Flax: Seed Flower & Fiber

Join Renee Walker-Tuttle, fashion historian and expert in colonial fashion and dress, as she traces the history of flax in America, and its rise and fall within the developing American economy.

Flax was indispensable to 18th century American life; it grows readily in Rhode Island’s environment and has a multitude of uses. It was so vital to the economy that patriot commentators published articles in the Newport Mercury outlining the importance of flax in establishing a self-sustaining colony.

Linen, spun and woven from the flax fibers, was the predominant textile fiber in the 18th century.  Linen was so central that it was spun in large quantities during “spinning bees” in protest of taxes on consumer goods prior to the Revolutionary War.

Enslaved people were forced to participate in all aspects of textile cultivation, processing, and manufacture. The invention of the cotton gin and spinning jenny solidified the institution slavery for almost another century in which all colonies actively participated.  The resulting increase in cotton production resulted in the rapid decline in the manufacture of linen and an increase in Flax’s agricultural fragility.