Common fabric provided to enslaved field hands:

• Linsey-Woolsey
• Osnaburg
• Homespun
• Cheap calico

Dress form of the enslaved woman- 

• Enslaved women had a distinctly rectangular shaped silhouette. 
• In about half of the images there is no gathering, pleating or darting of the bodice
• They are cutting dresses quickly in bulk, and usually in 3 sizes
• They are not made to fit the body of the wearer
• Bishop sleeves seem to be common, but coat sleeves are seen.
• There is between 4 and 5 yards allotted per woman, but there is documentation of as little as 3.5 yards allotted for a dress

Undergarments

• There are accounts of enslaved women of not having undergarments of any kind at all.  This means no shifts, no petticoats, no corset
• It appears that the majority of enslaved women working in the fields or in factories are not wearing gored corsets.  It appears from images that they are not wearing any type of support or they are wearing a form of unboned or lightly boned stays.  I theorize that they may also be binding their chest or wearing a form of short stays in some instances.
• Petticoats appear in accounts from the WPA Interviews to be pieced together.  They can be of muslin, one homespun fabric, or panels of different homespun fabrics.  In most cases we don't see any fabric allotments  dedicated to petticoats or under petticoats.  I theorize that they are salvaging usable fabric from the previous years dress to be made into a petticoat or underpetticoat.
  • 1 pieced together quilted or wool Petticoat for winter
  • 1 under petticoat pieced together
• From images I believe a 1820s shift looks closest to the shifts enslaved field hand women were wearing.
• Socks
  • " We always wore yarn socks for winter, which we made." -Clayton Holbert, KS
  • It appears a lot of them went barefoot or wore shoes with no socks in warm weather

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Cheyney McKnight

Sources