Garden Design - Deer Parks in the18C American Landscape

c. 1730-1735 Gerardus Duyckinck (American artist, 1695-1746). De Peyster Boy with a deer.

In colonial British America, the sons of gentry occasionally were painted with deer pets, while many of their elders built reserves to protect & nurture deer & and display their wealth & power to neighbors & passers-by.  Deer parks generally belonged to wealthy landowners who had enough meat to eat but who were eager to exhibit their prominent status. 

A deer park was a large enclosed natural area of wood & field on the pleasure grounds near a dwelling. It was a refuge in which to keep & preserve natural & imported deer. Initially, deer were kept to be eaten. British landscape manuals advised deer park owners not to approach the deer, so that they would remain wild. 

Venison & buckskin became staples of the British American colonial economy with the first landings at Jamestown, & Plymouth. Deer were hunted by both the settlers & the native Americans. Once the natives learned that a venison haunch was worth a yard of fabric or a trade axe; they trapped, snared, & killed deer with impunity. By 1630, many coastal tribes had access to European firearms; and one Indian hunter with a gun could kill 5 or 6 deer in a day.

Deer declined rapidly along the Atlantic seaboard throughout the 17C. As early as 1639, authorities in Newport, Rhode Island recognized the danger of deer depletion and established the first closed season on deer hunting in the colonies. In 1646, the town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, followed suit ordering a closed season on deer hunting “from the first of May till the first of November; and if any shall shoot a deere within that time he shall forfeit five pounds …” The ordinance set a pattern for laws adopted by most of the colonies by 1720.

The preamble of the Connecticut law reflected concern over the future of native deer, "The killing of deer at unseasonable times of the year hath been found very much to the prediudice of the Colonie, great numbers of them having been hunted and destroyed in deep snowes when they are very poor and big with young, the flesh and skins of very little value, and the increase greatly hindered."

In 1705, the General Assembly at Newport, Rhode Island, noted that it, "hath been informed that great quantities of deer hath been destroyed in this Collony out of season … and may prove much to the damage of this Collony for the future, and … to the whole country, if not prevented." And in 1705, New York passed a law to protect deer.

Deer laws varied from colony to colony, calling for closed seasons, sometimes terms of years, to the prohibition of using hounds; killing does; export & sale of deer skins; hunting with fire at night; & hunting on Sundays. The goal of these laws was to protect the food resource represented by deer.

Laws protecting deer were loosely enforced. There were only scattered convictions; and by 1750, there were relatively few deer left to protect near towns & larger rural communities. Frontier settlers still lived off the land and killed for venison & hides, when they needed them. Along the edges of the retreating American wilderness, natives & European market hunters still combed the thickets for game in all seasons, far from the reach of any local “deer reeve” or "deer warden." (In New England, these were the mid 18th-century government officers appointed to track down poachers.)

Poachers were dealt with much less seriously in the British American colonies than they were in mother England. In fact, Pennsylvania & Vermont allowed fishing & hunting on all open lands in their colonies. The 1696 Frame of Government of Pennsylvania stated, "That the inhabitants of this province and territories thereof, shall have liberty to fish and hunt, upon the lands they hold, or all other lands therein, not inclosed, and to fish in all waters in the said lands."

Virginia Lt. Gov. William Gooch (1681-1751) describing the 1727 Governor’s Palace, Williamsburg, VA “... an handsome garden, an orchard full of fruit, & a very large Park. (He intended to turn the park) to better use I think than Deer...”

1730s Gerardus Duyckinck (American artist, 1695-1746) Boy with a Deer - John Van Cortlandt (1718-1747) Note: The Brooklyn Museum, which owns this painting, relates that the artists (for this painting & the image above) employed a popular British mezzotint portrait print as the source for this composition & for details such as the fawn, the tree, the masonry wall, & the pilaster, as well as the curved stone step before the figure.

As economic stability increased and international & local trade and commerce began making inroads on the self-sufficient rural life, the focus of the deer park changed from keeping deer for food and the pleasure of the hunt to keeping deer nearby in a natural setting to inspire & renew the owner's family & guests' social & psychological well-being.

Early deer parks included those at the Waltham, Massachusettes estate of Theodore Lyman and at the Robinson Estate, built in 1750, opposite the present West Point Academy on the Hudson River. Deer in the landscape made the pleasure grounds surrounding these seats seem more "natural." American poet, journalist, & editor of the New York Evening Post. William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) in 1821 wrote a letter to his wife, Frances F. Bryant, describing the Vale, estate of Theodore Lyman, Waltham, MA “He took me to the seat of Mr. Lyman. . . It is a perfect paradise. . . North of the house was a park, with a few American deer in it & a large herd of spotted deer-a beautiful animal imported from Bengal.”

One noted deer owner of the period was Revolutionary War veteran Dr. Benjamin Jones. Born in Virginia in 1752, Jones eventually purchased a large tract of land in Henry County, where he built a park and “kept over a hundred deer to amuse his children and grandchildren. A little bell he used on a pet deer is owned by one of his descendants.”

English immigrant Williamsburg tavern & store keeper Daniel Fisher kept a rather unhappy journal from 1750 to 1755. (Louise Pecquet du Bellet published a bit of it in her 1907, Some Prominent Virginia Families.) His May 25, 1755 diary entry of the Proprietor’s Garden, Philadelphia noted “. . . descending from the House is a neat little Park tho’ I am told there are no Deer in it.”

Peter Kalm, the Swedish-Finnish explorer and naturalist who traveled through North America from 1748-1751, published an account of his travels in a journal entitled En Resa til Norra America, which was translated into German, Dutch, French, and English.  Kalm noted that “The American deer can likewise be tamed. A farmer in New Jersey had one in his possession, which he caught when it was very young; at present, it is so tame that in the daytime it runs into the woods for its food, and towards night returns home, frequently bringing a wild deer out of the woods, giving its master an opportunity to hunt at his very door.”

Deer parks certainly existed in the New York area during this period.  English clergyman Andrew Burnaby (1732-1812), wrote in his Travels Through the Middle Settlements in North America, In the Years 1759 & 1760, which was published in 1775, describing a park & garden near the Passaic River, NJ “I went down two miles farther to the park & gardens of. . . colonel Peter Schuyler. In the gardens is a very large collection of citrons, oranges, limes, lemons, balsams of Peru, aloes, pomegranates, & other tropical plants; & in the park I saw several American & English deer, & three or four elks or moose-deer.”

About 17 miles from Annapolis, Bel-Air, the estate of Marylander Benjamin Tasker, was advertised for sale in the 1761 Pennsylvania Gazette. The 2,200 acres contained a 100 acre deer park "well inclosed and stocked with English Deer."

British Capt. Simeon Ecuyer, the Swiss-born commander of Fort Pitt, April 1764, was in the midst of fencing the fort's gardens, when he commented on the Fort in Pittsburgh, PA “. . . the deer park, the little garden, & the bowling green, I am just now making into one garden, it will be extremely pretty & very useful to this garrison, the King’s garden will be put in proper order in due time we want seeds very much and we have no potatoes at all."

In 1774, at the late John Smith estate in New Jersey, 5 miles from Burlington on the Anococus River, there was a deer park containing 375 acres in which there were 30-40 deer. The area was surrounded by 20,000 cedar rails in different fences according to the Pennsylvania Gazette.

Many gentry families did not worry about hunting meat for their tables. They simply raised their own supply. Edward Lloyd IV (1744–1796) was a planter from Talbot County, Maryland. He rebuilt the family home called Wye House in the 1780s. The house was then surrounded by 12,000 acres & tended by over 300 slaves.

English agricultural writer Richard Parkinson (1748–1815), came to America in 1798 & returned to England in 1800. Before he sailed back to England, he visited Wye House and wrote, "I then was introduced to Ed. Lloyd, Esq. at Why-House, a man of very extensive possessions...His house and gardens are what may be termed elegant: and the land appeared the best I ever saw in any one spot in America. He had a deer-park, which is a very rare thing there: I saw but two in the country; this, and another belonging to Colonel Mercer. These parks are but small—not above fifty acres each. I could scarcely tell what the deer lived on. There were only some of those small rushes growing in this park which bear the name of grass, and leaves of trees." When Lloyd died in 1796, his deer park contained 61 deer.

Parkinson was probably referring to Virginia-born John Francis Mercer (1759-1821) as the other gentleman who had a deer park. In 1785, he married Sophia Sprigg, the daughter of Richard & Margaret Sprigg of Maryland, following which he took up residence at "Cedar Park" on West River not far from Annapolis, the estate inherited by his wife from her father. He was elected Governor of Maryland in 1801, and was buried in the graveyard at the foot of the garden on his grounds. He left an estate valued at $16,978.75, including 73 slaves. Reportedly the English-style deer park was in a virgin stand of trees, including cedars, from which the estate took its name.

1745 Artist Frederick Tellschaw. Reproduction Thomas Lodge with deer.

Historian Gary S Dunbar surveyed South Carolina records for mentions of tame deer. Here are a few of his findings from newspaper advertisements from Charleston,
(1732) “Stray’d out of Mr. Saxby’s Pasture up the Path, two tame Deer about a Year old."
(1751) “Wanted, some Doe Fawns, or young Does, for breeders.”
(1760) “Jumped over from on board the Samuel & Robert, a young deer, with a piece of red cloth round his neck…three pounds reward.”
(1761) “The Owner of a strayed Deer may hear where there is one, applying to the Printer hereof, and paying for this Advertisement.”
(1767) “Two tame Deer, a Buck and a Doe, to be sold by Francis Nicholson, in King-street.”
(1768) “Josiah Smith, junior…is in immediate want of …a couple of Tame Deer.”
(1770) “Stolen or Strayed out of my Yard this Morning, a Young Deer, his Horns just coming out, and is stiff in his hind legs, by being crampt in the Waggen which brought him to Town…Charles Crouch.”
(1772) “Wanted to Purchase. Four Deer, each about Three Years old.”
(1772) “Wanted immediately…Two Tame Deer.”
(1781) “A Tame Deer, Came to my garden about twelve days ago. The owner, on proving his property, and paying charges, shall have it again, by applying to Elizabeth Lamb, Near the Saluting Battery.”

Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826) in his 1789 American Geography described Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, Fairfax County, VA “A small park on the margin of the river, where the English fallow-deer, & the American wild-deer are seen through the thickets, alternately with the vessels as they are sailing along, add a romantic & picturesque appearance to the whole scenery.” 

By the late 18C, it seems that deer-keeping was in decline in Charleston. A visitor remarked in 1782, that “the deer formerly ran about the streets, with collars round their necks, like dogs, but at this latter visit, I do not remember to have seen one.”

In his 1830s Recollections of John Mason (1766-1849) described 18C Gunston Hall, seat of George Mason (1725-1792), Mason Neck, VA (Gunston Hall Archives) “On this front you descended directly into an extensive Garden-touching the house... opposite to & in full view from the Garden was was a Deer park studded with Trees kept well fenced & stocked with Native Deer domesticated.”

In a description borrowing from Morse's 1789 depiction of George Washington's Mount Vernon in the Pennsylvania Gazette shortly after the President's death, his deer park was described. "A small park on the margin of the river, where the English fallow deer and the American wild deer are seen through the thickets alternately, with the vessels as they are sailing along, add a romantic and picturesque appearance to the whole scenery."

Anonymous, Hunting Scene, c 1800 at Winterthur

Maryland-born American artist Charles Willson Peale (1741-1829) noted Wye House, the estate of Col. Edward Lloyd, Talbot County, MD, “The Col. is possessed of immence property, he had 400 Ars. of land in a park to keep Deer, round which was a fence of 20 rails high, Maise were planted within for sustenance of his deer.”

In his 1799 Travels, Isaac Weld (1774-1856) wrote of Mount Vernon, plantation of George Washington, Fairfax County, VA “The ground in the rear of the house is also laid out in a lawn, & the declivity of the Mount, towards the water, in a deer park.”

The number of deer parks dwindled in the Early Republic. Many pleasure gardeners were not convinced of the romantic & picturesque aesthetic potential of deer in the new republic and became exasperated with the local destructive deer population.

Rosalie Steir Calvert (1778–1821) wrote from her home Riversdale just outside of Washington DC in Prince George's County, Maryland, "I haven’t been able to enjoy the tulips because the deer come and eat them every night. We have eleven of these beautiful animals, so tame that they come all around the house...However, they do a lot of damage to the young fruit trees, and I am afraid we shall have to kill all of them this fall."

Sophie Madeleine du Pont, Deer house at Eleutherian Mills, c. 1824. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del. 

I could find no portraits of people attending deer, until I saw this wonderful image. It is not American, but will have to make do.

1775 Agostino Brunias (1728 - 1796) (Italian, active in Britain (1758-1770; 1777-1780s) Servants Washing a Deer

I find few American paintings of deer with women except for the hunt scenes & there the deer are quite distant.  I do have one mid-18C needlework depicting a women & 3 deer.

Mehitable Starkey (b 1739) Embroidered in Boston c 1758 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC. The top scene shows 3 people harvesting grain; a woman at the center holds a sickle aloft, while a man at her right cuts the wheat & a man at her left bundles it. The lower scene depicts a landscape with 2 reclining deer flanking a leaping deer. 

See
Dunbar, Gary S.. “Deer-Keeping in Early South Carolina,” Agricultural History, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Apr., 1962)

Garden Design - The Traditional White Picket Fence

In front of our house, we asked the contractor to build an old fashioned, simple, white picket fence to separate the little garden area from all the woods around us. The contractor was skeptical, "But they are so much work to maintain." That is true, but they make such a perfect, orderly, geometric backdrop for the wild, uncontrollable gifts of Nature. These photos of picket fence gardens fueled our aspirations.

<

Garden Design - Arbors with & without Accompanying Fences

Arbor refers to an open structure formed from leafy trees, shrubs, or vines planted closely together for self-support or supported on a frame offering shade, privacy, and protection for a gathering of people or shading a garden bench for only a few people.

Larger arbors for community gatherings in 18th-century colonial America usually were constructed from the cut & bound limbs and leaves of local plants. In the British American colonies, an arbor was often referred to as a bower or shady retreat.

The term arbor was used early in England, often applied to a shaded alley or walkway. In England, Chaucer referred to arbors (herbers) around 1385.

John Parkinson mentioned arbors in his 1629 Paradisi in Sole Paradisus, "Arbours also being both gracefull and necessary, may be appointed in such convenient places, as the corners, or elsewhere, as may be most fit, to serve both as shadow and rest after walking."

In 1712, Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville (1680–1765), French courtier, natural historian, artist, & garden theorist, wrote in his Theory and Practice of Gardening that arbors were of 2 sorts, natural and artificial. Natural was fashioned from branches of trees, while artificial arbors were composed completely of lattice-work.

And Philip Miller suggested that the arbor might be out of fashion in his 1755 Dictionary, "These were formerly in great esteem with us than at present...covered seats or alcoves are everywhere at this time preferred to them."

Despite the fact that Miller saw arbors in decline among the people in the know, references to arbors appear early in the British American colonies & continue to appear throughout the 18th-century. In 1680, visitor Jasper Danckaerts reported, "We had nowhere seen so many vines together as we saw here, which had been planted for the purpose of shading the walks on the river side, in between the trees."

Peter Kalm noted in his Travels in North America in 1749, that the colonials planted wild vines in "gardens near arbours, and summer-houses...over which the vines climb with their tendrils, and cover them entirely with their foliage, so as to shelter them from the heat & the sun."

In 1754, when Dr. Alexander Garden described botanist John Bartram's garden in Philadelphia, he wrote, "He disdains to have a garden less than Pennsylvania, & every den is an Arbour, Every run of water, a Canal, & every small level Spot a Parterre."

Even the small town garden of Annapolis, Maryland, craftsman William Faris contained an arbor in 1793, when he wrote in his diary that he had "planted flowering beans...round the Arber."

Often arbors were larger, more open sheltered spaces meant to hold many people for gatherings. In 1743, in Chesterfield County, Virginia, a church meeting was held "at Clays arber." Several public celebrations were held in arbors built specifically for the special occasion.

An issue of the August, 1746, Virginia Gazette in Williamsburg reported that "The Gentlemen of Hanover County... expressing their Joy and Loyalty, on Occasion of the Defeat of the Rebels in Scotland...a great Number of Gentlemen and Ladies, inhabitants of that and the adjacent Counties, met at the House of Mr. Waters; where a handsome Dinner was provided; a long Arbour was set up, in which 50 Gentlemen and Ladies din'd."

The South-Carolina Gazette in July of 1755, described a meeting with the Cherokees in Charleston, "On Wednesday July 2d, Cannacaughte the Chief, and the other Indians , arrived from their Camp, which lay at three Miles Distance, and were received by the Governor as usual; and His Excellency and Cannacaughte being seated under an Arbour, all the Head-men and Head warriors were placed on Benches fronting them, the other Warriors and Indians sitting all around on the Ground under the Trees."

And during the Revolution in 1781, Robert Honyman reported that "There was not one Tent in the British army, all of them lying under temporary sheds or arbours, made with boughs of Trees, fence rails &c., even officers of the highest rank."

A public celebration honoring an ally during the revolutionary war was reported in the Pennsylvania Gazette in the summer of 1782. "On the 25th of June last, the birth of the Dauphin of France was celebrated by the people of Talbot county, in the State of Maryland, in pursuance of the recommendation of the Governor and Council of that State, a convenient arbour was erected on the banks of Wye river, at Mr. Baker Old Field Landing, where an elegant entertainment was provided sufficient for 200 people, at which a large number of respectable ladies and gentlemen dined."

In 1797, Frances Baylor Hill of "Hillsborough" in Virginia, reported that she "went to Dunkirk to the Barbacue...The Ladies all went to the arbour and had din'd."

1796 Charles Fraser (1782-1860) Arbor for Gatherings. Carolina Art Association. Charleston, South Carolina.

Arbors were also a favorite in the commercial public pleasure gardens in the new republic. They offered both shelter and privacy as patrons discussed business, politics, or just opted for romance.

In 1787, Rev. Manasseh Cutler described the popular Gray's Garden near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, "At every end, side, and corner, there were summer-houses, arbors covered with vines or flowers or shady bowers encircled with trees and flowering shrubs, each of which was formed in a different taste."Henry Wansey also noted the arbors in Gray's Gardens in 1794, "The ground has every advantage of hill and dale, for being laid out in great variety; and it is neatly decorated with alcoves, arbours, shady walks, etc."

Often the shade and privacy offered by an arbor was used to promote the sale or rental of property. In Charleston, South Carolina in February, 1734, a property for sale advertisement in a newspaper touted it to be, "on an island which commands an entire prospect of the Harbor...A delightful Wilderness with shady Walks and Arbours, cool in the hottest seasons."

In 1767, the Pennsylvania Gazette advertised, "To be LETT, On the Five Mile Round, about two miles south of Philadelphia, on a pleasant spot of ground. A TWO story brick house of 45 by 31 feet, four rooms on each floor, three good rooms in the garret... a garden and orchard of choice fruit trees; the ground is divided by fences in a regular uniform manner; two summer houses of each side the entrance of an avenue, at the end of which is an arbour."

An arbor was a selling point for a house in 1789, which the owners were attempting to sell in New York City, "That elegant Dwelling House, called White-conduit house, two stories and half high, having seven fire places...together with an agreeable pleasure garden, with beautiful arbours, and a stable and coach house."

Eliza Southgate, in 1802, described the gardens the Hasket Derby house in Salem, Massachusettes, "at the upper end of the garden there was a beautiful arbour formed of a mound of turf and 'twas surrounded by a thick row of poplar trees which branched out quite to the bottom and so close together that you could not see through."

Thomas Jefferson, who was always redesigning his homes & gardens, wrote of new garden plans for Monticello in 1804, "Through the whole line (of temples) from 1 to 4 have the walk covered by an arbor, to wit, locust forks set in the group crossed by poles at top & lathes on these. Grape vines principally to cover the top. The sides quite open."

These arbors are similar to that described by Juliana Margaret Conner in Salem, North Carolina in 1827, which had been planted in the 1780s, "into the garden...we saw...a curiosity...extremely beautiful. It was a large summer house formed of eight cedar trees planted in a circle, the tops whilst young were chained together in the center forming a cone. The immense branches were all cut, so that there was not a leaf, the outside is beautifully trimmed perfectly even and very thick within, were seats placed around and doors or openings were cut, through the branches, it had been planted 40 years."

The image of the open-air arbor was even used in a piece of advice reported in the Williamsburg newspaper from a gentleman to his son. The Virginia Gazette printed in January of 1752, the instructions of Lord Treasurer Burleigh to his son Robert. "Let thy Kindred and Allies be welcome at thy House and Table. Grace them with thy Countenance, and further them in all honest Actions; for by this Means thou shalt so double the Band of Nature as thou shalt find them so many Advocates to plead an Apology for thee behind thy Back: But shake of those Glow-worms, Parasites and Sycophants, who will feed and sawn upon thee in the Summer of Prosperity, but in an adverse Storm, they will shelter thee no more than an Arbour in Winter." 

Seeds & Plants - From the Fields - Flax to Homespun - Revolutionary Resistance through Homespun

Spinning Bees, local gatherings to spin yarn, became political meetings as colonial anger about "taxation without representation" grew. The amount of thread & yarn spun at spinning bees was often published in the local papers, as towns & church congregations established homespun production rivalries. Wearing homespun became a political statement. At the 1st commencement of Rhode Island College (later Brown University) in the 1760s, the president proudly wore homespun clothing while conducting the ceremony. At Harvard, the faculty & students regularly wore homespun clothing.

Made in America: Revolutionary Resistance through Homespun & the Rise of American Textile Manufacturing

By Neal T. Hurst, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Associate Curator for Costume & Textiles, March 17, 2020

As tensions rose between the American Colonies & Great Britain in the late 1760s, some Virginians displayed their defiance to the Crown in their choice of garments fashioned from locally made fabrics. Homespun — or locally produced textiles — announced the political leanings of the wearer. These homespun textiles also became a necessity once trade with England ended in 1774 & Virginia & other Colonies were faced with meeting the textile demand through local production.

As early as the 17th century, Colonists began to process & weave their own fabrics, & “homespun” came to define any textiles produced domestically in a nonindustrial setting. Raw materials such as linen, cotton, wool, hemp & even silk were transformed into fabrics in North America for local consumption. Most of these homespun textiles would be used as household linens, bed curtains &, on occasion, even for clothing.

Textiles made up the single largest import from England during the 17th & 18th centuries. In theory, the American Colonies produced raw materials & exported them to England. In return, they received finished goods. A series of Navigation Acts — English laws dictating that the Colonies could receive European goods only from England — helped to codify this system.

From the fine & fancy to the plain & everyday, the English goods were better quality & could be purchased at competitive or cheaper prices. Most Colonists bought imported English textiles & used them not only within their homes but also for their clothing.

In the spring of 1769, political debates over taxation raged throughout Virginia. The recently repealed Stamp Act, which had imposed a tax on every piece of paper the Colonists used, remained fresh in many minds. The newly passed Townshend Acts placed a set of taxes on imported glass, lead, paints, paper & tea. In May of that year, Virginia’s House of Burgesses passed a resolution that directly challenged Parliament’s right to tax Virginians. In retaliation, Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, who had been appointed Virginia’s royal governor only a few months before, formally dissolved the governing body.

A day later, the burgesses met at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg & formed the Virginia Association, which called on Virginians to “promote & encourage industry & frugality, & discourage all manner of luxury & extravagance.” Starting Sept. 1, 1769, those who signed the agreement would no longer import listed goods from England, including many textiles such as linens, wools, cottons & silks above a certain price. It even suggested that sheep should not be slaughtered & instead should be kept for their wool. As other Colonies adopted associations, they shared Virginia’s logic that nonimportation & increasing domestic production would put pressure on the English economy & that British merchants & producers would beg Parliament to repeal all of the taxes on the American Colonies.

Men & women throughout Virginia worked steadily to increase domestic production & took pride in wearing homespun. Martha Jacquelin in York County, Virginia, wrote to her London agent in August 1769, “You’ll see by my invoice that I am an Associator … But believe me, our poor country never stood in more need of an Effort to save her from ruin than now, not more from taxes & want of Trayd (sic) than from our own extravagances … I expect to be dressed in Virginia cloth very soon.” Virginia cloth, another term for domestically made textiles, became a fashionable way to show frugality & prove that Virginians did not need to rely upon English imported fabrics.

In December 1769, the House of Burgesses decided to host Lord Botetourt at a ball in the Capitol, only six months after he dismissed the governing body. The day after the event, The Virginia Gazette reported that the “same patriotic spirit which gave rise to the associations of the Gentlemen … was most agreeably manifested in the dress of the ladies.” More than 100 women appeared at the Capitol wearing homespun gowns. The quality of the fabric & where they acquired the quantity needed for the gowns remains unknown. The Gazette wished “that all assemblies of American Ladies would exhibit a like example of public virtue & private economy, so amiably united.”

In the remaining years leading up to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, more associations were signed or strengthened to keep economic pressure on the English. The Eastern Seaboard continued to produce textiles at a rapid rate. The Derby Mercury in Ireland, which was a center of the linen trade, reported in 1770 that the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, maintained no less than 50 looms & 7,000 spinning wheels, producing more than 30,000 yards of linens & woolens a year.

Homespun fabric even became a political statement for Americans visiting England. Edmund Jenings, a Virginia-born lawyer who lived in London, wrote a letter to Richard Henry Lee informing him of his new clothing. He wrote, “Your brother has given me cloth made in your family I wear it on all occasions to show the politicians of this country that the sheep of America have not hair on their backs. — They can hardly believe their eyes.”

On Dec. 1, 1774, the final nonimportation agreement took effect when signed by the first Continental Congress. The Colonies would not import any goods, including textiles, from Great Britain. Virginians along with the other 12 American Colonies would need to produce all the textiles for their households & apparel, a nearly impossible task.

The outbreak of war in April 1775 would create an even larger problem: clothing & equipping an infant army & navy.

The military needed enormous amounts of textiles for clothing, tents, knapsacks, haversacks & blankets. Initially, tens of thousands of yards of fabric arrived in storehouses across the Colonies, including both pieces bought before the nonimportation agreements & homespun woven in homes, farms & plantations. These materials were quickly depleted, & more were immediately needed. With no imports coming from Great Britain & domestic production not meeting the demand, the American army faced major supply shortages.

The Continental Congress sought help to get materials, especially textiles, for its newly established military force. Emissaries traveled to Spain & Holland & gained some initial support. Dressed in a very plain manner with a pine marten fur cap, Benjamin Franklin visited the court of France. The French Court admired Franklin & his unique American dress, which they may have believed was homespun. Franklin secured the Treaty of Alliance between the newly formed United States of America & the French that allowed much needed supplies to flow into the United States.

With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 & the end of the American Revolution, American merchants quickly resumed trading with England. Once again it was cheaper to import high-quality textiles than to establish the industry in the new republic. Still, Americans continued to produce homespun fabrics to supplement the imported textiles they purchased from England. The textile industry began to slowly establish itself, especially in the New England states.

When George Washington was unanimously elected president, he began to carefully craft what he would wear at his inauguration. After seeing an advertisement in a New York newspaper for American-made broadcloths (a heavily fulled or napped wool), he contacted his friend, Gen. Henry Knox. On Jan. 29, 1789, Washington wrote, “I have ventured to trouble you with the Commission of purchasing enough [broadcloth] to make me a suit of Cloaths. As to the colour, I shall leave it altogether to your taste; only observing, that, if the dye should not appear to be well fixed, & clear, or if the cloth should not really be very fine, then (in my Judgment) some colour mixed in grain might be preferable to an indifferent [stained] dye. I shall have occasion to trouble you for nothing but the cloth & twist to make the button holes.”

On April 30, 1789, Washington became the first president of the United States. He wore a brown broadcloth three-piece suit made from fabric woven at the Hartford Woolen Manufactory, a newly established business in Connecticut. In October of that same year, Washington visited the factory & wrote in his diary, “I viewed the Woolen Manufactury at this place which seems to be going on with Spirit. There (sic) Broadcloths are not of the first quality, as yet, but they are good; as are their Coatings, Cassimers, Serges & everlastings. Of the first that is broad-cloth I ordered a suit to be sent to me at New York & of the latter a whole piece to make breeches for my servants.”

By choosing an American-produced broadcloth for his first inaugural suit, Washington supported the economic growth & industrial establishment within the newly established United States. In the 19th century, an American textile industry would blossom.

See Colonial Williamsburg here.  Neal Hurst is the Foundation’s associate curator for costume and textiles. He also spent 7 years in the Historic Area earning his journeyman status as a tailor.

Women's Work from Garden to Table - Dandelion Wine

John Greenwood (American artist, 1727-1792) Sea Captains Carousing, 1758.  Detail

Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines Cordials & Liqueurs 1909 by Helen S. Wright

DANDELION WINE
Four quarts of dandelions. Cover with four quarts of boiling water; let stand three days. Add peel of three oranges and one lemon. Boil fifteen minutes; drain and add juice of oranges and lemon to four pounds of sugar and one cup of yeast. Keep in warm room and strain again; let stand for three weeks. It is then ready to bottle and serve.

Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines is a cookbook for those who want to make their own wines & liqueurs from available ingredients, including fruits, flowers, vegetables, & shrubs from local gardens, farms, & orchards. It includes ingredients & instructions for making & fermenting spirits, from wine & ale to sherry, brandy, cordials, & even beer. 

Colonial Era Cookbooks

1615, New Booke of Cookerie, John Murrell (London) 

1798, American Cookery, Amelia Simmons (Hartford, CT)

1803, Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter (New York, NY)

1807, A New System of Domestic Cookery, Maria Eliza Rundell (Boston, MA)

1808, New England Cookery, Lucy Emerson (Montpelier, VT)

Helpful Secondary Sources

America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking/Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

Colonial Kitchens, Their Furnishings, and Their Gardens/Frances Phipps Hawthorn; 1972

Early American Beverages/John Hull Brown   Rutland, Vt., C. E. Tuttle Co 1996 

Early American Herb Recipes/Alice Cooke Brown  ABC-CLIO  Westport, United States

Food in Colonial and Federal America/Sandra L. Oliver

Home Life in Colonial Days/Alice Morse Earle (Chapter VII: Meat and Drink) New York : Macmillan Co., ©1926.

A Revolution in Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America/James E. McWilliams New York : Columbia University Press, 2005.

Geo Washington (1732-1799) - Managing his Field Crops before the Revolution

George Washington as Farmer by Junius Brutus Stearns. 1851

George Washington: Farmer (1915) by Paul Leland Haworth (1876-1936) 

Agricultural Operations & Experiments before the Revolution

In the beginning, there was scant help for Washington as a farmer...The Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture was not founded until 1785. In his later years our Farmer could & did write to such foreign specialists as Arthur Young & Sir John Sinclair, but they were Englishmen unfamiliar with American soils & climate & could rarely give a weighty answer propounded to them by an American...

...Thus in the fall of 1764 we find him sowing "a few Oats to see if they would stand the winter." Any country boy of to-day could tell him that ordinary oats sown under such conditions in the latitude of Mount Vernon would winter kill too badly to be of much use, but Washington could not know it till he had tried.

He began...his experiment in March, 1760, with lucerne. Lucerne is alfalfa. It will probably be news to most readers that alfalfa--the wonderful forage crop of the West, the producer of more gold than all the mines of the Klondike--was in use so long ago, for the impression is pretty general that it is comparatively new; the fact is that it is older than the Christian era & that the name alfalfa comes from the Arabic & means "the best crop." Evidently our Farmer had been reading on the subject, for in his diary he quotes what "Tull speaking of lucerne, says." He tried out the plant on this & several other occasions & had a considerable field of it in 1798.

In this same year, 1760, we find him sowing clover, rye, grass, hope, trefoil, timothy, spelt, which was a species of wheat, & various other grasses & vegetables, most of them to all intents & purposes unknown to the Virginia agriculture of that day.

He also recorded an interesting experiment with fertilizer. April 14, 1760, he writes in his diary:
"Mixed my composts in a box with the apartments in the following manner, viz. No. 1 is three pecks of earth brought from below the hill out of the 46 acre field without any mixture. In No. 2 is two pecks of sand earth & one of marle taken out of the said field, which marle seemed a little inclined to sand. 3 has 2 pecks of sd. earth & 1 of river sand.
"4 has a peck of Horse Dung
"5 has mud taken out of the creek
"6 has cow dung
"7 has marle from the Gulleys on the hillside, wch. seem'd to be purer than the other
"8 sheep dung
"9 Black mould from the Gulleys on the hill side, wch. seem'd to be purer than the other
"10 Clay got just below the garden

"All mixed with the same quantity & sort of earth in the most effective manner by reducing the whole to a tolerable degree of fineness & rubbing them well together on a cloth. In each of these divisions were planted three grains of wheat, 3 of oats, & as many of barley, all of equal distances in Rows & of equal depth done by a machine made for the purpose. The wheat rows are next the numbered side, the oats in the middle, & the barley on the side next the upper part of the Garden. Two or three hours after sowing in this manner, & about an hour before sunset I watered them all equally alike with water that had been standing in a tub abt two hours exposed to the sun."  Three weeks later he inspected the boxes & concluded that Nos. 8 & 9 gave the best results.

The plows of the period were cumbersome & did their work poorly. Consequently in March, 1760, Washington "Fitted a two Eyed Plow instead of a Duck Bill Plow", & tried it out, using his carriage horses in the work. But this new model proved upon the whole a failure & a little later he "Spent the greater part of the day in making a new plow of my own Invention." Next day he set the new plow to work "and found She answerd very well."  A little later he "got a new harrow made of smaller & closer teethings for harrowing in grain--the other being more proper for preparing the ground for sowing."

Much of his attention in the next few years was devoted to wheat growing, for, as already related, he soon decided gradually to discontinue tobacco & it was imperative for him to discover some [pg other money crop to take its place. We find him steeping his seed wheat in brine & alum to prevent smut & he also tried other experiments to protect his grain from the Hessian fly & rust. Noticing how the freezing & thawing of the ground in spring often injured the wheat by lifting it out of the ground, he adopted the practice of running a heavy roller over the wheat in order to get the roots back into the ground & he was confident that when the operation was performed at the proper time, that is when the ground was soft & the roots were still alive, it was productive of good results.

In June, 1763, he "dug up abt. a load of Marle to spread over Wheat Land for experiment." In 1768 he came to the conclusion that most farmers began to cut their wheat too late, for of course cradling was a slow process--scarcely four acres per day per cradler--and if the acreage was large several days must elapse before the last of the grain could be cut, with the result that some of it became so ripe that many of the kernels were shattered out & lost before the straw could be got to the threshing floor. By careful experiments he determined that the grain would not lose perceptibly in size & weight if the wheat were cut comparatively green. In wheat-growing communities the discussion as to this question still rages--extremists on one side will not cut their wheat till it is dead ripe, while those on the other begin to harvest it when it is almost sea-green.

In 1763 Washington entered into an agreement with John Carlyle & Robert Adams of Alexandria to sell to them all the wheat he would have to dispose of in the next seven years. The price was to be three shillings & nine pence per bushel, that is, about ninety-one cents. This would not be far from the average price of wheat to-day, but, on the one side, we should bear in mind that ninety-one cents then had much greater purchasing power than now, so that the price was really much greater, and, on the other, that the cost of raising wheat was larger then, owing to lack of self-binders, threshing machines & other labor-saving devices.

The wheat thus sold by Washington was to be delivered at the wharf at Alexandria or beside a boat or flat on Four Mile Run Creek. The delivery for 1764 was 257-1/2 bushels; for 1765, 1,112-3/4 bushels; for 1766, 2,331-1/2 bushels; for 1767--a bad year--1,293-1/2 bushels; for 1768, 4,994-1/2 bushels [pg 097] of wheat & 4,304-1/2 bushels of corn; for 1769, 6,241-1/2 bushels of wheat.

Thereafter he ground a good part of his wheat & sold the flour. He owned three mills, one in western Pennsylvania, already referred to, a second on Four Mile Run near Alexandria, & a third on the Mount Vernon estate. This last mill had been in operation since his father's day. It was situated near the mouth of the stream known as Dogue Run, which was not very well suited for the purpose as it ran from the extreme of low water in summer to violent floods in winter & spring. Thus his miller, William A. Poole, in a letter that wins the sweepstakes in phonetic spelling, complains in 1757 that he has been able to grind but little because "She fails by want of Water." At other times the Master sallies out in the rain with rescue crews to save the mill from floods & more than once the "tumbling dam" goes by the board in spite of all efforts. The lack of water was partly remedied in 1771 by turning the water of Piney Branch into the Run, & about the same time a new & better mill was erected, while in 1797 further improvements were made. During the whole period flatboats & small schooners could come to the wharf to take away the flour. Corn & other grains were ground, as well as wheat, & the mill had considerable neighborhood custom, the toll exacted being one-eighth. Only a few stones sticking in a bank now remain of the mill.

Washington divided his flour into superfine, fine, middlings & ship stuff. It was put into barrels manufactured by the plantation coopers & much of it ultimately found its way to the West India market. A tradition--much quoted--has it that barrels marked "George Washington, Mount Vernon," were accepted in the islands without any inspection, but Mr. J.M. Toner, one of the closest students of Washington's career, contended that this was a mistake & pointed to the fact that the Virginia law provided for the inspection of all flour before it was exported & the placing of a brand on each barrel...

That his flour was so good was in large measure due to the excellent quality of the wheat from which it was made. By careful attention to his seed & to cultivation he succeeded in raising grain that often weighed upward of sixty pounds to the bushel. After the Revolution he wrote: "No wheat that has ever yet fallen under my observation exceeds the wheat which some years ago I cultivated extensively."

His idea of good cultivation in these years was to let his fields lie fallow at certain intervals, though he also made use of manure, marl, etc., & in 1772 tried the experiment of sowing two bushels of salt per acre upon fallow ground, dividing the plot up into strips eight feet in width & sowing the alternate strips in order that he might be able to determine results.

He imported from England an improved Rotheran or patent plow, and, having noticed in an agricultural work mention of a machine capable of pulling up two or three hundred stumps per day, he expressed a desire for one, saying: "If the accounts are not greatly exaggerated, such powerful assistance must be of vast utility in many parts of this wooden country, where it is impossible for our force (and laborers are not to be hired here), between the finishing of one crop & preparations for another, to clear ground fast enough to afford the proper changes, either in the planting or farming business."

Garden Design - 18C Greenhouse from England to Early America

1786 Unknown artist. John Coakley Lettsom (1733–1810), with His Family, in the Garden of Grove Hill, Camberwell.

The painting is notable for its close-up images of a garden bench, greenhouse, urn, espaliered wall, & flower pots.

18C Garden Design - A Virginia Garden Portrait & Cultural Landscape

1748-50 George Booth (1753-1777) as a Young Man by William Dering (active 1735-1751) owned by Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

This portrait depicts a rather pretentious young man with a bow & arrow standing in a highly stylized landscape with a small but clever dog at his feet. George Booth (1753-1777) stands in a formal pose, with his proper right hand on his hip and with his proper left foot turned at a right angle to his supporting foot, his head slightly turned to the viewer’s left but his eyes turned toward the viewer.  He wears a dark brown great coat & knee breeches, a bright red waistcoat adorned with heavy gold brocade trim, and a white shirt & neckcloth. His immaculately powdered hair is curled back away from his lovely face. His black shoes display metal buckles & unusually stylish red heels.

His small but fierce dog glares at the viewer while holding in its mouth a bird shot through with an arrow demonstrating the exceptional hunting prowess of his owner. The young man stands slightly in front of & in-between two female busts on plinths, with a distant view of a formal garden in the near background and, in the distant background, a vast walled estate.

The young man's self-assured pose, the nearly bawdy sculptures flanking him, & the formal garden in the distance reveal his real or desired genteel status, while the hunting dog & bow are symbols of his manly game-park & social dominance. The two female, bust-length sculptures on plinths are unique in American colonial portraiture. Young George seems puffed up with manly pride, as he poses between these busts with his bow and arrow. The buildings in the background are unidentified & were probably an artistic invention meant to reflect the sitter’s real or hoped-for standing among Virginia’s elite plantation society.

George Booth (1753-1777) was son of Mordecai Booth(1675-1775) and Joyce Armistead Booth (1705-1770) of Bellville plantation in Gloucester County.  The Booth family may have been acquainted with the artist Dering, when he lived for a brief period in Gloucester. George married Mary Mason Wythe (1751-1814) and they had children: George Wythe Booth (1772-1808) & Elizabeth Booth (Roy) (b 1773).  After George's death, Mary Mason Wythe Booth (1751-1814) married Philip Tabb in 1788, in Gloucester, Virginia.  

Mary Mason Wythe was the daughter of Nathaniel Wythe & Elizabeth Todd Booth.  Upon the death of her first husband George Booth, land was transferred to their daughter Elizabeth upon which her husband, James Henry Roy would build "Green Plains" on North River.

After her husband's death, George's wife Mary Mason Wythe Booth married her first cousin Phillip Tabb (1750-1822) in 1788. Their home was the center of the county's hospitality. While Philip Tabb followed the hounds, bet on horses, and played cards, his wife became more devout.  She became a Methodist and built the Old Mt. Zion Methodist Church. Bishop Asbury of the M.E. Church in his tour through Gloucester in 1786, said that "she and Joseph Bellamy were the most godly people in Gloucester." 

Women's Work from Garden to Table - Colonial Alcohol Trivia

Colonial American Alcohol Trivia

The Puritans loaded more beer than water onto the Mayflower before they cast off for the New World. 

There wasn’t any cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, or pumpkin pie to eat at the first Thanksgiving. However, there was beer, brandy, gin, & wine to drink. 

A brewery was one of Harvard College’s first construction projects. That was to ensure a steady supply of beer for the student dining hall. 

The early colonialists made alcoholic beverages from what was available. That included carrots, tomatoes, onions, beets, celery, squash, corn silk, dandelions, & goldenrod. 

The distillation of rum became early Colonial New England’s largest & most prosperous industry. 

A traveler through the Delaware Valley in 1753 compiled a list of the drinks he encountered. All but three of the 48 contained alcohol. 

The Reverend Elijah Craig, a Baptist minister, made the first Kentucky whiskey in 1789. 

The distillation of whiskey led to the first test of federal power. It was the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. 

The laws of most American colonies required towns to license suitable persons to sell wine & spirits. 

Colonial taverns were often required to be located near the church or meetinghouse. 

George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, & Thomas Jefferson all enjoyed brewing or distilling their own alcohol beverages.

The Colonial Army supplied its troops with a daily ration of four ounces of either rum or whiskey.

Religious services, court sessions, & voting venues were often in the major tavern of Colonial American towns. 

Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence in a tavern in Philadelphia. 

The first signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock, was an alcohol dealer. 

Before he took his famous ride, Paul Revere apparently had two drinks of rum. 

The patriot Patrick Henry (“Give me liberty or give me death”) was a bar tender. 

President Martin Van Buren was born in his father’s tavern. 

Alewives in Colonial America brewed a special high proof “groaning ale” for pregnant women to drink during labor. 

American Alcohol Trivia Resources:

Burns, E. The Spirit of America: The Social History of Alcohol. Philadelphia: Temple U Press, 2004.

Furnas, J. The Life & Times of the Late Demon Rum. Putnam’s Sons, 1965.

Grimes, W. Straight Up or On the Rocks: A Cultural History of American Drink. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1993

Lender, M. & Martin, J. Drinking in America. NY: Free Press, 1982.

Meacham, S. Every Home a Distillery. Alcohol, Gender, & Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U Press, 2013.

Women's Work from Garden to Table - Patriots Eat & Drink as They Plan a Revolution

What Did the Founding Fathers Eat & Drink as They Started a Revolution?

By Amanda Cargill Smithsonianmag.com, July 3, 2018

...Walter Staib, executive chef at Philadelphia's City Tavern & host of PBS' “A Taste of History,” contends that among those who signed the Declaration in 1776 were America's earliest foodies. “While [farm-to-table & foodie movements] are trendy today,” he says, “the founders were doing it out of necessity.”

He points out that colonial America lacked the transportation infrastructure to deliver foods from faraway lands: “If it was around, you ate it.” What was around were legumes, produce & anything that could be foraged or hunted. In the mid-Atlantic, seafood was especially popular, reflecting the abundance of the Delaware River, which was then, says Staib, “pristine & teeming with fish.” Today, following two centuries of pollution that decreased water quality & diminished fish populations, it is in the early stages of a rebound.

George Washington was exceedingly fond of dining on seafood. For nearly 40 years, the three fisheries he operated along the ten-mile Potomac shoreline that bordered Mount Vernon processed more than a million fish annually. Among the items on the plantation’s menu were crabmeat casseroles, oyster gumbos & salmon mousse.

Thomas Jefferson admired French fare above all, & he is credited, according to Staib, with popularizing frites, ice cream & champagne. He is also often credited—although incorrectly—with the introduction of macaroni & cheese to the American palate. It was, in fact, his enslaved chef James Hemings who, via Jefferson’s kitchen, brought the creamy southern staple to Monticello. Trained at the elite Château de Chantilly while accompanying Jefferson on a trip to France, Hemings would later become one of only two laborers enslaved by Jefferson to negotiate his freedom.

As for dessert, none of the Founding Fathers was without a sweet tooth. John Adams' wife, Abigail, regularly baked Apple Pan Dowdy, a pie-meets-cobbler hybrid that was popular in New England in the early 1800s; James Madison loved ice cream & was spoiled by his wife Dolley's creative cakes, for which she gained such renown that, to this day, supermarkets across America carry a brand of prepared pastries bearing her—albeit incorrectly spelled—name; & John Jay, in a letter sent to his father in 1790, reported that he carried chocolate with him on long journeys, likely “shaving or grating it into pots of milk,” says Kevin Paschall, chocolate maker at Philadelphia's historic Shane Confectionery, & consuming it as a drink.

The Founders, like most colonists, were fans of adult beverages. Colonial Americans drank roughly three times as much as modern Americans, primarily in the form of beer, cider, & whiskey. In Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History, author Steven Grasse connects this seemingly outsized consumption to the Revolutionary spirit of the time when he writes, “In the drink, a dream; & in the dream, a spark.” Reverend Michael Alan, who illustrated & helped research the book says simply: “From morning until night, people in the 18th century drank.”

Benjamin Franklin was especially unabashed about his love of “the cups.” Though Grasse writes that he was careful to advise temperance, he regularly enjoyed wine & what some might argue were early iterations of craft cocktails. His favorite, according to Alan, was milk punch, a three-ingredient brandy-based sip whose two non-alcoholic components–milk & lemon juice–washed & refined its third. Another Franklin foodie badge is his “Drinkers' Dictionary,” a compendium of Colonial slang describing the state of drunkenness. Initially printed in 1737 in the Pennsylvania Gazette, its publication made Franklin one of America's first food & drink writers.

Washington was known for racking up sizable tabs after buying drinks for friends. Recounting one particularly generous–and raucous–night wherein Washington ordered 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of Claret, & 7 full bowls of punch, Alan says “He knew how to throw down.”

Despite this, it was Jefferson, notes Grasse, who was the true oenophile of the bunch. As a young man, he drank Portuguese Madeira by the truckload, & in his post-Presidential years, he repeatedly tried & failed to cultivate grapes for winemaking at his vineyard in Monticello.

While tales of alcoholic escapades could understandably lead one to believe that the Founders were a group of party animals–save the relatively sober Alexander Hamilton, referred to by John Adams as an “insolent coxcomb” who, on the rare occasion that he drank something other than coffee, became “silly & vaporing”–it's important to note the reasons why alcohol consumption was so high.

First & foremost, drinking alcohol was a means of survival. Potable water was scarce in colonial times, writes Grasse, so almost all of what was available carried harmful diseases. Among these were smallpox, lockjaw, & the delightfully named black vomit. For colonists, drinking water meant risking one's life, & no one who could afford otherwise dared do it. Alan confirms that even children drank beer–a hard cider & molasses combination aptly named “ciderkin.” Put simply, consuming alcohol was, in the absence of clean drinking water, a means of staying hydrated.

The taverns where alcohol was consumed also played a vital role in colonial life. “Systems like the post office, libraries, even courthouses, were just being put into place,” explains Alan. “Taverns offered all of these services plus a good beer buzz.”

For political figures like the Founding Fathers, taverns were also where one went to get the inside scoop on political adversaries & posit agendas for which one hoped to gain favor. “Ben Franklin,” reports Staib, “used taverns as a tool of diplomacy.” For him, “eating, drinking, & gossiping” were negotiation tactics. It was in taverns that the Founding Fathers, “emboldened by liquid courage,” to quote Staib, & likely, after tying a few on, unfettered by the rarefied rules of governance to which all of history had subscribed, honed the concepts contained in the Declaration of Independence & the Constitution.

Of the link between food, drinks, & Revolutionary history, Alan offers this pun-intended nod: “A lot of crazy ideas can come out of a “spirited” evening of conversation.”

See Smithsonian Magazine here.

Women's Work from Garden to Table - Alcohol at Colonial Tables

 Alcohol in Colonial America

Alcohol in Colonial America began with the arrival of Europeans.  Except for several nations in the Southwest, Native Americans did not have alcohol beverages. The Apache & Zuni drank alcoholic beverages which they produced for secular consumption. The Pima & Papago produced alcohol for religious ceremonial consumption. Papago consumption was heavy. However, they limited it to a single peaceable annual ceremony. And the other tribes’ drinking was also infrequent & didn’t cause problems. 

The Puritans loaded more beer than water onboard the Mayflower before casting off for the New World.   This reflected their traditional drinking beliefs, attitudes, & behaviors. They considered alcohol to be a natural & normal part of life. They believed that God created alcohol & that it was inherently good. Indeed, Jesus both made & drank wine & approved drinking in moderate. 

Their experience was that it was safer to drink alcohol than the typically polluted water. Alcohol was also an effective analgesic. It provided the energy necessary for hard work. Alcohol served as  a social lubricant, provided entertainment, facilitated relaxation & contributed to the enjoyment of food. It also provided pharmacological pleasure. In sum, alcohol in colonial America generally enhanced the quality of life.

Beer

For hundreds of years their English ancestors had enjoyed beer & ale. People of both sexes & all ages typically drank beer with their meals.

Importing a continuing supply of beer was expensive. So the early settlers brewed their own. However, it was difficult to make the beer to which they were accustomed. That was because wild yeasts caused problems in fermentation. For this reason it resulted in a bitter, unappetizing brew.  

But these early adventurers did not give up. Wild hops grew in New England. They ordered hop seeds from England in order to cultivate an adequate supply for traditional beer. In the meantime, the colonists improvised a beer made from red & black spruce twigs boiled in water. They also made a beer from ginger. A ditty from the 1630s reflects their determination & ingenuity.

If barley be wanting to make into malt,

We must be content & think it no fault.

For we can make liquor to sweeten our lips,

Of pumpkins, & parsnips, & walnut-tree chips. 

Slowly, the colonists mastered the intricacies of brewing in the New World. Then beer became widely available. And many farmers made their own with the help of a malster. The malster malted their barley, or more often, corn. 

The colonists considered beer to be very important. For example, a brewery was one of Harvard College’s first construction projects. It was to provide a steady supply of beer for the students.  And Connecticut required each town to ensure that a place was available for the purchase of beer. 

Home brewers made the weakest & most commonly available beer by soaking grain in water. But this “small beer” spoiled quickly because of its low alcohol content. Therefore, people consumed it quickly. The homemaker brewed beer once or twice a week. “Ships beers” were stronger & also readily available. But the strongest beer, brewed with malt & extra sugar, was expensive & uncommon. 

Wine

The colonists also learned to make a wide variety of wine from fruits. These included strawberries, cranberries, blackberries, elderberries, gooseberries, & currants. They also made wines from numerous vegetables. These included carrots, tomatoes, onions, beets, celery, squash, corn silk, dandelions, & goldenrod. They also made wine from such products as flowers, herbs, & even oak leaves.  Early on, French vine-growers came to the New World to teach settlers how to cultivate grapes. 

Hard Cider

Cider had been popular in England but apples were not native to New England. Farmers promptly planted the first orchard using English seeds. Over time apples became abundant in the colonies.

People typically fermented apple juice in barrels over the winter.  Colonists sometimes added honey or cane sugar. This  increased the alcohol content & also creating natural carbonation. “Apple champagne” was a special treat. “Cider was served to every member of the family at breakfast, dinner, & supper. Cider was consumed in the fields between meals, & was a regular staple at all the communal social functions.” 

Distilled Spirits

...Rum was not commonly available until after 1650. Then, it increasingly came from the Caribbean. However, the cost of rum dropped after the colonists began importing molasses & cane sugar directly & distilled their own. By 1657, a rum distillery was operating in Boston. It was highly successful. Within a generation the production of rum became colonial New England’s largest & most prosperous industry.  Clearly, distilled spirits were a very important part of alcohol in Colonial America.

In the profitable Triangle Trade, traders took rum to England for manufactured products.  Then in West Africa they traded those products for slaves. In the West Indies they traded slaves for more molasses.  The triangle continued when New England distillers made the molasses into more rum.

This three point trading arrangement was an important part of colonial commercial life & prosperity.  Almost every important town from Massachusetts to the Carolinas had a rum distillery. They met the local demand, which had increased dramatically. 

Alcohol in Colonial America

Baron, S., & Young, J. Brewed in America: a History of Beer & Ale in the US.  Boston: Little, Brown, 1962.

Becker, D., & Siekonic, D. A Guide to Winemaking in Early America. Center Valley, PA: Privateer, 2011.

Burns, E. The Spirits of America. A Social History of Alcohol. Philadelphia. Temple U Press, 2004.

Lender, M., & Martin, J. Drinking in America. A History. London: Macmillan, 1982.

McCusker, J. Rum & the American Revolution. NY: Garland, 1989.

Meacham, S. Every Home a Distillery. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U Press, 2009.

Salinger, S. Taverns & Drinking in Early America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U Press, 2002.

Schmid, S., & Schmid-Haberkamp, B. (Eds.) Drink in the Eighteenth & Nineteenth Centuries. Brookfield, VT: Pickering & Chatto, 2014. 

Smith, G. Beer in America. The Early years, 1587-1840. Boulder, CO: Siris, 1998.

Women's Work from Garden to Table - One of Washington's Favorite Wines - Madeira

One of George Washington's Favorite Wines - Madeira

A fortified wine produced on the Portuguese island of Madeira in the eastern Atlantic, madeira in the 18C was common in Britain & particularly popular in the American colonies. George Washington had an affinity for this particular imported wine.

The first order for Madeira in George Washington's correspondence dates to the spring of 1759, when he asked his London agent, Robert Cary & Company to "Order from the best House in Madeira a Pipe of the best old Wine, & let it be Securd from Pilferers."1 A pipe held approximately 126 gallons of wine.2 About a year later, Washington transported a pipe of wine to Mount Vernon from Alexandria, "wch. Captn. McKee brought from Madeira," along with "a chest of Lemons & some other trifles."3

Three years later, in the spring of 1763, Washington notified Cary & Company that he would be writing directly to the island firm of John & James Searles for a pipe of Madeira wine, & that they, in turn, would be contacting Cary for payment.4 In his letter to the Searles, Washington specifically asked for "a rich oily Wine," & asked that, "if the present vintage shoud not be good, to have it of the last, or in short of any other which you can recommend."5

Washington's orders for Madeira continued throughout his lifetime. He purchased a second pipe from John Searles in 1764, even though he admitted that he still had not yet tapped into the first one. Two years later, Washington switched suppliers & requested similar or larger quantities from the firm of Scott, Pringle, Cheape & Company. By 1768, Washington had not gotten around to drinking the 1766 order, but still asked that an additional 150 gallons be sent.6 In the last orders prior to the American Revolution, Washington sent flour from Mount Vernon directly to Madeira instead of having his English agent pay the island firms & received wine & other products from the islands in exchange.7

Significant amounts of Madeira continued to be purchased for the Washington household both after the war & during the presidency. Two pipes of Madeira were received for the presidential household in Philadelphia in August of 1793 & paid for in January of the following year. Another two pipes of the same wine arrived in May of 1794 & an equal amount again in July & November of the same year.8

When Washington made a trip to tour western lands in the fall of 1784, he carried along in his "equipage Trunk & the Canteens" three types of alcoholic beverages, two of which were Portuguese wines-Madeira & port.9 During the last year of Washington's life, an English visitor at Mount Vernon recorded that both port & Madeira were served during the fruit & nut course at dinner. A Polish nobleman noted that when there were houseguests at Mount Vernon, Washington "loves to chat after dinner with a glass of Madeira in his hand."10 Washington's step-granddaughter Nelly later recalled, "After dinner" Washington "drank 3 glasses of madeira."11

Mary V. Thompson, Research Historian, George Washington's Mount Vernon

Notes:

1. George Washington, "Invoice to Robert Cary & Company, 1 May 1759" The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, Vol. 6, ed. W.W. Abbott (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988), 318.

2. For the measurement of a pipe of wine, see Marion Nicholl Rawson, "Old Weights and Measures," Antiques (January 1938), 18.

3. "George Washington, 17 May 1760" The Diaries of George Washington, Vol. 1 ed. Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976), 280.

4. "George Washington to Robert Cary & Company, 26 April 1763" The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, Vol. 7, eds. W.W. Abbott and Dorothy Twohig (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1990), 204.

5. "George Washington to John and James Searle, 30 April 1763" The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, Vol. 7, 208.

6. "George Washington to Scott, Pringle, Cheap, & Company, 23 February 1768" The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, Vol. 8, 68-9.

7. "George Washington to Thomas Newton, Jr., 10 July 1773" The Writings of George Washington, Vol. 3 ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1931), 143.

8. "Tobias Lear & Bartholomew Dandridge, 18 January 1794, Washington's Household Account Book, 1793-1797," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 30, Nos. 2 and 3 (1906): 159-186, 309-331; Ibid., 27 May 1794, 24 July 1794, 4 November 1794: 182, 312, 323.

9. "22 September 1784," The Diaries of George Washington, Vol. 4, 32.

10. Joshua Brookes, "A Dinner at Mount Vernon: From the Unpublished Journal of Joshua Brookes." ed. R.W.G. Vail, The New-York Historical Society Quarterly 31, No. 2 (April 1947): 76; Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Under Their Vine and Fig Tree; Travels Through America in 1797-1799, 1805, ed. Metchie J.E. Budka (Elizabeth, New Jersey: Grassman Publishing Company, 1965), 103.

11. "Nelly Custis Lewis to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, 23 February 1823" (typescript, A-647, Mount vernon Ladies' Association).

Research plus images & much more are available from the Mount Vernon website, MountVernon.org. 

Garden to Table - Geo Washington (1732-1799) & Champagne

George Washington & Champagne

In eighteenth century America, wines from France were less commonly available than those from Spain and Portugal, primarily because of frequent political conflicts between France and England. Several types of French wines did make their way to America for those who could afford the higher prices, including champagne, which was a product of vineyards in northeastern France. During this period, the pale red beverage was typically served in tall champagne flutes, between dinner and dessert, or at evening parties.1

Like other men of his social class, George Washington had the money and connections to acquire champagne for his table. He may have first become acquainted with champagne in the palace in Williamsburg, where the royal governor, Lord Botetourt is known to have had three bottles stored "In the Vault" at the time of his death in 1770.2 In 1793, as president, Washington purchased 485 bottles of champagne and burgundy, which cost him $355.67. Six bottles were "got as a sample" in May of 1794 and another twelve found their way to the executive mansion in November of the same year. Judging from these last two purchases, champagne at this time cost Washington about $1.00 per bottle.3

After the Revolution, Robert Hunter, Jr., a guest at Mount Vernon, recorded that "a very elegant supper" was served around nine at night. The dinner’s special guest was Washington’s old friend, Richard Henry Lee, who was the president of Congress and from whom Washington was "anxious to hear the news of Congress." Hunter noted that "The General with a few glasses of champagne got quite merry, and being with his intimate friends laughed and talked a good deal." Hunter also recognized how rare this was, commenting that "Before strangers, he [Washington] is generally very reserved and seldom says a word. I was fortunate in being in his company with his particular acquaintances. I'm told that during the war he was never seen to smile…."4

In 1791, Scottish artist Archibald Robertson visited the presidential mansion in Philadelphia in order to deliver a gift to George Washington from the Earl of Buchan--an oak box, "elegantly mounted with silver." The box was made from the "celebrated oak tree that sheltered the WASHINGTON of Scotland, the brave and patriotic Sir William Wallace, after his defeat at the battle of Falkirk, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, by Edward the 1st." Robertson was asked to stay for dinner.

The custom of ladies withdrawing to another room after dinner was common practice in the eighteenth century. Based on descriptions by Washington’s dinner guests, this practice was followed both at Mount Vernon and in the presidential household. During this particular meal, however, the custom seems to have been reversed. Robertson recorded that dinner ended with several glasses of "sparkling champagne," "over which people lingered for about 45 minutes." Afterwards George Washington and Tobias Lear rose from the table and went to another room, "leaving the ladies in high glee," which Robertson attributed to Lord Buchan and the "Wallace box," but may have been due more to both the unaccustomed role change and the effects of the sparkling wine.5

Mary V. Thompson, Research Historian, Mount Vernon Estate

Notes:

1. Louise Conway Belden, The Festive Tradition: Table Decoration and Desserts in America, 1650-1900 (New York & London:  W.W. Norton & Company, 1983), 17, 233 & 235, 250-251.

2. Graham Hood, The Governor's Palace in Williamsburg: A Cultural Study (Williamsburg, VA, 1991), 311.

3. Philadelphia Household Account Book, "17 July 1793," "21 May1794," "6 November 1794," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 30, Nos. 1-4, 1906.

4. Robert Hunter, Jr., Quebec to Carolina in 1785-1786, Being the Travel Diary and Observations of Robert Hunter, Jr., a Young Merchant of London (San Marino: Huntington Library, 1943): 5.

5. William Spohn Baker, Washington After the Revolution, 1785-1799 (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1898), 231-232, 232n.

Research plus  images & much more are available from the Mount Vernon website, MountVernon.org. 

Garden to Table - Patriots Toasting the New Nation

The bar tab from a farewell party Washington's troops threw him on September 15, 1787, still exists.  The United States Constitution would be signed just two days later.  The celebration was held at Philadelphia's City Tavern, & the party had about 55 guests, including troops, politicians, friends, & family — along with 16 more folks who were working that night, including musicians, servers, & hosts.

In all, according to the itemized bill, the evening fare included more than 45 gallons of booze were served to "55 gentlemens," who also got dinner, fruit, relishes & olives. The 9 musicians & 7 waiters ran up their own liquor bill (21 additional bottles of wine) that the troop paid for. There was a line item for cigars & candles & another for broken wine glasses, decanters & tumblers. Somehow the receipt for the night was saved in the First Troop Cavalry archives.

Here's what George, by then president at the Constitutional Convention, & 54 of his closest friends consumed that night:
54 bottles of Madeira wine
60 bottles of claret Bordeaux
22 bottles of porter ale
12 jugs of beer
8 bottles of hard cider
8 bottles of Old Stock (colonial whiskey)
7 large bowls of spiked punch

The staff & musicians also drank 16 bottles of Bordeaux wine, 5 bottles of Madeira wine, & seven bowls of punch. The bill also includes charges for food & many broken glasses.  The final tab, came out to £89 & 4 schillings — perhaps roughly $16,000 in today's dollars.