Plaid export

[Bruce Scott]

Copied From: http://www.kinnaird.net/tartan.htm


"One account suggests that brightly coloured tartan shawls were popular with the slave owners in the West Indies of the late eighteenth century, because slaves wearing the shawls could easily be seen if they ever ran away. The correspondence files of Wilson's of Bannockburn contain a letter from Jamaica which says:

Please send 200 yards of Lindsay to the enclosed pattern. As it is for Negro wear it must be low price, not above one shilling a yard if you can. "

[figheadair]

Copied From: http://www.kinnaird.net/tartan.htm


"One account suggests that brightly coloured tartan shawls were popular with the slave owners in the West Indies of the late eighteenth century, because slaves wearing the shawls could easily be seen if they ever ran away. The correspondence files of Wilson's of Bannockburn contain a letter from Jamaica which says:

Please send 200 yards of Lindsay to the enclosed pattern. As it is for Negro wear it must be low price, not above one shilling a yard if you can. "

That's the letter shown in the previous post. See my comments on Linsay (not Lindsay).

[Orvis]

Rhat's the letter shown in the previous post. See my comments on Linsay (not Lindsay).

Thanks Peter. Your information clarifies that issue for me.

Gerry

[OC Richard]

Thanks so much, Peter.

I've seen that quote offered up over and over again in various books and articles as proof that tartan was exported to clothe slaves in the colonies.

It's nice to have the truth.