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Adult male and female slaves usually dressed in clothing deemed gender appropriate by white society. Thus, men were given pants, women dresses. In the winter, masters generally distributed extra clothing to their slaves. These supplemental items, and others constructed by the slaves themselves, were also different for men and women. For instance, under their skirts women often made and wore pantalets, pant-like items that reached just above the knee. While men were given knee-length coats to wear during the colder seasons, women received heavy wraps, which they wore as shawls. The picture above, though taken after Emancipation, shows a black man and woman in the gender distinct clothing that they would have worn as slaves.
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