But perhaps more surprisingly, these records offer new glimpses of what slavery looked like: its color palate and its textures, for example, and the prevalence of woolen fabrics on Southern plantations. There is a tactile and haptic history here, as well as one that lets us think about movement. 4/6

These records can tell us more about sartorial strategies of enslaved people and about the expertise of enslaved seamstresses who converted yards of New England-made cloth into wearable garments that would have to withstand the performance demands of violently-coerced agricultural labor. 5/6