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. March 29, 1780 – SIEGE OF CHARLESTON: After approximately six weeks of siege, Major General Benjamin Lincoln, commanding the Charleston garrison, surrendered his forces to the British. It was …
Category Archives: Ideas
Beer Recipe: Boston Tea Party IPA
By 15 December, the Eleanor and the Beaver, also both laden with tea, arrive at Griffin’s Wharf. The law is clear: if the duty on the Dartmouth’s tea is not paid by 17 December, the customs officer is authorized to seize the ship and its cargo. The governor and the tea consignees, seeing a potential …
THE BILL OF RIGHTS: A BRIEF HISTORY #9
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 …
Bring Documents to your Reenactments!
Today Americans boast a whoppingly deplorable literacy rate of about 86% depending on how you measure literacy. Compare this to Colonial New England where, discounting slaves, women, indentured servants, and indians, in a time when books, newpapers, and magazines were largely unobtainable, the literacy rate was almost 60%*. Today with telephones, television, radio, and various …
Unfiltered Beer is Good for You!
For thousands of years beer served as food and medicine; it had antiseptic, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. The health benefits of beer not only come from the grains and yeast but also the hops. Hops contain a flavonoid called xanthohumol that strongly suppresses CYP1A2 (suppressing is good), a liver enzyme that metabolizes various environmental procarcinogens …
Could one of our Founding Fathers have been a Jew?
While writing the blog on Chanukah in Colonial America, I came across some lectures and articles by Andrew Porwancher, a professor at the University of Oklahoma, who has an interesting hypothesis. It seems that while researching the early life of Alexander Hamilton, Porwancher uncovered some interesting facts. Alexander Hamilton is the son of Rachel Faucette …
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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. March 22, 1765 STAMP ACT The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on American colonists by the British Parliament. The act, which imposed …
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. March 23, 1775 – Patrick Henry addressed the Virginia Legislature with a rousing speech – “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, Give me …
THE BILL OF RIGHTS: A BRIEF HISTORY #9
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 …
Basic Colonial Brewing #5 –Why use Copper?
Go to almost any brewery or distillery and you will see lots of gleaming copper. This is not some quaint historical holdover nor is it there for show. We use copper in brewing for real and practical purposes. The reasons for using copper were well understood by the Colonial Brewer but why it worked has …
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