We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...and that they’re
mostly smelly, toothless, and riddled with bugs. It’s the late 18th century, America’s at war, and
everything is super gross! Today on Nutty History, we’re covering what Hygiene was like in the highly
infectious Revolutionary War! Give me liberty, or give me death, probably in the form of smallpox.
The American Revolutionary War lasted from 1775 to 1783. This war for independence from the British
Empire was a long and bloody conflict that cost thousands of lives, and the underdog colonial
victory marked the beginning of the United States. But, while they were fighting the British, the
American troops were fighting another war, against disease. And they were losing. Close quarters and
contaminated food and water supplies led to the rampant spread of disease among soldiers.
Plus, poor sanitation often led to infection post-surgery. With unsanitized instruments and no
anesthesia to speak of, soldiers had a less than 40% chance of surviving an operation. Ouch, those
odds hurt. But the bad news didn’t stop there. While American troops met the British in battle,
a deadly epidemic of smallpox was also ravaging the country. Other diseases such as cholera,
dysentery, and syphilis also tore through both the civilian population and the army barracks.
George Washington’s army would end up losing more troops to sickness than to the enemy.
Founding father and later prez John Addams wrote to his wife Abigail, “Disease has destroyed ten
men for us where the sword of the enemy has killed one,” Poetically phrased, but that still sucks.
George Washington, though, understood the importance of good hygiene in preventing disease.
He ordered that soldiers wash their shirts weekly, and their faces and hands daily.
Unfortunately, many soldiers ignored his orders. Some people believed that by bathing,
they were removing important oils from the skin, which made them more vulnerable to diseases. You
might recognize this idea as being completely backwards, but because of it many colonials had
a full bath just a few times a year. To combat the constant disease, a chemical called mercurous
chloride was used to treat syphilis and typhoid fever. The problem, well one of the problems,
was that it was extremely destructive to people’s teeth. Dentistry in general was not exactly super
advanced at this time. If you had a bad tooth, you’d have to go to a barber or, in a pinch,
a blacksmith to have it pulled. People also used a fun little multi tool that was a combination
toothpick, nail cleaner and earwax picker. That… saves space, I guess? Colonial Americans really
wanted to have white teeth, though. To get the finest pearly whites, people concocted a variety
of tooth whitening powders. Unfortunately, these powders often contained caustic chemicals like,
pumice, borax, tobacco, and even gunpowder. As a result, teeth often decayed quickly and fell out.
Like this video if you’re grateful for modern day dental care.
George Washington himself famously suffered from these destructive dental disasters.
He began to lose his teeth at the age of twenty-four, and by the time he was
inaugurated as the first president of the United States he had only one tooth left in his mouth.
This sole surviving chomper was finally pulled in 1796, and Washington let his dentist keep
it as a souvenir. The dentist hung GW’s tooth from his watch chain for easy access to show
it off - though if I was a dentist and my patient lost every single one of his teeth,
I don’t think I would brag about it. Washington famously wore false teeth – but contrary to the
popular myth, they weren’t made of wood. Over the course of his life he had many different sets of
dentures made out of many different substances, including cow and horse teeth, ivory, lead,
copper and silver. He also had a set made from the teeth of enslaved African Americans, because,
yeah, Washington had slaves. And that’s your daily reminder that there are more disturbing things in
history than the icky hygiene practices. Remember all that rampant disease we talked about? Well,
a particularly bad one to catch was syphilis, and one of the effects of syphilis was hair loss.
To cover up baldness, the well-to-do of Europe would wear fancy wigs, and the fashion spread to
the colonies. Really nice ones were expensive, which is where the term ‘bigwig’ comes from.
Wearing one’s hair short and covering it with a wig also helped prevent the spread of lice.
Unfortunately, the sticky pomades used to style these wigs would attract insects who then got
caught in the gunk. Like just about everything else, wigs weren’t washed nearly often enough.
George Washington, however, did not wear these bug filled hair nests and simply powdered his hair to
give it the iconic white color. He was actually a natural redhead! The Revolutionary War was a
difficult first chapter in United State’s history. Many sacrifices were made by many thousands of
people in the name of their ideals. War’s never easy but it was especially hard when ignorance and
disease combined to destroy everything they touched. Still, despite not washing a ton,
complicated men like Washington did what they could to ensure the birth of the country they
envisioned. Let us know what other gnarly hygiene from history you’d like to hear about next!