Combo AKA Jenny

"This dress was constructed by an enslaved woman named Combo for her owner Janie Wright Robeson in 1864. A brief biography of Combo was written inside the bodice. Combo worked on the Robeson Plantation near Tar Heel, North Carolina and was married to the plantation's carriage driver Jim Dry. The calico, from which Combo constructed the dressed, cost $8/yard and was imported on a blockade runner. Though the dress was preserved as a testament to the supposed cordial race relations between enslaved peoples and their owners in the Old South, Ms. Janie Wright Robeson insisted on maintaining an up-to-date wardrobe at the height of the Civil War at the expense of greater labor demands on Combo.
The dress is today held in the permanent collection of the North Carolina Museum of History.

According to census records, Combo changed her name to Jenny after emancipation and moved to Wilmington, where she worked as a seamstress. She remained with Jim Dry.

The dress is a testament to the talents and skills of Jenny, showing her fine attention to details in her work." See less