Only the Clothes on Her Back - Clothing Hidden History of Power in Nineteenth Century United States

Only the Clothes on Her Back illuminates the ways in which women, men of color, and poor people used textiles as a form of property that enabled them to gain access to the legal system and to exercise political power.

List of contents

• Acknowledgments


• Introduction: Elizabeth's and Caty's Failed Escapes: The Materials of Legal Meaning


• Part One: Old Clothes in a New Country


• Chapter 1: Polly's Yarn: Legal Principles


• Chapter 2: Roger Taney's Long Underwear: Federalism


• Chapter 3: Mr. Robinson's Failure: Merchants


• Chapter 4: Rebecca Coles's Factory: Manufacturers


• Part Two: Protective Coverings in a Hostile World


• Chapter 5: The Prison Society's Problem: Currency


• Chapter 6: Jane Cooley's Loom: Capital


• Chapter 7: Margaret Ten Eyck's Accounts: Credit


• Chapter 8: Eliza Cauchois's Shift: Exchange


• Part Three: Rags


• Chapter 9: Sarah Allingham's Sheet: Enforcement


• Chapter 10: Catherine Brennan's Haul: Criminality


• Chapter 11: Charles Lohman's Silk Dresses: Suppression


• Chapter 12: Mrs. Harris's Marriage: Erasure


• Conclusion: Mary Todd Lincoln's Old Clothes: Just Material


• Notes


• Bibliography


• Index

About the author

Laura F. Edwards is the Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor of American Law and Liberty at Princeton University. She is the award-winning author of A Legal History of the Civil War and Reconstruction: A Nation of Rights, The People and Their Peace: Legal Culture and the Transformation of Inequality in the Post-Revolutionary South, and Scarlett Doesn't Live Here Anymore: Southern Women in the Civil War Era. This is her first project that connects her longstanding needlework interests with her historical work.

Summary

Only the Clothes on Her Back illuminates the ways in which women, men of color, and poor people used textiles as a form of property that enabled them to gain access to the legal system and to exercise political power.

Additional text

This book is helpful in drawing our attention to the perhaps usually invisible legal principles behind the ownership of these objects.

Product details

• Authors: Laura F. Edwards, Laura F. (Class of 1921 Bicentennial Prof Edwards, Edwards Laura F.
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.04.2022
• EAN: 9780197568576
• ISBN: 978-0-19-756857-6
• No. of pages: 456
• Subjects: Guides > Health > Beauty/cosmetics; Humanities, art, music > History; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Law > General, dictionaries; USA, LAW / Legal History, LAW / Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice, HISTORY / Women, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Legal History, United States of America, USA, History of the Americas, Specific wars and campaigns, HISTORY / African American & Black, c 1860 to c 1869, Civil wars, American Civil War