CHAPTER VII.

HISTORY OF BOOTS AND SHOES IN THE UNITED STATES.

The first settlers of New England, Virginia, and other British colonies in America, brought with them to this country, the fashions of dress which were prevalent in England at the time of their emigration, being the same as described in the preceding pages, with regard to boots and shoes in use in the seventeenth century, in the reigns of the Stuarts, or under the dominion of the commonwealth, when Cromwell was at the head of affairs. New England being settled by the puritans, the dresses of the first English inhabitants of that section were of a plainer character than those of Virginia and other colonies, where the first settlers were cavaliers, or adherents of the house of Stuart.

The dress, particularly the boots and shoes, worn by the earlier settlers of New England, are thus described by Miss Caulkins, in her “History of Norwich, Connecticut.” “The shoes worn in 1689, were coarse, clumped, square-toed, and adorned with enormous buckles. If any boots made their appearance, prodigious was the thumping as they passed up the aisles of the church; for a pair of boots was then expected to last a man’s life. The tops were short, but very wide at the top; formed, one might suppose, with a special adaptation to rainy weather; collecting the water as it fell, and holding an ample bath for the feet and ankles!

“It is uncertain whether the small clothes had then begun to _grow_, so as to reach below the knee, and to be fastened with knee-buckles or not. The earlier mode was to have them terminate above the knee, and to be tied with ribands. The common kind were made of leather. Red woollen stockings were much admired. Swords were customarily worn when in full dress, by all the earlier settlers of New England, both in a civil and a military capacity. Hats were at that time made of wool; perhaps two or three at the church door reverently took off a black ‘beaverett,’ though that was a costly article in those days. The coat was made with a long straight body, falling below the knee, and with no collar. The waistcoat was long.”

As necessity is the mother of invention, many of the earlier settlers of New England, where mechanics were scarce, were accustomed to manufacture their own clothing, including boots and shoes. The more wealthy inhabitants imported their clothing from England, but the farmers generally made in their own families most of the articles required for clothes. Individuals who were expert in shoemaking, many of them self-taught, were sometimes employed by farmers and others to make up a stock of shoes for the family, once or twice a year. These persons journeyed about from house to house, in the winter season, taking their tools on their backs. Leather was occasionally imported from England, but as population in the colonies increased, tanneries were established, particularly in the large towns.

A writer in the Old Colony Memorial, gives the following account of dress among the early inhabitants of New England:--

“In general, men, old or young, had a decent coat, vest, and small clothes, and some kind of fur hat. Old men had a great-coat and a pair of boots. The boots generally lasted for life. For common use they had a long jacket, reaching about half way to the thigh; flannel shirts, woollen stockings, and thick leather shoes; a silk handkerchief for holydays, which would last ten years. Shoes and stockings were not worn by the young men, and by but few men in the farming business.

“As for boys, as soon as they were taken out of petticoats, they were put into small clothes, summer or winter. This continued until long trowsers were introduced, which they called _tongs_. They were but little different from our pantaloons. These were made of tow-cloth, linen, cotton, or flannel-cloth, and soon were used by old men and young.

“The women, old and young, wore flannel gowns in the winter. The young women wore, in the summer, wrappers or shepherdress; and about their ordinary business, did not wear stockings and shoes. They were usually contented with one calico gown; but they generally had a calimanco gown, another of camlet, and some had them made of poplin. The sleeves were short, and did not come below the elbow. On holydays, they wore one, two, or three ruffles on each arm--the deepest of which were sometimes nine or ten inches. They wore long gloves, coming up to the elbow. Round gowns had not then come in fashion; so they wore aprons. The shoes were either of thick or thin leather, broadcloth, or worsted stuff, all with heels an inch and a half high, with peaked toes turned up in a point. They generally had small, very small muffs, and some wore masks.”

The following extracts from Watson’s Annals of New York, will further elucidate the fashions as to boots and shoes in the British colonies in America.

“Before the revolution, no hired man or woman wore any shoes as fine as calf-skin; that kind was the exclusive property of the gentry. The servants wore coarse neat’s leather. The calf-skin then had a white rind of sheep-skin stitched into the top edge of the sole, which they preserved white, as a dress-shoe, as long as possible.”

The use of boots has come in since the war of independence; they were first worn with black tops, after the military, strapped up in union with the knee buttons; afterward bright tops were introduced. The leggings to these latter were made of buckskin for some extreme beaux, for the sake of close fitting a well-turned leg.

“Boots were rarely worn; never as an article of dress; chiefly when seen, they were worn by hostlers and sailors; the latter always wore great petticoat trowsers, coming only to the knee and then tying close. Common people wore their clothes for a much longer time than now; they patched their clothes much and long; a garment was only ‘half worn’ when it became broken.

“As English colonists we early introduced the modes of our British ancestors. They derived their notions of dress from France.

“Breeches, close fitted, with silver, stone, or paste gem buckles; shoes or pumps, with silver buckles of various sizes and patterns; thread, worsted, and silk stockings, were worn in the colonies previous to the revolution. The poorer class wore sheepskin and buckskin breeches close set to the limbs.”

A glance at any of the numerous engravings copied from Colonel Trumbull’s national painting, the “Declaration of Independence,” shows the dress of gentlemen in this country during the American revolution; namely, small clothes fastened below the knee with buckles, the leg covered only with stockings, the shoes fastened with large buckles. This fashion continued until the close of the eighteenth century, when pantaloons and boots were introduced from France. Mr. Sullivan, in his “Familiar Letters,” says: “About the end of the eighteenth century, the forms of society underwent considerable change. The levelling process of France began to be felt. Powder for the hair began to be unfashionable. A loose dress (pantaloons) for the lower limbs was adopted. Wearing the hair tied was given up, and short hair became common. Colored garments went out of use, and dark or black were substituted. Buckles disappeared. The style of life had acquired more of elegance, as means had increased.”

A sketch of the manner in which Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and other public men, dressed, is given by Mr. Sullivan, in the work above quoted, and the following extracts may be interesting to our readers:--

“Washington, at his levees, while president [from 1789 to 1797], dressed in black velvet, his hair powdered and gathered behind in a silk bag, yellow gloves on his hands; holding a cocked hat, with a cockade in it, and the edges adorned with a black feather. He wore knee and shoe buckles, and a long sword, with a polished steel hilt. The scabbard was white polished leather.”

“Jefferson, in 1797, wore a black coat and light under clothes. He was then fifty-four years of age.”

“Hamilton, in 1795, being then in his thirty-eighth year, wore at a dinner party, a blue coat, with bright buttons and long skirts, a white waistcoat, black silk small clothes, white silk stockings,” (and shoes, of course).

The Hessian or Austrian boot, described in the preceding pages, which was first used in England, about the year 1789, was soon afterward introduced into the United States, as was the white-top boot, which came into fashion in England, early in the

reign of George III. This latter was generally worn with small clothes, and more frequently by elderly gentlemen than young men. The Hessian or half-boot was made with a seam in the back, and was worn over pantaloons fastened around the ankle with ribands or galloons. After a few years, it gave way to the Suwarrow boot, so named after Suwarroff, a Russian general, celebrated for his campaigns in Turkey, Poland, Italy, &c. He died in 1800; soon after which time the Suwarrow boot was introduced into England and the United States. This boot was worn by citizens, as well as in the army and navy; it was made with a seam at each side, and reached nearly to the knee. In front it was scolloped, and ornamented with a black silk tassel. Sometimes gold tassels were worn by military and naval officers in full dress. We recollect having seen Commodore Decatur, while his ship, the United States, lay in the river Thames, in Connecticut, during the war of 1812, wear a pair of elegant Suwarrow boots, with gold tassels, on an occasion of his being invited to a dinner party in Norwich.

The Suwarrow boot continued in fashion for about fifteen years, when, after the battle of Waterloo, it was superseded by the Wellington boot, which it is well known was named after the duke of Wellington. This boot seems to have settled the laws of fashion respecting the feet, as decisively as the battle of Waterloo settled the affairs of Europe.

With regard to the fashions of ladies’ boots and shoes in the United States, since the American revolution, we have closely followed the examples set for us by the ladies of Paris and London. Many families still preserve as relics the high-heeled shoes worn by their female ancestors, previous to the American revolution. The levelling spirit of the French revolution, seems to have reached even to ladies’ shoes; for we find that about 1790, the high heel was dispensed with, and shoes without heels were introduced. We have heard ladies of the olden time, say that it was hard to _come down_ in this manner all at once; the effort to walk with no support to their heels was even painful, and our grandmothers were compelled for a long time to do penance to the tyrant fashion on tiptoe. Gradually, however, each lady found her own level, and succeeding generations, having never known the dangerous elevation of their predecessors, have found less difficulty in complying with the varying mandates of the goddess of _haut-ton_.

William G. Hooker, Esq., of New Haven, Connecticut, has collected between four and five hundred varieties of shoes, embracing the fashions for about two centuries in England and the United States.

To return to the fashions for gentlemen’s boots. The Jefferson boot, which was introduced at about the time when Mr. Jefferson came into the presidency (in 1801), and which that gentleman was himself fond of wearing, was laced up in front, as high as the ankles, in some instances perhaps higher; it was about this time that pantaloons were introduced into this country from France, and became fashionable.

The laced boot, which was laced up at the side, came in fashion soon after the Jefferson boot, but the inconvenience of lacing, prevented it from being generally adopted.

The snow-shoe, worn in Canada and other countries, is formed of a framework of wood, strongly interlaced with thongs of leather. It is used by travellers and hunters to prevent their sinking into the snow, in their progress from place to place. It causes great pain to the wearer until after considerable practice in the use of it.

The Indian moccasin was the boot or shoe worn by the aborigines of America, before and after the settlement of this country by Europeans. It was made of deerskin, tanned by a mode peculiar to the Indians, and smoked; ornamented with beads or porcupines’ quills or feathers, and worn without soles.