The Fleece of Their Flock: Homespun & the American Identity

mility, sense, and solidarity that were once embedded in
the homespun movement have been carried over into the
present. Retailers are hearkening back to the Revolution,
laying claim to the symbolism and rhetoric rooted in the
eighteenth-century homespun movement.
Freedom, Frugality, & Fashion
The individuals who operated within the domestic manufacture
in the 1760s linked themselves with a variety of
praiseworthy virtues, including “Industry, Frugality, and
Occonomy,” as one article from the time described. 11 By
using their locally-sourced natural materials to create
cloth instead of supporting foreign economies and paying
additional taxes by purchasing imported goods, colonists
promoted self-sufficiency and resourcefulness.
Once again, the United States finds itself in the uncomfortable
position of depending upon foreign nations for
imported goods. Instead of facing a clash in political ideologies
with an imperial power such as Great Britain, foreign
textile manufacturers today tend to uphold practices
that chafe with American values, often regarding labor
equality and environmental sustainability. This issue has
become such a hot topic in recent years that in 2011, ABC
World News began a series entitled “Made in America,” attempting
to define the scope of this situation and address
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