The "Made in USA" Drive Helped to Bring Independence and Strengthened the Women's Movement in the American Colonies

            Buying goods “made in USA” was not at all a recent movement or concept, but has its roots as far back as the American Revolution. As economic tyranny continued to increase through the British System of economics or mercantilism, the cry rose near and far in the colonies to purchase “homespun” goods produced domestically. Naturally, such encouragement was spread between family members, neighbors, and friends, but it was also proposed through the newspapers. On June 15, 1769, the South-Carolina Gazette printed that the “Societies of Gentlemen” intended “to purchase no kind of British goods that could be manufactured in America and to clothe themselves in homespun as soon as it could be got.”[1] The purchasing of domestically manufactured products not only stimulated the colonial economy, but it also encouraged women’s participation in the movement for greater self-government in America.

            This homespun movement was a boycott that not only unified the wealthy and the poor together on a common cause, but it also assisted in empowering the women in American society. The push for homespun goods brought women to the forefront of a political movement, which helped to set the stage for future reformist movements spearheaded by women’s groups throughout United States history. This seed of democracy and self-government contributed to the political and cultural change that helped to define America. The economic plan to buy American manufactured products allowed women to play “a vital and increasingly visible role, as both purchasers and producers of household goods.”[2] As women became more involved in the affairs of American government, and as the spirit of liberty increased, so did their participation and influence in the movement of independence.  

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[1] E. Stanly Godbold and Robert Hilliard Woody, Christopher Gadsden and the American Revolution, (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1982), 82.

[2] Alfred Fabian Young and Gregory H. Nobles, Whose American Revolution Was it? Historians Interpret the Founding, (New York: New York University Press, 2011), 237.