by Marianne
Ruane
(originally posted in April 2013; recreated in August 2015)
Teeth whitening
is all the rage now; braces are popular for children and adults, and in
general, Americans are known the world over for their bright white, straight
teeth. Back in the late 1700s though, Americans were lucky to have teeth. “[T]he women, generally very
pretty, are often deprived of these precious ornaments (teeth) at eighteen or
twenty years of age…"1 A
visiting Frenchman, one Monsieur Robin, attributed this toothless affliction of
American colonial women to eating hot bread, particularly corn meal biscuits,
which the French who visited the new country complained wouldn’t even be eaten
by their army. An exaggeration, perhaps, but what did colonial Americans eat?
