Nudity in Colonial Days

[Capricorn]

I cannot document it, but I suspect nudity was much more common in the rural South (including Maryland and Virginia) than has been realized. On rural plantations before air-conditioning, it probably would have been common (if not normal) for small planters' families to cavort about nude in the "dog days." And I expect that slaves wore little or nothing in the way of clothing in the tobacco fields. Such has always been the case on medieval manors, and in ancient Egypt, where even the daughters of Pharaoh are depicted playing about in the palace quite unclothed in warm weather. Dressing unnecessarily in the summer would have been more common in towns and cities , and by the well-to-do.

[Capricorn]

I cannot document it, but I suspect nudity was much more common in the rural South (including Maryland and Virginia) than has been realized. On rural plantations before air-conditioning, it probably would have been common (if not normal) for small planters' families to cavort about nude in the "dog days." And I expect that slaves wore little or nothing in the way of clothing in the tobacco fields. Such has always been the case on medieval manors, and in ancient Egypt, where even the daughters of Pharaoh are depicted playing about in the palace quite unclothed in warm weather. Dressing unnecessarily in the summer would have been more common in towns and cities , and by the well-to-do.

[Trailscout]

Dad and his brother went skinny-dipping in their local river (rural Tennessee late 1920's). No one regarded that as indecent or unusual.
Farmers from that era wore hats and long-sleeved shirts to prevent sunburn, but many southern sharecroppers' kids are seen nude in old photographs. (all races). Their parents couldn't afford to let their preadolescent kids wear out their clothes, so some kids went nude in summer of necessity. Where prudery existed, it was pretty severe by today's standards, but not everyone could afford the luxury of never being seen nude. In the country, there weren't (and aren't) as many eyes to watch you.

Many rural southern folk are more prosperous now and yet even in our day, nudity is more easy to achieve in rural areas than elsewhere.
I remember a girl from rural Georgia who told me that her mother used to fill a washtub in the sun and when it was warm, drag it under the relative privacy of a willow tree for her daughter's bath.

Another friend of mine lived in rural Montana in the 1970's and right outside their cabin, they had a very open outdoor shower, which they enjoyed during the short summers.

[scottnc]

Skinny dipping was widely accepted in my Dad's youth due to most people being poor. He was a teen during the depression. Bathing suits were a luxury.

[David77]

I was a child during the depression and if you did not have a swim suit, you could rent a swim suit at the swimming pools (if you had the "pennies" to rent one).

The reason for skinny dipping was not because you were poor, as you suggested. Even the rich people skinnydipped. USA presidents and their staff skinnydipped together in the Potomic River,for example. It was an American custom to skinny dip, but with your own gender only. Women were expected to be modest and had no social sanction to skinny dip with men.

[nudeM]

If nudity was allowed during the colonial times, then how come there aren't any pictures of Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, etc., in the buff. I'm sure, somewhere, there has to be some pictures. Even for the little kids, I haven't seen any pictures. Of course, cameras weren't even around yet, but even some sketches of nude colonialists should have popped up somewhere. Just a thought.

[Trailscout]

Maybe the founding fathers were originally nude all the time and their original portraits were nude, but someone painted clothes on their images about the year 1876 in a fit of body shame!

[Trailscout]

Here's more classic nudist Americana:

Samuel Clemens' fictional character Tom Sawyer went skinnydipping and even totally nude for days on end with Huck Finn when the boys ran away from home and camped by the Mississippi. Granted it is fictional, but it masterfully and accurately depicts the venerable tradition of boyhood nudity.

Horace Kephart in the non-fiction book, "Our Southern Highlanders" describes a visit he paid to a mountain family in the year 1900. They lived in a one room cabin with a few beds in that one room. At the end of the day, the whole family, mother, father, children and teens of both sexes took off all their clothes in full view of each other, crawled into the beds and said "Goodnight". Kephart was at how matter-of-factly they undressed and how platonic it was. If this family wasn't nudist, they came pretty darn close! Keep in mind that in those days for "more cultured" townsfolk, even a glimpse of ankle was titillating.

[Mario]

Concerning the question of founding fathers and nudity, I remember seeing a documentary on Benjamin Franklin which stated that he, like many intellectuals, enjoyed being nude. He had regular sun baths on pleasant days. However, they implyed he did this by himself and the accompanying illustrations showed him sitting by an open window with the sun shining in on him. I have not read all his writings, but would not be surprised if he mentioned this in some of them.

[PaulC]

I have read somewhere in his writings about this. He referred to them as "air baths"