Day & Evening Dresses Front (Right)

In contrast to the stiff underpinnings worn throughout the 18th century, the minimal gowns of the 1790s were a fashionable reflection of the spirit of Libertas. True liberty was not available to all, however. At the same time that dresses styled à l’antique freed fashionable Richmond women from 18th century underpinnings, American legislators limited voting rights to white male propertyowners and perpetuated the black slave trade in centers like Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom.