Runaway Ads

A lot of the information that we know about the lower class in the 18th Century comes from ads placed for runaways. Since most of the paintings that exist were done of people that had some kind of money, it can sometimes be hard to derive the clothing of an everyday person from those.

The Virginia Center for Digital History has put together a searchable database for ads placed from 1736 to 1777. This database can be of great help when trying to place certain clothing items. It states that you can "search the ads by gender, age, skill, and intent, among other things." Of course since these are out of Virginia, not all of them would apply to New England, but it still a very useful resource for placing everyday items in the 18th Century.

To view the website go here:

http://people.uvawise.edu/runaways/

Happy searching!!

18th Century Food

Someone shared a fun website on one of the 18th Century groups I am in, and I thought it would be a good one to share here. There is some pretty neat information there.

The website is called Food Timeline.

The description from the website is:

Ever wonder what foods the Vikings ate when they set off to explore the new world? How Thomas Jefferson made his ice cream? What the pioneers cooked along the Oregon Trail? Who invented the potato chip...and why?

Welcome to the Food Timeline! Food history presents a fascinating buffet of popular lore and contradictory facts. Some people will tell you it's impossible to express this topic in exact timeline format. They are correct. Most foods we eat are not invented; they evolve.

They have some of their own information on Colonial Wedding Cakes. And also some link outs to good sites with recipes like one on Firecakes.

I found this site to be very interesting not only for our period, but also just for the history of food in general. I may pull some more specific things from here in the future, but be sure to check them out!

Fort Ticonderoga - Sunday 2008

Poor, poor Fort Ticonderoga. It’s actually one of my favorite places to visit for events, but for some reason it never gets it’s fair place on my blog! Perhaps it’s because it’s the last event of the year, and I am just blogged out by then? Well regardless of the reason, please check out my pictures from the second day of the event in 2008 by viewing my gallery here.

And also please enjoy these videos from the event:

Coming soon – Pictures from 2009!!

Tar and Feathering during the Revolution

Wikipedia has a great write-up about tar and feathering. I am going to summarize some of the information found there, along with hopefully adding in some additional resources. I just want to remind everyone that, Wikipedia is written by anyone and everyone (you could go change that page right now if you wanted to), so take what I am about to say for what it is and for where it comes from. If you are using this post as a resource for a paper of some kind, please remember to research for yourself in more reliable places. But, personally, for what I do here, Wikipedia is fine for me!

First off what is tar and feathering? Wikipedia states this:

Both tar, which was used in and around 1774, and feathers from edible fowl sources (such as chickens and turkeys) were plentiful. In a typical tar-and-feathers attack, the subject of a crowd's anger would be stripped to the waist. Hot tar was either poured or painted onto the person while he or she was immobilized. Then the victim either had feathers thrown on him or was rolled around on a pile of feathers so that they stuck to the tar. Often the victim was then paraded around town on a cart or a rail. The aim was to hurt and humiliate a person enough to leave town and not cause any more mischief.

After the tar had cooled, it and the feathers would have to be peeled or rubbed off with lard, usually taking a good deal of skin with them. These would leave ugly scars and infection could set in. Depending on how "complete" the job was done, there was also a risk of heat stroke as the tar would act as a strong insulator and prevent the skin from breathing.

And Wikipedia also has the following for when it may have been used in the late 1800s:

In October 1769, a mob in Boston attacked a Customs service sailor the same way, and a few similar attacks followed through 1774 (the tarring and feathering of customs worker John Malcolm received particular attention in 1774). Such acts associated the punishment with the Patriot side of the American Revolution. In March 1775, a British regiment inflicted the same treatment on a Massachusetts man they suspected of trying to buy their muskets. There is no case of a person dying from being tarred and feathered in this period.

The PBS website had this to say about Tar and Feathering:

Threatening or attacking the Crown-appointed office-holders became a popular tactic against the act throughout the colonies. Though no stamp commissioner was actually tarred and feathered, this Medieval brutality was a popular form of 18th century mob violence in Great Britain, particularly against tax collectors.

Tarring and feathering dated back to the days of the Crusades and King Richard the Lionhearted. It began to appear in New England seaports in the 1760s and was most often used by patriot mobs against loyalists. Tar was readily available in shipyards and feathers came from any handy pillow. Though the cruelty invariably stopped short of murder, the tar needed to be burning hot for application.

It seems that tar and feathering did happen in the colonies, but not to a great extent. It was actually pretty hard to find conclusive information on this subject, so please feel free to share your information with me in the comments as well!

Back to the Timeline

Fort Ticonderoga 2008 - Friday & Saturday

Fort Ticonderoga was an absolute blast this year! The fort changed where the battle happened, and it seemed to be a much better place to have it. We had good weather, with only a slight amount of rain, and we were able to have lots of good times.

The weekend started off with a bang, quite literally. When we drove in, this is what we were greeted with ...



Yes, that's the road leading into what looks like bushes?? But no it was ...





A tree that literally fell over into the middle of the road. Luckily no one was hurt, and since no one was hurt, it was actually kind of amusing! We had to drive up on the grass, around the tree, and we finally reached ...



Where we signed in ...



The rest of Friday was relatively uneventful, filled with saying hi to everyone, setting up our tent, and just general, overall good times.

Saturday morning Kris and I woke up early and decided to sit out and watch the sunrise. We were not disappointed.







Unfortunately without us there to protect him, Kolby got attacked (saw crawling on the wall of the tent) by a ginormous (relatively medium sized) arachnid (spider). After which he proceeded to scream and cry at the top of his lungs, thus managing to wake all those around him. We quickly came to his rescue and moved on to more morningish type things.



Breakfast was cooked and served by Glen.







And it was enjoyed by all ...





Lunch came next, we had a super yummy pasta salad by June and sandwiches prepared by Lori.







The boys marched off to battle ...

The rest of our men manned the cannon ...





The ladies waited for their return …



The musicians got ready ...



and the battle got started ...





During the battle dinner was put over the fire...



And the women worked on weaving, game playing, and sewing ...







All the while, the battle soldiered on ...















There were a few causalities ...



But those were British, so yay for us! The battle went very well. The men returned home, we ate our dinner and had a casual night of chit chatting.



To see the rest of the pictures from Friday and Saturday, be sure to check out my album here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I hope all of you out there in blogland have a great and filling day (that is if you are from the US!).

I have a lot to be thankful for this year, but I am most thankful for having found this hobby of reenacting. It is a true joy in my life, and the memories my family and I are creating are worth every dollar we have spent ten-fold (at the very least).

I am also very thankful for the 2,632 of you that have visited my blog 4,050 times since early March when I really started posting to this crazy thing!

And I am thankful that my blog was of some use to those that found my blog through various search engines 1,623 times over the year.

I am also very thankful for the comments that have been left for me, it brightens my day to see your reactions to my posts.

Now go on out and count your RevWar blessings and Party Like It's 1621!!