How does one "ape"? Or Breechclout blindness

 

So just what do you do while you wait for the tallow to soak into your moccasins? If your anything like me this means you’ve waited for the wife and kids to sleep so you can use deer tallow and the heater unsupervised and without having to answer questions. You know the questions about one why you need to do this and two what is actually wrong with your thought process that would make this seem like a good idea to do in the kitchen.

                Keeping your moccasins from getting “crunchy” is a key to keeping them going longer. Despite the basket of new ones I have made I still keep wearing the same pair. While waiting to add more tallow onto the moccasins I figured I’d get a little Philosophical, no I’m not going off the rails and the last burst of frustration has led to some movement on a lot of fronts for me. I’m striking while the iron is hot but I’m not walking away from this weird little vice. So anyway, just what does it mean to “ape the manner of savages”?

                For those not familiar this is an expression that John Joespeh Henry mentioned about his fellow riflemen on the Arnold campaign when describing their dress.:

The principal distinction between us, was in our dialects, our arms, and our dress. Each man of the three companies, bore a rifle-barreled gun, a tomehawk, or small axe, and a long knife, usually called a "scalping-knife," which served for all purposes, in the woods. His under-dress, by no means in a military style, was covered by a deep ash- colored hunting-shirt, leggins and mockasins, if the latter could be procured. It was the silly fashion of those times, for riflemen to ape the manners of savages.

                This little section has been used by many folks to point towards the Backcountry Inhabitants to completely adopt the dress of natives. Later in the narrative Henry then goes on to comment on the clothes he’s wearing on the expedition:

My wardrobe, was scanty and light. It consisted of a roundabout jacket, of wollen, a pair of half worn buckskin breeches, two pair of woolen stockings, (bought at NewbCry-port,) a hat with a feather, a hunting-shirt, leggins, a pair of mockasins, and a pair of tolerably good shoes, which had been closely hoarded.

So we can see that Henry’s mode of “aping” is a pretty standard (to our modern eye) backcountry kit. Except for the fact it doesn’t Include a breechcloth. I mean Clouts are super frontier…right?

Ok so while you are scratching your head about what I’m hinting at let’s put up the end all, be all Breechcloth quote that has been used to justify there use by everyone ever.

In the latter years of the Indian war our young men became more enamored of the Indian dress throughout , with the  exception of the matchcoat . The drawers were laid aside and the leggins made longer , so as to reach the upper part of the thigh . The Indian breech clout was adopted . This was a piece of linen or cloth nearly a yard long , and eight or nine inches broad . This passed under the belt before and behind leaving the ends for flaps hanging before and behind over the belt . These flaps were sometimes ornamented with some coarse kind of em broidery work . To the same belts which secured the breech clout , strings which supported the long leggins were attached .

When this belt , as was often the case , passed over the hunting shirt the upper part of the thighs and part of the hips were naked .The young warrior instead of being abashed by this nudity was proud of his Indian like dress . In some few instances I have seen them go into places of public worship in this dress . Their appearance , however , did not add much to the devotion of the young ladies .

This quote From the Good Reverend Doddridge is from his time in Western Pa/Virginia during the American revolution. It’s been used and reused to show the common use of the breechclout by backcountry folks from New York to Florida during the years 1750 to today.  This quote is often mixed in with a little bit of Woodmason and gives a writer some funny interesting ideas on the dress and attitudes of the people in the American backcountry in the 18^th century.  Ok what if I told you Woodmason doesn’t mention Breechclouts?

Woodmason also a minister (he’s an Anglican minister not a godless heathen like Rev. Doddridge ) has a lot to say about the frontier of the Carolinas. Going thru Woodmason’s journal there is A LOT like a metric ton of judgement being tossed around on just about every aspect of backcountry life. And you will find detailed notes on the tightness of young womens Shifts and shortness of Petticoats (dude gives some creeper vibes) but as far as men’s clothes it’s all breeches and trousers.

Great Novelty to a Londoner to see one of these Congregations — The Men with only a thin Shirt and pair of Breeches or Trousers on — barelegged and barefooted — The Women bareheaded, barelegged and barefoot with only a thin Shift and under Petticoat— Yet I cannot break [them?] of this.

Ok so just where am I going with this? I can hear you now “are you saying breechclouts aren’t common?” No I’m not but I think that we may have been overusing them and in fact seeing them in places they didn’t exist. I think we’ve been suffering from a hobbie wide version of the “Berenstain Bears effect”. Ok to clarify this is a collective false memory that the Kids book and cartoon series many of us grew up with was called the “Berenstein” bears when in fact it was the Berenstain Bears (named after the last name of the writers) this little detail led to many internet freak outs on msg boards and chat rooms. It’s led to conspiracy theories and youtube videos all because people collectively added in a detail that just wasn’t there.

When Looking at the often quoted descriptions of guys like Smyth, Henry and others that describe backcountry dress we see the same actual items: knives, hunting shirts, leggings, moccasins, tomahawks but they are often lacking the use of a breechclouth.  We collectively have added that detail.

Now That I’ve got your attention and in many cases you are probably screaming quotes at the screen lets go further down the rabbit hole. I’m going to take this a little further into the realm of the weird. When we DO see clouts on backcountry (and by this I mean folks from the british colonies take French folks out of the mix) It is normally on folks either working in and around water OR trying to look like natives .

If you’d put up a giant crazy person conspiracy board on your wall and run a red string to a person from one of those two basic ideas…well you are going to get really shocked at just where the quote you were screaming at the screen fell into.

Cresswell…guys in a canoe, Jesse Hughes…”spy dress…looking like an Indian”, Morgan’s  hunters …hunting out of boats, James smith’s black boys…trying to look like Indians,  Brady’s Rangers Again trying to look native (if they wore clouts all the time why did they have to use cherry bark to tan their thighs?) Daniel Boone?...had to send folks back for their spy gear before they went after his daughter and him being naked singing doesn’t count for anything except proof of boredom. Forbe’s campaign troops? It’s in the letters to make “Indians” of the provincials. Washington’s “Indian walking dress”…doesn’t mention a breechclouth. Again that was a detail WE added.

Its interesting if you start to honestly examine our favorite quotes sometimes you can see how we can skew information to support what we want to see. I’m not saying that breechclouts should not be worn or done away with. What I am saying is that maybe we need to constantly revisit the original sources with fresh eyes and challenge our personal views on the information.  I mean even Doddridge falls into my Conspiracy board…he’s talking about western Pennsylvania/Virginia and I’m no geographer but I’ve heard about a few rivers that may flow thru that area.

The more I found mention of clothes buried in narratives, letters, inventories etc about the backcountry I always seem to land on leather breeches, jackets, trousers etc. This at first was like “hey cool look at this stuff” then the more I found them the more it started to feel like, huh where are all the mentions of breechclouts? Guys leggings falling off because of the loss on a belt but no mention of losing their clout?  And please before you start honestly look at the quote and the context of it before ya get all angry.

For example here is a great quote about Morgan from Henry’s narrative: “Morgan came, large, a commanding aspect, and stentorian voice. He wore legging, and a cloth in the Indian style. His thighs, which were exposed to view, appeared to have been lacerated by the thorns and bushes”

Awesome quote, but right before this Henry is talking about traveling by canoe and they are marching thru swamps/bogs. Context is the key….and maybe breechclouts aren’t how ya “ape the manner of savages” ?