Homespun fabrics are necessary in 1776

Breeches were the pants of fashion for men in 1776 America. The knee-length pants, a linen shirt, a waistcoat (vest) and a coat, usually made of wool, completed the everyday attire. A hunting shirt, a signature, loose-fitting, fringed garment made of linen was often worn by riflemen and adopted by Continental soldiers for its comfort, low cost and practicality. For the head, the Tricorn, a three-sided hat, was the norm for the day.

Prior to the Revolutionary War and nonimportation agreements, luxurious silks, velvets and lace were used for garments. The nonimportation agreements limited the supply of cloth coming into America, and the luxury fabrics were not found, considered symbols of luxury and status. Cotton, linen, flax and wool became the fabrics used as the colonists had to create their own cloth for practical and political reasons. Women began to hold spinning bees where natural fibers were spun. These spun fibers were then woven into cloth. Spinning and weaving were ways that America could begin to manufacture for itself.

John Adams, in a letter to James Warren, wrote that “silks and velvets and lace must be dispensed with as Trifles in a Contest for Liberty.” The Continental Association of 1774 declared that “wool was the best republican material, because it was the furthest thing from the British extravagance of silk and lace.”

The spun fabrics became known as “homespun,” and usually were cotton, linen, flax and wool. Due to home-spinning and dying, colors were often natural, or dyed with affordable colors like blue, red or brown. Abigail Adams supported the homespun movement, writing to her husband stating “As for me I will seek wool and flax and work willingly with my hands, and indeed [there] is occasion for all in our industry and economy.” George Washington’s inaugural suit was made of homespun with the wool coming from a mill in Connecticut.

Working-class women of that day were dressed in front-wrapping, thigh-length gowns, known as bed gowns, paired with petticoats for staple, functional wear. More formal, fitted gowns accompanied by petticoats were worn by wealthier women. Women also wore neck handkerchiefs known as fichus for modesty, which were plain linen for work or a little fancier for formal wear. Women often wore Caracos, a fitted, thigh-length jacket fashionable from the 1760s to the early 19th century, serving as a popular, comfortable alternative to full gowns. Characterized by a front opening, three-quarter sleeves, and often a sack-back, they were worn with matching skirts or petticoats by all social classes.

Enslaved people on plantations of that day wore clothing made of osnaburg fabric, imported from Osnabruck in present-day Germany. Osnaburg was a textile woven from strands of hemp or flax, left unbleached and coarse. It was of a brown hue, cheap and accessible, imported in mass quantities to merchants and directly to plantations. Enslavers hired local tailors, seamstresses and the enslaved themselves to create garments for individual enslaved people.