“Goods to clothe themselves”

2009/03/01 by Laura E. Johnson · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #American History and Culture #Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis #Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies

paper · doi:10.1086/597283

openalex publication_date 2009/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06

Abstract

One of William Penn’s first orders to James Logan, his provincial secretary, was to increase Pennsylvania’s share of the fur trade. This essay utilizes Logan’s accounts and the archaeological record from Conestoga Town, an important eighteenth‐century Pennsylvania trading and treaty town, to investigate the place of European‐made cloth in Native lives. Cloth and clothing played a larger role in the economic and diplomatic worlds of Pennsylvania than previously indicated. This essay explores Native acquisition of European textiles, how they used them to create particular physical identities, and how the cloth trade created and reinforced relationships between Natives and Europeans.

Discussions

• This might be too European-centric, with all Euro goods, but there might be some leads in the notes. (My students have loved this article, & are amazed by the numbers & kinds of goods). doi.org/10.10 [bsky, 4 points, 0 comments]

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