During the earlier years of the seventeenth century, as we have noted, this deprecatory opinion by men concerning woman's garb was not confined to ridicule in journals and books, but was even incorporated into the laws of several towns and colonies. Women were compelled to dress in a certain manner and within fixed financial limits, or suffered the penalties of the courts. Many were the "presentations," as such cases were called, of our colonial ancestors. As material wealth increased, however, dress became more and more elaborate until in the era shortly before and after the Revolution fashions were almost extravagant. Costly satins, silks, velvets, and brocades were among the common items of dress purchased by even the moderately well-to-do city and planter folk. If space permitted, many quotations by travellers from abroad, accustomed to the splendor of European courts, could be presented to show the surprising quality and good taste displayed in the garments of the better classes of the New World. To their honor, however, it may be remembered that these same American women in the days of tribulation when their husbands were battling for a new nation were willing to cast aside such indications of wealth and pride, and don the humble homespun garments made by their own hands. FOOTNOTES: [128] Fiske: _Old Virginia_, Vol. I, p. 246. [129] Page 76. [130] Smyth: _Writings of B. Franklin_, Vol. IV, p. 449. [131] _Ibid._ Vol. III, p. 431. [132] _Ibid._ Vol. III, p. 419. [133] _Ibid._ Vol. III, p. 438. [134] _Letters of A. Adams_, p. 282. [135] _Letters of A. Adams_, p. 250. [136] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 227. [137] Buckingham: _Reminiscences_, Vol. I, p. 34. [138] Buckingham. Vol. I, p. 88. [139] Buckingham, Vol. I, p. 115. [140] _Ibid._ [141] Vol. II, p. 115. [142] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 59. [143] Quoted in Earle: _Home Life in Colonial Days_, p. 290. [144] Earle: _Home Life in Colonial Days_, p. 291. [145] Wharton: _Through Colonial Doorways_, p. 89. [146] Wharton: _M. Washington_, p. 225. [147] Earle: _Home Life in Colonial Days_, p. 294. [148] Goodwin: _Dolly Madison_, p. 54. [149] Wharton: _Through Colonial Doorways_, p. 219. [150] Wharton: _Through Colonial Doorways_, p. 79. [151] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 230. [152] Crawford: _Romantic Days in the Early Republic_, p. 53. CHAPTER V COLONIAL WOMAN AND SOCIAL LIFE _I. Southern Isolation and Hospitality_