The British Are Coming, Y'all!

Winners from the 2012 Week-Long Fourth of July

Essayist: Peggy Earp
Contribution: two copies of DVD on spinning
Winners: Jill Vassilakos-Long, Sandra

Essayist: Don Hagist
Contribution: copy of A British Soldier's Story
Winner: Matt Casey

Essayist: Christine Blevins
Contribution 1: copy of The Tory Widow and The Turning of Anne Merrick
Winner: Warren Bull
Contribution 2: Revolutionary survival kit
Winner: Lucia Pannacci
Contribution 3: stationery bundle
Winner: Linda

Essayist: John Buchanan
Contribution: copy of The Road to Guilford Courthouse
Winner: Jenny Q

Essayists: Suzanne Adair, Don Troiani
Contribution: two copies of Regulated for Murder
Winners: Laura Tarbutton, Don Hagist

Congratulations to all the winners!

Thanks to my wonderful essayists who contributed so much to this year's program. Thanks, also, to everyone who visited and commented on Relevant History last week. Watch for another Relevant History post, coming soon.

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The Counsel of the Founders

Welcome to my blog, "The British Are Coming, Y'all!" The week of 29 June – 5 July, I'm participating with more than two hundred other bloggers in the "Freedom to Read" giveaway hop, accessed by clicking on the logo at the left. All blogs listed in this hop offer book-related giveaways, and we're all linked, so you can easily hop from one giveaway to another. But here on my blog, I'm posting a week of Relevant History essays, each one focused on some facet of the American War of Independence. To find out how to qualify for the giveaways on my blog, read through each day's Relevant History post below and follow the directions. Then click on the Freedom Hop logo so you can move along to another blog. Enjoy!

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Earlier this year, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee. Much has been made of a poll finding that, among Americans, the queen had a 61% approval rating while President Obama's approval rating was a mere 45%. Some Americans declared, "Yes! Let's return to the fold!" Brits quipped, "We welcome you, as long as you pay that back tax on tea first!"

Those findings don't mean that most Americans are ready to chuck it all and leap into the lap of monarchy. The poll compares an elected official with a non-elected official. So it's an "apples and oranges" comparison.

However Americans are undeniably fascinated with Britain. Helped along by Hollywood and American mythology, Britain represents an icon of both urbanity and villainy. Many Americans with ancestors from the British Isles succumb to the genetic pull and vacation in the UK. And let's face it, the Brits do pageantry 24/7 to the heights that Americans, caught up in Calvinistic roots, cannot begin to approach—although certain annual events such as the Kentucky Derby come close.

The year 2012 is an election year in America. A good many "issues" are on the table. People are disgruntled. Beneath everyone's vitriolic exchanges over the issues, the suspicion skulks for many Americans that the country is tromping through a tangled, endless forest. That it stepped off a path defined by founders more than two hundred years ago. And that squabbling over issues is not what the founders envisioned for the future of America.

It so happens that the country's founders addressed a number of these hot issues in their speeches and writings. Read the counsel of America's founders:

"Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor." (Thomas Jefferson)

"I have already intimated to you the danger of Parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on Geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party, generally." (George Washington)

"The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries." (John Adams)

"If we mean to have Heroes, Statesmen and Philosophers, we should have learned women." (Abigail Adams)

"Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war." (John Adams)

"Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations." (James Madison)

"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious." (Thomas Jefferson)

"And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together." (James Madison)

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State." (Thomas Jefferson)

Did any of that resonate with you? Do American people know that the country's founders said these things? Do you get the feeling that America would be better off if citizens actually took the counsel of the founders?

This week, my guests have covered territory that was probably omitted from your high school history class. Omitted details often point to lessons we should be learning about human nature, religion, government, and society. In other words, they're what makes history relevant.

We aren't learning from history very well. Why does this matter? Because every time we don't learn a lesson, we risk making a costly mistake. Ask yourself what can be done about it. (And the answer isn't leaping into the lap of monarchy.)

This second annual week-long Fourth of July wouldn't have been possible without you or my talented guests: Don Troiani, Peggy Earp, Don Hagist, Christine Blevins, and John Buchanan. What worlds can they open for you? Browse back through the posts. Look for their works. Then comment here on something you learned at "The British Are Coming, Y'all!" this week that made history relevant to you. Thanks for stopping by!

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Contribute a legitimate comment on this post by today at 6 p.m. ET to be entered in a drawing to win one of two autographed copies of Regulated for Murder. Delivery is available worldwide. Make sure you include your email address. I'll publish the names of all drawing winners on my blog the week of 9 July.

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Did you like what you read? Learn about downloads, discounts, and special offers from Relevant History authors and Suzanne Adair. Subscribe to Suzanne's free newsletter.

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"A Successful Battle May Give Us America"

Happy Fourth of July! Welcome to my blog, "The British Are Coming, Y'all!" The week of 29 June – 5 July, I'm participating with more than two hundred other bloggers in the "Freedom to Read" giveaway hop, accessed by clicking on the logo at the left. All blogs listed in this hop offer book-related giveaways, and we're all linked, so you can easily hop from one giveaway to another. But here on my blog, I'm posting a week of Relevant History essays, each one focused on some facet of the American War of Independence. To find out how to qualify for the giveaways on my blog, read through each day's Relevant History post below and follow the directions. Then click on the Freedom Hop logo so you can move along to another blog. Enjoy!

Today for a few hours, my sons and I will be at the Joel Lane Museum House in historical clothing, talking with visitors about patriot Joel Lane and the Revolutionary War in North Carolina. If you’re in the Raleigh area, stop by and say hello. Musket drills and firings, games for the children, tours of the house, and plenty of cool lemonade. 

 

Relevant History welcomes John Buchanan, author of the highly regarded The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas. For over two decades he was Chief Registrar of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in charge of worldwide art movements. His other books are Jackson’s Way: Andrew Jackson and the People of the Western Waters; The Road to Valley Forge: How Washington Built the Army That Won the Revolution; and a novel of the Cold War, The Rise of Stefan Gregorovic. His short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. For more information, check his web site.

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About a year ago, as he was preparing to retire as Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates said that in the future, any advisor to a President of the United States who recommended placing a large American land army on the Asian continent "...should have his head examined." In the context of the American Revolution, the same might be said of British generals, backed by George III's ministers, who cut themselves off from the lifeline of the British Navy and invaded the dangerous American backcountry. "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne lost his army at Saratoga in the wilds of northern New York State. And three years later our story begins with Lieutenant General Charles, Second Earl Cornwallis, deep in the Carolina backcountry, chasing ghosts.

In October 1780, Cornwallis was poised in Charlotte, North Carolina, to drive northward, reclaim the state for the crown, destroy the remnants of the Continental army he had scattered at the Battle of Camden, and then perhaps push on into Virginia. But on 7 October, 1100 Tory militiamen under the British officer Major Patrick Ferguson, who were protecting Cornwallis's left wing, were wiped out at King's Mountain, South Carolina by backcountry militia and Overmountain Men from beyond the Appalachians. His left wing in the air, believing incorrectly that he was in danger from thousands of rebels descending on him from the west, Cornwallis retreated to winter quarters in South Carolina.

Once again the British attempt to re-conquer the Carolinas had run up against a fierce guerilla campaign that had begun in the backcountry in the summer of 1780. The irony of the Revolution in South Carolina is that it was started by the Low Country Rice Kings and saved by the backcountry militia, whom the Rice Kings scorned as a "pack of beggars." Yet it was those men, horsemen all, who waged a sweeping war of movement, maintained their allegiance to the Cause despite two disasters to Continental armies, demoralized the Tory militia, and held their own against British and provincial regulars in classic guerilla style in actions large and small, some lost to memory in the mists of time.

But they could not win the war in the South by themselves. Their great contribution was to the gain the time necessary for there to appear on the scene two Continental generals who had much to teach Lord Cornwallis and his subordinates about the art of war: Major General Nathanael Greene and his deputy, Brigadier General Daniel Morgan.

 Fearful that Morgan's detached force of regular light troops, the cream of Greene's army, was threatening one of his major backcountry posts, Cornwallis sent his celebrated cavalry commander, Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, to deal with the threat. Morgan and Tarleton met in battle on 17 January 1781 on the field of Cowpens, South Carolina. In the tactical masterpiece of the war, Morgan combined regulars and militia and destroyed most of Tarleton's light troops, the eyes and ears of Cornwallis's army.

In a rage over his loss, Cornwallis burned his cumbersome baggage train and set off in pursuit of Morgan, and then Greene after the two American forces merged. At Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina, Greene and Cornwallis fought a battle described by Greene as "long, obstinate, and bloody." By eighteenth-century standards, Cornwallis won, for at the end he occupied the field while Greene withdrew. But in winning, His Lordship had ruined his army. His losses heavy, deep in the backcountry swarming with foes, Cornwallis was forced to withdraw to Wilmington, North Carolina, on the coast. There he wrote to a fellow general, "I assure you that I am quite tired of marching about the country in quest of adventures." His plan now was to "bring our whole force into Virginia," where "a successful battle may give us America."

While Nathanael Greene artfully combined the respective talents of regulars and militia and proceeded to liberate South Carolina and Georgia, Lord Cornwallis pursued his delusion of a "successful battle" to win America. He turned his worn and decimated army northward, where he found more adventures and fulfilled his American destiny: in a village in Virginia called Yorktown.

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A big thanks to John Buchanan. He'll give away an autographed copy of The Road to Guilford Courthouse in trade paperback format to someone who contributes a legitimate comment on my blog today or tomorrow. Delivery is available worldwide. Make sure you include your email address. I'll choose one winner from among those who comment on this post by Thursday 5 July at 6 p.m. ET, then publish the name of all drawing winners on my blog the week of 9 July. And remember that anyone who comments on this post by the 5 July deadline will also be entered in the drawing to win one of two autographed copies of my book, Regulated for Murder: A Michael Stoddard American Revolution Thriller.

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Did you like what you read? Learn about downloads, discounts, and special offers from Relevant History authors and Suzanne Adair. Subscribe to Suzanne's free newsletter.

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The Taste of Revolution

Welcome to my blog, "The British Are Coming, Y'all!" The week of 29 June – 5 July, I'm participating with more than two hundred other bloggers in the "Freedom to Read" giveaway hop, accessed by clicking on the logo at the left. All blogs listed in this hop offer book-related giveaways, and we're all linked, so you can easily hop from one giveaway to another. But here on my blog, I'm posting a week of Relevant History essays, each one focused on some facet of the American War of Independence. To find out how to qualify for the giveaways on my blog, read through each day's Relevant History post below and follow the directions. Then click on the Freedom Hop logo so you can move along to another blog. Enjoy!

Relevant History welcomes Christine Blevins, who writes what she loves to read – historical adventure stories. The Turning of Anne Merrick is the second in a three-book series set during the American Revolution, and the companion book to The Tory Widow. A native Chicagoan, Christine lives in Elmhurst, Illinois, along with her husband Brian, and The Dude, a very silly golden-doodle. She is at work finishing the third novel inspired by a lifelong fascination with the foundations of American history and the revolutionary spirit. For more information, check her web site.

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Because I find so much pleasure in cooking and eating, I tend to feature comestibles and cooking in my novels. These types of delicious historical tidbits are among the most fun to research, and it is always such a delight to try and weave the tastiest of them into the story.

While writing The Turning of Anne Merrick, I would easily get lost in learning about Iroquoian techniques for cooking and eating indigenous woodland ingredients, like the snack "chips" made from the inner bark of a white pine the Oneidan scout Neddy made for Jack Hampton. It was fascinating to find out how soldiers like Titus Gilmore prepared standard but ingenious Army rations like Pocket Soup, and then compare that to the elaborate meals prepared in the "French Style" by the British General Burgoyne while in the middle of the wilderness on campaign. [Note from Suzanne Adair: In my first book, Paper Woman: A Mystery of the American Revolution, Sophie Barton and her friends use pocket soup aka "soup squares" while on the trail.]

Though most goodwives might write down and keep a collection of their receipts, published cookbooks of the period were few and far between. One of the best sources I used is considered the first American cookbook. With the ponderous title of American Cookery, or the Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry and Vegetables, and the Best Modes of Making Pastes, Puffs, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custards and Preserves, and All Kinds of Cakes, from the Imperial Plumb to Plain Cake. Adapted to this Country, and all Grades of Life by Amelia Simmons, it was first published in 1796.

When I read these recipes, not only can the ingredients and preparations seem odd (and sometimes gross) the recipe "prose" quite often brings a smile to my face. I am always struck by the quaint and descriptive terminology used — a stew is "simmered softly," and one should "milk your cow directly into" the syllabub. Without standardized measurement, 18th-century cooks relied on "handfuls" and "pinches," or most often, the recipe didn't even bother with exact amounts.

The founders would have a hard time recognizing most of the food and drink we 21st-century Americans consume. Here is a sampling of what you might find to eat and drink once you climbed out of your time travel machine in 1776:

Sons & Daughters of Liberty! Give memorable Proof of your patriotism and abstain from the Pernicious Custom of drinking British tea.

A Receipt for a Proper Liberty Tea

Blend in equal parts: Lemon Balm, Rose Petals, Lavender Flowers and Crushed Red Root. Steep a generous pinch in a pint of boilt water. Pour and strain. If you are fortunate, sweeten with a lump of shop sugar and a good measure of rich cream.

Mom not only brewed the libation, she made the yeast!

Spruce Beer

Take four ounces of hops, let them boil half an hour in one gallon of water, strain the hop water then add sixteen gallons of warm water, two gallons of molasses, eight ounces of essence of spruce, dissolved in one quart of water, put it in a clean cask, then shake it well together, add half a pint of emptins (see below) then let it stand and work one week, if very warm weather less time will do, when it is drawn off to bottle, add one spoonful of molasses to every bottle.

Emptins (yeast):Take a handful of hops and about three quarts of water, let it boil about fifteen minutes, then make a thickening as you do for starch, strain the liquor, when cold put a little emptins to work them, they will keep well cork'd in a bottle five or six weeks.

Who can resist a recipe that begins with the words "Take a large rattlesnake…"?

Snake Stew

Take a large rattlesnake; skin, gut, and wash it until clean; cut into pieces no longer than the two joints on your finger. Set meat into a clean pot and put to them a gallon of water. Season well with a handful of salt, a blade or two of mace, whole pepper black and white, a whole onion stuck with six or seven cloves, a bundle of sweet herbs, and a nutmeg. Cover the pot and let all stew softly until the meat is tender, but not too much done. Pick the meat out onto a dish. Strain the pot liquor through a coarse sieve. Return the meat; cut carrots into coins and add with peeled Irish potatoes. Take a piece of butter as big as a walnut and roll in flour. Put into pot with one cupful each of catchup, and sack; Stew till thick and smooth and send to the table speckled with minced parsley.

Got cow? Then you got dessert!

To make a fine Syllabub from the Cow

Sweeten a quart of cider with double refined sugar, grate nutmeg into it, then milk your cow into your liquor, when you have thus added what quantity of milk you think proper, pour half a pint or more, in proportion to the quantity of syllabub you make, of the sweetest cream you can get all over it.

 

Notes: Liberty Tea and Snake Stew recipes were adapted and written by Christine Blevins (after much and thorough research). The Snake Stew recipe appears in The Turning of Anne Merrick as a device for hiding the a secret message sent from Anne Merrick to Jack Hampton, and written between the lines in invisible ink.

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A big thanks to Christine Blevins. She'll provide giveaways (see below) to three people who contribute legitimate comments on my blog today or tomorrow. Make sure you include your email address. I'll choose the winners from among those who comment on this post by Wednesday 4 July at 6 p.m. ET, then publish the names of all drawing winners on my blog the week of 9 July. And anyone who comments on this post by the 4 July deadline will also be entered in the drawing to win one of two copies of my book Regulated for Murder: A Michael Stoddard American Revolution Thriller.

 

 

1st prize: One autographed copy each of The Tory Widow and The Turning of Anne Merrick in trade paperback format. Delivery is available worldwide.

 

 

2nd prize: A Revolutionary Survival Kit which includes black tea, liberty tea, lavender soap, lavender sachet, bayberry candles, a tin of sugar comfits, a bottle of lavender water, and a lace hanky. Delivery is available worldwide.

 

 

3rd prize: An 18th-century stationery bundle that's perfect for keeping track of your favorite recipes. The bundle is decorated with a quill and wrapped for convenient stowing in your cupboard. Delivery is available worldwide.

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Did you like what you read? Learn about downloads, discounts, and special offers from Relevant History authors and Suzanne Adair. Subscribe to Suzanne's free newsletter.

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The Courtship of Lt. Row and Jenny Innes

Welcome to my blog, "The British Are Coming, Y'all!" The week of 29 June – 5 July, I'm participating with more than two hundred other bloggers in the "Freedom to Read" giveaway hop, accessed by clicking on the logo at the left. All blogs listed in this hop offer book-related giveaways, and we're all linked, so you can easily hop from one giveaway to another. But here on my blog, I'm posting a week of Relevant History essays, each one focused on some facet of the American War of Independence. To find out how to qualify for the giveaways on my blog, read through each day's Relevant History post below and follow the directions. Then click on the Freedom Hop logo so you can move along to another blog. Enjoy!

Relevant History welcomes Don Hagist, an independent researcher specializing in the demographics and material culture of the British Army in the American Revolution. He has written numerous articles and three books on the subject, using primary sources to reveal personal information about British soldiers and their wives in America. His fourth book, British Soldiers, American War will be released from Westholme Publishing in November 2012. He maintains a blog about British common soldiers, and his books are available from Revolutionary Imprints, also a source for first-hand accounts of the American Revolution.

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John Row was a British officer in the 9th Regiment of Foot, and he was in love with Jenny Innes. For six years their courtship was maintained largely by correspondence due to separations during his military career. I recently perused dozens of their letters that survive in the National Archives of Scotland, revealing a touching love story and a surprising visual treasure.

Row began writing to Jenny from Dublin in 1775, soon after they had met. They hadn't made their mutual interest known to her family and agreed to limit their correspondence so as not to arouse suspicions. The next year, however, saw the 32-year-old officer embarking to join the war in America, bound for "Quebec which is not the worst Country in the World."

Row's letters from America are not particularly informative. (A soldier in his regiment, Roger Lamb, left a detailed chronicle of the 9th Regiment's service. Lamb later transferred to the 23rd Regiment and Cornwallis's army, and his chronicle includes details of his military action in the Southern theater.) From Quebec, Row apologized in letter after letter for writing so frequently, since he did not know when the next opportunity would arise. A long winter in lonely isolated quarters curtained their correspondence, which resumed only briefly in the spring of 1777 before a new campaign began. In the mean time Row had received only one letter from Jenny since departing Ireland, and he feared for her health as she battled respiratory complaints.

It was Lt. Row's own health, however, that caused the next hiatus. In November 1777 he wrote from London, informing Jenny that he had been wounded in the right knee at the Battle of Hubbardton on 7 July 1777. In Great Britain to recover, he hoped to return to his regiment in the spring. The campaign he'd left had gone badly, though, and the 9th Regiment was in captivity after the British capitulation at Saratoga. Row returned to Scotland, spent time with Jenny and negotiated with her family. This sojourn was a short one, however, as Row had his career to attend to.

There was nothing in Britain for a zealous officer determined to distinguish himself. In 1779 Row was able to obtain a captain's commission in a new regiment, the 85th Regiment of Foot, being raised for service in the rapidly-expanding war. Jenny objected to his choice, for not only would it keep them apart but it also stood to put him at risk if the regiment was sent abroad. He nonetheless related details of his recruiting and training activities.

Within a few months the 85th Regiment was fit for service and received orders for the West Indies. Jenny was mortified and wrote a long letter expressing her dire concerns for her beloved's fate. Hadn't he already risked enough and suffered enough? Not only would the climate be his enemy, but he would be exposed to greater danger because the effects of his wound made him less adroit than younger officers. Having stated her misgivings, she agreed to say no more on the subject.

As the 85th was preparing to embark, a painter arrived at the port offering his services to officers who knew they might be leaving their homeland for the last time. Row commissioned a portrait for Jenny, which the artist prepared for by using a projection machine to create a silhouette. Row mailed the silhouette to Jenny on 30 March 1780, and this rare image remains enclosed in the letter to this day. Seen here, it is a fascinating look at this man who zealously sought to balance love for a lady and a career.

Or, at least, it might be John Row. Row's own comments about the silhouette cast interesting doubts on the likeness:

My Dear Jenny,

Inclosed I send you my shade in profile but which from my opinion of it is either badly taken, or else I make a very bad one which the person who took it tells me is the case of every one who has not high features…I appear the most stupid insipid looking fellow imaginable, and to compleat my mortification every one tells me that it is a most striking likeness.

In a subsequent letter Row went so far as to suppose that the artist had accidentally given him the silhouette of another officer. Jenny made no comment on the silhouette, but when she received the portrait she was as unimpressed with it as she was with his decision to go overseas. She wrote:

I was somewhat disappointed with the Crayon as I do not think it a favourable likeness especially in the under part of the face, in the upper it resembles you more & place it at a considerable distance & it is certainly upon the whole like, but it is a bad resemblance coarsely done & with materials which discolour & fade very soon. I however return you my thanks for it such as it is…

It is unfortunate that Jenny was so indifferent to the portrait, for it was the last image of her suitor that would ever greet her eyes. Her fears about John Row's safety were realized. He died in September 1780, just ten weeks after arriving in the West Indies, victim not to battle but to contagious diseases that carried off nearly half of his regiment.

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A big thanks to Don Hagist. He'll give away an autographed copy of A British Soldier's Story: Roger Lamb's Narrative of the American Revolution in trade paperback format to someone who contributes a legitimate comment on my blog today or tomorrow. Delivery is available worldwide. Make sure you include your email address. I'll choose one winner from among those who comment on this post by Tuesday 3 July at 6 p.m. ET, then publish the name of all drawing winners on my blog the week of 9 July. And anyone who comments on this post by the 3 July deadline will also be entered in the drawing to win one of two autographed copies of my book Regulated for Murder: A Michael Stoddard American Revolution Thriller.

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Did you like what you read? Learn about downloads, discounts, and special offers from Relevant History authors and Suzanne Adair. Subscribe to Suzanne's free newsletter.

Enter your email address:

The Trials of Clothing the 18th-Century Family

Welcome to my blog, "The British Are Coming, Y'all!" The week of 29 June – 5 July, I'm participating with more than two hundred other bloggers in the "Freedom to Read" giveaway hop, accessed by clicking on the logo at the left. All blogs listed in this hop offer book-related giveaways, and we're all linked, so you can easily hop from one giveaway to another. But here on my blog, I'm posting a week of Relevant History essays, each one focused on some facet of the American War of Independence. To find out how to qualify for the giveaways on my blog, read through each day's Relevant History post below and follow the directions. Then click on the Freedom Hop logo so you can move along to another blog. Enjoy!

Relevant History welcomes Peggy Earp, currently a resident of Lexington, Tennessee and the former co-owner of 96 District Fabrics, a provider of period-correct fabrics. Originally from Oklahoma, Peggy lived in South Carolina for twenty years along with her husband and two children before moving to Tennessee last September. After selling their business this year, she and her husband are enjoying a life of semi-retirement, and looking forward to the birth of their first grandchild. For more information, contact her through email at peggyearp (at) gmail (dot) com.

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The year is 1775, and I live in the backcountry of western South Carolina with my husband and five children. We have forty acres, two mules, and a two room cabin with a loft. When I came here from northern Virginia as a newlywed, I had never considered the daily realities of feeding, clothing, and keeping healthy seven people.

In 1995 my husband, Dennis, and I, along with our children, began volunteering at Ninety Six National Historic Site, in Ninety Six, South Carolina. Through volunteering, we began our quest for knowledge of the Revolutionary War and the domestic activities of daily life during that period. The life of the soldier is well documented, but what about the family left at home: whether in town or the sparsely-settled countryside?

Many times over the last fifteen years, I have considered the beginning scenario above. If I were this wife and mother, what would I have done? How would we have lived? How would I have provided for my children?

As we began researching the Revolutionary War, I developed a deep interest in the textiles of the era. Could our family, by our own hands, have provided all our own fabric for bedding, linens, and clothing? Could we have furnished ourselves with warm woolen cloth for winter clothes? What would producing our own wool entail? We would have to raise the sheep, shear them in the spring, wash the wool, card and spin the wool into yarn, and then weave the wool into woolen fabric.

If we were to have nice linen fabrics, could we have possibly be able to produce that fabric from start to finish? Could we have planted, grown, and harvested the flax? Could we have retted, scutched, hackled, spun the flax into linen thread, and then woven the thread into fabric?

Could my family have produced all our cloth? It is my personal opinion, that no, we could not. Not even close.

Up until January of this year, Dennis and I owned a fabric supply business. We specialized in period-correct fabrics for reenactors, museums, historic sites, and movie productions. We traveled up and down the east coast, attending living history events. Early on, while speaking with the general public, I discovered that most people assume that in the "olden days," everyone provided all needed items for themselves. That there were no places to buy ready-made clothes, or yard goods for making your own clothes.

What did the average family do about fabric and clothing? Did they provide for themselves, or did they barter or buy clothes and cloth? In my search for answers, I have concluded that what families could provide for themselves in 1775 is as varied as what families can provide for themselves today.

Most did not have enough land for growing sheep for wool, or for planting flax or cotton. Nor did they have enough hands for tilling, planting, tending, and harvesting. Children were taught at an early age to help with whatever chores were necessary for survival. Boys were taught farming, hunting, chopping wood, and other activities. Girls were taught cooking, sewing, spinning, and weaving.

But not all families were equal. Some families had all boys, or all girls, or had no children. Some families were plagued with illness, or with the death of one spouse. What did they do to meet these challenges?

Most families did make their own clothes, especially their underclothes. They were well-made, handed down, patched as needed, altered, until they were generally used up. The rags were then used for many purposes or sold to the rag picker. Some families did grow sheep and sell the wool, or maybe spun the wool into yarn, and used the yarn to barter for cloth goods. Or they grew linen or cotton and sold or traded it either as raw goods or as spun thead or woven cloth.

The possiblilties are countless as to how they obtained their fabric. In western South Carolina there were several trading posts in the late 18th century. Their inventory lists show an extensive variety of cloth.

There were also many itinerant spinners and weavers. You could grow you own wool or flax, and then wait until the spinner came by on their circuit. You provided housing for them for several weeks while they spun all the season's wool into yarn or flax into thread. Or maybe you had the means to spin your own yarn, and the weaver came and wove all the yarn into cloth.

Many of the large landholders did provide a good portion of their own fabric. They had slaves or indentured servants to perform all the labor. They could then produce enough cloth for the household linens and clothes for the servants. They may have custom-ordered clothing for the immediate family from the local seamtress, from Charles Town, or from England, depending on their weath.

In January of this year, Dennis and I sold our textile business. But this has not diminished my desire to learn more about fabrics and their manufacture in the 18th-century American South. My research goes on!

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A big thanks to Peggy Earp. She'll give away instructional DVDs from Renee Gillespie on spinning with a drop spindle or spinning wheel to two people who contribute legitimate comments on my blog today or tomorrow. Delivery is available worldwide. Make sure you include your email address. I'll choose the winners from among those who comment on this post by Monday 2 July at 6 p.m. ET, then publish the name of all drawing winners on my blog the week of 9 July. And anyone who comments on this post by the 2 July deadline will also be entered in the drawing to win one of two autographed copies of my book Regulated for Murder: A Michael Stoddard American Revolution Thriller.

*****

Did you like what you read? Learn about downloads, discounts, and special offers from Relevant History authors and Suzanne Adair. Subscribe to Suzanne's free newsletter.

Enter your email address: