Document Text |
Summary |
| I. For a Woman to Expose unto Common View those parts of her Body, which there can be no Good End or Use for the Exposing of is for her to Expose herself unto the Vengeance of Heaven. | 1. If a woman does not cover the parts of her body for which there is no everyday use, she is in danger of making God angry. |
| There is indeed a Covering of the Skin, which is but a Black Mark of one that never yet had a Covering for her Sin. The Black Patches worn by too many Females, are indeed so many Blew ones; they are the Tokens of a Plague in the Soul. They are not, the spots of Gods Children, but the Dapples of a Leopard that will never, Learn to do well. They are for the most part upon the Faces that never were washed, in the Blood of the Lamb without Spot; nor do they argue the Soul within to be one unto whom our Lord may say, Thou art all fair, there is no Spot in thee. | Women who wear fashionable clothing are sinners. The beauty marks that fashionable women are drawing on their faces are signs of the evil in their souls. Wearing one is the same as declaring that you are not a godly person. |
| But there is a Nakedness of the Skin which is also, and as much, to be accounted Criminal. The Face is to be Naked because of what is to be Known by it; the Hands are to be Naked, because of what is to be Done by them. But for the Nakedness of the Back and Breasts, No Reason can be given; unless it be that a Woman may by showing a Fair-Skin Enkindle a Foul Fire in the Male Spectators; for which cause even Popish Writers have no less Righteously than severely Lashed them; and for Protestant Women to use them, is no less inexcusable than it is Abominable: nor did a Golden Mouth of old stick to say, The Devil sat upon them! | Leaving body parts uncovered is a crime. The face can be uncovered, because it is how people recognize you. The hands can be uncovered, because they are needed for work. But there is no good reason for a woman to expose her back or breasts. Women only expose those parts to tempt men, and even Catholics think that is evil. For a Puritan woman to do so, it is not just unforgivable, it is offensive to everyone around her. |
| For a Woman to put herself into a Fashion, that shall prejudice, either her Health, or her Work, is to break all the other Eight Commandments as well as the Sixth and the Eighth, which are thereby notoriously violated. | 2. If a woman wears clothing that endangers her health or her work, she is breaking all of God’s rules at the same time. |
Cotton Mather. Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion. Or The Character and Happiness of a Vertuous Woman: In a Discourse Which Directs the Female-Sex How to Express, the Fear of God, in Every Age and State of Their Life ; and Obtain Both Temporal and Eternal Blessedness (Cambridge [Mass.]: Printed by S.G. & B.G. [i.e. Samuel and Bartholomew Green] for Samuel Phillips at Boston, 1692). New-York Historical Society Library.
Background
Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion was written by Puritan leader Cotton Mather in 1692. It was a manual for the Puritan women living in the Massachusetts colony. Puritans believed that they had a special agreement with God. They believed that other forms of Christianity were not strict enough. The Puritans moved to the New England colonies in the Americas to establish religious utopian societies. Approximately 20,000 Puritans migrated to New England between 1630 and 1643.
About the Document
In this passage, Cotton focuses on the clothing worn by Puritan women. His comments highlight contradictions that still come up in debates over women’s clothing today. On the one hand, Cotton criticized women who showed skin. He argued that they endangered the souls of the men around them. But Cotton also criticized women who covered up with the wrong kind of clothing. According to Cotton, anything but the most inexpensive and modest fashions were a sign of a woman’s moral failures.
The fact that Cotton felt the need to write this advice in 1692 implies that some women living in Puritan settlements were not strictly following the guidelines set out for them by their male religious leaders.
Vocabulary
- Puritans: A group of English Protestants who left England for North America to start their own settlements where religion would govern daily life.
- utopian: Impossibly perfect.
- Zion: The kingdom of heaven.
Discussion Questions
- What does this passage reveal about the lives of Puritan women?
- Why was Cotton Mather concerned with the clothing the women of his community wore?
- Is there any evidence in this passage that women were not following the strict rules governing Puritan clothing?
Suggested Activities
- APUSH Connection: 2.7 Colonial Society and Culture
- Teach this document on any lesson about the Puritan colonies of New England. This document illustrates the strict religious rules that governed women’s lives in these communities.
- Combine this document with Life Story: Tituba for a lesson on how strict Puritan society could be, and what happened when leaders felt they had lost control.
- Teach this document together with the images of tignon for a larger lesson on how women’s bodies and choices were policed in the colonial Americas.
- Compare this document with the clothing depicted in Henrietta Johnson’s portraits to see examples of the kinds of clothing Cotton Mather deemed inappropriate.
- Compare this document with Eighteenth Century Education for a lesson on the differences between Quaker and Puritan instruction and values.
- Pair this resource with Travel Journal of Sarah Kemble Knight and Connecticut Witch Trials to examine the similarities and differences between the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
- The clothing choices of women continue to be scrutinized across the country and world. One powerful example is the ongoing discussion about the role women’s clothing plays in sexual assault. Use this document to begin a conversation about these debates and ask your students to research modern-day examples of the debate over women’s clothing.
- For a larger lesson on the strict religious rules that governed the lives of women in the New England colonies, combine this resource with the following:
Themes
DOMESTICITY AND FAMILY; AMERICAN CULTURE
