Rural Economy in New England 361 



a white hoUand cap or wig, and beaver hat: and on Thanksgiving days, 

 and other high occasions, a white holland shirt and cambric neckcloth. 

 "The women have been, till within about thirty years past, clothed 

 altogether in the same style, with a moderate allowance for the taste 

 of sex. A minute description will not be attempted; a few particulars 

 will characterize the whole. They wore home-made drugget, crape, 

 plain cloth and camblet gowns in the winter, and the exterior of their 

 under dress was a garment lined and quilted, extending from the 

 waist to the feet. Their shoes were high-heeled, made of tanned 

 calf-skin, and in some instances of cloth. In the summer they wore 

 striped linen and calico gowns, cloth shoes and linen underdress: 

 and every young lady when she had attained her stature, was fur- 

 nished with a silk gown and skirt if her parents were able, or she could 

 purchase them by dint of labour. Their head dress has always 

 occupied a great share of their attention while in youth; it has always 

 been varying, and every mode seems, in its day, the most becoming. 

 Within the period just mentioned, the elderly women have worn check 

 holland aprons to meeting on the Sabbath, and those of early life, 

 and of the best fashion, were accustomed to wear them in their 

 formal visits."^ 



The Organization of the Household Industries. 



The production in the household of woolen and linen, and to some 

 extent also cotton fabrics, not only clothing but also the neces- 

 sary house furnishings, such as sheeting, toweling, blankets, and 

 table linen, and even such coarse fabrics as rag carpets and grain 

 bags, was a well-organized industry. The various successive stages 

 in the conversion of the raw materials into the finished product were 

 regularly assigned to members of the family according to their strength 

 and skill. Thus the men sheared and washed the wool, and per- 

 formed most of the laborious processes of breaking, swingling and 

 hackling the flax to prepare the fiber for spinning. The carding of 

 the wool, corresponding in a way to these processes, was for years 

 the task assigned to the older members of the family whose strength 

 and eyesight would have been unequal to more onerous and careful 

 work. About the year 1800, however, the household was relieved 

 of this task by the introduction of the water-power carding machines, 

 which, as we have seen, spread so rapidly that they were to be found 

 in almost every village in 18 lO.^ The younger women of the family 



^ Printed in Noah Porter's Historical Discourse. Appendix, Note S, pp. 82-83. 

 2 Supra p. 260. 



