Animal trials were truly a strange part of Europe’s medieval history
In 1620 after a perilous voyage across the Atlantic lasting several weeks, you'd expect the English families traveling on the Mayflower to make landfall radiating a less than fresh appearance. But the Pilgrims didn't smell too good either.
The Pilgrims, by all accounts, were not into bathing. But back in colonial America, lots of people didn't have access to soap or water.
With no soap at hand, the simple act of handwashing was practically nonexistent.
But getting your hair cut didn't necessarily mean it was washed. Only when the buildup of lice was such did hair receive any kind of care.
The Puritans, who differed from the Pilgrims in that they sought to reform and purify the Church of England, associated a lack of cleanliness with the devil and sin.
This widespread aversion to washing meant most people were likely to get a regular haircut rather than a hot bath.
Unlike their fellow English settlers, Puritans believed cleanliness was directly connected to morality. Furthermore, they were of the conviction that individuals who bathed were less likely to take part in sin, commit wrongdoings, and be poor.
Similarly, dentistry was in its infancy. Which meant that having a tooth pulled likely meant a visit to the local barber or apothecary. In extreme cases, a blacksmith often had to suffice.
Have you ever wondered why the shape of George Washington's face looks slightly distorted? It's because he wore dentures made out of metal, wire, and animal teeth. Actually, the future first president of the United States was colonial America's most famous denture-wearer.
Oral hygiene practice in the colonial era was practically nonexistent. The first mass-produced toothbrush wouldn't appear until 1780, and toothpaste not until 1824. Rotting teeth, bad breath, and tooth extraction were the unholy trinity.
Powdered wigs made their first appearance in colonial America in the mid-17th century. Founding Father and second president of the United States John Adams wore his according to the old-fashioned style of the 18th century. But there was a big problem with these artificial headpieces: lice!
Ironically, wigs were worn in place of hair, often shaved off to prevent lice and other bugs making a nest in it. But wigs themselves were vulnerable to homeless creepy crawlies. Wigs were often worn for weeks without being washed, by then bristling with insects. The answer was to boil the hairpieces and cover them in fragrances that repelled bugs.
Fortunately, many colonial cabins had outhouses—a small, shed-like structure, separate from a main building, which covered a toilet, usually just a hole in the ground. But human waste quickly gathered and the odor was often unbearable, especially in hot summer months.
A chamber pot was a bedroom vessel for urination and defecation. Except it was used almost anywhere when necessary. These privy pots had to be emptied regularly, but were usually just dumped out of a window or near the house.
Faced with no toothbrush or toothpaste, an earpick was often used not only to scoop out earwax but to pick teeth and clean away grime from under one's fingernails.
Washing clothing in colonial America was an unenviable task. Women used lye soap, a concoction of animal fat, lye, and ash, to do the laundry. It was also used to clean dishes and applied to floors.
In more populated areas, conditions weren't that much better. Pedestrians very often found streets littered with with animal waste, garbage, and refuse of all kinds.
Low sanitary conditions in rural colonial-era America promoted the spread of disease, commonly dysentery, cholera, and typhoid fever. Conditions weren't helped by the fact that outhouses were often positioned near rivers, which served as convenient dumping grounds for human excrement.
In 1676, Boston was ravaged by a particularly virulent outbreak of "body flux," another name for dysentery. It claimed the lives of many, including numerous children.
One high-profile victim of the disease was the Virginia colonist and leader of Bacon's Rebellion, Nathaniel Bacon, who died on October 26, 1676.
And George Washington was fortunate not to succumb to "body flux" at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777. Sadly, nearly two-thirds of Washington's 2,000 troop army perished of dysentery, typhoid, and influenza.
The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, established in 1607. There, Captain John Smith bemoaned the presence of vermin and wrote about an influx of "a certaine India Bug, called by the Spaniards a Cacarooch, the which creeping into Chests they eat and defile with their ill-sented dung."
George Washington was, in fact, no stranger to the perils of unsanitary conditions. As a young man while surveying land in the Shenandoah Valley in 1748, he complained bitterly of an infestation of fleas and lice in his cabin. It was enough to make Washington sleep outside next to a fire on future expeditions.
Native Americans were not immune to bug bites, either. The Indigenous peoples, known for their valuable environmental knowledge, described the effects of insect bites as "living ashes" because their bites were "as painful as the burning of red-hot ashes."
Rare was the early European settler in colonial America who shaved. Only in the mid-18th century did they begin to visit barbers, shaved by skilled practitioners using straight razors. And men shaved men. Women were nowhere to be seen, with little evidence suggesting that females shaved any part of their bodies.
Women in colonial America were expected by their menfolk to maintain a high level of cleanliness. By the late 18th century, most doctors were advising women to bathe regularly as a precaution against diseases of the reproductive organs.
But in a piece of bizarre turnaround advice, women were also encouraged on occasion to render themselves as smelly as possible to suppress "too ardent devotion of males." This they did by not washing for days and allowing their body odor to work as a smelly deterrent.
Sources: (The Archaeologist) (History) (National Geographic)
Those without a tub and who felt so inclined could always submerge themselves in a river or lake. But dips in water were more for cooling off rather than getting clean.
Maintaining good personal hygiene is important for both physical and mental health. But 400 years ago, keeping clean wasn't such a big deal, and especially, it seems, in colonial America. Bathing regularly, for example, was rare. Looking after your teeth didn't matter, and going to the toilet... well that proved a new low in cleanliness techniques! But why was keeping clean such a chore, and was anything done about it?
Click through and discover disgusting hygiene habits practiced in colonial America.
You won't believe American settlers did this
Why was keeping clean such a chore?
LIFESTYLE History
Maintaining good personal hygiene is important for both physical and mental health. But 400 years ago, keeping clean wasn't such a big deal, and especially, it seems, in colonial America. Bathing regularly, for example, was rare. Looking after your teeth didn't matter, and going to the toilet... well that proved a new low in cleanliness techniques! But why was keeping clean such a chore, and was anything done about it?
Click through and discover disgusting hygiene habits practiced in colonial America.