A Set of 19th-Century Children's Clothing Offers Historical Context at Shadows-on-the-Teche
In 1855, a skilled seamstress named Charity Polk sat down to sew several sets of clothing for children enslaved at Shadows-on-the-Teche, a sugar cane plantation in New Iberia, Louisiana. But Polk, who had been enslaved at the property from birth, ignored her instructions to follow a single-size pattern and instead sewed the cotton vests and trousers in a variety of seemingly random children’s sizes. Shadows-on-the-Teche heir William Frederick Weeks wrote in a letter to his stepfather that he planned to punish Polk for what he perceived as a careless error. Site staff today believe that Polk’s “mistake” was anything but.
photo by: Shadows-on-the-Teche Collection
A restored photo of Charity Polk.
photo by: Mickey Delcambre
A set of children's clothing sewed by Charity Polk.
“She very likely tailored this clothing for very specific children,” says Adam Foreman, senior manager of interpretation and education at Shadows-on-the-Teche. “Whether she did that through an act of resistance or through an act of humanity—giving a child a piece of clothing that is theirs—that’s where the conversation is centered on with our visitors.” Six vests and one pair of trousers survived and were discovered in unworn condition after the site was donated to the National Trust in 1958.
One full clothing set is on display at the site’s visitors center in a new, permanent exhibit called “A Picture, Unbroken,” which tells the story of Shadows-on-the-Teche from 1817 to 1919. The exhibit also includes a memorial to the more than 1,000 people whom the Weeks family enslaved across their nine plantations; as part of the memorial, the names of Charity Polk and about 700 others whose names are currently known are listed on a wall. “We don’t know why Charity did it,” Foreman says of Polk’s choice to tailor the clothing. “But knowing that she was a skilled seamstress, we don’t think it was a mistake.”
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