The word pilgrim was
never used by the actual people it describes. It is a myth that
pilgrims wore only black and white clothing and had buckles on
their hats, garments, and shoes.
The Church of England Separatists living in Plymouth during the
1600s were much more colorful than story books portray. Black and
white were commonly worn only on Sunday and formal occasions and
women typically dressed in red, earthy green, brown, blue, violet,
and gray, while men wore clothing in white, beige, black, earthy
green, and brown. Buckles did not come into fashion until late in
the seventeenth century.
Colonists (pilgrims and puritans) did not live in log cabins. The
log cabin did not appear in America until late in the seventeenth
century, when it was introduced by Germans and Swedes. Log cabins
were virtually unknown in England at the time the Pilgrims arrived
in America. Pilgrims lived in wood clapboard houses made from
sawed lumber.
Pilgrims and Puritans were two different groups. The Pilgrims came
over on the Mayflower and lived in Plymouth. The Puritans, arrived
a decade later, settled in Boston, and came to America strictly in
search of religious freedom. They did not welcome dissent.
Puritans considered the Pilgrims incurable utopians. While both
shared the belief that the Church of England had become corrupt,
only the Pilgrims believed it was beyond redemption. They
therefore chose the path of Separatism. Puritans held out the hope
the church would reform.
Puritans welcomed laughter and upper class dressed in bright
colors, but lower classes dressed in dark clothes. The anti-liquor
and anti-sex attitudes usually attributed to the Puritans are a
nineteenth-century addition to the views of early settlers in New
England.