YE PILGRIM FOREBEARS
Those Pilgrims, fresh to the woods of New England from the Old World, were real style setters. Artists of the time were followed by others who copied that which Pilgrims and/or Puritans are said to have looked like and how they dressed in their first years in this cold continent in drab sameness.
To avoid seeming to be pretentious, they dressed “plainly” - all black with no colors permitted. Their shirts were of black material, pantaloons and trousers, as well – all black as could be. Frock-like tunics and coats were added when the first Fall season fell, and one could spot earmuffs being added beneath the rim of the low style stove pipe hats Mr Lincoln came to favor later on.
If the newcomers went around dressed in such flimsy apparel as the artists show them, there must have been some frigid souls among them. There was one mitigating circumstance, however, which is seldom hinted at by those in the plain clothing mode. Nothing is said about the superb quality of heavier types of the plain cloth. That which appear to be approved non-pretentious clothing could be of any thickness desired as long as the the purchaser possessed pecuniary power. To stave off shivering a proper Pilgrim had best have some spare shillings squirreled away. The plain cloth items would be of various kinds of materials - probably not silk because the silk was of the Orient and doubtless pagan from birth, so it would be avoided, if known at all. The black coats could be as thick as the pence supply available allowed them to be. Knitted scarves and shawls were said to have been common as at-home wear and they were used by men as well as by women and children.
The buckle business what a part of the Pilgrim style scene, too. Remember those big pewter, silver or brass buckles on top of the usually pouch- like shoes often made of rough leather and held together around the foot by the addition of “pewter, silver or brass buckles. Or, so often the artists like to show a big buckles on the front of said Pilgrim's high hat. This whole matter of buckles could be seen as a frivolous addition may well have used were skillfully cared from wood for holding shoes together.
Now, this this matter of the strange conical-shaped barrel gun Pilgrims always seem to have had at hand. A hapless hare may dart across the path, or a bird might sww-o-o-ish overhead in a threatening manner overhead. More stories of multiple kills with one shot have probably originated with such blunderbuss guns which must have sprayed shot widely throughout the atmosphere
The picture so many of us have of the early American Pilgrim-Puritan is about as accurate as is our knowledge of natives of that time and place.
Who says we don't have an art heritage in this country?
A.L.M. September 9, 2003 [c551wds].
