Early Novels, Authors and the Publishing Industry

In the early days of publishing, our U.S. Articles of Confederation gave no provision for copyright and left the States to address the issue individually. Authors were forced to copyright their work in each state to ensure complete protection of their work. This practice continued until 1790 when Congress finally enacted a national copyright law under the Constitution. The law protected American writers for 28 years, but gave no protection to foreign writers.

Publishing boomed over the next 40 years, and here in America, European books went into piracy on a large scale. Popular novels like Tom Jones and Robinson Crusoe were reprinted and sold many times over in early America without a penny paid to their foreign authors. Philadelphia was the center of publishing, with a dozen or so smaller towns like Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, also publishing books.

Susanna Rowson

This left American writers at a significant disadvantage. Foreign books came free to publishers and were generally considered of a higher standard than American works. The runaway bestseller of its day was Charlotte Temple by British author, Susanna Rowson. Young colonial ladies blushed and wept over its tragic, romantic plotline and slept with it under their pillows. First published in America in 1794, the novel ran through 200 editions.

Some American writers did manage to get recognized. Attorney and statesman, William Wirt, of Virginia wrote The Letters of a British Spy, which quickly became a bestseller in 1803 and later went on to write a biography of Founding Father, Patrick Henry. By the late 1820s, Nathaniel Hawthorne had begun jotting his first lines in Salem and Henry David Thoreau was observing nature in Concord, but it was in New York City that American literature first came onto its own with author Washington Irving.

Washington Irving

 In 1809, he wrote the satire, Knickerbocker’s History of New York. The book’s gaiety and charm was not exactly what the editors were anticipating, but it made its mark as early American literature, nonetheless. Washington’s short story, Sleepy Hollow, is still wildly popular today and is one of my all-time favorites, in all its forms, from the original book to movies and television.

Headless Horseman chases Ichabod Crane

Lisa Norato is the multi-published author of Prize of My Heart, an inspirational, seafaring historical from Bethany House, set during the Federal era. A life-long New Englander, Lisa lives in a historic village with homes and churches dating as far back as the eighteenth century.

A Visit to the Moore House - Yorktown, Virginia, by Carrie Fancett Pagels

Moore House Parlor - Arranged as For Surrender of Yorktown Negotiations

The Moore House is a site held by the National Parks and sits on a gorgeous bluff above the York River in Yorktown, Virginia.  Here, after the Yorktown Battle, the final major battle in the American Revolution, officers met to negotiate the terms of the surrender.

To visit this historic home, restored some decades ago, you must first go to the National Parks Building in Yorktown. The Yorktown Battlefield also sits on a bluff, with a grand view, a few miles further up river. Below is the majestic view from the Moore House, which you must drive to after registering at the National Parks site and obtaining a sticker.

View of the Yorktown River from the Moore House

Almost any time of year is good for a visit to coastal Virginia. We are most prone to having some type of snowfall in late January and early February, if we get any. This year we've had a few inches and we are anticipating another storm shortly, but such is unusual here in this mild climate.

In mid October, 1781, when the officers met to negotiate the terms of surrender, the weather may have been mild, especially for those accustomed to northern cold.


If you've ever wondered what historic fiction writers do when they have company in town, well here is an example--they take their family members to visit research sites! My brother obliged by posing for this picture!  I've seen pictures of the house, before it was restored, and it looked so sad.  But the National Parks did a lovely job fixing it, both inside and out.

Front of Moore House, Gary Lee Fancett

The interior is available for perusal and period pieces have been added. A National Parks employee will be on site to greet you and answer your questions.





The dining room is set up as if company was expected any moment. It is tempting to cross through the cordoned ropes and sit down for tea!  Would you care to join me?

Moore House Dining Room

New York’s Native People and their Colonial Neighbors

The People of the Longhouse, the Haudenosaunee, or more commonly the Iroquois* were once a sizable league of six nations encompassing much of New York State. By joining together in a confederacy, they were able to have significant sway in the affairs of neighboring nations/tribes, as well as be an important factor in any French or British activity. Given their skills at sustainable living and trade, they controlled the waterways connecting the ‘western frontier’ and ‘British Canada’ to the colonial populations along the coast.

(*Iroquois is an adaptation of the derogatory name by which the French and Hurons called the Haudenosaunee. It is not their preferred name)

Today, we see the circumstances of the native Americans, or First Nations, as one of protecting their own way of life and survival.

Nathan Benn/Corbis

French traders were the first whites to co-exist and establish relationships with the Haudenosaunee, hence their leaning toward the French during the French and Indian War –but not as a confederacy. The six nations were split in their loyalties. In the 1750s, both France and Britain courted that loyalty.  Most Seneca (keepers of the western door) sided with the French while the Mohawks (keepers of the eastern door) sided with the British—mostly due to the British Aide to Indian affairs, Sir William Johnson who was quite integrated into Mohawk society.

The other tribes, Cayuga, Oneida, Tuscarora, and Onondaga were unable to remain neutral.

Success for the British in the French and Indian War brought new British settlers into conflict with the Haudenosaunee, and those hostilities had not waned when the settlers decided to break with, and war against Britain.

(Note: "French and Indian War" is the American name for this war; British=The Seven Years’ War; Canadian – the War of the Conquest.  This was a trade war between Britain, France and Spain)

Again, the Iroquois Confederacy was split as each nation or village chose sides based on the personal relationships they had built with white leaders. To gain support, both revolutionary leaders and representatives of the British Gov’t made promises. Again, New York’s native people fought one against another, often raiding each other’s villages and participating in battles between the British and the new “Americans”.

Most Haudenosaunee felt they had a better chance of success staying with their British allies and became a deciding factor in many battles. In 1779, to punish them for siding with the British, George Washington sent 6200 Continental soldiers under General Sullivan to march across New York State to destroy villages.  Men, women and children were burned out of their homes and their stored food and crops destroyed.

When the revolutionary war ended, nothing was afforded the native people in the treaty between Britain and the United States. Worse, the new country sought to force the natives out of their lands.  Loyalty to Britain cost the Haudenosaunee their lands.

None of this should be news to any student of American, British, or Canadian history, but it may be. It’s part of the past we like to hide. I live in an area still under dispute. A treaty signed in 1794 by the U.S. Government with New York’s native people is still in effect, but New York state chose to break it. I don’t believe two wrongs make a right, but I can’t help thinking of it when I look out my window and see the land and lake once part of a Cayuga village,  Only 250 years ago, it was so different.  I don’t have a solution, but I do believe that we can’t lump groups of people together as fair, unfair, savage or honorable.

A partially ice-covered Cayuga  Lake

The Cayuga people dispersed from their beautiful lake, forests and swamp to the west and Canada, and for decades have fought New York State and each other in court to regain what a treaty promised them. There are no simple answers.

Were you aware of the involvement of the many eastern tribes in the  United States' war of Independance? Do you believe history is being taught differently than it was 30 or 50 years ago?

7 Wise Sayings from Benjamin Franklin

I've posted some quotes from Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac before, but one post cannot contain his wealth of advice. ;-) So I thought today, on this chilly January morn when my thermometer has dipped into the negatives, I'd warm everyone up with some of Ben's wisdom.

Buy what thou hast no need of; and e’er long thou shalt sell thy necessities.

I don't know about you, but my brain is often wired to this life of excess we tend to live today. When I see someone choosing to live simply, it always gives me a check. This year, I'm making an attempt to cut back and focus on the important things, not the many things. And though Franklin was by all accounts wealthy and lacking for nothing, I greatly appreciate that his inventions were meant to make life easier for the common man.

Don’t value a man for the quality he is of, but for the qualities he possesses.

Yes, we all judge books by their covers. But when it comes to people, we definitely need to remember that the exterior, be it circumstances or looks, is not what matters.

Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.

Oh so often I complain of having no time to do what I need to do...but how often is that because I fail to prioritize my time wisely?

Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.

I think we often fall into the trap of thinking we have a right to be angry. But do we? Or do we merely have an excuse to be?

An old young man will be a young old man.

I love this one. =) My father-in-law said back when I was a teenager just dating my now-hubby that I was the oldest young person he ever met. I took it as a compliment. And I hope that the same something that made me weigh things carefully as a young person will make me appreciate and enjoy life all the more as I age. 

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

This is one I try to tell myself often. I'm an eternal optimist, but I have to be careful not to hope in what is not in the Lord's plan for me. The trick, of course, is determining what that is.

By diligence and patience, the mouse bit in two the cable.

Sometimes the tasks put before seem so very daunting--but with faith, nothing is beyond us that we are called to do.

~*~
Roseanna M. White pens her novels under the Betsy Ross flag hanging above her desk, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When she isn’t writing fiction, she’s editing it for WhiteFire Publishing or reviewing it for the Christian Review of Books, both of which she co-founded with her husband. www.roseannawhite.com

Colonial Baking with the 17th Century English Housewife

When the English housewives stepped onto the shore in New England in the early 1600's, they missed their pippins, cream, butter and honey. Most of

all they missed their English wheat. Corn was the native crop, and the Indians generously shared their knowledge of planting, harvesting and preparing the golden kernels.

The immigrants wasted no time to plant their own crops of wheat with the seeds they brought from England, but it did not take well to the colder New England climate and the colonists soon discovered their survival depended on adapting. They could plant more corn per acre, and with less work. 

Grinding the corn into samp, as the Native Americans did, boiling water could be added for a porridge or pudding. 

Still, the colonial cook could not forget the beautiful wheat dough she pounded

and molded into beautiful loaves. Bread made with ground corn was flat, heavy and coarse. And so once again she adapted. She stretched her small stores of wheat and rye flour with the addition of the more abundant corn meal.

The early thirded bread, named for the three grains, was leavened with barm, or ale yeast, and baked in a round loaf. Boston brown bread is a later adaptation, using baking soda to leaven, and steam to cook the round loaf. 

It wasn't long before English cows were imported, and the English housewife could add milk to her samp porridge. So the next time you pour milk over your cornflakes, think of those brave colonial ladies who adjusted to a New World!

Here's a recipe for thirded bread, easy to adapt for today's kitchen!

Colonial Thirded Bread

1 cup wheat flour                1 teaspoonful salt

1 cup rye flour                    3 teaspoonful sugar

1 cup corn meal                  1/2 cup ale yeast 

Scald milk and cool. Mix your flours and meal together, then pour in milk until stiff enough to hold shape. Put the dough in the mounding board and set in a warm place overnight. In the morning, cut a criss-cross in the risen bread to give it one last spring and place in a hot oven.

A colonial oven was usually located outdoors, heated by a fire. After clearing out the hot coals, the dough would be placed directly on the floor of the oven with a shovel-like tool called a peel. The minute the oven door was opened the oven began to cool down, so the bread would need to bake for about 3 or 4 hours.

Rebecca DeMarino's passion of family, history, travel and writing collided when she boarded a plane with her mother and flew to Horton Point, Long Island and discovered her roots. Her debut novel, A PLACE IN HIS HEART, releases from Revell this June, book #1 of The Southold Chronicles. For more information please contact her at www.rebeccademarino.com and www.facebook.com/AuthorRebeccaDeMarino 

The 18th Century Shoemaker, by Amber Perry

I'm fascinated with the trades of the 18th century. So many important jobs had to be done everyday just to keep people's lives running. Of course, that's not unlike today, but the jobs back then--though similar in some respects were oh, so different.

Today I want to talk about the shoemaker. This humble profession was anything but dreary and certainly not looked down upon as one might thing. The shoemaker was an integral part of the community. From the lowly farmer to the high-society nobleman, everyone needed shoes-- and so everyone visited the shoemaker. Granted, if you were ultra wealthy you may have hired-out your own personal shoemaker, but that certainly wasn't the norm.

The tools needed for the trade were inexpensive for the most part, and easy to obtain if you lived next to a larger city where imports from England were a regular occurrence. For a journeyman shoemaker it would have been an inexpensive trade to start, whereas other trades such as printing or blacksmithing would have been very difficult financially.



Like today, you could often walk into a shoemaker shop and find already made, popular-styled shoes in various sizes. (Like the ones pictured at the top of this post--hanging in the shop window.) If you couldn't find what you were looking for, you could have them custom made, but then of course you would have to wait a day or so, depending on the workload of the shop. Everything from riding boots, to soldiering boots, to every-day shoes, to children's shoes, to women's dress shoes--the shoemaker made them all. And though at times we look at the shoes from that century and wonder how they could be at all comfortable, having been made with leather (though some were made of fabrics, etc) that conforms to your feet, I imagine they weren't quite as bad as we think. Yet, without proper souls and arch support . . . who knows! Perhaps they were terribly uncomfortable. I've never worn a pair, so I can't speak from experience. (Makes me curious though . . .)

What do you think of this trade? Is it something you would have been interested in? Personally, I think it would have been fun, creative and rewarding.

There is another excellent and recent post about this trade by Susan Craft, and her post can be seen here if you are looking for additional information.

Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

Blessings!

Upcoming Tea Party - Early Valentine's Soiree!!!

Shirley Plantation

No Tea Party in January here on Colonial Quills but in February we'd like to cordially invite our Followers, and other guests, to attend our:

Valentine Soiree

on 

February 7th

on 

the 

Colonial Quills 

website

(Virtual site is Shirley Plantation 

in Charles City, Virginia!)

Did you know?  AMC filmed many scenes from their upcoming television series "Turn" at Shirley Plantation?  And Shirley is celebrating its 400th anniversary!

Attire:  Formalwear, come in character. Servants will need to report to the ancillary buildings for instructions.

RVSP:  Right here!

Special: Several lovely giveaways including gifts from Lady Cessalye's gift shop, an antique reproduction blue and white china sugar bowl from Yorktown Victory Center, and a copy of Roseanna White's novel, which shares similar elements as Alexander Rose's "Turn" but is a Christian fiction.

THE BATTLE OF GREAT BRIDGE ~ VIRGINIA

It’s an amazing story of the Revolutionary War that many people may not know about.

The Battle of Great Bridge was the first major land battle of the war to take place in Virginia. The patriot rout of the British on December 9, 1775 at this strategic location, twelve miles south of Norfolk, would force the English to retreat and end English rule of the largest colony in America.

 

Artist's rendering of Great Bridge

Great Bridge was a seemingly insignificant structure crossing the South Branch of the Elizabeth River. It strategically connected the northern and southern portions of The Great Road, a primary route and supply line from North Carolina to Norfolk. It was used to transport livestock, farm produce, and various products needed to maintain British ships into Tidewater Virginia. The Village of Great Bridge, on the southern shore of the Elizabeth River, was gradually built up with wharves and warehouses. This transportation corridor, through a swampy area, was little more than a dirt trail in some places. In the 1690’s, major improvements were made to enhance travel. Causeways (a raised road or path that goes across wet ground or water) and bridges were constructed to improve the Great Road, to provide an easier land passage to the north.

In April of 1775, John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, took 20 kegs of gunpowder stored in the Public Magazine in Williamsburg infuriating the populace. Fearing for his life, he and his family evacuated the capitol and took refuge aboard a British warship in the James River. Loyalists in Portsmouth furnished housing for his men. In August the Third Virginia Convention resolved to raise an army for the defense of the colony. Colonel William Woodford was appointed to lead the Second Virginia regiment.

Norfolk was largely a Loyalist area, so Dunmore was able to keep a small British fleet in this port town. Over the next few months there were skirmishes when Dunmore’s men would come ashore, seize property, and threaten towns in the Hampton Roads area. General Thomas Gage offered Dunmore support by sending the 14^th Regiment of Foot to Virginia. In November Dunmore issued a Proclamation declaring martial law and offering freedom to Whig held slaves in Virginia willing to serve in the British Army, and many slaves enlisted to gain their freedom.

Dunmore’s troops headed toward Great Bridge when he learned that Patriots from North Carolina were posting themselves there. Upon their arrival at the north end of the bridge, he

Artist's rendering of Ft. Murray

ordered the construction of a stockade. The garrison, named Fort Murray, was primarily built by former slaves, who became known as The Ethiopian Regiment. In an initial skirmish at Kemp’s Landing, about ten miles from the bridge, the British outnumbered and routed the militia and sent them scattering. With this initial victory Dunmore, was confident of victory at the bridge. He was unaware that Col. Woodford and a large number of regulars from many Virginia counties, and a contingent from North Carolina, were rallying near the bridge. Patriots constructed a temporary fortification, or breastwork, on the south side of the causeway. Minor skirmishes occurred daily with continual canon fire.

Captain Charles Fordyce, commanding Dunmore’s 14^th Regiment of Foot grenadier unit, as well as sailors from the British ships at Norfolk, other Loyalists and the Ethiopian Regiment traveled overnight from Norfolk toward the bridge. Dunmore’s forces numbered around 670 men. One of the slaves from the Patriot forces went over to the British side claiming to be a deserter and told the British forces there were only about 300 troops on the Patriot side. Unbeknownst to the British, the Patriot forces numbered around 900 men.

Great Bridge and causeway

Confident of another success, the British replaced some of the missing planks on the bridge, rolled their canon out of the fort and began hammering the Patriot’s breastwork. Because the narrow causeway and bridge could only fit six men across, the British were not able to attack in their usual fashion. Patriots fired back at the British and began retreating. The last Patriot to retreat was a freed black man, Billy Flora, who bravely removed some of the planks to make it difficult for the British to cross the bridge and causeway. As the British approached the breastworks, the Patriots fired heavily killing Fordyce and many other soldiers. The British retreated and were hit by more Patriot regulars from a flank position and were ultimately chased back to the fort.

One hundred and two British soldiers were killed or wounded at the Battle of Great Bridge. The Americans, protected behind their breastwork, suffered not a single death and only one minor finger injury. During the fight Patriots left the breastwork to retrieve wounded British soldiers to care for them. After the battle, British Capt. Leslie, who lost a son there, thanked the Patriots for their compassion and returned to Norfolk. With no more access to vitally needed materials, Dunmore’s forces retreated to the British ships in the harbor.

These events helped to persuade some of the previously uncommitted locals to now favor the Patriot cause. Less than a week later the Fourth Virginia Convention condemned Dunmore and made a public declaration for independence.

Lacking the needed provisions, Dunmore’s naval forces began bombarding Norfolk and burned the Loyalist stronghold. The Patriot forces finished burning Norfolk, leaving only St. Paul’s Church standing. Dunmore retreated to Gynne’s Island and never returned to Virginia. The British left Virginia alone for the next three years while the war raged on elsewhere.

Virginia DAR Memorial to
The Battle of Great Bridge

The area of Great Bridge is now part of Chesapeake, Virginia, and a new bridge stands not far from where the original was located. “The Great Bridge Battlefield and Waterways History Foundation was formed to promote the development of a battlefield park and visitor center.” A monument was placed at the park by the Virginia Daughters of the American Revolution. To learn more about The Battle of Great Bridge: http://www.gbbattlefield.org/