Osnaburg Fabric Apron- Charleston, SC
Little is known about the origins of this apron, but the material has a history of its own. In 1735, South Carolina passed a Act outlawing enslaved Africans to wear any garment greater than the value of “negro cloth”. Osnaburg was one of the many fabrics approved under the law.
The German cloth was originally produced as an unfinished garment made of flax and hemp. Dozens of slave narratives describe the texture as scratchy and causing skin irritation. Every year, workers were given just enough fabric to make clothing items such as shirts, pants and suits.
Other European mills began to export osnaburg (particularly in Scotland and Wales) to meet the high demand. After America entered the industrial revolution, domestic mills changed osnaburg to a plain weave cotton. The first U.S. manufacturer may have been the Matteawan Company in New York in addition to forty Rhode Island textile mills.
