When reenacting or acting as a historical interpreter, its good to have a few historical dates and stories to share. This series will publish a few. February 6, 1778 — The Treaty of Alliance was signed creating a military alliance between the United States and France against Great Britain.
Monthly Archives: February 2022
Basic Colonial Brewing #3 — What is a “Colonial Beer?”
Reenactors seem to revel in the debate over historical accuracy. We either passionately focus on authenticity or we bristle at those who do. Colonial brewers are reenactors and we run the gamut from casual historical entertainers to passionate academic historians. There is a place for everyone but we need to acknowledge the range of expression …
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Fort Mifflin Rumbustion
Okay, like the other spirits at Fort Mifflin, we cannot definitively tell whether this rum exists. Some people have had very close and memorable encounters but there are true deniers as well. This is a robust concoction distilled in the manner similar to how John Hancock would have made bootleg rum. Rumbustion is rumpus uproar, …
THE BILL OF RIGHTS: A BRIEF HISTORY #4
Insurrections often are propagated upon misinformation. So too are the most recent band of domestic terrorist who like to hide behind our most sacred American institutions. In this series, I want to explore the Bill of Rights and why some of the hype and hyperbole thrown around by the extremist is not just wrong but …
The Colonial Surveyor
The first surveyors in America arrived with the Jamestown Company in 1621. Given the goal of quickly settling Virginia and the vagaries of Royal Charters for Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolina colonies, surveyors were critical to establishing order in the colonies. The role of the surveyor was to transfer land from the crown to private …
French and Indian War ends (2/10/1763)
In the early 1750s, French trappers and traders began expanding their ranges into the Ohio River valley and with them came the necessary political and military structures of New France needed to support their safety and trade. This naturally led to conflict with the British who also claimed this territory. Eventually, these conflicts resulted in …
Okay, The East India Company is Really Famous for … Tea.
Tea is arguably the world’s most popular beverage. It is enjoyed by millions of people around the globe daily. But this wasn’t always so. In addition to trading in luxurious goods such as exotic spices, fine fabrics and bullion, The East India Company played a pivotal role in introducing tea not only to the British …
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HOW THE EAST INDIA COMPANY INTRODUCED COCOA TO EUROPE
The Spanish first discovered cocoa beans during voyages to the New World. English Privateers (AKA Pirates) – under authorization from Queen Elizabeth I – soon discovered this as well by looting of the Spanish ships. While the Aztecs had prized the cocoa that grew on their lands higher than gold – even using cocoa beans …
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East India Company Breakfast Martini
Cocktails are traditionally thought of as an American innovation, but they were actually inspired by British punches—big bowls of spirits mixed with fruit juice, spices, and other flavors, consumed in punch houses in the 18th century. The term cocktail was even first seen in a British newspaper printed March of 1798. But the term wasn’t …
East India Company Punch
Cocktails are traditionally thought of as an American innovation, but they were actually inspired by British punches—big bowls of spirits mixed with fruit juice, spices, and other flavors, consumed in punch houses in the 18th century. The term cocktail was even first seen in a British newspaper printed March of 1798. But the term wasn’t …
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 