It is known that during the 19th century men were professional weavers (Anderson, 1985), but there is proof that women also did commercial handweaving (Walker, 1981). The purpose of this investigation was to determine women's role in textile production through a content analysis ofprobate records of a region of North Carolina. Both quantitative and qualitative data werefound, but qualitative data illustrate most clearly women's role in textile production. Information from some of the documents in the probate files indicates that textile production was important in women's daily lives and that women in this region were involved in a form of commercial textile production.
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