When people see the images of spinning wheels, they rarely include all perspectives on the story. For example, one reason for spinning wheels and looms in early America was because of the tariffs that England imposed on the colonies. These taxes made it very difficult to buy cloth or the equipment and supplies to make it, so people needed to make their own tools. That lends itself to the story that early Americans were very self-sufficient and suggests that maybe they didn’t need those goods from England.

 We know spinning was a woman’s task, but we also know that it was an exhausting and long process. As part of the household labor, women were doing much of the spinning for a household, and usually these were young girls.