The Needle's Eye: Women and Work in the Age of Revolution

by Marla R. Miller

Among the enduring stereotypes of early American history has been the colonial Goodwife, perpetually spinning, sewing, darning, and quilting, answering all of her family's textile needs. But the Goodwife of popular historical imagination obscures as much as she reveals; the icon appears to explain early American women's labor history while at the same time allowing it to go unexplained. Tensions of class and gender recede, and the largest artisanal trade open to early American women is obscured in the guise of domesticity.

In this book, Marla R. Miller illuminates the significance of women's work in the clothing trades of the early Republic. Drawing on diaries, letters, reminiscences, ledgers, and material culture, she explores the contours of working women's lives in rural New England, offering a nuanced view of their varied ranks and roles―skilled and unskilled, black and white, artisanal and laboring―as producers and consumers, clients and craftswomen, employers and employees. By plumbing hierarchies of power and skill, Miller explains how needlework shaped and reflected the circumstances of real women's lives, at once drawing them together and setting them apart.

The heart of the book brings into focus the entwined experiences of six women who lived in and around Hadley, Massachusetts, a thriving agricultural village nestled in a bend in the Connecticut River about halfway between the Connecticut and Vermont borders. Miller's examination of their distinct yet overlapping worlds reveals the myriad ways that the circumstances of everyday lives positioned women in relationship to one another, enlarging and limiting opportunities and shaping the trajectories of days, years, and lifetimes in ways both large and small. The Needle's Eye reveals not only how these women thought about their work, but how they thought about their world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

328 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2006

Reviews

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating! I mean really, what did people do before they could just buy clothes from a store? This book answers that question and more. It dispels some myths about colonial women and gives a great amount of enlightenment about the everyday lives of women at that time. I borrowed it from the library, but may have to get a copy so I can go back and re-read my favorite sections.

[Selena · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was great reading about Northampton and surrounding environs. I never realised the importance of clothing and learned a lot about how they were made and how much work went into them. Some familiar names popped up and now I have to go do some genealogical research...

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was clearly meticulously researched. I love a good footnote, and I appreciated the author's use of a variety of sources, including diaries, letters, and account books. She delves into how gender, class, and race shaped women's work and their relationships with each other, focusing primarily in and around Hadley, Massachusetts.

I did struggle with the pacing. While I appreciate the focus on the individual lives of five or six women, which is essential to the author's case, there is a considerable amount of repetition. Miller frequently circles back to the same themes and examples, which makes the narrative feel slow and redundant.

I'm glad that I read this one. It is a niche field, but as a genealogist and historian, it was fascinating. I don't know, however, that this is one that I would recommend to most, because it is more academic in nature and is a bit dry and slow-going.

[Laura Grace McSwain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book so clearly falls in line with my special interest in women’s dress and how it links to cultural and economic shifts. Miller specifically criticizes a romanticization of the colonial area, specifically in regard to needlework as a domestic indulgence, that I myself as a burgeoning seamstress have fallen victim to. Would definitely recommend if you have any interest in colonial women, historical dress and the ways needleworkers took agency and found financial independence in such a revolutionary period.