Purchased Cloth and the Transformation of Labor in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

This chapter recounts the travel of an Onondaga woman named Osissijenejo and her husband Nachssasija to Albany. It highlights that Osissijenejo's ability to travel to Albany for trade was made possible through Haudenosaunee military and diplomatic efforts that ensured safety and freedom of movement through Haudenosaunee territories for hunting and trade. As the chapter mentions, Osissijenejo and Nachssasija brought an otter pelt with them that would later go on to England, the Germanies, or Muscovy. In Albany in 1690, the otter pelt could become a shirt, a kettle, lead shot, or fabric. It could be made into garments or consumer luxuries and symbolically charged conduits of power. The chapter then shifts to focus on a Ganounata woman, Pierre Radisson, and Felicité who were transformed and integrated into new communities through the gift of clothing, noting that the transformative power of that clothing was due to its transformation in Haudenosaunee communities by women like Osissijenejo. It stresses that this domestication happened in two parts: first in the purchase of cloth and clothing, and then in its use. The chapter concludes by looking at how Osissijenejo's purchase and reworking of the linen shirt had political meaning and profound impacts on her daily life as well.