Shaping the Fabric of Society: Middle Class Women as Imperial Consumers of Calico in Pre-Revolutionary America

Through the Calico Acts of 1700 and 1721, Britain repositioned its Atlantic colonies as distinct imperial consumers of imported calico cloth from India. The resulting expansion of the cotton textile trade had profound impacts for class and society in pre-revolutionary America, as middle class consumers used calico to express their purchasing power, refined taste, and social identity. These patterns of class expression were especially relevant for middle class women. As the primary consumers of imported calico, women directed purchases of luxury textiles for their households in order to shape their families’ identities as members of the middle class. Ultimately, as calicoes became increasingly gendered items over the course of the eighteenth century, middle class women in the colonies became inextricably associated with imperial consumption.