How style-conscious were women on the Florida frontier? I suppose it depended upon where they lived. Certainly the ladies of the St. Augustine "establishment" followed the latest fashions in Washington, New York and Paris, laced with a touch of their Spanish heritage. On the other hand, women under siege in Fort Brooke on Florida's Gulf Coast, or in Noonansville, the State Capital, were more concern with staying alive than keeping up with latest trends.
Jacob Motte, an army doctor during the Second Seminole war, described the ladies of St. Augustine with effusive rapture. In response to an invitation to a party at the home of the "lady of Judge Smith," he wrote in his journal, "This opportunity of sharing the blandishments of converse with the fairest specimens of creation, and of enjoying the looks of beauteous maidens with lustrous eyes and wreathed smiles, was not to be neglected."
A pass to St. Augustine offered soldiers and officers alike a welcome reprieve from the tedium of life on the Florida frontier. For a few days they ate well, slept in real beds with a roof over their heads, and enjoyed the social life of the city. The common soldier would not, of course, be entertained at the homes of the St. Augustine's elite, but there were plenty of pubs and young ladies to entertain them.
Motte checked into the City Hotel owned by William Livingston, who boasted that his modern accommodations included, "private apartments, a well furnished bar, plenty of servants, stables, carriages, and a cistern containing 3,000 gallons of rainwater for washing, etc." [Florida Herald, Feb 6, 1836.] Comfortably ensconced, Mote changed into "a civilized suite of clothes" and took a site-seeing stroll through the ancient city. Later he changed for the party, or as he so eloquently put it, "properly attired for the presence of beauty."
According to Motte, the St. Augustine social scene was like stepping into paradise. He was mesmerized with "strange fascination about the Minorcan beauties, which operated as a kind of fairy-spell. It always seemed as if I was in a dreamy trance at their balls. The dream always recalled to my mind the black-eyed houri we read of which the faithful are to be solaced in the world to come, for their trials and sufferings in this veil of tears. I never felt ennui at these balls,—although they were kept up to 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, and sometimes till daylight." [A houri is one of beautiful virgins of the Koranic paradise.]
Motts words drool from the page as he waxes on about the Spanish dances, "like floating down the upon the breath of morning." He continues, "The dance went joyously and figures of the most lovely proportions, fit models for sculptors and painters, and arrayed in dazzling beauty, went gliding through the labyrinth mazes of the graceful Spanish dance. Myriad dark and fawn like eyes shed a pure radiance of glad light with their kindling beams; while the rich black tresses and olive complexion, sufficiently tested to the claims of Spanish descent, in strong contrast to the lighter locks and whiter skins of America's daughters". [Motte 1838]
While the ladies of St. Augustine may have danced through the war, women in other parts of the state were not fairing so well. In south Florida, William Collar's wife and baby were felled with a single bullet during a Seminole raid at New River [North Miami]. Then on December 29, 1835 word arrived at Fort Brooke that Major Francis Dade's command of over 100 men was wiped out on their way to Fort King. In response to the ensuing panic, Major Francis Belton ordered most of the buildings in the immediate vicinity of Fort Brooke destroyed, then withdrew the garrison and settlers into a hastily thrown up palisade of bushes. Nancy Collar Jackson, the daughter of an early Tampa settler, was among those barricaded in this make-shift fort. Years later she recalled her terror at seeing "the heads and shoulders of the Indians moving about over the bluff."
The Collar family and their neighbors sought refuge in one of the "two small cottage tents inside the emergency post. "We stayed there, I think, about three weeks, and were in constant fear of death. We did not dare go out or cook a mouthful, but did very well on hard bread and water." The families were eventually transferred onto transport ships anchored in Tampa Bay. Collar remembered that "They lived there for several months in splendor, as it seemed to them," she commented, "after all their hardships and privations."
Measles and fevers also plagued the soldiers and settlers at Fort Brooke. Four of Nancy Collar's younger siblings died but her mother managed to survived, despite the ministering of the fort's doctor. Bleeding was the favored cure at the time. If war and disease were not enough, fleas and other biting insects were as equally a challenge. "They had taken possession of the fort and grounds," reported one exhausted volunteer soldier. Food, too, was in short supply at the Fort, made even worse when new companies of troops arrived as reinforcements.
Pioneer women living on the lonely Florida outposts often found themselves widowed, with, often as not, several youngsters to raise by themselves. Death was the constant companion of these courageous women-death that followed childbirth, or the kind that lurked outside their homes in the form marauding bands of Seminoles. Yet some of them survived to become the founding mothers of Tampa and other Florida communities.
While at Fort Brooke, Lieutenant Henry Prince wrote in his diary in 1837, of receiving a permit for his signature from a "Private Jackson of H comp has permission to be "married" to Miss Dixon, Fort Brooke." The Dixen family were friends and neighbors of the Collar family.
If the white pioneer families suffered from the deprivations of the war, the Seminole and Black Seminole families faired much worse. Constantly pursued by the military, they found themselves hunted down like dogs, driven deeper and deeper into the Everglades. Those who were captured were piled onto ships and transported hundreds of miles away to the Oklahoma Territory. Their towns razed, they fled for their lives, deeper and deeper into the swamps and forests. Until recently, history books omitted the fact that Major Dade had lead a raid on the Black Seminole town of Pilaklikaha, [two mile east of Bushnell]. Women and children were attacked by war dogs while their menfolk were away for the day. It wasn't incidental that Abraham, who had lost his wife in that raid, helped lead a retaliatory attack two years later—known as the Dade massacre. During the final years of the war, Mott reported seeing Seminole women wrapped in the cotton feed bags that once held corn for the army's horses. This was a long way from the gorgeous Seminole patchwork dresses that we are so familiar with today.
When cultures struggle with socio-political change, clothing styles will often reflect that struggle. In the 1790s the constrictive, boned bodices of Marie Antonette were joyfully cast aside in favor of the "liberating" styles favored by Josephine Boneparte. The era known as Empire period lasted for about twenty years when bosoms poured out of filmy gowns, hair was piled in loose tendrils on the head, and shoes deteriorated to flimsy slippers. Á la ancienne reflected the ancient Greeks. Interestingly, the "Empire style" made its way back into fashion in the late 1960's, during the anti-war, hippy movement.
The 1830s began a transition from the relatively laid-back styles emanating out of Revolutionary France to the really up-tight Victorian era of the second half of the 19th century. With Reconstruction came the restructuring of women's clothing, as well. From 1810 through the 1830s, the high-waisted empire gown began its descent toward the natural waistline. Layers of bell-shaped petticoats puffed out skirts that reached just above the ankles. [The cumbersome boned petticoat of the Southern belle would not appear until the 1850’s.]
Corsets, made of smooth soft elastic material or quilted cotton were not stiffened with stays made of bone or steel. Cotton drawers peeked titillating from beneath the skirts. Women were admonished " Corsets should never be drawn so tight as to impede regular, natural breathing, as, under all circumstances, the improvement of figure is insufficient to compensate for the air of awkward restraint caused by such lacing."
Shoulders, exaggerated with excessively wide collars, usually went uncovered while in doors The bodice may often embellished with lace collars and cuffs. Sleeves ballooned, first above the elbo then blow the elbows. They were stuffed with pads to keep them puffed out. Daytime fabrics included chintz and cashmere prints, while taffetas and satins were reserved for evening wear. The bodices of evening gowns were trimmed with a bertha of lace or gauze. Black velvet became a popular fabric for trimmings, belts, and cuffs.
Out-of-doors women wore a small cape, called a pelerine, that could either match her dress or be of a contrasting color. Paisley-printed cashmere shawls and parasols were de rigueur. These shawls were so popular, that in 1831 it was estimated that nearly 5,000 crafts people were employed in making them.
Head-coverings of the day included lovely lace veils from under which young ladies would coyly flash their eyes at passing young men. Wide-brimmed bonnets trimmed with a large rosette of ribbon, flowers and feathers were "in".
Hair was pulled back severely from the face, then coiled high on the top of the head and held in place with combs. Sometimes ladies added little hairpieces to their combs to help achieve the desired effect. Coronets of pearls, cameos, and fresh flowers were worn over the forehead. Braided hair was woven gold beads, pearls or flowers. Tortoise shell combs were popular for day wear while gold combs with four or five cameos were added for evening wear.
White kid leather gloves were bottoned on at the wrist. White silk-stocking feet were slipped into shoes that looked like ballet slippers. A fan, an embroidered silk handkerchief, and a little satin bag completed the ensemble.
So in order to avoid the embarrassment of being accosted by the "Period Clothing Police" by showing up at a reenactment in the wrong gear, it is wise TO-DO-YOUR RESEARCH! You'll find that there are a wide variety of styles available to you. You may just stumble upon something so unique, so fab-u-lous, that you could become the trend-setter at your next event.
