Food and Clothing

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Food and Clothing

Food in the North. In 1815 few methods were available to preserve foods through the winter. Meat could be salted or smoked, and root crops could be stored in a cellar if one was available. But generally there was little variation in the average American’s daily diet although there were regional differences. In the North bread made from wheat or rye flour and Indian corn were staples, along with beef, milk, cheese, and butter. New Englanders of the coastal areas drew their sustenance from the sea; fish, shrimp, oysters, and clams were eaten alone or used to create fish cakes and chowders. Baked beans, pork and beans, and boiled dinners or stews made of meat and vegetables were also popular. For flavor molasses, cranberry sauce, and maple sugar were often added to dishes, and apples were a favorite ingredient for desserts. Americans rarely drank water; instead they drank alcoholic cider, beer, and coffee or tea. In the 1820s wealthy households began to use iceboxes, forerunners of the refrigerator, in which large blocks of ice kept vegetables, meat, and dairy products cool. In the cities food vendors roamed the streets, and markets were set up to sell a wide variety of produce, meat, and prepared foods. But for

poor urban families such items remained out of reach. Instead they survived largely on bread and potatoes with an occasional supplement of meat.

Food in the South. In the South pork, corn, and rice were the staples, although the favorable growing conditions allowed wealthy planters to produce a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Poor Southerners ate corn pone, hominy, sweet potatoes, and pork. Wild game and fish and shellfish were popular, along with regional specialties such as peanuts, figs, okra, and turtles. Wealthy Southerners included tropical fruits, fresh meats, and many fresh vegetables in their diets. Slaves who worked as domestic servants sometimes got to eat the same food they prepared for their masters, but field hands received only a weekly ration of a peck of corn (which they had to grind to make corn pone) and, for the fortunate, a few pounds of bacon. Some slaves, though, were allowed to keep their own garden plots to supplement their diets, and they often fished or hunted (with dogs or traps, as slaves were not allowed to possess guns) or even stole from their masters to get enough food to survive.

Cooking. In the first decades of the nineteenth century almost all cooking was done over the tremendous heat of an open fireplace. Pots and kettles were suspended over the fire or placed directly in the hot coals. Cooking was a laborious task as the fire had to be tended; heavy pots had to be lifted; bread had to be kneaded; water had to be carried; and spices, salt, sugar, and coffee all had to be ground by hand. The job got somewhat easier after 1820 when the cookstove, the first kitchen appliance in America, was introduced to wealthy households. After 1830 it began to appear in middle-class kitchens in many cities, and by 1850 the cookstove was well on its way to becoming a standard fixture all across the North. The cookstove retained a good deal of the heat it produced and had cooking surfaces at waist level, where they were more accessible. But women in the South continued the back-straining labor of cooking over fireplaces for decades to come.

Cookbooks. A total of 160 new cookbooks were published between 1800 and 1850, making the cook’s job a little easier. Eliza Leslie’s The Lady’s Receipt Book (1847) was one of the most popular. It included recipes (called “receipts”) for everything from temperance plum pudding to apple pie to elaborate French dishes. But recipes during this period were notoriously imprecise. Catharine Esther Beecher, in her Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book (1846), lamented the recipes whose instructions were no more than “Take a pinch of this, and a little of that, and considerable of the other, and cook them till they are done about right” In frustration she called for more standardized measurements, which did not become common until later in the century.

Fashion. In 1815 only a few older men could be seen in the knee breeches, long-tailed coats, buckles, and powdered wigs of the eighteenth century. American men had adopted a simpler costume of full-length pants, short coats, and stove-pipe hats. Women’s fashion, on the other hand, was ever-changing and could be anything but simple In 1815 women were wearing dresses

in the Classical style: close-fitting dresses that exposed the neck and arms. But by 1820 styles were already shifting to a more Romantic mode: full dresses with puffy sleeves and high necklines. Underneath these dresses women wore petticoats and corsets that were tightened to produce a smaller waist. Unfortunately they also restricted breathing, and many well-dressed women suffered discomfort and fatigue as the price of fashion.

Ready-Made Clothing. The fashion plates of Godey’s Lady’s Book kept women all over the North apprised of the latest styles. But not all could afford them. While upper-class women had access to the imported styles of Paris and London, middle-class women could only attempt to imitate them at home. They could not truly dress like the wealthy until ready-made clothing became available in the 1840s. Poorer women benefited from factory-made cotton and woolens by the end of the period. While many people still wore home-spun garments, the laborious process of spinning wool and making linen at home was being replaced by a trip to the local storekeeper, where fabrics in an array of colors and prints could be bought for reasonable prices. The emerging textile industry helped democratize American fashion by allowing more women than ever before to follow the trends set by the wealthy.

DRESS REFORM: THE BLOOMER LOOK

The Bloomer costume, named after Amelia Bloomer, editor of a temperance magazine and advocate of dress reform, became popular among the prominent women’s rights workers, notably Lucy Stone, Angelina Weld Grimké, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. Many of’ the women who adopted the outfit also cut their hair short and were denounced as radicals who were, trying to promote free love. The costume consisted of a dress or coat (of shorter length than was usual) worn over loose pants that were tucked into boots or gathered above slippers. Bloomers had beer invented at a, water-cure resort and were promoted as a healthier, alternative to the corsets and long dresses filled out with layers of petticoats that limited women’s breathing and mobility. Station explained why she adopted the trend:

To see my cousin (who was wearing bloomers), with a lamp in one hand and a baby in the other, walk upstairs with ease and grace, while, with flowing robes, I pulled myself up with difficulty, lamp and baby out of the question, readily convinced me that there was sore need of a reform in woman’s dress.... why “the drapery” is quite too much—one might as well work with a ball and chain. Is being born a woman so criminal an offense, that we must be doomed to this everlasting bondage?

But the fad only lasted about two years. Women reformers grew tired of the ridicule they received for their unorthodox mode of dress, feeling that it took attention away from the more important battles they were fighting.

Source: Alice Felt Tyler, Freedom Ferment: Phases of American Social History from the Colonial Period to the Outbreak of the Civil War (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1962).