Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.
Dyes
250 years ago today, twelve persons made purchases at the store in Coldengham. Richard Applegate's (ID: 174-07) items included indigo.
This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.
Yesterday I listed the incredible number of fabric varieties that were available in the store. All of these appear to be imported. Only two sales of "homespun" to the store are recorded.
These facts might make one think that there was no production of cloth in the local community. There are several reasons to think otherwise.
First is the sale of dyes, like indigo, at the store. Indigo makes a blue dye and is still used today to color blue jeans. Between August 1767 and January 1768 indigo was purchased 70 times! It appears many of the community were involved in cloth manufacture. Redwood was another dye that was purchased on twelve different occasions at the store. Alum was also considered a "dyestuff" as it was used "fix" colors in the dyeing process. It was purchased on ten separate occasions. [Author's note of 2018-01-24: Copperas was also sold on five occasions in the prior five months. It was an iron sulfate that was used both as a black dye and as a mordant (color fixer). It is generally written by the clerks as 'Copras.']
The second reason to support the case for local cloth manufacture is the large flax harvests. The main use for flax is the manufacture of linen from its fibers. We know the Coldengham community grew flax because they sold the seed to the store. Between August 1767 and January 1768, 129 bushels of flaxseed were sold to the store! Flaxseed played a big role in the export trade because the flax in Britain was harvested before the seed formed. This was done to get a softer fiber for premium linen. The New York flax could still be used to make a course linen. I describe the labor-intensive process to make linen in my recent book, Yeoman of the Revolution, page 25.
"...weaving was a domestic operation where the loom was shared among community members with labor exchanged for some of the woven goods.... ...The harvested flax would be left in the fields to age in the sun, making for easier separation of the seeds and woody parts from the soft and strong flax fibers. Isolating the fibers was often a winter indoor activity with each family member (and neighbors) playing an important role. There was beating and breaking, combing and carding, spinning and weaving."
The last reason to suspect domestic cloth manufacture is data from estate inventories (and wills) of the day. A large fraction of estates included looms.
The broader implication of this is the existence of a separate economy not revealed by the store ledger. The exchange of produce, cloth, shoes, lumber, game, and services among neighbors is almost invisible.
As was the normal Sunday practice, Colden's store was closed on Sunday, January 24th, 1768.
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