Under the Crown

For this post I traveled only about five miles, but over 220 years. (Not literally, though. The whole world definitely would have heard about it before now if I had.) Beginning in 1780, this area was occupied by British forces. This town and the next one over on a decent-size river, and rivers are always strategically important. "Colonial Times: Under the Crown" was held last weekend at the Living History Park, and I went, despite the rain. Reenactors set up camp in the park to show what life was like under British rule. The park has a few permanent buildings: a small cabin, a tavern, a meeting house (pictured below), a hunter's cabin, and a schoolroom-type building. Oh, and a blacksmith's forge. In real life, the blacksmith lives a few streets away from me.

The reenactors/artisans set up lots of canvas tents around the park. There were people demonstrating carpentry and woodcarving, hornsmithing (I don't believe that's a word, but the sign said "Hornsmith," and they were doing things with cow horns), blacksmithing, chandlery, calligraphy, music, butter churning, and tape-weaving. The last was pretty cool; a woman was using a small notched board and a shuttle to weave threads into patterned tape that was used like ribbon, to fasten and decorate clothing. All of the craftspersons explained what they were doing and answered questions and wore period-style clothing. My favorite was the blacksmith, in large part, I think, because it's so dynamic. The smith was also very affable and interacted well with observers. He explained that "smith" is related to the word "smite," and asked some kids if they ever heard the word smite in church. They didn't say anything, but he said that some denominations, like Lutherans, are more into smiting. Yay Lutherans and smiting! Anyway, I hung out watching him for a while, and he made some nails, and a hook like you nail to the wall and hang your clothes from, and in the picture he's working on making a cooking rig. There are two end posts, and a piece that lies across the top and from which one can suspend one's cauldron. At least that's the impression that I got. The reenactors actually cook their meals in cauldrons and on spits and stuff. I liked when the smith made the hook, because he twisted the stem, as wrought iron often is. I've always kind of wondered how they do that, but all you have to do is heat up the iron and then twist it around. It's one of those things I take for granted. It's easy to take things for granted.

Among the reenactors, there were some kids, from about six to teenaged. I always wonder when I see kids at reenactments whether they're there because their parents are making them, or whether they like dressing up and acting old-fashioned. There was a kid with one of the carpenters who came up to me with a piece of cedar wood and said, "Would you like to see some cedar wood?" like a little cedar salesman. It smelled just like cedar. I did not know that only the middle part of cedar is red. I thought it was red all through, but apparently only the heart is red and the outside is whitish. This girl at left was following around her older brother, also in costume. As someone who used to follow her older brother around, I found it very cute.

I don't know about you, but when it comes to nationalities in the colonial South, the first I think of is not German. But when you recall that Hessian soldiers fought for the British in the Revolutionary War, it makes more sense. Some of the "British" soldiers portrayed by reenactors were in fact Hessians, or, as they called themselves, Jägers/Jaegers/Jagers. Yes, like Jägermeister. I wonder how I made it all the way through college without ever having tried Jägermeister. Jäger, for those of us who don't speak German, means "hunter," and the Jäger Korps wore green jackets as part of their uniform. The reenactors were from the Second Company of the Hesse-Kassel Jäger Korps. One of the soldiers explained that "Hessian" is a geographical term, whereas "Jäger" describes their profession. Luckily somebody else asked the question of what the difference between the two was, and I was saved from having to look stupid. I happened upon two of the Jägers when they were explaining their weapons to some kids and their parents. They had rifles, pistols, knives, and swords, and one rather large thing that looked like a baby cannon. It was, we learned, a shoulder-fired mortar--a grenade launcher. The reenactor built it based on a weapon from the late 1500s in the Vatican, although he purposely made the barrel too small for an actual explosive, so as to curb temptation. He did say that it shoots tennis balls quite nicely, though. It has a little receptacle for the powder, and then the projectile itself (it's in the man on the left's left hand) is loaded in the barrel and its fuse is lit. Then the thing is fired, and you don't want to be within five yards of where it explodes. The launcher was quite heavy, and with a mortar in would have been even worse.

There were a few staged disputes to show justice in action in the colonial context. They "shot" one of the woodcarvers for something or other, and two women had an argument over a slave they had both allegedly bought. One woman claimed she bought the slave woman in the morning for eight pounds, and the other claimed she bought the same woman later that day for ten pounds. The slave, for her part, said she was free. The man who supposedly sold the woman feigned ignorance of English and also of both purchasers. The magistrate and some other dudes decided to hire the slave woman as a servant in town, and ordered the seller drummed out of town. There were no actual drums involved, though.

Even though it rained most of the time, wandering around with colonial people was a pleasant way to spend a few hours. I leave you with some various pictures.