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 22, 1718 – William Teach (AKA Blackbeard) was captured and executed by the Royal Navy off the coast of North Carolina. His mythical buried treasure has not been …
Category Archives: General history
The Regent’s Punch
George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, was born on August 12, 1762 at St James’ Palace, the eldest son of George III and Queen Charlotte. When his father became incapacitated due to mental instability and ill health, he ruled for nine years as Regent (1811 – 1820) before becoming King upon his father’s death in …
History of Curry Powder
I truly love Indian food and I am not alone. I once asked an Englishman what the national dish of Great Britian was and his unreserved rely was “Curry.” While it’s not quite as ubiquitous in the USA, Indian food is common throughout the former British empire and the lasting reminder of the absolute power …
Turkey? Why Turkey?
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 …
Thanksgiving – 1770’s Style
In 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation designating November 26 of that year as a national day of thanksgiving to recognize the role of providence in creating the new United States and the new federal Constitution. Thanksgiving as a celebration of surviving the first year of the Plymouth Colony had been celebrated in Massachusetts …
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 …
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, …
Martha Washington’s Rum Punch
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 …
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 