EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 119 



chiefly employed upon the homespun fabrics of the farmers. " Cloth 

 of fine scarlet and deep blue, which were then favorite colors, was 

 made and dressed in a creditable manner." 



A considerable branch of the woolen manufacture Avas the making of 

 wool hats. Nearly every State in the Union was engaged in the busi- 

 ness, and there was no community without its hatters. Pennsylvania 

 took the lead in this industry, for which wool was imported from the 

 Eastern States. The wool and fur hats of Pennsylvania alone were 

 about 212,000 in 1790, and more than her consumption, and the manu- 

 facture was brisk in the counties beyond the Alleghanies. 



The condition of the woolen industry at the time is found in a report 

 made to the House of Kepresentatives December 5, 1791, by Alexander 

 Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury. After an enumeration of several 

 important branches of manufactures that had already grown up and 

 flourished with surprising rapidity, viz, those of skins, iron, wood, flax, 

 and hemp, and u hats of fur and wool, and mixtures of both," Hamilton 

 adds: 



Besides manufactories of these articles, which are carried on as regular trades, and 

 have attained to a considerable degree of maturity, there is a vast scene of house- 

 hold manufacturing, which contributes more largely to the supply of the community 

 than could be imagined, without having made it an object of particular inquiry. 

 This observation is the pleasing result of the investigation to which the subject of 

 this report had led, and is applicable as well to the Southern as to the Middle and 

 Northern States. Great quantities of coarse cloths, coatings, serges, and flannels, 

 linsey-woolseys, hosiery of wool, cotton, and thread, coarse fustians, jeans, and 

 muslins, checked and striped cotton and linen goods, bedticks, coverlets, and coun- 

 terpanes, tow-linens, coarse shirtings, sheetings, toweling, and table linen, and 

 various mixtures of wool and cotton, and of cotton and flax, are made in the house- 

 hold way, and in many instances to an extent not only sufficient for the supply of 

 the families in which they are made, but for sale, and even in some cases for exporta- 

 tion. It is computed in a number of districts that two-thirds, three-fourths, and 

 even four-fifths of all the clothing of the inhabitants are made by themselves. The 

 importance of so great a progress as appears to have been made in family manufac- 

 tures within a few years, both in a moral and political view, renders the fact highly 

 interesting. 



Neither does the above enumeration comprehend all the articlefiKthat are manufac- 

 tured, as regular trades. Many others occur which are equally well established, 

 but which, not being of equal importance, have been omitted. And there are many 

 attempts, still in their infancy, which, though attended with very favorable appear- 

 ances, could not have been properly comprised in an enumeration of manufactories 

 already established. There are other articles, also, of great importance, which, 

 though, strictly speaking, manufactures, are omitted, as being immediately con- 

 nected with husbandry ; such as flour, pot and pearl ashes, pitch, tar, turpentine, 

 and the like. 



In a country the climate of which partakes of so considerable a proportion of 

 winter as that of a great part of the United States, the woolen branch can not be 

 regarded as inferior to any which relates to the clothing of the inhabitants. House- 

 hold manufactures of this material are carried on in different parts of the United 

 States to a very interesting extent; but there is only one branch which, as a regular 

 business, can be said to have acquired maturity. This is the making of hats. Hats 

 of wool, and of wool mixed with fur, are made in large quantities in different 



