Peacock Pie and Spit Dogs

I traveled with many of my students and their families today to visit Tryon Palace, in New Bern, North Carolina.  Thanks to all of you (I think our numbers were close to fifty) who braved the cool weather and torrents of rain to visit the site of North Carolina's colonial capital.

Even though I have been studying history for a long time, I learned many new things on my visit, some intriguing, and some downright bizarre.  For example, while we were all in the Kitchen Office, the cook (a man) described how the roasting spit was sometimes powered by a wind-up pulley system, or sometimes by dogs.  What?  Dogs?  Various dogs (spit dogs, the cook called them, and he said that their breed was no longer in existence due to lack of necessity) would run in cages next to the fire, and their running served as the power source to turn the spit, which evenly roasted the meat.  When I got home I Googled and found a few images.

In the image above you can very clearly see the dog running in the wheel contraption to the right of the fireplace.  The pulley's coming off of his wheel cage are turning the roasting spit.

Here is another image.

This more modern image shows the wheel cage, again to the right of the fireplace.

Another unusual and disgusting revelation was the food.  In the formal dining room of the Tryon Palace they had set a table with several items that might have been served in the late 1700s for formal meals (the main meal was usually served at 2:00pm) with a light breakfast to start the day and a later meal, sometimes of leftovers, to end the day (these meals usually were taken upstairs in one's room at the palace).  The main centerpiece for the formal dining room was Peacock Pie.  Our guide noted that this delicacy went back to Medieval times, when a peacock was cleaned, cooked, and then served, but the colorful peacock head was attached to an encasement that held the peacock pie (like a body) and then the tail feathers were displayed behind the pie (or body) of the dish.  I think PETA would have had a field day with this.  Strangely, when I researched this further, I found that cooks from the 1500s-1700s were also seemingly obsessed with taking various appendages of the animals they were cooking and sewing the cooked parts together to create fantastical animals.  Just search for some of this...it looks like Dr. Cookenstein.

And then the clothing.  The guide took great care to show us a woman's corset, or stay, which every woman wore daily.  The guide did suggest that our conceptions of corsets as exceptionally tightly bound might be a bit much.  They were tied more loosely, he argued, for women had to eat, walk, and work in them.  The biggest surprise to me, however, was that MEN also wore stays.  The guide noted that men in military dress wore these to keep an erect posture, but everyday men also wore them, especially as they got older, to keep one's bearing upright (no slumped shoulders please).  Perhaps I might need to ask for a stay next Christmas.

Finally, some illumination on the bathroom facilities.  Most outdoor privies have more than one seat, or hole.  The Tryon Palace interpreters stated that colonists were much less worried about privacy than modern Americans, so if there was a privy with four seats, they may all be used simultaneously.  Keep in mind, this was single-sex use, not mixed-sex use.

As you can tell, a very enlightening day!

Oh, and even more enlightening might be more hints for your Midterm Exam (see previous posts for earlier hints).  One of your essay possibilities will focus on the transition of early America from a society that valued hierarchy to one that gradually began to see the emergence of greater social democracy.  The best way to think or write about this question is to consider the changes in religion (especially how the Great Awakening brings in greater opportunities for social leveling, or equality).

The Failures of ESPN - Bait and Switch

I spent this morning with my students on a field trip to New Bern, North Carolina, to visit the Tryon Palace.  The rain poured as we walked around the grounds and from the museum to the palace.  Eventually the rain gave way to a foggy mist on the return drive.  Once home, I was looking forward to plopping on the couch and watching the UNC/NCSU basketball game.

Well, 4:00pm rolled around (game time) and the game did not appear on my ESPN channel.  I texted another friend who told me the game was on ESPN News or ESPN3 (neither of which I have on my cable package).  I rechecked the ESPN website to check their printed online schedule, and yes, it said the UNC/NCSU basketball game would be broadcast from 4:00-6:00pm on ESPN (not ESPN News or ESPN3). 

Instead of the rivalry game, I was treated to post-race coverage from Daytona.  It seems there was an accident at the end of the race and everyone was in "disaster news coverage" mode.  For 55 minutes, roughly 4:00-4:55, ESPN interviewed numerous racers, staff people, perhaps even a concession stand vendor. 

I ended up sending three emails to ESPN during this time when the game was not being aired on ESPN (in complete contradiction to ESPN's printed schedule, as noted above).  All emails were answered - by humans? not really sure, as they had the same robotic answer (and also oddly, very jockish, waspish sounding responders..Brad...Brandon...Blake...I kept wondering if I sent dozens of emails would I get to Seth....Smithson....and Stone).  The second email did have a phone number that it suggest I call if I wanted to log a more human complaint, which I did.   Strangely, the phone representative provided the very same scripted answer as the first two emails.  She noted that live national broadcasts sometimes preempted more local coverage.  My response was that the race had ended by 4:00pm, and all ESPN was doing at that point was flittering around interviewing people and discussing the possibilities of the accident (how many people were hurt? do we have any news?)  So, unless you consider chasing ambulances to the hospital a live national broadcast, the race was over and the UNC/NCSU game should have become the main national live broadcast at roughly 4:05pm. Update:  After watching the ABC National News they led with the Daytona car crash story, perhaps emphasizing my point even more...that the post-race crash coverage should have been carried on ESPN News channel, not on ESPN, which mainly carries LIVE SPORTS COVERAGE.

The ESPN representative apologized for any inconvenience, but I responded that her apology could not get the first half of the game back for me....could it?  Crickets on ESPN's end.  In my last email I asked them to at least send me an ESPN cap for their messy scheduling.  I'm not banking on that.

Here's the point.  ESPN, if you printed your schedule, even if it was only online, FOLLOW THE SCHEDULE!   I'm thinking about just dropping cable altogether.  I have a limited package of 70-some channels, and still not much to watch.  ESPN's actions today don't help.

Don't Procrastinate

It is hard to believe, but we are already six weeks into the spring semester.  Some of you may be feeling like this.

The best advice I can give is to avoid procrastination.  Watch the following example below.

Do some work toward your goal everyday.  Read fifteen or twenty pages.  Write several paragraphs of a paper.  Study or review your notes.  A small amount of study and action on your subject everyday has proven to be the most effective method of learning.  It also reduces anxiety when you approach the major tests, because you are comfortable with the information, have already identified weak spots, and made corrections.

Slavery - More Questions

After finishing our section on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the growth of slavery in early Virginia, there are still numerous questions about the issue.  I will try to address some of these below.

1.  Do slaves still exist in America?
Slavery was legally abolished in the United States with the passage of the 13th amendment in December, 1865. Despite this, slavery still exists throughout the United States and the world, though different in form from what one would expect to see in the 1800s.  For example, today we hear a great deal about sex-trafficking.  Much of this is akin to slavery.  Also, as recently as the early 2000s, there was a North Carolina farmer accused of violating the 13th amendment when he kept migrant workers on his farm and would not allow them to leave. 
http://www.nytimes.com/video/2009/01/03/opinion/1194837193498/the-face-of-slavery.html?smid=pl-share

2.  Did anyone protest slavery?
Yes, but broaden the word protest to include more activities than running away, rebelling, or generally expressing disagreement.  When historians discuss slave resistance, they focus on the obvious forms of fighting back (those mentioned above), but also on the more subtle techniques. For example, one theory historians have refuted is that slavery was so dire and harsh that all remants of African culture were lost when slaves arrived in the New World.  This is simply not true.  Think of all of the "African survivals," things like food, language, dance, music, and storytelling.  These cultural survivals, and many more, provided slaves with agency, or self-determination.  Slaves, even though in bondage to someone else, could still cook, dance, play and share as they wished from their knowledge of life in Africa.  For masters, this type of activity often looked benign, or quaint.  But for slaves, this represented an assertion of self, of their cultural identity.  Stepping it up a notch, actions such as feigning illness, breaking work tools, or working slowly, also allowed slaves to attempt to control their own destiny and life, if only for brief periods of time.  Examination of documents from the 18th and 19th century reveal that masters struggled vigorously with ways to control their slaves.  This signals that slaves were always resisting, in one fashion or another.

For a sample of African cultural survivals, see these clips of a "ring shout."  The second clip is shorter, a news clip from Georgia, and the McIntosh County Shouters.  The first clip a bit longer, but allows you to see the more intricate footwork and rhythmic clapping.

3.  Were African females treated worse than African males?
My response here, once again, goes back to a comment by a former professor.  He said it was important to distinguish between the "conditions" (i.e. - the treatment) of slaves, and their "position" (or legal standing).  Even today when we visit various historic sites, some of which contain the "slave quarters," we may be saddened, or amazed, at our perceptions of how bad or how good their conditions may have been.  For example, a slave on a wealthy plantation may have lived in a cabin with furniture, decent clothing, and decent food.  On other plantations the "conditions" could have been deplorable (poor food, inadequate clothing, harsh physical punishments, and sexual expoitation).  In Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, she recalls how her master offered to build her a separate cabin and provide luxurious clothing if she would become his full-time mistress.  Ultimately, while "conditions" do matter to people who are living through them, it is more important to discuss the "positon" of slaves - that is, they are OWNED by someone else.  Therefore, slaves have no rights and no say in their own lives.  So, in addition to considering how masters treated their slaves, we must first recognize that they owned them, and legally could do with them what they willed.  Ultimately, this ownership of other people not only degrades the slave, but also ultimately degrades the owner, thus the evil of slavery - there is nothing uplifting about it for anyone.

4.  How many free Blacks were slaveholders?
Good question, I do not have exact figures at my fingertips, but I think I read a recent figure that in the 1860 census there were several thousand African Americans who owned slaves up through the Civil War. This is a tiny percentage of total slaveowners.  Some people are surprised that any Blacks owned slaves.  How could this be?  Some explanations suggest that free Blacks purchased family members or other relatives to prevent them from being sold, and to help them be as close to free as possible.  In some states the law made it difficult to free a slave.  Nevertheless, we must also consider that a few free Blacks held slaves for the same reasons whites held slaves - they made money.  Keep in mind our class discussion of how our human nature slides to paths of least resistance, especially when faced with economic choices.  We sometimes make decisions based on economics now (even when it compromises our moral standards).  People in earlier time periods most likely responded in similar ways.

Midterm Exam Hint.  There will undoubtedly be a essay possibility where you will have to compare the early settlement of Virginia with Massachusetts.  You will be asked to consider such factors as:  reasons for settlement, make up of early colonists, how they established their towns or settlements, problems faced by each colony, and how each colony resolved its problems.  Ultimately, which colony do you think was most successful?

5.  Where did slaves sleep?
This question gets at the conditions of slave life.  We will discuss this more when we get to the antbellum period, 1830-1860.  However, here are two examples.  The first photograph comes from Stagville Plantation outside of Durham, North Carolina (http://www.stagville.org).  The original slave house is a bit unusual compared to most other southern plantations.  It is a two-story, four-room house.  While this may not look so harsh, context is important.  This is NOT a two-story, four-room house for a slave family of five or six.  No, each room in this house was home to anywhere from five to seven slaves. 

My other example is from Somerset Plantation, located on Lake Phelps in northeastern North Carolina.  The very large plantation once had twenty-three slave cabins.  The one below is a reconstructed cabin for a slave family.  (http://www.nchistoricsites.org/somerset)

Keep in mind that these two examples are from two of North Carolina's largest antebellum plantations.  Most slaves lived in conditions much worse than depicted here.



Colonial House - Where Are They Now?

As some of you watch Colonial House, I thought it would be interesting to post some YouTube videos of cast members and their recollections of the series and how it influenced their lives.  The easiest to find was a bit from Oprah.  Oprah Winfrey and her friend Gayle King visited the show while it was being filmed.  In this clip Oprah and Gayle share a meal with one of the families.

And then several years later, the same family revisited.

Remember Dominic Muir?  In the video picture above he's on the bottom right with the dog.  I found the following video clip on YouTube.  I thought it was interesting to compare his statement here (really the first 2:30 minutes of the video) with The Great Awakening book, document #11 by Hannah Heaton.

For a more modern version of a George Whitefield style minister see below, especially 1:40-3:15.

And for something really different, check out this photograph of Don Wood, one of the freemen on Colonial House.  Since the series he's become an actor in low budget horror movies, both writing and acting in them.  A nice headshot, though quite different from his look on Colonial House.

Finally, there is an interivew with Julia Friese (another of the servants) about her experience on the show soon after it was made.  Check it out here:  http://www.whyy.org/applauseonline/past/200405/juliainterview.html

In just a random search of cast members this is what I came up with.  Enjoy.

What Are You Reading?

This is a question that I hope people still ask one another.  It is a good opening question, a way to get at someone's interests, curiosities, and ambitions.  I just cleaned off my bedside table, and here is a list of some of what I read last year:

Nonfiction

Clover Adams:  A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life, by Natalie Dykstra

Williams Alexander Percy:  The Curious Life of a Mississippi Planter and Sexual Freethinker, by Benjamin E. Wise

Sex and God at Yale:  Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad, by Nathan Harden

Bonhoffer:  Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas

Coming Apart, by Charles Murray

Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay, by Christopher Benfey

Incidents the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs

Soldier From the War Returing:  The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming From World War II, by Thomas Childers

Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century, by John Kasson

The Bible (selected passages)

Fiction

Canada, by Richard Ford

Mason's Retreat, by Christopher Tilghman

The Right Hand Shore, by Christopher Tilghman

The World According to Garp, by John Irving

Textbooks
America:  A Narrative History, by George B. Tindall and David Shi

The Great Awakening:  A Brief History with Documents, by Thomas S. Kidd

The Salem Witch Hunt:  A Brief History with Documents, by Richard Godbeer

Newspapers and Magazines
The New York Times (Sundays and selected articles during the week)
The Raleigh News and Observer (daily)
The Chronicle of Higher Education (weekly)
The Tideland News (weekly)
The Atlantic Monthly
The New Yorker (sporadically, but excellent articles and equally excellent cartoons!)

What are YOU reading?  Share your best suggestions in the comments.