In 1812, Jefferson expanded and mechanized cloth manufacturing at Monticello, establishing a textile workshop in a building along Mulberry Row originally constructed as housing for free white workers.
In this building, a dozen enslaved women and girls wove coarse fabric to help clothe Monticello slaves. Girls began spinning and weaving around age 12 – the same time that boys learned nail-making.
The textile workshop featured two 18th-century inventions – the loom with a "flying shuttle" (1733) and the "spinning jenny" (1770) – that greatly increased the amount of cloth his enslaved spinners and weavers could make. By 1815, Jefferson reported, "I make in my family 2000. yds of cloth a year, which I formerly bought from England, and it only employs a few women, children & invalids who could do little in the farm."
Videos about the work and people of the Textile Workshop
![](https://monticello-www.s3.amazonaws.com/files/callouts/classic-sml-youtube-video-idhk1euqpem-3.jpg)
The Technology of the Textile Workshop
![](https://monticello-www.s3.amazonaws.com/files/callouts/classic-sml-youtube-video-6cfhb9m-bjg.jpg)
Operation of the Spinning Jenny
![](https://monticello-www.s3.amazonaws.com/files/callouts/classic-sml-youtube-video-4nfc0aeepvc.jpg)
Weaving with a Flying Shuttle Loom
![](https://monticello-www.s3.amazonaws.com/files/callouts/classic-sml-youtube-video-buccmoinag4-8.jpg)
The Life of Nance Hemings - an Enslaved Weaver at Monticello
![](https://www.monticello.org/files/callouts/classic-med-vimeo-video-265399605.jpg)
Harriet Hemings Leaves Monticello
![](https://monticello-www.s3.amazonaws.com/files/callouts/classic-sml-youtube-video-9xrim7rhwdm.jpg)
The Twist in the Fiber - Spinning at Monticello