Table of Contents
To Make Merry…or Not
The celebration of Christmas during the Revolutionary War varied greatly. For some communities—the Quakers among them—the day was like any other.
One of the women I feature in Obstinate Daughters is Quaker and Philadelphia resident Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker, whose extensive diary entires offer wonderful insight into 18th-century life in America. She gave the mundane and the heart-wrenching equal ink in her pages, and Christmas was definitely the former.
1781: A Very Baroness Christmas…in Canada
“He gave orders that all be finished by Christmas, and begged us to say how the rooms would be divided….Our plan was presented, and, to our great surprise, we were able to eat our Christmas pie—with which the English always celebrate Christmas—in our new house, although the timber for the building was felled and sawed into boards only after our arrival. Pretty paper was hung on the walls, and we were really very well lodged.”
The Baroness Riedesel, whose husband was a Prussian officer fighting with the British, exhibited great heroics during the Battle of Saratoga.
She is one of my favorite “obstinate” characters, and is also credited with having the first Christmas tree in the “New World”…except there’s no proof. That did not stop our Canadian friends from dedicating a stamp to the tale.
Meet me under the Missile Toad
1777: Meanwhile, in Valley Forge…
Dec 25, Christmas.—We are still in Tents—when we ought to be in huts—the poor Sick, suffer much in Tents this cold Weather. But we now treat them differently from what they used to be at home, under the inspection of Old Women & Doct. Bolus Linctus. We give them Mutton & Grogg and a Capital Medicine once in a While, to start the Disease from its foundation at once. We avoid Piddling Pills, Powders, Bolus’s Linctus’s Cordials and all such insignificant matters whose powders are Only render’d important by causing the Patient to vomit up his money instead of his disease. But very few of the sick Men Die.
—Doctor Albigence Waldo
‘Tis the Season—in 1764—to Get Cooking
Recipes and remedies were a critical part of care in Revolutionary Era America (even in Dr. Waldo, above, took issue with certain aspects of it). The following gingerbread recipe is from a 1764 cookbook I used in my research, written by Sarah Fayerweather. If you give it a try, let me know!
🌟☃ Until next time… ☃ 🌟
I am keeping quiet and still this week, sticking close to home and to those I love. I will also be playing in my holiday village, which I may keep up throughout January this year. Too many stories to tell in that wacky little world I’ve created on my living room floor.
Wherever you happen to find yourself, and whatever it is you have planned for the coming week—including absolutely nothing—I wish you…
HappyMerryJollyJoy
With Gratitude,
