Founded in 1600 by royal charter, the East India Company was established as a joint-stock trading company to exploit opportunities east of the Cape of Good Hope where it was granted a trade monopoly. Crucially, to conduct this trade, the EIC was permitted to ‘wage war’. Although the EIC did not hold sovereignty in its …
Category Archives: Ideas
The Scourge of Slavery (#11) — Gradual Manumission, a small step toward Abolition
Perhaps in no other state did the ideals espoused during the American Revolution take hold as much as they did in Pennsylvania. The gradual emancipation act was just one example of Pennsylvanians attempting to follow through on Revolutionary promises but trying to abolish slavery outright was very difficult. The Pennsylvania legislature, however, suggested a gradual …
Continue reading “The Scourge of Slavery (#11) — Gradual Manumission, a small step toward Abolition”
And Now for Something Completely Different…
In the last decades of the 18th Century, in the south of England, there was a trend It was often referred to as a ‘shift’ or ‘smock’ marriages. These even went so far as to sometimes be puris naturalibus or naked marriages. It seems, in the tradition of Lady Godiva of Mercia, If a woman …
Continue reading “And Now for Something Completely Different…”
Economic Crash — Tulip Mania
The Dutch tulip mania of the 1600s is often cited as an example of greed, excess, and financial mania, with the prices driven by the fear of missing out and crowd psychology. Tulips were imported into Europe in the 16th century by the Dutch East India Company, arriving via the spice trading routes that lent …
Curaçao
In 1499 the Spanish sent an expedition to the Caribbean island of Curaçao in an attempt to cultivate Seville oranges. Oranges were vital to naval operations in the region as they were used to fight scurvy. The Seville oranges, however, struggled under the island’s harsh equatorial sun, arid climate, and infertile soil eventually evolving into a small, bitter, …
Gov Franklin made each soldier brew their own beer.
On December 6, 1769 Governor of New Jersey William Franklin (son of Benjamin Franklin) worried about using the colony’s dwindling beer supply to provide British troops with rations. To address the crisis he issued a proclamation: ENACTED: That… in Lieu and Stead of Four Pints of Small Beer hereby allowed each man per day it …
Continue reading “Gov Franklin made each soldier brew their own beer.”
Mead was not Mainstream in Colonial America
Honey bees are not native to North America. They were originally imported from Europe in the 17th century. In a letter written December 5, 1621 by the Council of the Virginia Company in London and addressed to the Governor and Council in Virginia, “Wee haue by this Shipp and the Discouerie sent you diurs [divers] …
Continue reading “Mead was not Mainstream in Colonial America”
The Scourge of Slavery (#10) — Concessions were made to slave owners in the US Constitution — the 3/5ths Compromise
At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, it is important to remember that none of the delegates called for an actual the end of slavery. While some of them expressed their discomfort with it — George Mason of Virginia called for anti-slave trade laws and Gouverneur Morris of New York called slavery “a nefarious institution – …
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 …
Continue reading “Could one of our Founding Fathers have been a Jew?”
Glögg
Hot spiced wine has been offered to messengers and postmen in Norway who travelled on horseback or skis in cold weather since at least the 16th century. Glögg is a common winter drink consisting of sweet wine or grape juice mixed with syrup and some harder spirits like rum, brandy or cognac. Glögg begins by …
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 