For many a Thanksgiving meal is centered on turkey. Turkeys are indigenous only to parts of North America and Europeans only first came into contact with turkeys roughly 500 years ago. So how did turkeys (the bird) end up being named so similarly to Turkey (the country)? As far as we can tell, the first European …
Monthly Archives: November 2024
Despite Today’s Politics, the Turkey was Never Considered as Our National Symbol
There is a myth that the turkey almost came to represent the United States. The story goes that after the Declaration of Independence was signed, Congress asked Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams to design a seal for our new nation. Since many of the Germanic nations, incorporate eagles into their pageantry, the eagle …
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The Scourge of Slavery (#8) — Thomas Jefferson, a Slaveholder, argues to end slavery in new United States
There were 87 edits to Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence. Most were trivial, shortened phrases here or word substitutions there, but there is one glaring omission. One entire paragraph highlighting perhaps the greatest CRIME committed by King George, Parliament, the various “companies” (like the East India Company) and other agents of British …
Dutch Courage — Gin
Gin comes to us from the Netherlands and took its current form in the sixteenth century. The predecessor to gin is Dutch ‘genever.’ There are two basic categories of genever, traditional ‘Oude Genever,’ (old style genever) with a high malt content for its base (15%-50%) and ‘Jonge Genever’, the newer style with only 15% malt …
“Beer” Recipe: Dutch East India Company Cider
The Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), better known as the Dutch East India Company was set up in 1602 and head-quartered in the Oost-Indisch Huis (East-India House) in downtown Amsterdam as an official colonial agency. The company was given massive financial backing and the legal power to wage war, create overseas settlements, and uphold its own …
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The Economics of Brewing in Colonial America
The most enduring picture of Englishmen coming ashore in North America is the settlers of the Plymouth Colony. They did not come ashore where they had intended (Virginia) and they were not prepared for landfall in the harsh New England climate. Their choice of landfall was not by choice, but based upon the Mayflower’s dwindling …
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How to Survey Land with 18th Century Tools – The Tools
Land surveys consist of six basic tasks: Determinizing your position on Earth using celestial navigation methods Measuring distances with a Gunter’s Chain. Measuring changes in elevation with a Range Pole Measurement of directions and angles using a Compass. Drawing the map on a Plane Table, and Computing areas with basic plane geometry In this series …
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Bombay Presidency Punch
Because trading was hazardous and had uncertain returns, investors formed commercial syndicates to spread the risk. The two most famous were the East India Company, a British organization chartered in 1600, and the Dutch East India Company, chartered in 1602. The latter issued stocks and bonds to the public, so it could be considered the …
Beer Taxes
Benjamin Franklin once observed there were two guarantees in life – death and taxes. From ancient times to present, beer has ever been in the sights of the taxman. Some of our earliest writings are records of taxes paid on beer. Even the celebrated Reinheitsgebot, or German Purity Law, contains a tax regulation setting the …
Recipe: Warm Mulled Beer
Mulled wine has been enjoyed for thousands of years. Even the Romans were known to drink hot wine peppered with different spices. But have you ever considered mulled beer? Turns out, hot or mulled beer was the drink of choice in English and American taverns, especially during the winter. Its proponents claimed, like Benjamin Rush, …
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 