Only the Clothes on Her Back: Clothing and the Hidden History of Power in the Nineteenth-Century United States

by Laura F. Edwards

What can dresses, bedlinens, waistcoats, pantaloons, shoes, and kerchiefs tell us about the legal status of the least powerful members of American society? In the hands of eminent historian Laura F. Edwards, these textiles tell a revealing story of ordinary people and how they made use of their material goods' economic and legal value in the period between the Revolution and the Civil War.

Only the Clothes on Her Back uncovers practices, commonly known then, but now long forgotten, which made textiles - clothing, cloth, bedding, and accessories, such as shoes and hats - a unique form of property that people without rights could own and exchange. The value of textiles depended on law, and it was law that turned these goods into a secure form of property for marginalized people, who not only used these textiles as currency, credit, and capital, but also as entree into the new republic's economy and governing institutions. Edwards grounds the laws relating to textiles in engaging stories from the lives of everyday Americans. Wives wove linen and kept the proceeds, enslaved people traded coats and shoes, and poor people invested in fabrics, which they carefully preserved in trunks. Edwards shows that these stories are about far more than cloth and clothing; they reshape our understanding of law and the economy in America.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Audiobook, Feminism, 19th Century, American

Audible Audio

First published February 24, 2022

About the author

Laura Edwards is a professor of history at Duke University, where she teaches courses on women, gender, and law. Her research focuses on the same issues, with a particular emphasis on the nineteenth-century U.S. South.

Reviews

[Sunny Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

textiles as underground commodities!! early American feminism and abolitionist survival!!

[Liberté · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted so much more from this book! The idea of a legal history of textile property rights is so fascinating, and there is so much detail in this book - but I finished the book with the sense of many anecdotes and no cohesive historical narrative. The focus of the text is during the period between the American Revolution and the U.S. Civil War, but there is no clear transition point - even identified as over decades - during which textile property rights became less useful, or in which places. The text jumped around such that it seemed like textile property rights were useful up to and past the Civil War, but also that they were degrading by the 1830s. The focus is also only partly on women - the textile property rights applied to all groups of people who did not have secure property rights as free white men, so it includes women (both married, unmarried, and widowed), enslaved people, free Black people, servants, Native Americans, and other people of color. It truly felt like a wandering, meandering text that could have provided clearer organization of timelines and transitions, so while I feel like I learned a lot, I don't know that I could tell someone how the transition happened and degraded over time, and why.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very dry and academic survey of the power of textiles just after Revolutionary War and leading up to the Civil War. It is not about women's clothing and is more about the importance of textiles (from tablecloths and curtains to the rags used to clean machinery) and how valued and important they were at the time. This includes discussion of taxation, trade policies, the shift from cottons to silks, etc. - all with a focus on marginalized people of the United States (mostly slaves and women).

The reading is laborious but it is clear the author fact checked herself very carefully and drew conclusions warranting a relook at just how valuable a commodity textiles were at the beginning of the United States history. There are a few photographs but for the most part, it is the academic discussions of the economic implications of textiles with examples from records of individuals in history and how textiles impacted their lives (e.g. a slave who ran away couldn't defend against her masters owning her but could argue that she actually owned the dress she was wearing). Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Sarah Duggan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An outstanding and extensively researched look at how textiles in early America served as liquid assets that transcended class and race. Even enslaved people could lay claim to clothing or fabric. Court case records reveal how textiles frequently changed hands or could be leveraged in other dealings.

All the legal citations can get a little dry - this isn't a book to devour in one sitting. I would have liked to hear more about how increasing formality of legal codes in the mid-19th century changed the way Americans valued cloth goods. Still, Edwards reveals a fascinating angle of life in early America.

[Fern · Rating 3 out of 5]

More legalese than I expected and could’ve been better edited for a more streamlined chronology but interesting premise and learned a fair bit about textile as alternative source of property for women and African Americans at a time when these demographics had no legal status.

[Rebecca Inch · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was so boring. And that’s coming from me - the soil lady.

I now know Mary Todd Lincoln (Abe Lincoln’s wife) had to sell her clothes bc the Republican Party wouldn’t help her with money. Even though her husband was ASSASSINATED - but that was in the conclusion so not worth the read.

[Fresno Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

who knew that clothing had rights?

[Maggie]

Skimmed. Very economically focused.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but too repetitive

[Benedict · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's an interesting look into a loophole of legality: while not everyone in 19th century America had property rights (specifically women, black people and the working class), textiles were such a valuable commodity that their ownership was fiercely protected in law. This resulted in some sections of society having nothing of value to their name except their clothing and linens. This book explores that reality.

Weaving together (ha) narratives of different individuals from the time, this paints a picture of the value of people's textiles in more than just monetary terms.

Very interesting.