American Colonial History and the Rest of the World in 1620

I've always enjoyed looking back at one aspect or period of history and reminding myself of all the other things happening at that same time. You know...taking a look at the bigger picture going on around the world. 

Take for instance the year 1620, the date which generally marks the beginning of the American colonial period. In that year 102 pilgrims embarked from Plymouth, England on the Mayflower along with 30 crew bound for the new world. Later that same year those pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact and established Plymouth Colony. We tend to look at most of the world's happenings back then through the lens of what the pilgrims were doing. That's the way we learned it as kids.

Plymouth Rock

When I was a child trying to grasp history, I had the unfounded notion that the pilgrims were the only Europeans in North America at the time. The "New World" was really new! I relegated the Spaniards to explorations in Central America far, far way (another thing I had wrong). The rest of the world ceased turning in light of the colony being established in Massachusetts. 

But in fact, by the time the Pilgrims landed, there had already been a lot of exploration going on just to the north (in Canada), across the Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi to the Gulf. The French had been working at establishing themselves on the North American continent for many years before the pilgrims arrived. In 1620, whilst our intrepid pilgrims were setting sail away from Europe, Henri II, Duc de Montmorency was named Viceroy of New France. With Samuel de Champlain as his lieutenant, he began construction of Fort Saint Louis on the cliffs of Quebec. He then formed a company that was granted an 11-year fur trade monopoly in the New World.

If you remember my earlier posts, you'll recall that fur was the cornerstone on which the entire North American economy was built, so France definitely had the first foothold.

Meanwhile, King James I got it in his mind to commission William Alexander to reclaim New France and Acadia, and the coureur des bois (the free fur traders) founded the trading post called Palace Royal in present-day Montreal. 

All while the Pilgrims were just trying to survive their first year on North American shores.

I mention all this because of of how very important it is to understand our developing nation as a whole. While the arrival of the pilgrims was a huge event that we look to when we consider the colonial period, North America was already being shaped by others, some indigenous, and others as explorers, businessmen, priests, soldiers, and adventurers.   

Just for fun and further insight, here are a handful of other important events that took place around the world in 1620:

A 1715 etching depicting the torture of John Sarkander

*St. John Sarkander, a Polish-Moravian priest, died of injuries sustained by prolonged torture. It's a long story, connected by ongoing conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in Europe's Thirty Years War, which had begun only two years earlier.*The first merry-go-round was seen at a fair in Turkey.

*The mother of Johannes Kepler, German astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer, was arrested for witchcraft.

*Witch hunts also begin in Scotland.

*The modern violin was developed.

*An navigable undersea boat (type of submarine) was  demonstrated in the Thames River, England.

*A sign alphabet was developed by Juan Pablo Bonet, a teacher of deaf children in Spain.

~~~~~

Are there periods of history or specific historical events that you enjoy studying within the larger context of what was taking place in the world at that time?

Naomi Musch

https://naomimusch.com/

The Declaration of Independence

In a different day, and a different age, it would have been common for us to gather in our town square and listen to a prominent member of our community read the Declaration of Independence. I'm sad that this practice has disappeared from most Fourth of July gatherings. I believe that much can be learned about the past when we make it a part of our present. So, in honor of the 240th birthday of the American Declaration of Independence, here is the transcribed version from the National Archives.

  

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
   Button Gwinnett
   Lyman Hall
   George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
   William Hooper
   Joseph Hewes
   John Penn
South Carolina:
   Edward Rutledge
   Thomas Heyward, Jr.
   Thomas Lynch, Jr.
   Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
   Robert Morris
   Benjamin Rush
   Benjamin Franklin
   John Morton
   George Clymer
   James Smith
   George Taylor
   James Wilson
   George Ross
Delaware:
   Caesar Rodney
   George Read
   Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
   William Floyd
   Philip Livingston
   Francis Lewis
   Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
   Richard Stockton
   John Witherspoon
   Francis Hopkinson
   John Hart
   Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
   Josiah Bartlett
   William Whipple
Massachusetts:
   Samuel Adams
   John Adams
   Robert Treat Paine
   Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
   Stephen Hopkins
   William Ellery
Connecticut:
   Roger Sherman
   Samuel Huntington
   William Williams
   Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
   Matthew Thornton

Happy Fourth of July!

May God Bless America.

Gabrielle Meyer
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O Christmas Tree

Writing the title made me think of the Christmas song by this name, but the German folk song didn't even become associated with Christmas until the early 20th century. We're going back a little further. The early 1800s saw little for the celebration of Christmas in Colonial America. Most simply followed whatever traditions they had brought from the old world, or like many Puritans, none at all. It wasn't until mid century that the desire to celebrate Christmas began to take deep root in the hearts of Americans...along with the Christmas tree.

As early as 1749 it is recorded that evergreen boughs were used to decorate the pews and alter of a Catholic church in Philadelphia, but it took a little while before people began hauling the whole tree into their houses. Not until the 1830s do we hear about the first fur trees placed with care and

decorated. Than in 1848, Prince Albert had one set up at Windsor Castle. The print of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria and their family around the tree appeared in the Illustrated London News. The fashion spread fast and by the 1850s Christmas trees had become a staple for the celebration of Christmas.

Christmas trees were at first decorated by what was available: nuts, strings of popcorn, fruit, dried fruit, candies and homemade trinkets. Then newspapers and magazines began to set the bar, offering ideas that soon made people want to set aside homey ornaments for sophisticated and uniform ones. Soon businesses stepped in, providing glittery baubles, wax figurines, and tin shapes in abundance, importing many from Germany.

In my recently released short story, "I Heard the Bells", included in the anthology A Bit of Christmas, the main character decides a Christmas tree might ease the tension between him and his brother. It is 1864 and Gabriel Morgan is home in Virginia for a couple of days at Christmas...after spending the last three years fighting for the Union Army while his family staked their allegiances with the Confederacy.

~~~

Clara’s head jerked up as Gabriel plunked a scraggly spruce just inside the door of the bedroom. “What is that?”
     He flashed a grin as he knelt to tack a makeshift stand onto the trunk. “Surely you’ve seen a Christmas tree before.”
     “Yes, but it looked nothing like that.”
     “Don’t be so quick to judge. There’s potential.” He glanced at his brother. “Remember that year Pa was away? We didn’t want to wait, so we went out ourselves. You must have been six or seven, and me maybe ten. I still remember the look on Mama’s face.”
    Probably because you saw it again when you hauled this tree past her. Clara bit her tongue.
    With no reply from Lawrence, Gabriel stood the tree upright and left. A few minutes later, he returned with a handful of nuts, a single candle, some string and clusters of crimson berries that he began to distribute amongst the branches.
     “Are those rosehips?”
     “We needed something to brighten this room.”
   

~~~

So how do you decorate your tree? With homemade trinkets, or store-bought baubles and bows?

Heroes of History - By Pat Iacuzzi

Heroes of History

By Pat Iacuzzi

As a public school teacher, now retired, I’m always on the look-out for a gift of knowledge to pass on, and this was an absolutely fantastic find! So I thought I’d post this information about a Wall Builders e-mail I received (an informative Christian site about American historical events, the Constitution, and early American leaders) promoting a wonderful series for youth ages nine and up. Some of you, especially mothers of home-schooled children might already be familiar with these titles, (total: 25 books in all, five to a group) a series of biographies of well-known Americans, written by Janet and Geoff Benge and published by YWAM Publishing. Though they may be written for children and young adults, I believe they could be a great research tool for adults as well, especially about the lesser-known, but significant names in American history.

(image from Amazon.com)

The biographies about famous Americans series includes books one through twenty in sets of five; another set, 6-10 about Christian heroes, names that may be unfamiliar to many, and something you may no longer find in public schools. These books are an opportunity for parents or grandparents to offer family members exciting glimpses into the lives of our most notable Americans of the past. My rating: 5 Stars! 

Besides Amazon, these sets can be ordered on the YWAC Publishing site: 

https://www.ywampublishing.com/

    

Example Gift Set Books 6-10 includes:
Eric Liddell: Something Greater Than Gold
William Carey: Obliged to Go
George Muller: The Guardian of Bristol's Orphans
Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose
Mary Slessor: Forward into Calabar

CFP: Note, this Eric Liddell set is also available in audiobook through CBD.

Living History Museums

I imagine most visitors to Colonial Quills blog have heard of Colonial Williamsburg. It is not just a living history museum, but a living history village.  We are very thankful for those with foresight to maintain this treasure from its colonial days to become IMHO the most incredible 'history immersion' experience for anyone interested in American Colonial History.  

While it's probably the most well-known, "living history" museums can be found in nearly every state and province. (sites with restored or maintained historic buildings and costumed interpreters presenting researched history of an area, event, craft or time period.)

Some others that come to mind:  Plimouth Plantation, Old Sturbridge Village, and my favorite, Genesee Country Village and Museum.



GCVM is specifically a 19th Century Village but that should not deter any Colonial Devotee!
It is located southwest of Rochester, NY and was created by collecting houses, buildings, and shops from across western NY and gathering them to create a rural-setting village. It is large enough that there are, for lack of any better word, neighborhoods which share similar time periods. The founder, John Wehle, regretted the loss of historic architecture and, in the mid-sixties, proposed the village. In 1976, the village opened to visitors. I believe there are 68 buildings on site. Since that time, the curator and staff have worked to equip the buildings with artifacts and working artisans.



Together, the village covers more than 600 acres including nature trails. The working staff  and volunteers recreate the hands-on life of pioneers up to the Victorian turn-of-the-century, so it includes those activities carried over from the colonial period.



Throughout the year, it is open daily in season (roughly May through October) and, during special events out of season.
You can enjoy: Winter Family Fun Days, Maple Syrup Festival, Antique Show, Hunter Derby, War of 1812/Jane Austen weekend, Independence Day, Civil War Reenactment, Laura Ingalls Wilder Days, SilverBall Tournament (original baseball) Victorian Day, Fall Agricultural Days, Spirits of the Past Halloween Tours, Breakfast with St. Nick, Yuletide in the Country Tours...

I hope you consider a visit if you travel through upstate NY!

Honoring Those Who Served

Kings Mountain memorial, SC

Veterans Day is a fairly modern holiday, established to honor anyone who has served in the U.S. Armed Forces—in contrast with Memorial Day, which serves to remember those who died while serving. Originally named Armistice Day, in celebration of the agreement that ended World War I, signed at the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month of 1918. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_Day)

I suspect we history buffs hold those who served in the older wars of our country, particularly the War Between the States and the American Revolution, in special awe.
It’s always heartwarming to me to walk through an old cemetery and see memorial flags decorating the graves of those who were known veterans ... sobering to look at photographs of the oldest living veterans of the Revolution, and to wonder what their stories were.

Confederate graves, Strawberry Chapel, SC

 

 As the wife, daughter, and sister of veterans, I’m keenly aware of the sacrifice. In awe of those who went weeks, months, and often years without word of their loved ones who went off to fight. Fascinated by the courage and tenacity it took for both men and women to endure wartime—especially those brave women who followed their men on campaign for love and necessity.

Kings Mountain, SC

In working on my next article, which focuses on the infamous British officer Banastre Tarleton, I began to wonder, why does the whole myth vs. fact thing matter ... and am I dishonoring those who fought for our country’s freedom?

Henry & Eliza Laurens, Mepkin Abbey, SC

To begin with, deconstructing myth can be hard and cruel. I've found that people would often rather hold onto their suppositions and prejudices than accept evidence for another view--or even look at the other side of an issue. (Just look at the debate over whether the Civil War really began over states’ rights or slavery.) And it's astonished me how fact can get embellished into legend, and either romanticized or demonized, not very long after the fact.

The more I read and study, the more I realize that some myths will never be completely dispelled. People's opinions are sometimes literally set in stone, and so many will continue believing the idea that the patriot cause was completely righteous, and the British one completely corrupt.

In truth, I think any serious examination of primary sources will reveal that the issues of time past were far more complex ... just as complex as some of the issues of today. And just like today, some find it easy to decide which side to give their allegiance to, but for others, the choice was excruciatingly difficult.

Francis Waring, WWII veteran, Strawberry Chapel, SC

Regardless of political leanings, the truth is that our country came to be through the blood, sweat, and tears of those who believed there was something worth fighting for ... and despite all odds, this upstart, ragtag bunch of colonists managed to wear out one of the greatest empires in the world. It was nothing short of Divine Providence that allowed us to be, and later continue as a union—and for that, I am awed and grateful.

Ironwork at the Laurens family plot, Mepkin Abbey, SC

So for today, for this month, I would like to offer my deepest gratitude, first to the Author and Finisher of our faith and freedom, and then to those who fought on behalf of both. This country has been a wonder and a marvel to many, over the past 238-plus years!

May God continue to bless America—and have mercy on us.

(Photos by Kimberli Buffaloe, Breanna McNear, and myself)