In 1771, numerous American newspapers ran this excerpt of a “Letter from a Gentleman in India”: On our arrival here, we found a river full of dead human carcasses floating up and down, and the streets crowded with the dead and dying, without anyone attempting to give them relief; so horribly has the famine raged …
Category Archives: Ideas
Historical Tidbits — Williamsburg Gunpowder Incident
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. April 20, 1775 Williamsburg Gunpowder Incident. On the night of April 20, Royal Navy sailors went to the Williamsburg powder magazine, loaded fifteen half barrels of powder into the …
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Clive of India: Literally a Robber Baron of the 18th Century
Robert Clive, the 1st Baron Clive is also known as Clive of India and is widely credited for laying the foundation of the British East India Company (EIC) rule in Bengal after winning the Battle of Plassey in 1757. When Clive left India in January 1767, he had a fortune of £180,000 (equivalent to £25,700,000 today). On 22 November 1774 …
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Hop Water
Let’s start this article out with an absolute disclaimer. THIS IS NOT A COLONIAL BEVERAGE, it’s a very modern 21st Century invention but still fun. You won’t see the Regimental Brewmeister serving this or making it at demonstrations but sometimes we drink this at home. Most of us associate hops with beer, and unfortunately beer …
Blacksmith On Duty
April 16 — 11am to 4pmFort Mifflin Come to Fort Mifflin on Sunday as we attempt to build field tables for our new portable bar wagon. This project is really coming together. We still need painters and artists who want to help us make this somber wagon into a festive bar. We also need people …
SAVE the DATE
Come Study a Truly Astronomical Event and Its Effects with the Colonial Scientist Fort Mifflin — April 8, 202411am – 5:30 pm The total solar eclipse of June 24, 1778 was the first to be carefully observed in the newly founded United States. David Rittenhouse, witnessed the eclipse from Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson also tried to see …
Come Help Us Create a Unique Portable Bar at Fort Mifflin
April 16 at 10:30 at Fort Mifflin! We are moving forward with our plans to build a bar wagon. Our second work day is March 12 and we plan to make big changes to the appearance of the wagon so that it transforms from an expression of Amish religious values to a bar that celebrates …
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Freedom Means NOTHING Unless You Also Embrace Tolerance
Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others. John F Kennedy As Americans we focus a lot on our Constitutional Freedoms. Frankly, we are far more enthralled with these than most of the rest of the world for in the time since our Revolution, …
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Exposing Spies
William Wickham was Britain’s first Master Spy and head of the British Secret Service. Wickham was also the focus of a massive government scandal and Parliamentary investigation when it was found that millions of pounds in taxpayer’s money had been funneled to Wickham and then disappeared without a trace. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen …
THE BILL OF RIGHTS: A BRIEF HISTORY #10
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 …
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 