Europe, Going Backwards in Time While USA Keeps on Going Forwards

The Romans were not the 1st to have bathing in their lives. The earliest discovered plumbing systems date back to nearly 6000 years ago near the Indus River Valley in India where archaeologists actually discovered copper water pipes in the excavation of the ruins of a palace in the vicinity. However, if we fast forward 3000 years ahead, this is about the time that the first ‘ancestral’ pedestal tub was unearthed on the island of Crete, it measured at five feet long, was made of hard pottery, and its shape resembled our modern 19th-century claw foot tub.

The Romans had built several public bathhouses throughout their empire, including the famous one in the eponymous town of Bath, England. Many of these survived, at least in part, and several more were established, which the general public in the Middle Ages could use to get clean. In Southward alone, across the Thames from London, one had the choice of 18 different hot baths.

Nadene Goldfoot                                           

Wherever the Roman army went, they brought bathing, even to Britain.
It was their form of relaxation.  " In both 55 and 54 BC, Julius Caesar had invaded Britain with the aim of conquest.  " "The Britains") was the area of the island of Great Britain that was governed by the Roman Empire, from 43 to 410 AD. It comprised almost all of England and Wales and, for a short period, southern Scotland."

Europe went through the Dark Ages after being in enlightened ones believing in bathing.  The Romans enjoyed bathing and had something like shallow swimming pools in their estates where they entertained while getting cleaner.  

"Dark Ages , the early medieval period of western European history—specifically, the time (476–800 CE) when there was no Roman (or Holy Roman) emperor in the West or, more generally, the period between about 500 and 1000, which was marked by frequent warfare.  People were amazing if they bathed once a year!  Read "FOREVER AMBER" to get a feel of those times of the Medieval times, perhaps even with worse bathing abilities. .  

If people could afford a to have private bath – and not many could – they would use a wooden tub that could also have a tent-like cloth on top of it.

St Fintan of Clonenagh was said to take a bath only once a year, just before Easter, for twenty-four years. Meanwhile, the Anglo-Saxons believed that the Vikings were overly concerned with cleanliness since they took a bath once a week!"  Well, the Vikings are another story, not to be included as the Europeans this time, then.  They were too clean.
                             

                                        

Our American early immigrants were known to take a bath once a week on a Saturday night.  They kept a wooden tub for the occasion, and probably the water was used by the whole family; parents first.  In their bedrooms they kept a pitcher of water and a bowl for freshening up that are now antique pieces, and quite fetching at that.    

Then along comes Europe, with the Brits having been civilized by the Romans enough to fight for them, and they rarely bathed.  What they did was employ the French practice of using perfumes on top of sweat and odor in a vain attempt to alter it.  "

Early summer AD 43

Emperor Claudius orders the invasion of Britain

"An army of four legions" (20,000 men) "and approximately 20,000 auxiliaries, commanded by senator Aulus Plautius, landed at Richborough, Kent. The Romans met a large army of Britons, under the Catuvellauni kings Caratacus and his brother Togodumnus, on the River Medway, Kent. The Britons were defeated in a two-day battle, then again shortly afterwards on the Thames. Togodumnus died and Caratacus withdrew to more defensible terrain to the west. "                                                                               

We broke off from the English who had only one approved way of believing in G-d, and that was the king's way, who needed to divorce his latest wife when divorce wasn't allowed, so being the king-changed the rules of the country's religion.  That was fine with most of the people, but when it came to 1600 and people called the Puritans wanted a more pure form of religion-theirs-practiced in the church, weren't allowed to do it.  What did they do?  Move to the more enlightened country of The Netherlands (Holland) and practice what they had been preaching.  
                                                                           

Leaving Holland for Massachusetts in 1620 on Mayflower and Speedwell.  
It wasn't until 1883 that the bathtub would be invented. "

In 1883, an American man by the name of John Michael Kohler invented the world's first bathtub. He took a cast-iron horse trough and added four decorative feet to the bottom of it and covered it in an enamel finish.  I always 

thought it was Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). He was known to take air baths for health.  

They came over on the Mayflower in 1620, a brave lot, most of which would die withing the next year of landing there, but they had a dream of freedom of religion (their religion.)
                                                                         
When it came time for a small boatload of Sephardic Jews to arrive in their waters, they weren't allowed to land because they were Jews.  It took their boss back in Holland to explain to the religious freedom fighters of New Amsterdam that this boat happened to have some of the owners of the company in it, and yes, they were Jewish.  Did they want to continue working under their employment?  The answer was in allowing them to land.                                 

Dressed in Blue were the American soldiers,
our Continental army

                                                                       

Dressed in red were the British soldiers

Our USA flag made by Betsy Ross by hand for 1776 and George Washington
The 13 stars were for the 13 colonies that united as one.
We had to fight against the British (England) to gain our independence.  

Now so many Americans think that what Europe does and say is the correct way to be.  They are so-gauche.  Yet this was the people who we had left, seeking a new land and ways of doing things.  242 years ago we celebrated our American 1st birthday on July 4, 1776.  We've led the charge and came to the rescue of Europe in WWI from 1914 to 1917, and again WWII from 1941 to 1945, and we've led the world in many ways before and after.  Why have we suddenly stopped being creative in our thinking and feel we must bow to the Europeans?  They've been following our lead!  

                                                 

The Mayflower was hired in London, and sailed from London to Southampton in July 1620 to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage--much of which was  purchased at Southampton.  The Pilgrims were mostly still living in the city of Leiden, in the Netherlands.  They hired a ship called the Speedwell to take them from Delfshaven, the Netherlands, to Southampton, England, to meet up with the Mayflower.  The two ships planned to sail together to Northern Virginia.  The Speedwell departed Delfthaven on July 22, and arrived at Southampton, where they found the Mayflower. There were 102 passengers, and the crew is estimated to have been about 30, but the exact number is unknown.  All must have been daring and brave to take such a trip.  

      The Mayflower had a boatload in creative thinkers on it.  Notice that they left Europe so they could continue and prosper; both in their religion and in life. 
                                                         

John Carver, deacon of their church, signed.  William Bradford, early convert to their Separatist Church, signed.  His wife drowned after  boarding.  Edward Winslow, wealthy churchman, signed.  William Brewster was part of execution of Mary, Queen of Scots and member of this church as a ruling elder, signed. It was ratified by forty-one men on board the Pilgrim ship Mayflower on November 11, 1620 while anchored at Cape Cod, now Provincetown Harbor in Massachusetts.  

They wrote up the MAYFLOWER COMPACT on how to live in the new world and understand this before they even set foot on the soil.  It was a good start.  Only free adult males could sign the compact in those days.  The concept of freeman went back centuries in England to describe a man who was not a serf, but who enjoyed the freedom of a town.  Later it expanded to be a shareholder in a corporation.  The Massachusetts Bay Corporation  elected assistants annually, and the freemen had the supreme legislative power.  In the Winthrop Fleet of ships that came over in 1630, only ones who were freemen were the governor, deputy governor, and some of the 18 assistants.  
                                                                       

"The Winthrop Fleet was a group of 11 ships led by John Winthrop out of a total of 16 funded by the Massachusetts Bay Company which together carried between 700 and 1,000 Puritans plus livestock and provisions from England to New England over the summer of 1630, during the first period of the Great Migration."  Thus was the start of our nation.  

There was a reason why the first to this land were from Britain.  It was an island nation, quite used to sailing in their ships.  Though they may have taken a bath in the ocean once in a while and not bothered with bathing per se, they were good at their craft of sailing.  The Winthrop Fleet came to rescue the Mayflower's people, but were too late to save all of them.  They did come more prepared with more ships, though.  Later on the other Europeans will find their way here ...and in other ships.  T.  

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_conquest_of_Britain
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/08/27/bathing-middle-ages/
http://mayflowerhistory.com/voyage/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower_Compact_signatories