The Women Who Came in the MayflowerMarble, Annie Russell
History
The Women Who Came in the Mayflower
Marble, Annie Russell
Massachusetts -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Mayflower (Ship); Women -- Massachusetts
"Our clothes we brought with us are apt to be torn,
They need to be clouted soon after they are worn,
But clouting our garments they hinder us nothing,
Clouts _double_ are warmer than _single_ whole clothing.
"If fresh meate be wanted to fill up our dish,
We have carrots and turnips whenever we wish,
And if we've a mind for a delicate dish,
We go to the clam-bank and there we catch fish.
"For pottage and puddings and custards and pies,
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies!
We have pumpkin at morning and pumpkin at noon,
If it was not for pumpkin we should be undoon."
[Footnote: The Pilgrim Fathers; W. H. Bartlett, London, 1852.]
What did these Pilgrim women wear? The manifest answer is,--what they
had in stock. No more absurd idea was ever invented than the picture
of these Pilgrims "in uniform," gray gowns with dainty white collars
and cuffs, with stiff caps and dark capes. They wore the typical
garments of the period for men and women in England. There is no
evidence that they adopted, to any extent, Dutch dress, for they were
proud of their English birth; they left Holland partly for fear that
their young people might be educated or enticed away from English
standards of conduct. [Footnote: Bradford's History of Plymouth
Plantation, ch. 4.] Mrs. Alice Morse Earle has emphasized wisely
[Footnote: Two Centuries of Costume in America; N. Y., 1903.] that the
"sad-colored" gowns and coats mentioned in wills were not "dismal";
the list of colors so described in England included (1638) "russet,
purple, green, tawny, deere colour, orange colour, buffs and scarlet."
The men wore doublets and jerkins of browns and greens, and cloaks
with red and purple linings. The women wore full skirts of say,
paduasoy or silk of varied colors, long, pointed stomachers,--often
with bright tone,--full, sometimes puffed or slashed sleeves, and lace
collars or "whisks" resting upon the shoulders. Sometimes the gowns
were plaited or silk-laced; they often opened in front showing
petticoats that were quilted or embroidered in brighter
colours. Broadcloth gowns of russet tones were worn by those who could
not afford silks and satins; sometimes women wore doublets and jerkins
of black and browns. For dress occasions the men wore black velvet
jerkins with white ruffs, like those in the authentic portrait of
Edward Winslow. Velvet and quilted hoods of all colors and sometimes
caps, flat on the head and meeting below the chin with fullness, are
shown in existent portraits of English women and early colonists.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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