Except on special occasions, a very large proportion of the clothing worn by the average Southern community was of household or local manufacture.

Hats were made of fur, wool, or plaited straw.

Hides were tanned on the plantations or more commonly at a local tannery and were made into shoes by local cobblers, white or black.
Local cabinet-makers made furniture, all of it strong, and some of it good in line and finish.

Many of the pieces sold by dealers in antiques in the great cities as coming from Europe by way of the South were made by cabinet-makers in Southern villages in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Farm wagons as well as carriages with some pretensions to elegance were made in local shops.