Transatlantic Threads - (Histories of the Scottish Atlantic) by Sally Tuckett (Hardcover)

About the Book

The first in-depth study to combine social, economic, cultural and material cultural perspectives on linen in eighteenth-century Scotland, showing definitively how the colonial context helped drive the industry.

Book Synopsis

Transatlantic Threads shows how studying the making, use and meaning of a relatively low-cost, utilitarian cloth like linen, broadens our understanding of eighteenth-century Scotland and the wider Atlantic world. Different types of linen cloth were used across society everyday: from fine shirts worn by the rich, to coarse aprons worn by labourers; from expensive bed sheets, to canvas used for ships' sails. Eighteenth-century linen production was a Scottish economic success story, with thousands of people working to produce millions of yards of yarn and woven cloth. It was also how Scots became inextricably linked with transatlantic trade and the slavery economy, as the desire to capture the colonial market was a key driver for developing coarse linen production.

Using a material commodity to explore everyday experiences of ordinary people, particularly women, non-elite and enslaved people, Transatlantic Threads examines the cultural and social significance of linen in Scottish and transatlantic society.

Review Quotes

Transatlantic Threads is an exemplary textile history, recovering the deepest structures of eighteenth-century economy, culture, and social life. The sustained attention to enslaved wearers and the place of Scottish linen in the Atlantic colonial system gives this book an unrivalled urgency while also showcasing Sally Tuckett's scholarly skill and agility.--Seth Rockman, Brown University, USA. Author of Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery

Sally Tuckett's pathbreaking Transatlantic Threads reveals how a humble textile - linen - carved out a place for Scottish exports in the fast-growing British imperial economy of the eighteenth century. Adopting a novel approach that links people, places and things, Tuckett follows Scottish linen's journey from flax to fabric, from the hands of Highland girls learning to spin to the backs of enslaved Africans clothed in coarse linen shirting as they toiled in the tobacco fields of Virginia.--John Styles, Professor Emeritus in History, University of Hertfordshire

Transatlantic Threads offers an innovative analysis of the role of linen in eighteenth-century Scottish society and the Atlantic economy. By focusing on coarse linen, Sally Tuckett imaginatively brings together dress, economic and social history, and the study of slavery in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. She shows how linen was the fibre and fabric of choice for young and old, free and enslaved, linking Scotland to a wider British imperial remit.--Giorgio Riello, European University Institute