One surprise in researching **Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery** was the richness of New England business archives regarding the material culture of Southern slavery. Pictured here is a pattern book from a Rhode Island manufacturer in the 1830s specializing in plaids. 1/6

Was the owner of the RI business Scottish? I'm intrigued as to why a tartan ("plaid") would be chosen to clothe enslaved people - it's not easy to weave, so presumably not terribly cheap. Did plantations have their own designs to distinguish from other plantations?

The firm produced a dozen different plaids, some woven under its factory roof and others distributed to nearby families to produce at home . Finished fabrics vended in Baltimore, Charleston, New Orleans and esp. NYC, the hub of the national market in clothing and tools for enslaved people. 2/6