Textile Society of America
Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings
Date of this Version
2024
Document Type
Presentation
Citation
Textile Society of America 2024 Symposium
Shifts & Strands: Rethinking the Possibilities and Potentials of Textiles, November 12-17, 2024, a virtual event
Abstract
Negro cloth is American history. Filled with the contributions to free and enslaved African Americans, this history has gone untold. Even within the narratives and historical archives on African Americans' history with cotton, this conversation goes beyond suffering, pain, and separation. The research reveals how African Americans contributed to indigo and cotton agriculture, weaving, and manufacturing from 1745 to 1865. The historical and narrative research has revealed the buried history of African American textile history, the American Civil War in Federal Writers' Project: Slave Narrative Project. The narratives reveal that enslaved African Americans were weavers who carded, spun, dyed, and wove—going from field to fiber to woven cloth. From 1895 – 1912, the critical role of African American entrepreneurs advanced economics and innovation for the textile and fiber industry. The first owned, operated, and funded textile mill was the Coleman Manufacturing Company. The innovator George Washington Carver created natural dyes while designing geometric shapes through crochet. Despite this deliberate omission and elimination, the connection between African American weavers and these points are imperative. After three years of historical and literary research review and ethnographic inquiry, the primary researcher discovered laws and codes that led to the 2023 recovery of artifacts. The artifacts [in the collection] of enslaved African American weavers are currently housed at the American Civil War Museum. The artifacts demonstrate patterns, improvisation, and masterful techniques that would inspire any contemporary African American textile designer.
Included in
African American Studies Commons, American Material Culture Commons, Art and Materials Conservation Commons, Art Practice Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Fashion Design Commons, Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Museum Studies Commons
Comments
Published by the Textiles Society of America
Copyright 2024, the author. Used by permission