dress, 6, 89-102.

14.

Warner, P.C. and Parker, D. (1990). Slave clothing and textiles in North Carolina, 1775-1835. In B. M. Starke , L. O. Holloman , and B. K. Nordquist (Eds.), African American dress and adornment: A cultural perspective (pp. 82-91). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt .

15.

White, D.G. (1985). Ar'n't I a woman? Female slaves in the plantation South. New York: W. W. Norton.

16.

Williams, G. and Centrallo, C. (1990). Clothing acquisition and use by the Colonial African American. In B. M. Starke , L. O. Holloman , and B. K. Nordquist (Eds.), African American dress and adornment: A cultural perspective (pp. 51-65). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt .