Using archival materials in the Library of the Religious Society of Friends in London (LRSF) and the Alfred Gillett Trust, at the shoemaking firm of C. & J. Clark (AGT), this thesis makes an empirical investigation into the 'Free Labour Cotton Depot' in the village of Street, in Somerset in the West Country of England. The 'depot' was a stall, set up in the village temperance hall and was founded and run by Eleanor Stephens Clark, the Quaker wife of the shoemaking pioneer, James Clark. Between1853 and 1858 the 'Street Depot' sold a highly specialised range of cotton goods, chiefly cotton cloth by the yard. The goods appealed to particular clientele, for they were verified as 'free labour,' and made from cotton grown by waged, or 'free' labour, rather than slave labour. This catered to customers who wished to participate in the 'Free Produce Movement,' which was a consumer-led strategy, set within the transatlantic anti-slavery movement in the nineteenth century. Via the case study of the Street Depot, the thesis examines the British Free Produce Movement, and specifically its campaign against slave-grown cotton, from the 1830s to the 1860s. It examines the trading history of the Street Depot and it scrutinises the complex transatlantic free cotton supply chain, which provided free labour cotton cloth. It examines the Quaker and women's networks that operated within the movement, and it situates the work of the Free Produce Movement within the wider transatlantic campaign to end slavery. It examines the hitherto unrecognised anti-slavery work of Quaker wife, Eleanor Clark, and it explores her deeply-held moral opinions. The thesis also analyses the free produce cotton clothes worn by the Clark family, which it views as practical expressions of anti-slavery sentiment. It draws conclusions on the relationship between middle-class Quaker women, free produce activism, practical expressions of anti-slavery feeling and clothing made from free or 'ethical' cotton cloth.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:590016 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Vaughan Kett, Anna P. |
| Publisher | University of Brighton |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/5eec6f4f-b9ab-4e24-83fd-29e1fbc8e9bf |
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