ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the early federal or national era from 1790 to 1815, continues through the antebellum years of 1815 to 1861, and closes in 1865 with the end of the Civil War. It briefly reviews the economic and social context of the period's consumption. Then several threads of meaning will be followed, with particular emphasis on the patriotic symbols and budding nationalism embedded in consumer goods. The section on the threads of gender describes a gradual shift toward greater female agency in domestic consumption. It illustrates this process by analyzing some of my favorite genre paintings from the 1850s. The threads of resistance section revisits long-standing religious and moral interrogations of consumption, but also introduces new consumer entanglements with the increasingly bitter sectional conflict over the institution of slavery. English manufacturers supplied the American market with some textiles and a variety of plates and jugs decorated with his portrait, and sold figurines such as the Staffordshire George Washington.
