Home Life in Colonial Days

Alice Morse Earle

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486447674
• eBook ISBN: 9780486141718
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early American History
• Index: History

Could you identify a sausage gun if you had to? How about a plate warmer or a well-sweep? Any idea how the term log-rolling really originated? Alice Morse Earle (1851–1911), a prolific popular historian and the first American to chronicle everyday life and customs of the colonial era, describes what these and many other obscure utensils were and how they were used. She also conveys a vivid picture of home production of textiles, colonial dress, transportation, religious and social practices, the care of flower gardens, colonial neighborliness, and other aspects of early American life.
Widely read when it was first published in 1898, this fascinating and wonderfully readable guide was instrumental in promoting a renewed interest in everyday life of bygone times. Today, it offers history buffs, collectors, and other interested readers a feast of delightful information.

Index

Abington, church vote in

Acrelius, Dr, quoted

Adams, Abigail, garden of

Adams, John, quoted; Sunday dinner of; cider-drinking of

Adams, John Quincy, Mrs, straw bonnet of

Adams family, homes of

Albany, houses at; deer in; beer at; bad boys in; first church in; cowherding in

Alchymy

Alewives, in New England waters

Ambrosia, a flower

Ames, quoted

Amherst, sign-board at

Andirons

Andover, church vote in; bad boy in

Annapolis, dress in

Apostle spoons

Apples, culture of; plenty in Maryland; modes of cook ing; in pies.

Apple-butter

Apple-paring

Apple-sauce

Architecture, of churches, et seq., et seq.

Arkamy

Axe-helves

Back-bar of fireplace, description

Bacon, quoted

Bagging, from coarse flax

Bake-kettle

Bake-shops

Ballots, of corn and beans

Balsam, as dye

Baltimore, dress in; taverns in

Banyan

Barberry, root as dye

Basins

Bass, in New England waters

Bass-viols, in meeting

Bates of flax

Batteau

Batten, of loom

Baxter

Bayberry description; can dles of; wax of; laws about; soap from

Bead bags

Beam. See Warp-beam.

Beaming, in weaving

Beans, as ballots; mode of cooking

Bed coverlet. See Coverlet.

Bedstead, alcove; turn-up

Beer, among Dutch

Bees, called English flies

Beehives

Beetling of flax

Bell, as summons to meeting

Belt-loom. See Tape-loom.

Bennet, quoted

Berkeley, Gov, quoted

Berries

Betty lamps

Beverages. See Drinks.

Bible, references to flax in

Biddeford, communal privileges in

Bier, in weaving

Birch-bark, doors of; plates of; baskets of, cans of

Birch broom, making of; price of

Black jacks

Blazing, of trees

Bleaching, of flax thread; of linen; of straw bonnets

Bleeding-basins

Block-houses

Boards, scarcity of

Board cloth

Boardman Hill House

Bobbins, for weaving. See Quills.

Bobs, of flax

Bombards

Books of etiquette

Bore-staff of loom

Boston, fire-engine in; early houses of; first fork in; pigeons in; fish in; tea in; coffee in; chocolate in; spinning schools in; fulling-mill in; dress in; coach in; stage-travel from; night watch in; meeting houses in; restrictions of settlement in; cows in

Bottles, of wood; of pewter; of glass; of leather

Boucher, Jonathan, quoted

Bouncing-bet

Bounty coats

Bouts, in weaving

Box-borders, a plea for

Boxing, of maple trees

Boylston, Nicholas, banyan of

Boys, clothing of; wigs of; seats in meeting for, et seq.; misbehavior of; in church

Braid-loom. See Tape-loom.

Bradford, Governor, quoted

Bread, white; rye and Indian

Bread-peel

Bread trough

Breakfast, or bread and milk

Breaking, of flax; of hemp

Breaking out the winter roads, et seq.

Breweries, in New York

Brewster, Elder, quoted

Brick, imported

British spinning and weaving school

Broach

Brooklyn, oysters in; salting shad in

Brooms, of broom-corn; of birch; of hemlock

Broom-corn

Brown University, dress of first graduating class

Bucking, of flax thread; of linen

Bull’s-eye lamp

Bun, of flax

Bunch-thread

Bundling-mould. See Shingling-mould.

Burlers, in weaving

Bushnell, Horace, quoted

Busks, carved

Butter, price of

Buttermilk, for bleaching

Caches, for corn

Cage, for babies; fo...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Foreword
• Table of Contents
• I. HOMES OF THE COLONISTS
• II. THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS
• III. THE KITCHEN FIRESIDE
• IV. THE SERVING OF MEALS
• V. FOOD FROM FOREST AND SEA
• VI. INDIAN CORN
• VII. MEAT AND DRINK
• VIII. FLAX CULTURE AND SPINNING
• IX. WOOL CULTURE AND SPINNING
• X. HAND-WEAVING
• XI. GIRLS’ OCCUPATIONS
• XII. DRESS OF THE COLONISTS
• XIII. JACK-KNIFE INDUSTRIES
• XIV. TRAVEL, TRANSPORTATION, AND TAVERNS
• XV. SUNDAY IN THE COLONIES
• XVI. COLONIAL NEIGHBORLINESS
• XVII. OLD-TIME FLOWER GARDENS
• INDEX
• A CATALOG OF SELECTED DOVER BOOKS IN ALL FIELDS OF INTEREST