Spinning Wheels, Spinning Bees

Before the outbreak of the American Revolution, colonists protested new taxes by refusing to buy things that were shipped from England. Women were important players in these boycotts because they were in charge of all the purchases made for their homes and families. They also had the skills to make homemade substitutes for British products.

In New England, women supported the boycotts by participating in spinning bees. At these events, women would set up spinning wheels and keep each other company while they spun yarn that could be woven into fabric. The fabric they made was called “homespun.” Wearing clothing made from homespun fabric instead of imported fabric was one way to protest the colonial government in the 1760s and 1770s.

Most spinning bee participants were young unmarried women, because they had the spare time for the extra work. Spinning was considered an acceptable way for women to express their political opinions because it was within the bounds of traditional women’s work.

Fibers from wool, flax, or cotton must be tightly wound together to make yarn or thread. For most of human history, this work was done by hand, but the process was slow. The spinning wheel, invented in India between the years 500 and 1000, made the work much faster. The large wheel is powered by a foot pedal. As the wheel spins, it causes a smaller spindle to whirl at a very fast speed. The person operating the wheel steadily feeds fibers onto a strand of yarn attached to the spindle, and they are wound tightly by the spinning spindle.

In the English colonies of North America, spinning was traditionally women’s work. Most women did not need to spin their own yarn by the mid-1700s. They could buy fabric imported from all over the world at stores. But when the colonists started boycotting imported fabric because of the new taxes, it inspired a whole new generation of women to learn the skill from their mothers and grandmothers.

• boycott: Refusing to buy and/or use something as an act of protest.
• flax: A plant whose fibers can be used to make thread or yarn.
• homespun: Homemade fabric.
• import: To bring goods or services into a country from abroad for sale.
• spindle: A round stick used to wind fibers into thread.
• spinning bee: A gathering where women keep each other company while they spin yarn. These became political events in the years before the American Revolution.

• Combine this object with Childcare in Oneida and Dutch Communities, The Compleat Housewife, and Symbols of Accomplishment for a larger discussion of women’s responsibilities in colonial homes.
• Teach this object together with any of the following for a lesson on the many ways women expressed their political opinions during the American Revolution, and how their actions were received: 
  • A Call to Arms 
  • The Edenton Tea Party 
  • Political Caricatures 
  • Sentiments of an American Woman
  • Abolition and Revolution
  • The Declaration of Independence

ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE; WORK, LABOR, AND ECONOMY

• For resources relating to the American Revolution in New York, see The Battle of Brooklyn.