116 COMPLETE INSTRUCTION IN 



SILK IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Ere yet the Stars and Stripes were thought of 

 as a national emblem, or known, save in the 

 mind of the great Jehovah, who has marked us 

 as a people for whom he has reserved a glorious 

 future, the cultivation of silk was carried on in 

 what was then known as the English colonies. 

 It might have continued to flourish since then, 

 had not England granted a charter to a joint- 

 stock company to take African negroes to the 

 colonies to cultivate tobacco. This new industry 

 claimed the attention of the large land-owners, 

 because they fancied that in it they saw more 

 immediate profit. But a few faithful women 

 continued to raise silkworms, and to weave silk 

 with wool for domestic wear. When the war of 

 the Revolution broke out, all else, save the neces- 

 saries of life, was neglected, and silk, with all 

 other luxuries, almost entirely faded from the 

 minds of the colonists. 



After the close of the war, the production of 

 cotton became general in the Southern portion of 

 the New World. Then followed its manufacture 

 in both North and South. Then slave-labor be- 

 came more general, and cotton being as easily 

 grown as silk, and requiring less intellectual force 



