Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Stocking |
Catalog Number |
0985.13.01835a |
Description |
One of a pair of stockings, women's. Made of white cotton knit. Each stocking is rolled at the knit 4 purl 8 cuff. The initials "MWL" worked into the knit near it. Heels have been darned with wide cotton yarn/string. Back seam. Toes are figure eight. |
Material |
cloth/cotton |
Owned |
Mary Watkins Leigh |
Made |
Mary Watkins Leigh |
Provenance |
Mary Watkins Leigh knit this pair of stockings with thread, which was doubled, twisted, and then dyed with cedar tags from her father's backyard. They are said to be "the stockings worn by the ladies of the Confederacy." She may have worn these stockings to school after the war, where she punched another female student for taunting her humble dress and father's Confederate service. From donor letter: "After the War there were no schools and no school books. The pastor of the Presbyterian Church said he could not bear to see his young folk grow up with no education, so if our fathers would give us each a chair and such books as they had, he would take us in his study and teach us 4 hours a day. Monday came and we all went carrying a chair – across the street from us lived a man who had been exempt from military service. My father was a doctor, and was surgeon of the 3rd Va. Cavalry and was at every battle fought by the 3rd VA Cav. The man across the street had relatives in Balto. [Balimore] and after the war was over they helped him to stock his store.On that memorable Monday morning we were all gathered in the yard of the Manse. I was Pale (?). When I came up to the little group, Sallie Morton was the center of attraction. She was dressed in a beautiful new calico dress and a white apron trimmed all around with hambeirty (?) edge. She had on a store hat with a (?) band of ribbon around it and streamers of the same that hung beneath her waist. On her feet were store stockings and store shoes. I had on a new dress spun and wove from the cotton frown on my grand father’s plantation and dyed with Hickory bark and sumac tags by my grandmother. I had on my head a bonnet made of a piece of cloth. My mother had found somewhere and made stiff by old newspapers that my mother had stuck together with flour paste. I had no shoes at all. I was barefooted. Sallie Morton pranced up to me, with her dress spread out, and said, 'Your father was a fool – yes a fool to fight for the South. Look at me and look at you. He was a fool.' I doubled up my right first and let her have it in the middle of her grinning, taunting face. The blood poured over her new finery. I had broken her nose and knocked out her two front teeth. The Minister came out and pressed her nose in shape as best be could, got a piece of thread and laced her teeth back in position. He them wrote a note and sent me home to my father. I made the day as long as possible when I got there he was out on the front porch. I handed him the note and waited. I did not know what my punishment would be. He stood looking far over the fields, and then he spoke: 'Ah daughter, we will have to learn to take it – you will hear more folk than a child say, "Your father was a fool to fight for the South."' I straightened myself to very full height, clenched both fists and said, 'They better not let me hear it. They better not let me hear it.' My father stooped and kissed me and said, 'Turn on back to school and learn your lessons like a good girl.' " |
People |
Leigh, Mary Watkins |
Search Terms |
ersatz |
Subjects |
girls children Footwear Socks Stockings Shortages African Americans (tentative) slaves (tentative) slavery (tentative) dyeing |