Thursday, December 24, 2015

A Confederate Girl's Diary


A Confederate Girl's Diary by Sarah Morgan Dawson is available in a free Kindle download on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018MN8E9K/  Take advantage of this soon as the price may change.
This is an excellent look into that time period. You can get the Kindle App for any tablet, smartphone or computer IOS. She even mentions a sewing machine.  Merry Christmas to all.



Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Spinning and Patriotism

If you English folks won’t give us the liberty we ask… I will try to gather a number of ladies armed with spinning wheels [along with men] who shall all learn to weave and keep sheep, and will retire beyond the reach of arbitrary power, clothed with the work of our hands, feeding on what the country affords… In short, we will found a new Arcadia.
Charity Clark, June 1769
Before the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4th, 1776, America was determined to show that she could survive without the British. That meant being frugal, drinking coffee instead of tea, and it meant spinning. Americans were boycotting British goods, especially British imported textiles. In an act of rebellion, women took to their spinning wheels, their knitting needles, and their looms. If you were a Patriot, you wore homemade clothes from homespun yarn.