Homespun

As materials became increasingly scarce, Confederate women turned to homemade thread and cloth during the Civil War. Women who had previously engaged only in ornamental sewing and embroidery found themselves learning how to spin thread and weave cloth to keep their families clothed. These methods, which in antebellum years had been used primarily by slaves, became commonplace for all women in the Confederacy, white and black. The materials manufactured by Southern women during the war served as the basis for clothing, undergarments, shoes, and other cloth items.

Homespun cloth had many different forms. Some women made it in solids, some in stripes or plaids. In addition, the quality of homespun cloth varied widely, ranging from very tight weaves to extremely coarse materials. Opinions on the fashions created from these materials varied, with some decrying the shabby look of wartime women and others praising the ingenuity and creativity of the homespun weavers and seamstresses.

White Southern women took pride in their manufacture of homespun as well as in their use of it. Indeed, the wearing of Confederate homespun became a badge of patriotism throughout the South because it represented a sacrifice of luxury for the benefit of the war effort. It also demonstrated the resourcefulness of Southern women. In 1862 one Southern woman wrote “The Homespun Dress,” a song that exulted in women’s use of the homemade fabric; according to the lyrics, the wearing of homespun “shows what Southern girls / For Southern rights will do.”

Men, too, proudly wore outfits made from homespun cloth. Vice President Alexander H. Stephens wore a homespun suit to his inauguration. Other dignitaries— including North Carolina governor Joseph E. Brown, Edmund Ruffin, and other members of the Confederate Congress—commonly wore homespun as a symbol of their dedication to the Confederate war effort.

See also HoMEfRoNT.

Further reading: Mary Elizabeth Massey, Ersatz in the Confederacy (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1952); Laurel Ulrich, The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth (New York: Knopf, 2001).

—Lisa Tendrich Frank