first graduating class of Rhode Island College--now Brown
University--were clothed in fabrics made in New England. From
Massachusetts to South Carolina the women of the colonies banded
together in patriotic societies called Daughters of Liberty, agreeing to
wear only garments of homespun manufacture, and to drink no tea. In
many New England towns they gathered together to spin, each bringing her
own wheel. At one meeting seventy linen-wheels were employed. In Rowley,
Massachusetts, the meeting of the Daughters is thus described:--

"A number of thirty-three respectable ladies of the town met at
sunrise with their wheels to spend the day at the house of the
Rev'd Jedediah Jewell, in the laudable design of a spinning match.
At an hour before sunset, the ladies there appearing neatly
dressed, principally in homespun, a polite and generous repast of
American production was set for their entertainment. After which
being present many spectators of both sexes, Mr. Jewell delivered a
profitable discourse from Romans xii. 2: "Not slothful in business,
fervent in spirit, serving the Lord."

Matters of church and patriotism were never far apart in New England; so
whenever the spinners gathered at New London, Newbury, Ipswich, or
Beverly, they always had an appropriate sermon. A favorite text was
Exodus xxxv. 25: "And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with
their hands." When the Northboro women met, they presented the results
of their day's work to their minister. There were forty-four women and
they spun 2223 knots of linen and tow, and wove one linen sheet and two
towels.

By Revolutionary times General Howe thought "Linen and Woollen Goods
much wanted by the Rebels"; hence when he prepared to evacuate Boston he
ordered all such goods carried away with him. But he little knew the
domestic industrial resources of the Americans. Women were then most
proficient in spinning. In 1777 Miss Eleanor Fry of East Greenwich,
Rhode Island, spun seven skeins one knot linen yarn in one day, an
extraordinary amount. This was enough to weave twelve linen
handkerchiefs. At this time when there were about five or six skeins to
a pound of flax, the pay for spinning was sixpence a skein. The Abbe
Robin wondered at the deftness of New England spinners.

In 1789 an outcry was raised against the luxury said to be eating away
the substance of the new country. The poor financial administration