Spinning bee

Last updated February 11, 2024

Spinning bees were 18th-century public events where women in the American Colonies produced homespun cloth to help the colonists reduce their dependence on British goods. They emerged in the decade prior to the American Revolution as a way for women to protest British policies and taxation.

Historical background

Great Britain enforced the 1765 Stamp Act on its American colonies, which taxed official documents throughout the colony.^[1] The British Crown viewed these measures as a legitimate way to raise revenue. In contrast, many colonists viewed these acts as tyrannical, arguing that taxation without consent violated their rights as Englishmen. One common way that colonists protested this act of Parliament was through non-importation agreements and boycotts. Though the Stamp Act 1765 was repealed in 1766, the following year Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, imposing a new tax on goods such as glass and paper. Non-importation movements and boycotts resumed in protest of these additional taxes.^[2] Spinning bees were among these acts of defiance of the Townshend Acts by encouraging local production of cloth instead of purchasing imported English textiles that bore the new tax.

Political significance

The homespun cloth and garments that these spinning bees produced became a political symbol as well as a material boycott. Wearing homespun showed other colonists that the wearer was protesting the British by refusing to buy British clothes. In addition to average colonists, prominent colonial leaders and politicians also donned homespun clothing as a show of rebellion against the British Crown. One year prior to the outbreak of the Revolution, the entirety of Harvard's graduating class wore homespun garments.^[3]

Spinning bees also held a personal importance for women as well, involving women in the resistance to Great Britain where previously they had been excluded from public displays of resistance against the Crown.^[2]

Process of spinning bees

The spinning bees sponsored by Rebel groups such as the Daughters of Liberty represented one way that colonial women could get involved in the protest of imperial policies. The colonies relied on Great Britain for textiles, meaning that a successful boycott would require alternate sources for many goods that colonists imported.^[4] The task of enacting the boycott fell to women, providing them an opportunity to enter the public side of the protest alongside men against the British Crown. Women began to compete publicly against one another to see who could make the most homemade cloth, known as homespun.^[3] These contest became known as spinning bees.

The Sons of Liberty often co-hosted these events with the Daughters of Liberty as a way to publicly support the Patriot cause against the British. Like other local festivities of the time, spinning bees included songs, picnics, and friendly competitions. Newspaper accounts, for example those from Rhode Island, also demonstrate that spinning bees attempted to use the spirit of competition to bridge the gap between married and unmarried women as well as lower- and upper-class women.^[5] The spinning bees would often be community events, taking place in the center of town or in the town minister's home, depending upon the class status of the women involved. It was more likely for poorer women to spin as part of a bigger festivity than upper-class women, who spun at their minister's house.^[6]

Legacy

Spinning bees were a predecessor to women's paid work outside the home. Since the spinning bees required women to spin and weave out in public, they presented an opportunity for women to participate in the colonial economy in a public setting.^[7] The ability for women to spin as well as weave in public paved the way for women's eventual role in the United States factory system.^[8] Factory work became one of the few occupations open to women in the 19th century.

In other countries

Before the advent of electric lighting in Europe, rural and urban women in Germany would gather to do their spinning and other handicrafts in a single house or room in order to preserve firewood, candles, and lantern oil, thus collectively saving supplies for heating and lighting. This was variably referred to depending on the dialect as a Spinnstube (lit. 'spinning room'), Lichtstube (light room), or Rockenstube (distaff room), among other terms. While the spinning rooms were nominally segregated by gender, it was common for young men to visit the spinning rooms to accompany young women home in the evenings. As such, it was one of the few places that a relationship could be started away from the watchful eyes of church authorities and family members. From the 16th century onwards, this practice later drew outrage from Catholics and Protestants alike due to accusations of sexual debauchery. In response, a Lichtherrn ('light man') could be assigned to a spinning room to hold the members responsible to spiritual authorities. Ernest Borneman mentions the following obscene terms from spinning room jargon:

Brechelbraut ('naughty bride'), Flachskönigin (flax queen), Handelsbraut (commercial bride), Raufbraut (rough bride): The prettiest girl was chosen to be the "naughty bride" at the time of the flax breaking.
Brechelbusch (shaggy bush): A distaff coated in flax. The Brechelbusch resembled a fir tree decorated with ribbons, which a girl threw under the boys so that they could fight for it: Whoever conquered it won the favor of the Brechelbraut.
Farkel: On the back of her smock, the Brechelbraut wore a flax wreath, which the boys tried to soak with a bucket of water to get the girl to hang up her skirt and petticoats to dry.
Agenschoppen: The flax waste (Agen) was stuffed into the boys' waistbands by the girls, which served as a playful excuse to quickly grope the male genitals.
Fleischhaufen (meat pile): After dancing, all participants dropped to the floor, creating the largest possible crowd, in which there was an opportunity for mutual contact. This custom was particularly offensive and was condemned in numerous sermons.
flachsbrecheln (flax break): "tell nonsense, make stupid jokes".
haardörren (hair drying): drying flax or coitus.
Brechelkinder: Children born in autumn who may have been conceived in the spinning room during flax crumbling in the previous winter months.^[9]^{[ circular reference ]}

Related Research Articles

The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution based on the principles of the American Enlightenment in which the Second Continental Congress, representing the Thirteen Colonies, convened in what is now Independence Hall in Philadelphia, ultimately declaring their total independence from the British Empire, authorizing the creation of the Continental Army, and electing George Washington as its commander in the ensuing American Revolutionary War.

The Stamp Act 1765, also known as the Duties in American Colonies Act 1765, was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which imposed a direct tax on the British colonies in America and required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper from London which included an embossed revenue stamp. Printed materials included legal documents, magazines, playing cards, newspapers, and many other types of paper used throughout the colonies, and it had to be paid in British currency, not in colonial paper money.

The Intolerable Acts, sometimes referred to as the Insufferable Acts or Coercive Acts, were a series of five punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to punish Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest of the Tea Act, a tax measure enacted by Parliament in May 1773. In Great Britain, these laws were referred to as the Coercive Acts. They were a key development leading to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775.

The American Colonies Act 1766, commonly known as the Declaratory Act, was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act 1765 and the amendment of the Sugar Act. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act because boycotts were hurting British trade and used the declaration to justify the repeal and avoid humiliation. The declaration stated that the Parliament's authority was the same in America as in Britain and asserted Parliament's authority to pass laws that were binding on the American colonies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Townshend</span> British politician (1725–1767)

Charles Townshend was a British politician who held various titles in the Parliament of Great Britain. His establishment of the controversial Townshend Acts is considered one of the key causes of the American Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Townshend Acts</span> Political precursor to the American Revolution

The Townshend Acts or Townshend Duties were a series of British acts of Parliament passed during 1767 and 1768 introducing a series of taxes and regulations to fund administration of the British colonies in America. They are named after the Chancellor of the Exchequer who proposed the programme. Historians vary slightly as to which acts they include under the heading "Townshend Acts", but five are often listed:

The Tea Act 1773 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. The principal objective was to reduce the massive amount of tea held by the financially troubled British East India Company in its London warehouses and to help the struggling company survive. A related objective was to undercut the price of illegal tea, smuggled into Britain's North American colonies. This was supposed to convince the colonists to purchase Company tea on which the Townshend duties were paid, thus implicitly agreeing to accept Parliament's right of taxation. Smuggled tea was a large issue for Britain and the East India Company, since approximately 86% of all the tea in America at the time was smuggled Dutch tea.

"No taxation without representation" is a political slogan that originated in the American Revolution and which expressed one of the primary grievances of the American colonists for Great Britain. In short, many colonists believed that as they were not represented in the distant British parliament, any taxes it imposed on the colonists were unconstitutional and were a denial of the colonists' rights as Englishmen.

A stamp act is any legislation that requires a tax to be paid on the transfer of certain documents. Those who pay the tax receive an official stamp on their documents, making them legal documents. A variety of products have been covered by stamp acts including playing cards, dice, patent medicines, cheques, mortgages, contracts, marriage licenses and newspapers. The items may have to be physically stamped at approved government offices following payment of the duty, although methods involving annual payment of a fixed sum or purchase of adhesive stamps are more practical and common.

The Massachusetts Circular Letter was a statement written by Samuel Adams and James Otis Jr., and passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives in February 1768 in response to the Townshend Acts. Reactions to the letter brought heightened tensions between the British Parliament and Massachusetts, and resulted in the military occupation of Boston by the British Army, which contributed to the coming of the American Revolution.

The Daughters of Liberty was the formal female association that was formed in 1765 to protest the Stamp Act, and later the Townshend Acts, and was a general term for women who identified themselves as fighting for liberty during the American Revolution.

The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in colonial Massachusetts. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea from China in American colonies without paying taxes apart from those imposed by the Townshend Acts. The Sons of Liberty strongly opposed the taxes in the Townshend Act as a violation of their rights. In response, the Sons of Liberty, some disguised as Native Americans, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company.

The Chestertown Tea Party was a protest against British excise duties which, according to local legend, took place in May 1774 in Chestertown, Maryland as a response to the British Tea Act. Chestertown tradition holds that, following the example of the more famous Boston Tea Party, colonial patriots boarded the brigantine Geddes in broad daylight and threw its cargo of tea into the Chester River. The event is celebrated each Memorial Day weekend with a festival and historic reenactment called the Chestertown Tea Party Festival.

Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania is a series of essays written by the Pennsylvania lawyer and legislator John Dickinson (1732–1808) and published under the pseudonym "A Farmer" from 1767 to 1768. The twelve letters were widely read and reprinted throughout the Thirteen Colonies, and were important in uniting the colonists against the Townshend Acts in the run-up to the American Revolution. According to many historians, the impact of the Letters on the colonies was unmatched until the publication of Thomas Paine's Common Sense in 1776. The success of the letters earned Dickinson considerable fame.

Women in the American Revolution played various roles depending on their social status, race and political views.

Samuel Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents, and one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped the political culture of the United States. He was a second cousin to his fellow Founding Father, President John Adams.

The Edenton Tea Party was a political protest in Edenton, North Carolina, in response to the Tea Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Inspired by the Boston Tea Party and the calls for tea boycotts and the resolutions of the first North Carolina Provincial Congress, 51 women, led by Penelope Barker, met on October 25, 1774, and signed a statement of protest vowing to give up tea and boycott other British products "until such time that all acts which tend to enslave our Native country shall be repealed." The boycott was one of the events that led up to the American Revolution (1775–1781). It was the "first recorded women's political demonstration in America".

The Boston Non-importation agreement was an 18th century boycott that restricted importation of goods to the city of Boston. This agreement was signed on August 1, 1768 by more than 60 merchants and traders. After two weeks, there were only 16 traders who did not join the effort. In the upcoming months and years, this non-importation initiative was adopted by other cities: New York joined the same year, Philadelphia followed a year later. Boston stayed the leader in forming an opposition to the mother country and its taxing policy. The boycott lasted until the 1770 when the British Parliament repealed the acts against which the Boston Non-importation agreement was meant.

The 27 grievances is a section from the United States Declaration of Independence. The Second Continental Congress's Committee of Five drafted the document listing their grievances with the actions and decisions of King George III with regard to the Colonies in North America. The Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to adopt and issue the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homespun movement</span> 18th-century boycott movement in United States

The homespun movement was started in 1767 by Quakers in Boston, Massachusetts, to encourage the purchase of goods, especially apparel, manufactured in the American Colonies. The movement was created in response to the British Townshend Acts of 1767 and 1768, in the early stages of the American Revolution.

References

↑ Berkin, Carol (2006). "It Was I Who Did It: Women's Role in the Founding of the Nation". Phi Kappa Phi Forum. 86: 15.
1 2 Salmon, Marylynn (2000). No Small Courage: A History of Women in The United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 135.
1 2 Salmon, Marylynn (2000). No Small Courage: A History of Women in The United States. Oxford: Oxford University. p. 136.
↑ Berkin, Carol (2006). "It Was I Who Did It: Women's Role in the Founding of the Nation". Phi Kappa Phi Forum. 86: 16.
↑ Macdonald, Anne (1988). No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting. New York: Ballatine Books. pp. 80–81.
↑ Applewhite, Harriet B. (1993). Women and Politics in the Age of Democratic Revolution. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 197.
↑ Peskin, Lawrence (2003). Manufacturing Revolution: The Intellectual Origins of Early American Industry. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 10–11.
↑ Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher (1998). "Wheels, Looms, and the Gendered Divisions of Labor in Eighteenth Century New England". The William and Mary Quarterly. 55 (1): 9. doi:10.2307/2674321. JSTOR 2674321.
↑ "Spinnstube" . Retrieved 4 April 2020.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Berkin, Carol (2006). "It Was I Who Did It: Women's Role in the Founding of the Nation". Phi Kappa Phi Forum. 86: 15.

[:0-2] 1 2 Salmon, Marylynn (2000). No Small Courage: A History of Women in The United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 135.

[:1-3] 1 2 Salmon, Marylynn (2000). No Small Courage: A History of Women in The United States. Oxford: Oxford University. p. 136.

[4] Berkin, Carol (2006). "It Was I Who Did It: Women's Role in the Founding of the Nation". Phi Kappa Phi Forum. 86: 16.

[5] Macdonald, Anne (1988). No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting. New York: Ballatine Books. pp. 80–81.

[6] Applewhite, Harriet B. (1993). Women and Politics in the Age of Democratic Revolution. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 197.

[7] Peskin, Lawrence (2003). Manufacturing Revolution: The Intellectual Origins of Early American Industry. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 10–11.

[8] Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher (1998). "Wheels, Looms, and the Gendered Divisions of Labor in Eighteenth Century New England". The William and Mary Quarterly. 55 (1): 9. doi:10.2307/2674321. JSTOR 2674321.

[9] "Spinnstube" . Retrieved 4 April 2020.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]