Weaving Gender: Men, Women, and the Mormon Home Manufacture Movement

“The time must come when this kingdom must be free and independent from all other kingdoms. Are you prepared to have the thread cut today?”1 Brigham Young asked his Salt Lake City congregation on August 2, 1857. Young, apprehensive about the political and economic influence of outsiders, envisioned Utah Territory as a Latter-day Saint “democratic theocracy.”2 In order to achieve that goal, Utah Mormons needed to work towards economic independence. As the prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the territory's first governor, Young was in a perfect position to lead the effort. Crucial to his vision of economic independence was home manufacture or home industry—the local production of goods in domestic homes or church-affiliated factories, using resources grown or mined in Utah. The home manufacture movement targeted both the necessities of daily living and more luxurious goods in every field, from food production to leather goods to lumber.3 Textile manufacturing, however, sparked a uniquely gendered discourse since women were viewed as the primary consumers of fabric goods and often criticized by the exclusively male church leadership for overreliance on fashion and imported textiles. Brigham Young and his fellow church leaders urged women to consume less and to consume differently, to produce their own cloth and their own clothing. Beyond the pulpit, they also initiated efforts to create homegrown textile industries. For their part, Utah's Mormon women discussed home textile manufacture and the moral politics of fashion among themselves, in private letters and diaries, and in the press. They formed organizations focused on home manufacture, with a particular focus on the silk industry. They sometimes pushed back on sexist rhetoric about their consumption, but they more often worked within the parameters of their society to cooperate with their male leaders and to build relationships with each other.In his August 1857 sermon on home manufacture, Brigham Young cast his ire on those in the congregation who were not ready to “cut the thread” of economic dependence, apparently drawing from his own personal life to make a broader point he hoped his audience would apply to their own families.Young presented women as consuming goods without producing anything of value and, in fact, holding men back from doing their duty to the church, insisting on the purchase of expensive store-bought textiles for the whole family, including their husbands. Though Young's sermon was influenced by his own complex polygamist family dynamics and the unique religious and social climate in Utah, his language also built on widely held economic conventions of the era. In The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, Adam Smith presented the dichotomy of productive versus unproductive labor. “A man grows rich,” Smith wrote, “by employing a multitude of manufacturers; he grows poor by maintaining a multitude of menial servants.”5 Moving beyond the individual scale, Smith acknowledged that productive labor within a community created surplus value that would spur economic growth for that community.6 Increasing productive labor would lead to an increased surplus and to increased growth, all necessary for the economic well-being of a would-be independent theocracy. In the mid-nineteenth century, these concepts were widespread, built on, or critiqued by contemporary intellectuals like John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx.7 Brigham Young's assessment of household economics dismisses the domestic labor performed by wives and mothers, and he would likely have considered this unpaid work to be unproductive along the lines of the “menial servants” Smith describes. Young would repeat rhetoric about the importance of productive labor and criticism of women's consumption habits in sermons on fashion and home manufacture over the remaining two decades of his life. The sermons, printed and published in the church's Journal of Discourses, reached a broader audience than just those who attended services in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.Home manufacture became an even more frequent subject of public discourse after the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in Utah in 1869, bringing a wider array of consumer goods into the territory and making it harder for Mormons to remain economically isolated.8 In an 1869 sermon, Young exhorted women to resist the temptation of purchasing imported textiles and to weave their own straw hats and homemade cloth, for both themselves and for their male family members.9 “It is the ladies who introduce the fashions here,” Young argued, and it was their consumption that was “the means of plunging this whole people into debt.”10 It was also women's responsibility to steer both male and female fashion and clothing manufacture in a righteous direction. “The ladies of Israel . . . will be judged according to their works just as much as the men, they should seek to have good works, and be governed by good sense instead of foolish fashions in their modes of adorning and dressing themselves.”11In an 1870 sermon titled “The Fashions of the World: Making Our Own Clothing and Fashions,” Young once again singled out women and their clothing for criticism, asking his listeners to look out over the congregation and “view the bonnets, hats, or headdresses of our fashionable ladies, just such as the wicked would wear.”12In this passage, Young offers a perhaps unintentionally revealing glimpse at conflict over clothing in his sprawling household, critiques the moral implications of women's spending, and voices a touch of defensive insecurity over his own consumption habits. His position as the outnumbered patriarch in a polygamist family may well have contributed to his sense that women were largely responsible for unnecessary spending on consumer goods.In one of his final sermons on the topic in 1875, Young demonstrated a changing concept of what home manufacture meant, referencing the Utah textile industries that he had helped launch over the preceding decades.The idea of economic independence was now centered not on women manufacturing cloth themselves on a small scale at home but rather on Utah-based larger enterprises, whether manufacturing silk or wool. Most important, in Young's opinion, was breaking dependence on imported textiles produced by non-Mormons. Once more, this is positioned as a religious duty—but also as a way for women to support themselves and not be economically dependent on their husbands. As a prolific polygamist husband and father, Brigham Young seems to have felt oppressed by the financial demands of his large family, a theme that crops up repeatedly in his sermons on home manufacture and fashion. Encouraging Mormon women to manufacture their own textile goods would release husbands like himself from disproportionate financial pressure.Other male church leaders also spoke publicly on the topic of fashion and home industry, with their commentary ranging from the even-handed to the explosive. Heber Kimball urged his listeners in an 1857 sermon to “raise all the flax we can; and when we have raised it, let us make that into cloth, and then we shall be able to make every woman shine with homemade clothes, when they come into this congregation with their beautiful wool and linen dresses on, and their bonnets made out of straw that has grown on their own land.”15 In Kimball's eyes, homemade clothes would highlight a woman's appearance, while imported fashions would do no less than “weaken and destroy the human family.”16 These “corrupt and damnable practices and customs” were “produced by the whores of the great cities of the world.”17 Kimball's bombastic speech makes the perceived link between a woman's clothing—not just its style, but its origin—and her virtue very clear. Other leaders took a more gentle and less gender-specific tone. In 1858, Kimball's fellow apostle John Taylor advocated that in order to “be independent of other people,” Utah Mormons should, apparently regardless of gender, “let our adorning be that of the workmanship of our own hands.”18 Wilford Woodruff also argued for home manufacture in 1873 as a means of economic separatism, but he discussed the necessity for a homegrown textile industry without singling out women.19 Taylor and Woodruff's sermons offered a more cooperative perspective on gender and industry rather than stigmatizing women or pitting them against men. Despite differences in rhetoric and gendered focus, the church hierarchy during Brigham Young's administration presented a united front on the overall importance of home manufacturing. Local and lower-level leaders likely also preached on this subject, though their words were not as frequently recorded. Though not all church leadership used explicitly sexist or inflammatory rhetoric when discussing fashion and clothing manufacture, Young certainly did. His status as the largely unquestioned spiritual and temporal leader of Utah and the long tenure of his leadership give his words significant weight; he was also heavily involved in establishing Utah's textile industries.Mormon women in Utah did not react to the preaching they heard from the pulpit as a monolith and expressed a range of perspectives on fashion and consumption, both publicly and privately. Some took criticism of their purported extravagance to heart and followed church leaders’ advice to promote the home manufacture industry. Others found such criticism or it within the of church leaders like Brigham Young, In 1869, of the and Young formed a society centered on in to their preaching both in public and at family within the and one of Brigham Young's wives the 1870 of the Young of the The published in the was by of on of the that as and of and of Israel . . . held to not for the we from our but also for the we as Latter-day Saints . . . of the and in among the of to the of the and out the of from the we to our to or the of and our united influence in them rhetoric in these of her on the subject, and Mormon religious well as their to their and or husbands. The Young look to their as the church's living a of and but also of women and who were not and of and to this and organizations for women up all over In of to her local other women who did not to church of and had . . . considered and by those of sense and they into the and to such as our and is a to was explicitly with the of male church leadership and the would did not their women's clothing with their also the sermons would have heard in the words about other and women that not was as with to as within Brigham Young's sprawling family, not all of the women were to his on this Young, of wives and the of of his including two who the found the discourse about women and their fashions and and her in her personal attended a women's on but about whether those with financial should be to work manufacturing textiles on of what perceived as their from own will not have much time to of and viewed as a largely male as more than extravagance in It is more necessary to the men than the In to about the of home manufacture for wives and mothers, felt defensive about women singled out for criticism about their consumption habits while men were largely In an to this concept at after a that viewed as Brigham Young had in August of it is not to in as a to his about gender and consumption habits. about financial over their wives and and perceived were certainly by her own to for and her was a frequent topic in her his 1875, that to be as a of the man in the and we do not he is to for his for of his . . . very do not in would likely not have to her sermons about the financial of a large and that by about her much of it is often to Mormon women church leaders’ and and religious would have made it very for women like to about home manufacture and consumption in less private than a personal however, by her own as a were likely by other fact, the published an in that be as a of rhetoric women's more public and more than this titled “A was a of one published in by an The the of a woman to the of women . . . the of goods to the of our own to imported goods with her and thread and is by her for the by her and on from the his own and the were women for consumption when men had their of Though this was to about goods versus Utah women like Young have its to their own a to a church that considered goods to be from the the imported a female words to Mormon male about women's The of the was now and living in Salt Lake her of this seems her two but this topic seems to have an and one even for the gendered that of fashion and home manufacture also in the of who Utah territory in her as and frequently on the topic to women's took for a gendered hierarchy in after the in to the not to be with a of but by and to church leadership was also “the Young had the to home and Brigham Young was the man has on to lead . . . His to look after their temporal as well as their spiritual the Mormon women's spiritual and the importance of their sometimes that they their male one of women that they do more by in than the do by and preaching the followed up criticism for in the Church who a in seems to be that to with that our in the of the of . . . the ladies in this have the of in their up were also more independent and than a with but the have to have two or they will of a the in that women in home industry be according to our works the of will us to our work is not but the should not such for is one all the time we not it was that even Mormon women sometimes their were not to the also published home 1873 on language to a of domestic textile “A a of with the or that they as the has had the thread or after “the or much the goods were also the of long as they were as those who able to manufacture for . . . this is no less of a or a kingdom than of a family or an church leaders’ sermons, the considered production by the community just as as production in the more in a The not just an individual but their home just as the and of the broader Mormon community the of a of home manufacture in an as of and as women of to the of . . . a and the of instead of the fashions of a argued that of the the and of this was to of this subject of home industry with a and to in the great work of bringing about the perfect of a people . . . that all and that not one should be to in all a to its language economic like Adam Mormon women to them as in Utah's The and and likely their as were and at often with more and did not the perspective of these more women with their own financial those from polygamist since men of status were more likely to a not be when between also influenced Mormon women's consumption habits and towards clothing. that even Mormon women to introduce into their often such consumer goods as fashionable and for the to the of with goods by including as a of For Smith of Utah, about the of Mormon and into her in the along with fabric as Mormon women themselves to home manufacture of they to and along with their religious For repeatedly that clothing be as do not to to the the in but it to be home In 1875, a Young that the clothing they produced was not . . . then you make people to anything but In the heard that that had on home made clothes would be the fashionable The the that Utah were making very but not to the and that homemade clothing to be that we look as well and as the women of male church leaders often unnecessary and had urged and of in her work establishing that it would be much to women to make their own clothing it was made they did not to be for religious duty or economic independence. though the of cloth was for or luxurious clothing were of the as the of Utah not to to for and while among themselves of producing the to be produced at rather than from outsiders, but did not to be a about clothing that and other of home made cloth of the were to the and to the of The on Utah-based silk was also a of homemade with their in and Utah, silk be made as as wool or was a the from both male and female Latter-day Saints to achieve the economic independence that Brigham Young had In order to create a and Mormon kingdom and on imported Utah would have to both and resources and the needed to produce Church leadership the of these industries from the including of textile As as just two after the first Mormon in the Salt Lake Brigham Young and his had to leadership used for manufacturing and the time the reached Utah in efforts were also to produce the needed for cloth to the of in Utah territory from to Utah became the focus of the on a small scale in 1857 and was by targeted in the of were to the of the territory as with and the a in was to focus on the production of and factories, by the church, were Utah and in other Mormon in and the was able to its that now have in the at . . . be in to the imported . . . with a to the and will that such as these of and should be well they have but home production of fabric was not In Utah's climate and were for than The for able to produce to local for The by even clothing to in and the The the of the long after Utah had the for and the for economic Mormon women now at had the to purchase homegrown and cloth they the silk industry in Utah followed a as other local textile production The for the from church though were efforts to Brigham Young was responsible for the of the broader Utah the of an by the of also in the and for free to “the who to As he preached from the pulpit Mormon women to and those who would Young, by her husband to the family to the and would be president of the in In on at the church's one of the first by a became involved with silk at her leadership and in the industry the unique of in Utah when to other contemporary textile industries. a much women were involved both in the production of the goods and in and the textile were was male labor and often the whole in Utah in all its largely as women's published in the as an domestic even to who not able to In a Mormon for both women's and used explicitly gendered language to all of silk “the of the . . . to the heart out a and makes it more than labor. The demands such an and gentle touch as be found in the of The a for was positioned not just as labor but as a work of and works dependent on the of the became a and the silk in the of a woman . . . became a and the is now its an in on while the silk and other clothing produced by Utah to the was for the of the In this the of and by silk as to or cloth were used to and the the and of silk up all over Utah, the silk industry was as gendered labor. Once for female silk and was a of much with men was necessary or In male church leaders to have viewed as an industry they would the women to they back and the women to do their certainly to have Brigham Young's The of a silk in a from a local who the female was no of men for in the but needed he felt they would be on The the to with men the women's to their that the felt well in the of the we will more we for the have a great to at seems to have a less and more with the men. the other other women as a uniquely as that “the influence woman is the of a community or Young the to that they of these home industries and the The of this to have felt with the status of the silk and efforts with a of while the of male church Mormon men and women would work towards the goal, but in a point of for women well into the but its was In Utah silk were at the the focus of an in the to who helped and the would be more of the and industry of the Territory and woman's Utah silk also at the and in and the in as a unique of the of silk to the broader public would likely not have in more These also between Utah Mormon women and their from other and even was to on at of and the on the topic to the of a of Mormon women a made of Utah silk to for her in by a by to that Utah women their work in the silk industry with the work of political For silk had a way to with women on the of gender, not just an of their own the of religious duty and between men and women within the church an of the rhetoric an of the Young women and that silk production was of their is the of the of Young of the local us not is not the for the . . . we we those we a we should do it The the of us to be the very remaining the textile labor performed by Utah's silk was a way of both their as women and their as church of on home manufacture, Mormon women to within the of their In the Utah in a at a that judged the silk industry as using Utah's as a “It would be a even a that be to wrote, her by of “the of means Brigham Young to and he advocated and it and his the in Utah of Once more, was cast as a religious duty uniquely with Utah. rhetoric was used at the of the Utah Though the the by perhaps the were the Young's speech on the of silk in Utah and speech on its to the Young was the of the silk industry in and speech that Brigham Young was its Young's that Utah silk was to a great industry, and felt that his was about to be and the time would come when silk would be in great Though Brigham Young had for two his about clothing and industry were to these the from was a more of the of Utah Despite its and importance to Mormon the had and was by Utah Brigham Young, it was to the of its first of female like Young, who in the of the silk industry, the political and social climate in Utah also In the had reached their as the to the church's over Utah. men, including much of the church into or to Utah women had the to in with the church's but it during the in In church president Wilford Woodruff in to demands and the the of the of Utah in with women's into the first and the church's from were in the of Latter-day Saints into the was no an for the church, and this certainly had an on the of the home industry the of the century, the Mormon women who their time and to silk production may not have economic independence or with their male but they had certainly their to the church and to their They had as Brigham Young had their