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Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on Plantation Cloth Distribution, [ca. 26 March 1823]

Notes on Plantation Cloth Distribution

[ca. 26 Mar. 1823]

 1    2    3    4  
fractions 49.3 66.1 44 58.2 40.1 53.2 20.2 27.1
5 45   20   40   20  
5½ 33   38½   33   16½  
7   15=105   11=77   14=98   7=49
   6  8
women  10 + 4 + 8 +
Men  6 + 7
 woolen 2d   3d 4 
1st col.  fractions. 49 ¾   44   40 ¼   20 ½
5s 45 20   40 20
5½ 33 38 ½   33 16 ½
127 ¾ 102 ½   113 ¼ 57  
6
133 ¾
linen
1st1 col fractions 66 ⅓ 58 ⅔   53 .⅔ 27 ⅓
7s 105 77   98 49
171 ⅓ 135 ⅔     151 ⅔ 76 ⅓

MS (ViU: TJP); on verso of FC of TJ to Thomas J. O’Flaherty, 26 Mar. 1823; in TJ’s hand; undated.

Based on similar calculations in TJ’s Farm Book, enslaved adult women were supplied with 5 yards of woolen cloth while men received 5½, and shirting was dispersed in 7-yard increments. Enslaved children under seventeen were given cloth in various fractions smaller than the adult allotments (see, for example, Betts, Farm Book description begins Edwin M. Betts, ed., Thomas Jefferson’s Farm Book, 1953 (in two separately paginated sections; unless otherwise specified, references are to the second section) description ends , part 1, pp. 167, 168).

1. Reworked from “2d.”

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Source Project
Jefferson Papers
Title
Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on Plantation Cloth Distribution, [ca. 26 March 1823]
Author
Jefferson, Thomas
Date
26 March 1823

Reference

Cite as
“Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on Plantation Cloth Distribution, [ca. 26 March 1823],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-19-02-0370. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 19, 16 September 1822 to 30 June 1823, ed. J. Jefferson Looney et al. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022, p. 486.]