Saturday, January 3, 2009: 3:10 PM
Concourse E (Hilton New York)
Before there was rice there were deerskins. Acquiring skins required trading with the Indians who harvested them. Throughout the Southeastern European colonies, competition for the Indian trade contributed to social, geographic and political development. Textiles formed the cornerstone to that trade, going hand-in-hand with slaves, guns, and alcohol. Competition for the Southeastern market centered on the British settlement of Charlestown and its hinterlands. Spain and France keenly felt the far reach of Carolina's traders and their goods. But the rhetoric and nature of textile commerce proved quite different from that of other merchandise. Each major colonial power recognized and capitalized on the unique power of cloth to capture Indian interest and alliance. For the English, French and Spanish, the right textiles in the right hands often meant winning key allies in the struggle for empire. By 1733, a French official described limbourg, the French version of trade woolens, as “the principal object for this trade.” Rather than language of conflict and war, European and Native officials metaphorically equated cloth and clothing with care and kinship. Not only did woven goods function on a metaphorical level, they also formed the basis of daily mercantile transactions. At the forefront of many Council meetings and treaty discussions between the groups lay the fair pricing and accurate measure of trade goods, primarily textiles. Exchange rates of skins for shirts, coats, blankets, hats and other woven goods topped the list of Indian complaints against traders. I will examine the use of cloth and items of dress to create and reinforce relationships between Native Americans and Europeans living near Charlestown and throughout its economic and cultural hinterlands. I will argue for the unique importance of trade textiles in a Southeastern colonial context using a variety of sources including treasury records, account books, and archaeological samples.