Negro cloth or Lowell cloth was a coarse and strong cloth used for slaves' clothing in the West Indies and the Southern Colonies. The cloth was imported from Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Act of 1735
South Carolina's Negro Act of 1735 had various cheap materials dictated for slave clothes that include Negro cloth, duffelds, course kiersies, osnaburg, blue linen, checked linen, coarse calicoes and checked kinds of cotton. == Types ==
Types
Negro cloth was a woven material made of cotton or blended coarse threads also homespun. These were inexpensive and lower grades of cloth. Guinea cloth was a generic term for various inferior Indian piece goods traded for the purpose, such as inexpensive dyed plain and patterned calicoes like stripes and checks. == Quality ==
Quality
Negro cloth was durable, but often regarded by its wearers as coarse, rough, and uncomfortable. Those freed from slavery recalled the cloth feeling akin to "needles sticking one all the time." Antebellum Mississippi planters bought from cloth vendors offering materials "were uniformly utilitarian, never mentioning color, decoration, or anything new or unique. Such advertisements simply offered shoes and hats and cloth without description [that] combined durability with low cost...In choosing cloth or clothing, slaveowners showed interest exclusively in price and durability. A south Mississippi planter ordered for his slaves winter clothes 'of a material that I trust will last better than the goods sent last winter.'" == Garments ==
Garments
The cloth was converted into various garments, such as breeches, jackets, skirts, bodices, shirts and trousers. == See also ==