Figure 1.-- This photograph was taken by Lewis Hein (November 1908) in Chester, South Carolina. The boys are 11-year old Fred Crocker who is wearing long stockings and shoes and his 13-year old brother Willie who is barefoot. The fact that the boys are from the same family and working at the samne oplantvsuggests that it was a matter of personal preference. Willie presumably preferred to go barefoot. Normally the younger boy was more likely to go barefoot. The photo taken in front of the cotton mill where the boys worked. Source: Library of Congress LC-DIG-nclc-01417.

In many photographs we are left to wonder during the late-19th and early-20th centuries about the choice between shoes and long stockings or bare feet, Ourtendency is to assume that the children with bare feet were poor and couldn't afford shoes. That surely was a factor, but there were other factors involved that went beyond economic conditions. Those convention was accepted by people of any conditions. To an extent modesty was involved, perhaps more for girls than boys, at least by the 20th century. Amd there were also personal preferences which should not be discounted. Here we have a family portrait and both boys working. That takes one variable (social class/economics out of the equation. This photograph was taken by Lewis Hein (November 1908) in Chester, South Carolina. The boys are 11-year old Fred Crocker who is wearing long stockings and shoes and his 13-year old brother Willie who is barefoot. The fact that the boys are from the same family and working at the same plant suggests that it was a matter of personal preference. Willie presumably preferred to go barefoot. Normally the younger boy was more likely to go barefoot. Also notice the boys are not wearing flat caps which were becoming popular. The photo taken in front of the cotton mill where the boys worked.

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Created: 7:06 AM 3/29/2011
Last edited: 7:07 AM 3/29/2011