African American slaves and bondsmen were issued clothing based on the master’s financial means and his/her willingness to provide for their ‘property’s’ wellbeing. On larger estates, those chosen to work the land or labor in the many outbuildings wore either homespun clothing or simple cloth imported from England. They would finish work and return directly to the slave quarters; rarely being seen by other whites outside the master’s family and overseer. This was not so for domestic slaves who attended the daily household needs. They were readily seen by visiting whites for whom slaves carried luggage, drove the carriage, opened doors, and waited on whites either as man and women servants or to bring meals. Therefore, these ‘domestics’ wore materials that were a direct reflection of the master’s position and affluence in society. The wealthier the master, the more he showcased his servants by clothing them in refined materials with elaborate stitching and buttons. Slaves of single-family homes and smaller farms wore the same simple clothing as their masters; however, they were worn ‘hand-me-downs’ from the master and mistress’ wardrobe.
Clothing Large Plantation Slaves
Larger plantations were constantly living on the verge between breaking even and incurring enormous debt. Often, when the male passed away, much of the estate, including at times the entire plantation, were sold at auction to meet these debts. Therefore, records indicated that most slaveholders cut corners in providing for their bondsmen. Planters typically ordered hundreds of yards of inexpensive woolens and linens from England for slaves’ shirts, trousers, and shifts. Large swaths of materials were cut and sewn by slaves on the plantation to provide for the laborers, both agricultural and artisan.
Common were shirts of osnaburg (a course, canvas like material) and linsey-woolsey (a strong, coarse fabric with a linen or cotton warp and a woolen weft), cotton breeches and trousers, woolen socks, locally crafted shoes, and for winter, woolens and wool coat. These simple garments were issued at the beginning of summer and winter. By the end of each season, constant hard use proved them threadbare at best. Domestic slaves also received only one set of clothing, but were far better off than that given fieldhands. The material was of a finer quality and therefore wore better. Also, household work did not put extreme demands on slave clothing as experienced by hard labor in the fields. By the 1760’s, as America marched towards hostility with England, more and more English goods were boycotted. Planters turned to producing their own cotton or woolen materials labeled ‘Virginia Cloth’ to cloth their slaves.
Slaves Achieved Some Form of Individuality
Planters who bought bulk textiles or produced their own materials left little opportunity for slaves’ individuality, especially field laborers. It was common to see advertisements for runaway slaves described as ‘all dressed alike’, or wearing ‘the common dress of field slaves.’ Yet period sources showed that slaves not only desired individualized clothing, but most managed to achieve it. They did so by exerting a measure of control over their appearance. Appearances were enhanced by styling hair, wearing large kerchiefs as head wraps, dying their clothing, saving money to purchase extra clothing, selling or trading goods for garments, those rented out by masters obtained a portion of the fee as their own, wearing garments in new combinations, and most often, adding pockets or patches. As mentioned, by the end of the season, clothing was so worn, that it often required patches to keep the garment whole. Slaves sought very colorful, decorative remnants to cut and sew their own unique patterns to which they acquired their own fashion statement.
Clothes as a Sign of Submission
Domestic servants richly attired signified the master’s wealth to white neighbors, friends, and visitors. Livery suits of those servants who drove or rode the carriages, such as footmen and postilions, were issued fancy suits only to enhance the master’s status. As such they were symbolic of a slave’s submission to a master’s whims. A typical ad requesting information on a runaway liveryman would state his suit was rather elegant, wearing a “dark brown cloth livery coat turned up with green, waistcoat of the same, striped velveret breeches [velveteen (horizontal weft threads that are heavier with less sheen), often with painted designs]”
Livery suits followed a stylistic formula that proclaimed the master’s status. They usually had a contrasting color on the cuffs and collar, “turned up with green”, and were usually embellished with special braid trimmings and buttons. The same held true for butlers and men servants who likewise wore waistcoats of silks and suit jackets of rich linens, all elaborately stitched.
Slave Clothing Became an Important Identifier for Masters Seeking the Return of Runaway Slaves
Ads for the return of runaway bondsmen featured on billboards and in local newspapers are an excellent indicator of clothing that was worn by slaves. Masters described the physical characteristics, but would also detail the style of dress at the time of the bondsman’s escape, knowing such specifics would help identify their ‘property.’ They would also list any clothing that was either stolen or suspected of being taken. The following are a series of ads, mostly taken from the Virginia Gazette from 1745-1775.
- In July, 1774, twenty-three-year-old man servant Harry ran from his master, Theodorick Bland, who took out an advertisement in the Virginia Gazette. He described Harry as five feet ten or eleven inches with scars on his arms and back and having “remarkable high insteps,” reasoning that Harry could not “bare to go barefoot.” The ad ran that Harry was “very fond of dress” and at the time he ran, he was garbed in “a full suit of clothing; dark brown livery coat turned up with green, a waistcoat to match, striped breeches made of the cotton velvet textile velveret, a white shirt, shoes, and stockings.”
- The April 14, 1774 issue of the Virginia Gazette ran an ad seeking the return of thirty-year-old Tom and his wife Fanny. According to the paper, Tom had on an “old Virginia Cloth jacket and breeches, which are probably wore out by this time.” Fanny wore what was basically a jacket-petticoat ensemble that was the most commonly recorded clothing of African American women; a “two-piece suit, a blue woman’s fitted jacket and a petticoat or skirt which was very much patched.” This ‘homespun’ apparel was practical and inexpensive, indicating both were laborers who no doubt spun their own clothing.
- On November 15, 1722, the Philadelphia paper American Weekly, advertised a runaway slave, Fransh Manuel, wearing “a dark colored homespun coat, Ozenbrig [osnaburg] jacket, old leather breeches, Sheep-russet stockings, new shoes, Old Beveret Hat” [soft round cap with a flat crown worn by both men and women].
- The Virginia Gazette posted an ad in May of 1774 for John Jones and Elizabeth Lewellin. Their master Patrick Lockhart wrote that both ran with a change of clothing; “sailor’s jacket, breeches made of the sturdy wool fabric Fearnought [wool mixed with shoddy (shredded fabric that was re-spun) that has a rough shaggy face], two shirts of linen ‘homespun’, a pair of trousers, and enough coarse linen Osnaburgs to make another pair.” It also stated that John had run off with a pair of new buckskin breeches. It listed Elizabeth as having absconded with a “new calico gown styled so that it buttoned in the front, a petticoat of fine black wool calamanco, an old green pair of stays, a corset, a striped garment” called a bed gown, and sundry other clothing.
- In October, 1745, Margaret Arbuthnott ran an add seeking “two new Negro Men, imported on the Brig Ranger, and sold at Newcastle September last; they understand no English…They stole a fine Damsk Table Cloth, ten qrs. square, five yards and a half of fine Scot Linen, three yards and a half of Scots three qu. Check, a white Holland Shirt, and a silk handkerchief…”
- William Gregory placed an advertisement in the May, 1769 Gazette, seeking the return of “a Virginia-born Negro fellow named Peter, about 44 years of age… he carried with him sundry [assorted] clothes, such as crop Negroes usually wear, also a white Virginia cloth waistcoat and petticoat, a Tarleton plaid gown [thin, stiffened, open-mesh cotton fabric], and sundry other of his wife’s clothes…”
- In December, 1769, Nathaniel Morris posted in the Gazette, “a Virginia born Negro boy named Humphrey, about twelve or fourteen years old, has large fore teeth, and is slow of speech, had on hen he went away a pair of rolls breeches, old cotton waistcoat, Virginia cloth shirt, and felt hat…”
- Thomas Gordon placed an ad in the Gazette in December 1772; “a very likeable Negro man named Phill, about twenty years of age, of a yellow complexion and about five feet in inches high, proportionately made. had on, when he went away, an Osnaburg shirt, an old Virginia cloth waistcoat, with a new Negro Cotton Jacket over it, and a pair of old check [checkered] trousers. No doubt Phil, as a laborer, ran wearing his much used bi-yearly allotment of clothing with a new issue of cotton jacket.
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RESOURSES
Baumgarten, Linda. The Language of Clothing, What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America. 2003: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Virginia.
Baumgarten, Linda. Eighteenth-Century Clothing at Williamsburg. 1986 Report, 2002: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Virginia
Brown, Alan Edward. Pretend to be Free. Runaway Slave Advertisements from Colonial and Revolutionary New York and New Jersey. History Reference Series. 1994: Taylor & Francis Publ., Philadelphia, PA.
Hagist, Don. Wives, Slaves, and Servant Girls: Advertisements for Female Runaways in American Newspapers, 1770-1783. 2016: Westholme Publishing, Yardley, Pennsylvania.
National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox. The Making of African American Identity: Vol. I, 1500-1865 “Runaway Slave Advertisements 1745-1775”http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/enslavement/text8/virginiarunawayads.pdf