Part 5

After this it quickly began to snow; and when the night came on they stopped; and now down I must sit in the snow by a little fire, and a few boughs behind me, with my sick child in my lap and calling much for water, being now (through the wound) fallen into a violent fever. My own wound also growing so stiff that I could scarce sit down or rise up, yet so it must be, that I must sit all this cold winter night upon the cold snowy ground, with my sick child in my arms, looking that every hour would be the last of its life, and having no Christian friend near me, either to comfort or help me. Oh, I may see the wonderful power of God, that my spirit did not utterly sink under my affliction; still the Lord upheld me with His gracious and merciful spirit, and we were both alive to see the light of the next morning.

THE THIRD REMOVE

The morning being come, they prepared to go on their way. One of the Indians got up upon a horse, and they set me up behind him, with my poor sick babe in my lap. A very wearisome and tedious day I had of it; what with my own wound and my child’s being so exceeding sick, and in a lamentable condition with her wound. It may be easily judged what a poor feeble condition we were in, there being not the least crumb of refreshing that came within either of our mouths from Wednesday night to Saturday night, except only a little cold water....

Thus nine days I sat upon my knees with my babe in my lap, till my flesh was raw again; my child being even ready to depart this sorrowful world, they bade me carry it out to another wigwam (I suppose because they would not be troubled with such spectacles) whither I went with a very heavy heart, and down I sat with the picture of death in my lap. About two hours in the night my sweet babe like a lamb departed this life, on February 18, 1675, it being about six years and five months old. It was nine days from the first wounding, in this miserable condition, without any refreshing of one nature or other, except a little cold water.... In the morning, when they understood that my child was dead they sent for me home to my master’s wigwam.... I went to take up my dead child in my arms to carry it with me, but they bid me let it alone. There was no resisting, but go I must and leave it. When I had been at my master’s wigwam, I took the first opportunity I could get to go look after my dead child. When I came I asked them what they had done with it? Then they told me it was upon the hill. Then they went and showed me where it was, where I saw the ground was newly digged, and there they told me they had buried it. There I left that child in the wilderness and must commit it and myself also in this wilderness condition to Him who is above all.

Mrs. Rowlandson’s ordeal lasted twelve weeks, after which she was ransomed and allowed to return home to her husband, who had survived the attack. Her two other children, also captured with her, were rescued and reunited with their parents.

Conflict with France

George Washington’s Letter on Braddock’s Defeat

On July 9, 1755, during the French and Indian War, Colonel George Washington took part in the Battle of Monongahela, in which General Braddock was killed and his army routed. Washington had advised Braddock to push on rapidly towards the French-held Fort Duquesne and to leave behind his artillery and baggage wagons so that he could move through the wilderness as fast as possible. Washington feared the consequences of moving too slowly and wrote his brother a few days before the battle that the army “instead of pushing on with vigor, without regarding a little rough road” was “halting to level every mold hill and to erect bridges over every brook; by which means we were four days getting twelve miles.” Washington’s fear of disaster was only too well-founded. The following letter is his account of the battle, written to his mother nine days later:

Fort Cumberland, July 18, 1755

Honored Madam:

As I doubt not but you have heard of our defeat, and perhaps have it represented in a worse light (if possible) than it deserves; I have taken this earliest opportunity to give you some account of the engagement, as it happened within seven miles of the French fort, on Wednesday the ninth.

We marched on to that place without any considerable loss, having only now and then a straggler picked up by the French scouting Indians. When we came here, we were attacked by a body of French and Indians whose number (I am certain) did not exceed 300 men; ours consisted of about 1,300 well-armed troops, chiefly of the English soldiers who were struck with such a panic that they behaved with more cowardice than it is possible to conceive. The officers behaved gallantly in order to encourage their men, for which they suffered greatly, there being nearly 60 killed and wounded, a large proportion out of the number we had! The Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery and were near all killed, for I believe out of three companies that were there, there is scarce 30 men left alive. Capt. Peyrouny and all his officers down to a corporal was killed. Capt. Polson shared near as hard a fate, for only one of his was left. In short the dastardly behavior of those they call regulars exposed all others that were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death, and at last, in despite of all the efforts of the officers to the contrary, they broke and run as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was impossible to rally them.

The general was wounded, of which he died three days after. Sir Peter Halket was killed in the field where died many other brave officers. I luckily escaped without a wound, though I had four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me. Captains Orme and Morris, two of the general’s aides de camp, were wounded early in the engagement, which rendered the duty hard upon me, as I was the only person then left to distribute the general’s orders, which I was scarcely able to do, as I was not half recovered from a violent illness that confined me to my bed and a wagon for above ten days. I am still in a weak and feeble condition, which induces me to halt here two or three days in hopes of recovering a little strength to enable me to proceed homewards, from whence, I fear, I shall not be able to stir till towards September, so that I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you till then, unless it be in Fairfax. Please give my love to Mr. Lewis [_his brother-in-law_] and my sister and compliments to Mr. Jackson and all other friends that inquire after me. I am, Honored Madam, your most dutiful son.

Benjamin Franklin’s Comments

Benjamin Franklin shared George Washington’s doubts about Braddock’s ability to capture Fort Duquesne. As a public-spirited citizen, Franklin had taken the initiative in collecting wagons from Pennsylvania farmers to transport the army’s supplies. His comments on Braddock, written many years later, come from his autobiography.

This general was, I think, a brave man, and might probably have made a figure as a good officer in some European war. But he had too much self-confidence, too high an opinion of the validity of regular troops, and too mean a one of both Americans and Indians. George Croghan, our Indian interpreter, joined him on his march with one hundred of those people, who might have been of great use to his army as guides, scouts, etc., if he had treated them kindly; but he slighted and neglected them, and they gradually left him.

In conversation with him one day, he was giving me some account of his intended progress. “After taking Fort Duquesne,” says he, “I am to proceed to Niagara; and having taken that to Frontenac, if the season will allow time; and I suppose it will, for Duquesne can hardly detain me above three or four days; and then I see nothing that can obstruct my march to Niagara.” Having before revolved in my mind the long line his army must make in their march by a very narrow road, to be cut for them through the woods and bushes, and also what I had read of a former defeat of fifteen hundred French who invaded the Iroquois country, I had conceived some doubts and some fears for the event of the campaign. But I ventured only to say, “To be sure, sir, if you arrive well before Duquesne, with these fine troops, so well provided with artillery, that place, not yet completely fortified, and as we hear with no very strong garrison, can probably make but a short resistance. The only danger I apprehend of obstruction to your march is from ambuscades of Indians, who, by constant practice, are dexterous in laying and executing them; and the slender line, near four miles long, which your army must make, may expose it to be attacked by surprise in its flanks, and to be cut like a thread into several pieces, which, from their distance, can not come up in time to support each other.”

He smiled at my ignorance, and replied, “These savages may, indeed, be a formidable enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the king’s regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make any impression.” I was conscious of an impropriety in my disputing with a military man in matters of his profession, and said no more.

Colonial Life

Transportation

Life in the United States has changed beyond recognition from life in America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In thousands of ways people live differently. They work, they play, they eat, and they even sleep differently. Then, there was no station wagon in the garage to take the family to the beach or mountains over weekends and no telephone at hand to call a friend to ask how to do tomorrow’s algebra problem. Life was slower-paced than it is today, and was not complicated by the machines that have become masters as well as slaves of our society. The selections that follow will give you an insight into the daily lives of several interesting early Americans. It is just as important to understand how people lived in colonial times as it is to know about wars and kings and presidents.

Sarah Kemble Knight 1666-1727

Madam Knight, as Sarah Kemble Knight is known, was a Boston schoolteacher and businesswoman. In the autumn of 1704 she made a business trip to New York by way of Rhode Island and Connecticut. On the journey she kept a journal which gives a vivid account of her experiences. You will find that this Boston woman writes about Connecticut as though it were a foreign country. She had a good sense of humor and a keen eye for detail. You learn in this report that not all of your New England ancestors were cultivated people like governors Winthrop and Bradford.

THE THIRD DAY

Wednesday, October 4, 1704

About four in the morning, we set out for Kingston [_Rhode Island_] (for so was the town called) with a French doctor in our company. He and the post put on very furiously, so that I could not keep up with them, only as now and then they’d stop till they see me. This road was poorly furnished with accommodations for travelers, so that we were forced to ride 22 miles by the post’s account, but nearer thirty by mine, before we could bait [_feed_] so much as our horses, which I exceedingly complained of. But the post encouraged me by saying we should be well accommodated anon at Mr. Devil’s, a few miles further. But I questioned whether we ought to go to the devil to be helped out of affliction. However, like the rest of [_the_] deluded souls that post to the infernal den, we made all possible speed to this devil’s habitation, where, alighting in full assurance of good accommodation, we were going in. But meeting his two daughters, as I supposed twins, they so nearly resembled each other, both in features and habit, and looked as old as the devil himself and quite as ugly, we desired entertainment but could hardly get a word out of ’em, till with our importunity [_urging_], telling them our necessity, etc., they called the old sophister, who was as sparing of his words as his daughters had been, and no, or none, was the reply he made us to our demands. He differed only in this from the old fellow in t’other country: he let us depart....

Thus leaving this habitation of cruelty, we went forward, and arriving at an ordinary [_inn_] about two mile further, found tolerable accommodation. But our hostess, being a pretty full-mouthed old creature, entertained our fellow traveler, the French doctor, with innumerable complaints of her bodily infirmities and whispered to him so loud that all the house had as full a hearing as he, which was very diverting to the company (of which there was a great many), as one might see by their sneering. But poor weary I slipped out to enter my mind in my journal, and left my great landlady with her talkative guests to themselves....

THE SIXTH DAY

Saturday, October 7

About two o’clock [_in the_] afternoon we arrived at New Haven [_Connecticut_], where I was received with all possible respects and civility. Here I discharged Mr. Wheeler with a reward to his satisfaction and took some time to rest after so long and toilsome a journey, and informed myself of the manners and customs of the place, and at the same time employed myself in the affair I went there upon.

They are governed by the same laws as we in Boston (or little differing) throughout this whole colony of Connecticut, and much the same way of church government and many of them good, sociable people, and I hope religious too. But [_they are_] a little too much independent in their principles, and, as I have been told, were formerly in their zeal very rigid in their administrations towards such as their laws made offenders, even to a harmless kiss or innocent merriment among young people....

Their diversions in this part of the country are on lecture days and [_militia_] training days mostly. On the former there is riding from town to town.

And on training days the youth divert themselves by shooting at the target, as they call it (but it very much resembles a pillory), where he that hits nearest the white has some yards of red ribbon presented him, which being tied to his hatband, the two ends streaming down his back, he is led away in triumph, with great applause, as the winners of the Olympic Games. They generally marry very young, the males oftener, as I am told, under twenty than above. They generally make public weddings and have a way something singular (as they say) in some of them, namely, just before joining hands the bridegroom quits the place, who is soon followed by the bridesmen, and as it were, dragged back to duty—being the reverse to the former practice among us, to steal his bride....

Being at a merchant’s house, in comes a tall country fellow, with his alfogeos [_cheeks_] full of tobacco, for they seldom lose their cud but keep chewing and spitting as long as their eyes are open. He advanced to the middle of the room, makes an awkward nod, and spitting a large deal of aromatic tincture, he gave a scrape with his shovel-like shoe, leaving a small shovel full of dirt on the floor, made a full stop. Hugging his own pretty body with his hands under his arms, [_he_] stood staring round him like a cat let out of a basket. At last, like the creature Balaam rode on [_an ass_], he opened his mouth and said: “Have you any ribbon for hatbands to sell, I pray?” The questions and answers about the pay being past, the ribbon is brought and opened. Bumpkin Simpers cries, “It’s confounded gay, I vow,” and beckoning to the door, in comes Joan Tawdry, dropping about 50 curtsies, and stands by him. He shows her the ribbon. “Law you,” says she, “It’s right gent; do you take it; ’tis dreadful pretty.” Then she inquires: “Have you any hood silk, I pray?” which being brought and bought, “Have you any thread silk to sew it with,” says she, which being accommodated with, they departed. They generally stand, after they come in, a great while speechless and sometimes don’t say a word till they are asked what they want, which I impute to the awe they stand in of the merchants, who they are constantly almost indebted to and must take what they bring without liberty to choose for themselves; but they serve them as well, making the merchants stay [_wait_] long enough for their pay.

Life in the South

A century after Jamestown was founded, Virginia was a prosperous, flourishing colony. The capital was moved a few miles away to Williamsburg, which today has been rebuilt to look much as it did in colonial times. Along the James River were large plantations, operated by gentleman farmers. These men lived much as their land-owning cousins did in the old country. Lower on the social scale, of course, were white indentured servants, who had bound themselves to years of labor in return for their passage to Virginia, and slaves.

William Byrd 1674-1744

The culture of the colony, however, was dominated by prosperous planters like William Byrd, ancestor of the present Byrd family of Virginia. His estate occupied the present site of Richmond. He was educated in England and active in the affairs of the colony.

In 1728, he was appointed to help survey the boundary between North Carolina and Virginia. The boundary, which was disputed, ran through virgin forests and over mountains. During the arduous weeks that the commissioners were making their survey, Byrd kept notes. His account of this experience is given in _The History of the Dividing Line_. You can see that Virginia gentlemen did not think much of the poor farmers in North Carolina.

LIFE IN NORTH CAROLINA

March 25, 1728: Surely there is no place in the world where the inhabitants live with less labor than in North Carolina. It approaches nearer to the description of Lubberland [_a mythical land of plenty and idleness_] than any other, by the great felicity of the climate, the easiness of raising provisions, and the slothfulness of the people.

Indian corn is of so great increase that a little pains will subsist a very large family with bread, and then they may have meat without any pains at all, by the help of the low grounds, and the great variety of mast [_nuts_] that grows on the high land. The men, for their parts, just like the Indians, impose all the work upon the poor women. They make their wives rise out of their beds early in the morning, at the same time that they lie and snare till the sun has run one-third of his course and dispersed all the unwholesome damps. Then, after stretching and yawning for half an hour, they light their pipes, and, under the protection of a cloud of smoke, venture out into the open air, though if it happens to be never so little cold, they quickly return shivering into the chimney corner. When the weather is mild, they stand leaning with both their arms upon the cornfield fence, and gravely consider whether they had best go and take a small heat at the hoe, but generally find reasons to put it off till another time. Thus they loiter away their lives....

March 27: Within 3 or 4 miles of Edenton [_North Carolina_], the soil appears to be a little more fertile, though it is much out with slashes [_swamps_], which seem all to have a tendency towards the Dismal.

This town is situate on the north side of Albemarle Sound, which is there about 5 miles over. A dirty slash runs all along the back of it, which in the summer is a foul annoyance and furnishes abundance of that Carolina plague, mosquitoes. There may be 40 or 50 houses, most of them small and built without expense. A citizen here is counted extravagant, if he has ambition enough to aspire to a brick chimney. Justice herself is but indifferently lodged, the court house having much the air of a common tobacco house. I believe this is the only metropolis in the Christian or Mohammedan world, where there is neither church, chapel, mosque, synagogue, or any other place of public worship of any sect or religion whatsoever.

What little devotion there may happen to be is much more private than their vices. The people seem easy without a minister, as long as they are exempted from paying him. Sometimes the society for propagating the Gospel has had the charity to send over missionaries to this country; but unfortunately the priest has been too lewd [_worthless_] for the people, or, which oftener happens, they too lewd for the priest. For these reasons these reverend gentlemen have always left their flocks as arrant heathen as they found them. Thus much, however, may be said for the inhabitants of Edenton, that not a soul has the least taint of hypocrisy or superstition, acting very frankly and aboveboard in all their excesses.

Provisions here are extremely cheap and extremely good, so that people may live plentifully at a trifling expense. Nothing is dear but law, physic, and strong drink, which are all bad in their kind, and the last they get with so much difficulty, that they are never guilty of the sin of suffering it to sour upon their hands. Their vanity generally lies not so much in having a handsome dining room as a handsome house of office [_kitchen_]. In this kind of structure they are really extravagant.

They are rarely guilty of flattering or making any court to their governors, but treat them with all the excesses of freedom and familiarity. They are of opinion their rulers would be apt to grow insolent, if they grew rich, and for that reason take care to keep them poorer, and more dependent, if possible, than the saints in New England used to do their governors.

A Virginia planter had many responsibilities and many interests. Besides growing tobacco and raising livestock, Byrd and his associates made their plantations as self-sufficient as possible. Late in his life Byrd visited some mining property he owned in western Virginia, and on the trip stopped off to see Colonel Spotswood, a former governor of Virginia. The following account, from _A Progress to the Mines_, gives us a glimpse of another Virginian’s house. Note, too, how Byrd concerns himself with collecting medicinal herbs.

A VISIT TO COLONEL SPOTSWOOD

September 27, 1732: I came into the main county road that leads from Fredericksburg to Germanna, which last place I reached in ten miles more. This famous town consists of Col. Spotswood’s enchanted castle on one side of the street and a baker’s dozen of ruinous tenements on the other.... Here I arrived about three o’clock and found only Mrs. Spotswood at home, who received her old acquaintance with many a gracious smile. I was carried into a room elegantly set off with pier glasses [_full-length mirrors set between windows_] the largest of which came soon after to an odd misfortune.

Amongst other favorite animals that cheered this lady’s solitude, a brace of tame deer ran familiarly about the house, and one of them came to stare at me as a stranger. But unluckily spying his own figure in the glass, he made a spring over the tea table that stood under it, and shattered the glass to pieces, and falling back upon the tea table, made a terrible fracas among the china. This exploit was so sudden and accompanied with such a noise that it surprised me, and perfectly frightened Mrs. Spotswood. But ’twas worth all the damage to show the moderation and good humor with which she bore this disaster.