Librarian View

a| 9780197568576

a| 0197568572

a| (OCoLC)1251506372

a| YDX b| eng e| rda c| YDX d| BDX d| IBV d| YDX d| OCLCO d| FNE d| UKMGB d| CMA d| CDX d| OCLCF d| UAP d| XII d| ZVP

a| n-us---

a| ZVPA

a| GT610 b| .E39 2022

a| Edwards, Laura F., e| author

a| Only the clothes on her back : b| clothing and the hidden history of power in the nineteenth-century United States / c| Laura F. Edwards

a| Clothing and the hidden history of power in the nineteenth-century United States

a| New York, NY : b| Oxford University Press, c| [2022]

c| ©2022

a| xiii, 433 pages : b| illustrations ; c| 25 cm

a| text b| txt 2| rdacontent

a| still image b| sti 2| rdacontent

a| unmediated b| n 2| rdamedia

a| volume b| nc 2| rdacarrier

a| Includes bibliographical references (pages 385-415) and index

g| Introduction -- t| Elizabeth's and Caty's failed escapes: the materials of legal meaning -- g| Part I. t| Old clothes in a new country -- t| Polly's yarn: legal principles -- t| Roger Taney's long underwear: federalism -- t| Mr. Robinson's fabrics: merchants -- t| Rebecca Coles's factory: manufacturers -- g| Part II. t| Protective coverings in a hostile world -- t| The Prison Society's problem: currency -- t| Jane Cooley's loom: capital -- t| Margaret Ten Eyck's accounts: credit -- t| Eliza Cauchois's shift: exchange -- g| Part III. t| Rags -- t| Sarah Allingham's sheet: enforcement -- t| Catherine Brennan's haul: criminality -- t| Charles Lohman's dresses: suppression -- t| Mrs. Harris's marriage: erasure -- g| Conclusion. t| Mrs. Lincoln's old clothes: just material

a| "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. Based on painstaking archival research from fifteen states, Only the Clothes on Her Back reconstructs this hidden history of power, tracing it from the governing order of the early republic in which textiles' legal principles flourished to the textiles' legal downfall in the mid-nineteenth century when they were crowded out by the rising power of rights."-- c| Provided by publisher

a| BGCFOLIO

a| Clothing and dress x| Social aspects z| United States x| History y| 19th century

a| Women x| Legal status, laws, etc. z| United States x| History y| 19th century

a| Property z| United States x| History y| 19th century

a| Textile fabrics x| Social aspects z| United States x| History y| 19th century

a| Textile industry x| Law and legislation z| United States

a| African Americans x| Legal status, laws, etc. x| History y| 19th century

a| Poor laws z| United States x| History y| 19th century

a| Law x| Political aspects z| United States x| History y| 19th century

a| Equality before the law z| United States x| History y| 19th century