�1 ��A�� shifting landscapes of class, culture, gender, race and protest in the American Northeast and South

During the period of American colonization (1620-1760), domestic production of linen and �oollen te�tiles, dependent on the de�elopment of ��a�-gro�ing and sheep-herding in the colonies clustered along the Atlantic coast, complemented the importation of fabrics of all kinds from Britain.1 Maritime traders could exchange Ne� England lumber and fish for ra� cotton gro�n by African sla�es in the West Indies. Mercantilist policies by the British Empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries discouraged the development of competitive industries in the colonies. Male-dominated artisan trades in textiles faded away in the New World, while spinning wheels, handlooms and carding tools operated by women and girls cro�ded colonial households. �ritish efforts in the 176�s to impose ta�es on its North American colonies pro�o�ed boycotts of English fabrics. �he ma�ing and wearing of handmade cloth became an act of patriotic resistance both before and after the �ar of the American �e�olution (1776�1783) and the �ar of 181� bet�een the New United States and Great Britain.2