Going barefoot

[Hank Trent]

The threads on when to wear jean cloth and poor farmer shoes prompted me to ask...

In what context would it be appropriate to go barefoot, for an adult white southern impression?

For an adult northerner, it seems unusual. Thoreau mentioned seeing a bare footprint in the road in Massachusetts and being very surprised.

But in the south, there seemed to be both a prejudice against it as a mark of poverty and low class, and yet evidence it was done. Among adult poor whites, I'd guess it was often done not so much because shoes literally could not be afforded. The aim would be more to extend the wearing life of them and also get the benefit of being cooler. So going to church, going to town, in cold or on uncomfortable surfaces, one would wear shoes. If a poor white went barefoot, it would be more common working at home or among friends or neighbors and not feeling the need of shoes for either comfort or pride. Being barefoot also seems to be mentioned more concerning women than men.

But I dunno. It's hard to research the cultural context. Any thoughts?

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[gilham]

Re: Going barefoot

I am currently reading Andersonville. The Last Depot. Some where in there is a line about a Georgia Private that was admitted to the prison hospital with gangrene to his foot due to wearing shoes and not being accustomed to it. I will look up the paragraph tonight after work and post it.

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Going barefoot

Hookworm and impetigo were huge problems in this area but wearing shoes and washing hands did not prevent them. Other than bathing and swimming, I don't know of any accepted practice for going barefooted. And this was a seafaring community. However I can think of several reasons to do so within the socioeconomic framework.

I have read several accounts of soldiers working the waterfront here (for punishment) that went barefooted rather than wear slick soled shoes on wet docks and planks. I'm not certain that Andersonville fits neatly into a cultural norm but please post the quote.

[Drygoods]

Going barefoot ?? never tried it

Well, I dunno, but going barefoot depends on how you're raised. My Mother, who was raised by her Grandmother (1848-1947) NEVER allowed her to go barefoot. I was raised just the same, and have always worn socks under sandels, or stockings (go ahead and call me nerdy). Even at the beach or Lake Tahoe, I had to wear shoes to enter the water. My whole life, I never saw my Mother's feet without socks/stockings.

I dunno, but maybe there are other folks out there in the world raised this way???:confused_

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Going barefoot

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[Possum]

Re: Going barefoot

My grandmother who is still with us and still doing well, always taught us never to go barefoot outside before Easter because the ground was too cold and it would make us sick, but anyways I like going barefoot at late war campaigns cause Lord knows our poor little depots couldn't keep us corn fed boys shoed.

[PVT.THIB]

Re: Going barefoot

Beware of the dreaded hookworm!!!! Being from Louisiana, we still have lots of folks that go barefoot around here. I have never been able to because of my diabetes.

[Spinster]

Re: Going barefoot

But in the south, there seemed to be both a prejudice against it as a mark of poverty and low class, and yet evidence it was done. Among adult poor whites, I'd guess it was often done not so much because shoes literally could not be afforded. The aim would be more to extend the wearing life of them and also get the benefit of being cooler.

But I dunno. It's hard to research the cultural context. Any thoughts?

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

This issue is like so many aspects of the poor white south--poorly documented due to the socio-economic attributes of the class. If folks were poor, they rarely had the time to keep a diary or comment on their lives, even when they had the education to do so.

A full century after the war, I spent a number of years doing community organization work in rural southern communities. Whether black or white, some of the aspects Hank touched on were there.

(1) Shoes were to be 'saved'. Effort was made to extend the life of shoes, to not subject them to unnecessary wear. Shoes were repaired, reheeled, resoled, kept polished (my own family came from such a background, and shoes were lined up and polished each Saturday evening), protected from water with overshoes, or changed for barn shoes as needed.

(2) Shoes were worn to town and church. Shoes were worn to school, but only because the law required--and the lack of shoes was a reason to keep a child out of school, so they would not be shamed or pointed out. Used childrens shoes flew out of our relief closet very quickly, especially as school started.

(3) Men had shoes because it was necessary to do work. Barns, tractors, logging, all required shoes in order to do the work. And if a man is injured due to lack of such, the family suffers. Thus, one would see a father with substantial shoes and the rest of the family without.

(4) Women did not necessarily need shoes. Housework and gardening did not require such in order to perform the tasks--and thus, one saw a good bit of barefooted at home. These very poor women did have shoes for town or church or cold weather, but did not tend to wear them at home once spring broke.

(5) It was common to see children take off their shoes on the school bus, and carry them in their hands as they walked to their homes.

(6) It was common to see women in the fields with no shoes, and to talk with them there. If I came to the house door though, there might be some delay while the lady of the house put on shoes before answering the door, as I was socially classified as a 'church lady'--and thus the idea that a certain level of dress was required.

(7) When we reopened a church building that had been closed for nearly 60 years in order to provide opportunities for the children in the community, the children were very shy about coming, as it was 'church'. One day, I mucked out a part of the building that had been used to store coal, and did all that mopping barefooted. The few children there noted that, asked if they could leave off their shoes in the church. I told them they could be barefooted anytime their Mothers said it was okay. The group more than doubled the next day, all sans shoes.

While some of these cultural norms for the 1960s would certainly be different for the 1860's, the roots of those norms are there.

And, in an odd twist that defies any of this logic--looking at Deep South children's portraits of the upper class, children under the age of six are often painted or photographed barefooted. This norm still holds today especially in the very upper classes, where it is not unusual to see barefooted children in church, clad in exquisite smocked dresses--girls and boys as well.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Going barefoot

(5) It was common to see children take off their shoes on the school bus, and carry them in their hands as they walked to their homes.

Funny you'd mention that. I ran across the following while trying to research the topic, from Battles and Victories of Allen Allensworth at Documenting the American South. It's concerning slaves, though.

With the money earned in this manner, the children often bought cheap pairs of shoes, which they wore only on Sundays when they went to church. It was the common habit of the slaves to walk barefoot to the edge of the town, wipe the dust off their feet with their hands, slip on their shoes, and then strut into the town as if they owned a plantation.

On the topic of hookworm, it looks like the discovery of hookworm infestation through the skin didn't occur until the turn of the 20th century, so in the period that would have been a non-issue. From Bibliography of Hookworm Disease http://books.google.com/books?id=jhZAAAAAIAAJ&pg=PR18 :

"It was at first thought that the worms could enter the body only by way of the mouth, being acquired in the main from contaminated food... But in 1898 Arthur Looss, professor of parasitology at the government medical school at Cairo, accidentally discovered that a hookworm culture spilled on his hands produced dermatitis... Warnings against going barefoot and against leaky or wet shoes superseded those against contaminated food.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Annette Bethke]

Brokenburn: the Journal of Kate Stone 1861-1868, page 234, describing the dress at a funeral in Lamar County Texas 1863.

many of the men were barefooted, and nearly all of their slouched wool hats were decorated with ribbons or an artificial flower.

page 225, describing the dress of women in Lamar County 1863
If they would only leave off their tremendous hoops, but hoops seem in the very zenith of their popularity….Nothing looks funnier than a woman walking around with an immense hoop---barefooted.

A Rebel Wife in Texas: The Diary and Letters of Neblett 1852-1864in Texas: The Diary and Letters of Neblett 1852-1864, 232-233
Collins hasent made those shoes for me yet, & I am nearer barefooted than I ever remembers being since I was a child…I recon I will have to make me some cloth shoes & just give up shoes leather & all.

All the Days of My Life: An Autobiography: Amelia E Barr, 231
younger ones refused anything like shoes and stockings; but that was a common fashion for Texas children in hot weather. I have seen them step from handsome carriages barefooted and envied them.

[P. M. Cunningham, Tinner]

Re: Going barefoot

To add more thoughts without without historical documentation...

Couple years ago, I was reroofing a mid 19th C standing seam roof with new metal. The only way to stay on the roof was to go barefoot. Made me start wondering if historically the roofing trade may have gone barefoot. Metal on a slope and leather soled shoes just don't go well together. I still haven't found any documentation to support the theory yet, but it is a possibility.

Pat Cunningham

[Lucky]

Re: Going barefoot

Depending on the roof pitch, one can install roofing sitting down. Gets hot on the flesh though, and any metal roofing becomes an ice-skating surface for shoes of any type Ive found.

[Hardtack Herring]

This is a tough topic to document! Very tough. I have spent 4 hours trying to find good information and solid documentation of Poor White Men being barefoot.

I found one instance…. And it is from before our period. 1820’s I think.

I found this information regarding the History of Allegany County New York.

REMINISCENCES BY ETHAN LANPHEAR.

“Uncle Amos used to work at shoemaking some, and rolls of leather were left with him in the same manner. Sometimes the shoemaker would go from house to house to shoe up the families. Sugar Hill took its name from the fact that it Was heavily wooded with sugar maple, and the settlers made such large quantities of maple sugar. It was not uncommon for my father to make 500 or 1,000 pounds of maple sugar in a season.

The first preachers I remember were Amos Satterlee, Richard Hull and, later, Daniel Babcock and Spencer Sweet.

Richard Hull preached the first sermon I remember of in the schoolhouse at the " Bridge." He could scarcely read or write his name at that time. He worked at farming, and made spinning wheels large and small-quill wheels, etc. He wore no coat, linen trousers, and a vest, without a shoe to his feet. David Stillman and my father talked the matter over that he ought to have some shoes. Father, after meeting, stepped out to the door, picked up a stick, and stepped back
to the side of the preacher, stooped down, took hold of his foot and said, "Take up!" He measured the foot, and the next Sabbath the Elder came to church with shoes on his feet.

Men, women and children often went to church barefooted in those days, and preachers had no salary.”


There is not an exact date for this reference but it seems to be 1819 to the mid 19820’s If you would like you can visit the web page at http://history.rays-place.com/ny/alfred-ny.htm


Hookworm was a big problem in the South. That is for sure. It seems to me you would have to be barefoot to get it. I am not sure who was effected the most from Hookworm. I am guessing Slaves and Children. This is where I will probably look if I decide to research this topic any further.

Most of the references I could come across about people that were barefoot were children and slaves and this seems to be in the summer time.

From the Centennial History of Alamance County North Carolina.

This is from the Antebellum Period.

“Young boys and girls went barefoot in summer, but ladies-young and old-dared not show a bare ankle.”

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mwellis/book/chapter7.html

This is pretty consistent with what I have read in the past and also reassures me of common etiquettes of the day that decent woman should not expose their ankles.


As for going to school barefoot being against the law I do not know. I have come across several instances of children going to school barefoot After OUR Period and I can only guess that some did before and after the war as well. Against the law or not.

Here is documentation well after the war of a whole class of children going to school barefoot. Sorry to post something from outside our period but is proof that many children have gone to school barefoot.

“Most of the time, all the children went to school barefoot” wrote Allen Porter in the book I Remember the Model “T” Days. “Once a little boy came to school wearing a pair of shoes, so everyone called him a sissy. After 2 days, he came back like everyone else.”

This happened in Jefferson Georgia.

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:Wyp9Vr61MdQJ:www.jeffcityschools.org/ms_bicentennialproject2006.pdf+went+to+school+barefoot+southern+states&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=57&gl=us

I would have to say that when portraying a lower class white adult male from our period say 1845-1865 shoes should be worn. Unless you are so po you can not afford the last o and r. Or perhaps living way out in the sticks where there is not a shoe maker in your area. And then I think it would be highly unlikely to go barefoot for long periods of times, especially in the winter.

Of course there is plenty of documentation of Southern Soldiers being barefoot at times during the war and a few Northern Soldiers as well. With the cost of shoes reaching extremely high prices in the South as the war continued it is possible that a few poor and unfortunate white male civilians were barefoot….. But keep in mind almost all able bodied white males were fighting for Southern Independence….Unless you were rich……And in that case you could afford shoes.

One thing is for certain. Shoes back then were often repaired rather than discarded and passed down to loved ones.

Good topic Hank.

My eyeballs are burning from looking at the screen for so long.

Sorry I could not come up with much info… I sure did try!

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Re: Going barefoot

First and foremost with my moderator top hat affixed...

Please keep in mind we would like to have our forum as scholarly as possible. I know many of us do research all the time and frequently fail to record where we read something. Please limit the "I like to do this..." or "This is fun..." versus "This is the historic record." We are more interested on this forum in the historic record.

The subject of footwear and enslaved people varies (I recognize Hank's original question was about whites several people including Hank have mentioned in some way slaves). If clothing of enslaved people interests you, you must get New Raiments of Self by Helen Bradley Foster published in 1997. Some masters & mistresses seemingly purchased shoes for children to old people and others did not.

"Us chillun' had shoes, same as de grown folks."--Esther Green, page 225, Foster, Helen Bradley, New Raiments of Self, 1997.

"In severe frosts, I was compelled to go into the fields and woods to work, with my naked feet cracked and bleeding from extreme cold: to worm them, I used to rouse an ox or hog and stand on the place where it ha lain."--Moses Grandy, page 225, Foster, Helen Bradley, New Raiments of Self, 1997.

"Left measures for negro shoes at Messrs Drummond & Wytch, selecting mens at $1.25 & womens brogues at $1. ditto boys & girls. Price high article inferior 9 pair of boots at $2.25 a pair, all to be sent down when packed."--Dr. Richard Eppes, Prince George County, Virginia, November 30th 1852

Additionally, as my memory serves me (the book is not here with me) there is a lower class woman with a hoe in the exhibit companion book for the A Woman's War exhibit which shows a barefoot woman sketched during the war. Someone else who may have the book at their fingertips can confirm or correct that statement.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Going barefoot

The subject of footwear and enslaved people varies (I recognize Hank's original question was about whites several people including Hank have mentioned in some way slaves).

Thanks, Emmanuel. The only reason I specified whites was that I was having more trouble finding information on them, but information on slaves is also good.

On the topic of school and being barefoot, the following was cute, and might apply to poor white children too, but was specifically about African-American ones.

It's from The Colonel's Dream, 1905 at http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/che...el/colonel.xml, describing a post-war school for colored children:

“What is your total enrolment?” he asked the teacher.

"Well, sir,” was the reply, “we have seventy-five or eighty on the roll, but it threatened rain this morning, and as a great many of them haven't got good shoes, they stayed at home for fear of getting their feet wet.”

The colonel had often noticed the black children paddling around barefoot in the puddles on rainy days, but there was evidently some point of etiquette connected with attending school barefoot. He had passed more than twenty-five children on the streets, on his way to the school-house.

Here's something from Vicki Betts' site, presumably about white women:

SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY [ATLANTA, GA], September 28, 1862, p. 2, c. 4
Hoops Ignored.--A correspondent of the Columbus (Ga.) Sun, attached to Gen. Bragg's army, writing from Sparta, Tenn., says:... Most of the citizens in that portion of Tennessee, thro' which we have passed belong to the mediocrity, and are ignorant and disaffected. The women, horrible dictu, go barefooted, and look like a piece of calico tied around a lamp post.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net