Historical Tidbits

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               ALLIANCE with FRANCE Treaty of Alliance The most Christian King and the United States of North America, to wit, New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhodes island, Connecticut, …

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 …

THE BILL OF RIGHTS: A BRIEF HISTORY #3

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 …

A Colonial Orator: True Revolution is Fought with Words not Bullets

Does “Freedom of Speech” mean you can say anything you want about anyone you choose?  Our Founding Fathers would certainly not agree!  You can, of course, say anything you want but there must be consequences for malicious defamation of individuals and even in revolutionary America libel and slander laws were enforced. There is, however, one …

New Amsterdam (present-day New York) becomes a city (2/2/1653)

Between 1626 and 1664, the main town of the Dutch colony of New Netherland was New Amsterdam, now called Manhattan. Peter Minuit, Director of the Dutch West India Company, met with Indigenous peoples and purchased Manhattan for trinkets equivalent to several thousand dollars today. The land was quickly settled. The colony of New Netherland extended …

There’s been a Murder at Fort Mifflin — THE CURIOUS CASE OF LIEUTENANT BODDY

Saturday, February 5, 2022 Lieutenant Boddy, a generally disrespectable and disrespected, bad bargain of an officer was found shot dead on the Parade Ground, presumably on his way back after carousing in town. While no one, except perhaps his tavern keeper, will mourn the loss of Lt. Boddy we cannot allow vigilante justice within our …