Only The Clothes On Her Back: Clothing And The Hidden History Of Power In The 19th Century

What can dresses, bedlinens, waistcoats, pantaloons, shoes, and kerchiefs tell us about the legal status of the least powerful members of American society? Only the Clothes on Her Back uncovers practices, commonly known then, but now long forgotten, which made textiles a unique form of property that people without rights could own and exchange. Marginalized people used these textiles as currency, credit, and capital, but also as entree into the new republic’s economy and governing institutions. 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.