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 …
Continue reading “The Economics of Brewing in Colonial America”
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 …
Continue reading “How to Survey Land with 18th Century Tools – The Tools”
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 …
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 …
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, …
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. November 19, 1794 — Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America (AKA the Jay Treaty) facilitated ten years of peaceful …
Elections in the 18th Century were festive. Food and drink were provided to voters to encourage both turn-out (often 85 percent of the eligible voters[1] participated). Songs were sung and GALLONS of rum punch were consumed. Prior to Prohibition, handing out drinks in order to woe voters was common. When Washington entered politics for the …
Fish House Punch is an alcoholic drink consisting mainly of rum. The first mention of Fish House Punch — though not yet by that name — may be in the notes of William Black, the secretary of the embassy of Virginia Commissioners who visited Philadelphia in 1744. He recounted being met by locals on the …
We all think of Benjamin Franklin as a grandfatherly type who invented and published things, sort of that eccentric neighbor who was everyone’s friend, but there was a ruthless side to Franklin. In 1728, a printer named Samuel Keimer founded the Pennsylvania Gazette, the second newspaper ever printed in the colony. It did not do …
Continue reading “Dirty Business and Politics are Often Bedfellows”
The French and Indian War gave many British aristocrats their first view into what their American colonists were like. They were not impressed! War thrust people of diverse backgrounds and views into close contact, the French and Indian War was no exception. Britons and Americans learned first-hand that many of the commonalities that they believed …
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 