The colonial era may have been
a crucially important time in American history, but it
probably didn't smell too hot. Hygiene practices during
America's colonial era boiled down to a curious mix of
practicality, religious belief, and social position. A lack of hygiene
was often thought to be indicative of bad manners,
and religious people associated it with the sin of sloth. Today, we're going to take
a look at what hygiene was like in colonial America. But before we get started,
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of early American life you would like to hear
more about next. OK, hold your
breath, because we've got some colonial
stank coming at you. Captain John Smith
was a key figure in the history of the
Jamestown colony, who recorded his experiences
in America in great detail. Those experiences, apparently,
involved a lot of bugs. His writings
contained references to troublesome ants and noisy
bugs like mosquitoes and flies, as well as a certain India
bug called by the Spaniards a "cacarootch." George Washington, while
staying at a bug-infested cabin in the Shenandoah
Valley in 1748, complained that his
blanket was full of vermin like lice and fleas. The experience taught him
to prefer sleeping outdoors, closer to lit campfires. A Christian missionary named
George Henry Loskiel recorded a troublesome plague to
both man and beast, which he called living ashes. According to Loskiel,
the Native Americans had named them such
because their bites were as painful as being
burned by a red hot ash. Back in colonial times, full
body baths of the kind people commonly take today were
rare and typically reserved for infants. Even then, the
purpose of the bath was more about hardening
the infants against disease as opposed to cleaning them. As for adults and children,
they didn't usually bathe. They just washed. And they didn't wash much. Each morning, a typical
person would likely rinse their face and hands
with a cloth using a basin and sponge, but that's about it. Those who could afford
a bathtub usually only had one large
enough for a sponge bath. And even those were
taken without soap. For those who
couldn't afford a tub, a dip in a local lake
or stream on a hot day was likely the
closest they'd ever come to anything like a bath. [MUSIC PLAYING] Indoor plumbing still
being a ways off, colonial houses instead had
outhouses, or often just a covered hole in the
ground somewhere close to the building. If you couldn't make
it to the outhouse, you could use a
chamber pot inside. These chamber pots had
to be emptied regularly, but that usually just involved
dumping them out a window. The procedure wasn't
terribly difficult, but it did have some downsides. Namely, people in
rural areas often lived close to
their water sources. The haphazard sewage control
meant that waste would often find its way into
the drinking water and wind up spreading disease. Interestingly, it
wasn't just waste that wound up in the holes. In 2014, archaeologists
excavated a dozen brick-lined privy
shafts from a site that was an illegal
tavern in colonial times. Far from just sewage, the dig
found bottles, bowls, glasses, drinking tankards, tanning
supplies, wig curlers, and pottery made
by local artisans. Colonial America was
not big on sanitation. Outhouses were typically
close to water sources, and it wasn't
unusual for streets to be clogged with
garbage and animal feces. This lack of sanitation
meant disease could spread quickly and easily. Dysentery, typhoid
fever, and cholera were all common,
especially during summer. Even the American
Revolution was affected. It's believed that 2/3 of George
Washington's troops at Valley Forge in December of 1777
died of dysentery, influenza, or typhoid fever. On the flip side,
the Continental Army may have also benefited from
the deplorable conditions, as large numbers of
British troops in the South were killed by various fevers. Even among scientists
of the era, hygiene was not well understood. Some doctors believed
that cleanliness helped to prevent
illness and disease, but others favorite
theories that revolved around bodily oils. In the absence of a compelling
scientific explanation, people turned to
religion for guidance, and religion was
happy to oblige. For the Puritans, cleanliness
was more of a moral issue. They saw a direct connection
between spiritual health and the cleanliness
of people's bodies, clothes, homes, and towns. Moreover, they believed
water was purifying and could cleanse the
filthiness of the mind as well as the body. Accordingly, those
who bathed were seen as less likely to
engage in other sins and less likely to be poor. All of this, however,
only really applied to private bathing. The Puritans felt public
bathing had a negative impact on morality and was likely
to lead to sexual impropriety and disease. They were big on cleanliness. They were Puritans, after all. Keeping teeth clean
wasn't a big priority for people in the 17th century,
and toothaches were common. The first line of
defense against them was the usual natural remedies
like chamomile or figs. If it was more serious than
that, alcohol or even opium might have been used
as a painkiller. Dental professionals
were rare, and a person who needed a tooth
pulled would usually have to get help from a
tradesman like a blacksmith, a barber, or an apothecary. Replacing the pulled
tooth was common, and sometimes the extracted
tooth itself would simply be reinserted into its socket. More frequently, however,
dentures and implants would be used. These were typically made
from wood, ivory, and metal, and sometimes healthy
teeth could even be purchased from poor people
who were, sadly, often eager to sell them. George Washington was, of
course, the most famous wearer of false teeth from the period. Folklore usually has him
wearing wooden teeth, but in reality, they were
made from metal, wire, and teeth of animals. That is bad ass. For the record, they were
painful for him to wear and are said to have distorted
the shape of his face, which makes him even
more of a bad ass. [MUSIC PLAYING] Powdered wigs were all
the rage among the middle and upper classes
of the colonial era. Made from human and animal
hair, both men and women wore them while keeping their
own hair extremely short. This was because of lice, which
was very common at the time. Shaving the head
would prevent the bugs from infesting one's hair. It didn't completely
eliminate the problem, though. The wigs themselves were
prone to infestations, and they had to be regularly
cleaned by professionals. Ideally, wigs would receive
this kind of care every week. But as the process
was expensive, not everyone was quite
so fastidious about it. Wig care included boiling
the wig to kill lice and dousing it in fragrances
like sassafras, bergamot, and bay leaves, which
were believed to have bug repellent properties. Conversely, the
pomade used to style the wigs actually
attracted insects so that the whole thing was
a bit of a [CLEARS THROAT] wiggity whack. [MUSIC PLAYING] In the 1990s, an
excavation took place at the original fort
built at Jamestown. During that dig, archaeologists
discovered a silver ear picker. Dating all the way back
to the 17th century, the instrument had a small
scooping tool at one end and pointed pick
at the other end. Such pics were
used as toothpicks, but also to clean
out fingernails and for numerous
other hygienic tasks. The scooper side was likely
used to remove earwax, which was considered valuable
due to its ability to keep thread from unraveling
when beeswax was unavailable. [MUSIC PLAYING] Rich Americans have always liked
fancy stuff from Europe, even in colonial times. Indeed, wealthier colonists
were likely to have imported expensive fragrant
soaps from across the Atlantic. However, those who
couldn't afford to do that, which
was most people had to make their own
soap or buy it locally. One type of soap
available was lye soap, which was made using
a time-consuming and foul-smelling process
that involved mixing lye, ash, and animal fat. Lye soap was extremely
harsh and usually used only for cleaning dishes,
clothes, and things in the home that needed scrubbing. Doing laundry in colonial times
was already pretty difficult. It involved hauling water,
heating it with fire, ringing the clothes out by hand,
and hanging up items to dry. Using the harsh lye soap
didn't make it any easier. In practice, this
meant only the items that got the dirtiest,
like underwear or diapers, would be washed
with any regularity. [MUSIC PLAYING] The women of colonial
America didn't shave any part of their bodies. Moral standards
of the time meant that women couldn't show any
significant amount of skin, so there was no real point. Even hair on a woman's face
was unlikely to be shaved, since shaving was
dangerous, and it was believed that blood
baths could only be prevented by experienced hands. It is likely,
however, that women plucked hairs and used
depilatory or hair removal creams. Recipes for such
creams have been found in medical
handbooks that were in circulation at the time. One such recipe found in the
1540s, The Birth of Mankind, called for a mixture
that included limestone and arsenic among other things. It actually wouldn't
be until the 1940s that shaving would become
common for American women. [MUSIC PLAYING] America's founding
fathers may have known a lot about
democracy, but they didn't know much about
how to talk to the ladies. Take, for example,
Thomas Jefferson, who told his own
daughter, "Nothing is so disgusting to our sex
as a want of cleanliness and delicacy in yours." Hmm, glad we had this talk, Dad. Yes, cleanliness in women
was a major topic of concern, and doctors of the
time advised women to bathe as a way
to cure illnesses that affected female
reproductive organs. The prevailing
wisdom actually held that women were able to
become offensive to the nose for the purpose of keeping
overly amorous men at bay. Dr. Thomas Ewell of Virginia
stated it pretty concisely when he theorized
that women used smell as a means of defense
to ensure protection by rendering themselves
as disgusting as possible. I'm going to guess
he didn't have a whole lot of female clients. [MUSIC PLAYING] George Washington was well
aware of the risks disease posed to the Continental
Army, and he was determined to do everything
he could to avoid them. During the revolution, he
made it clear to his officers that cleanliness was essential
to health and service, and he ordered them to
watch out for contagions getting into camp. His specific concern at
the time was smallpox, but the unsanitary conditions
of most military camps meant it was far
from the only threat. To help control the
risk, Washington's men were supposed to
clean their hands and faces once a day and
their shirts once a week. However, only a
few of the soldiers complied with the order. Maintaining cleanliness
in the camps required laborers,
known as followers. These followers, who could be
men, women, or even children, traveled with the troops,
cooked their meals, and cleaned up after them. One witness recorded
the observation that the troops were not used
to doing things of this sort and would sooner let their
clothes rot on their backs than wash them for themselves. These followers who
took care of the troops throughout the conflict are
some of the unsung heroes of the American Revolution. So what do you think? Would you have liked
living in colonial times? Would you stink the joint up? Let us know in the comments
below, and while you're at it, check out some of these other
videos from our Weird History.
