17th Century Puritans Dress Code For Women
She was among three dozen or so young women who had been summoned to court.
17th century puritans dress code for women. There was surprisingly little crime in 17th century new england. Bodices as a rule were long and pointed and skirts were full and long. Among these overdressed women lyman was apparently the most rebellious and strong willed.
The basic items of clothing worn by women during the 17th century were an undershirt known as a shift a corset and long petticoats. The entire political and social system they established was built on the puritan religion. The puritans were members of a religious reform movement that arose in the late 16th century and held that the church of england should eliminate ceremonies and practices not rooted in the bible.
The first code of law adopted december 10 1641 contains approximately 94 resolutions now known as the massachusetts body of liberties. As the puritans set about eking out their survival in massachusetts in the early 1600s they naturally had to conquer some major problems. They had separate governments but their hopes their laws and their past history were almost identical.
Managing to obtain food fighting their enemies for land and of course creating a puritan dress code. Plymouth did not have such a formal legal dress code but social sanctions initially worked to the same effect. In 1676 hannah lyman was in trouble.
The puritans took the issue of dress very seriously. Her outer clothing consisted of either a gown or a waistcoat fitted jacket and a skirt. With almost 400 years of hindsight we tend to picture.
They wore other colors as well. They had flouted the laws of the colony of connecticut by wearing silken hoods. Puritans lived under harsh rules during the seventeenth century the combined new england colonies formed a virtual puritan commonwealth.