It is apparent that besides the work now commonly carried on in the household, colonial women performed many a duty now abrogated to the factory.  In fact, so far are we removed from the industrial customs of the era that many of the terms then common in every home have lost all meaning for the average modern housewife.  For nearly two centuries the greater part of the preparation of material for clothing was done by the family; the spinning, the weaving, the dyeing, the making of thread, these and many similar domestic activities preceded the fashion of a garment.  When we remember that the sewing machine was unknown we may comprehend to some extent the immense amount of labor performed by women and girls of those early days.  The possession of many slaves or servants offered but little if any relief; for such ownership involved, of course, the manufacture of additional clothing.  Humphreys in her Catherine Schuyler presents this quotation commenting upon a skilled housewife:  “Notwithstanding they have so large a family to regulate (from 50 to 60 blacks) Mrs. Schuyler seeth to the Manufacturing of suitable Cloathing for all her family, all of which is the produce of her plantation in which she is helped by her Mama & Miss Polly and the whole is done with less Combustion & noise than in many Families who have not more than 4 or 5 Persons in the whole Family.”

IV.  Domestic Pride

Of course the well-to-do Americans of the eighteenth century at length adopted the custom of importing the finer cloth, silk, satin and brocade; but after the middle of the century the anti-British sentiment impelled even the wealthiest either to make or to buy the coarser American cloth.  Indeed, it became a matter of genuine pride to many a patriotic dame that she could thus use the spinning wheel in behalf of her country.  Daughters of Liberty, having agreed to drink no tea and to wear no garments of foreign make, had spinning circles similar to the quilting bees of later days, and it was no uncommon sight between 1770 and 1785 to see groups of women, carrying spinning wheels through the streets, going to such assemblies.  See this bit of description of such a meeting held at Rowley, Massachusetts:  “A number of thirty-three respectable ladies of the town met at sunrise with their wheels to spend the day at the house of the Rev’d Jedekiah Jewell, in the laudable design of a spinning match.  At an hour before sunset, the ladies there appearing neatly dressed, principally in homespun, a polite and generous repast of American production was set for their entertainment...."[87]