How Martha Washington Lived: 18th Century Customs

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How Martha Washington Lived: 18th Century Customs

A brief, informal look at the life of elite southern women in eighteenth century America, including a look at: (1) courtship and marriage, (2) slavery, (3) fashion, (4) food, (5) travel, and (6) amusements.

Have you ever fallen madly in love with a pair of shoes? Luxury footwear, combining the art form of a sculpture with the beauty of a piece of sparkling jewelry, has obsessed women for centuries. Certainly this was true in the case with Martha Washington. We donâ€™t generally think of Martha Washington as a vivacious fashionista. She has come down to us after two hundred plus years as a frumpy, dumpy, plump, double-chinned Old Mother Hubbard type. Both George and Martha Washington were transformed by generations of historians into marble figures of rectitude whose dignity and decorum fostered a sense of legitimacy for the new country.

But neither Martha Washington nor the women of the Southâ€™s leading families were marble statues, they had the same strengths and weaknesses, passions and problems, joys and sorrows, as the women of any age. So just how did they live?

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