Getting into Eli’s World

Boston - 1775

The other night I bought a copy of Stacy Roth’s “Past into Present: Effective Techniques for First-Person Historical Interpretation”.  One of the interesting topics that she mentions is “Worldview”.  Worldview is basically how a character sees the world around them.  What’s going on in their time and place?  What memories do they have?  What are their hopes and motivations?  Basically, back-story and setting for the character, so that they can answer questions or speak in a natural way, without the answer or presentation seeming like a rehearsed lecture.

The reenactors at Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts do a great job at this.  A few years ago I visited there with some friends and the curator of the Pilgrim Hall Museum.  The curator knew many of the folks working in the Plantation village.  They greeted him as an old friend, but never broke character, asking if he’d been traveling, as they hadn’t seen him for some time.  After being introduced, one of the reenactors asked where I was from.  “Far north of here,” I answered, “Vermont.”  “Ah,” the character nodded, “Is that near the French?”  We then fell into an easy conversation about her garden, clothes and house.  At one point she casually mentioned the last supply ship that had come to the colony.  Later, while talking to another reenactor, he too mentioned the supply ship, but more in depth and from a different perspective.  All of the characters were on the same timeline.  They knew what was going on in their time and place, they had memories of past events, and they each reacted to them based on their beliefs.  They each had their own worldview.

I began thinking about the worldview of Eli Davis.  I’ve chosen a time, occupation, and birth date for him, but what about his beliefs and history?  What was going on around him in Boston during 1776?  What would his reaction to events be?  The best way to discover this was to research primary documents.  Larger events of 1776 can be found in history books, but for day-to-day, nothing beats a newspaper.

The Massachusetts Historical Society has a great online collection of period newspapers.  Yesterday I sat down and read The Continental Journal and Weekly Advertiser for December 5, 1776 to see what sort of news Eli would be reading at this time of year.

A quick summary:

• First up, “An Act for providing Reinforcement to the American Army”.  Towns are being ordered to set up militias to be used in case the American Army needs men due to termination of enlistments that are expected at the end of the year.

• Next, “An Act to prevent forging and altering Bills of public Credit”.  The new government is issuing currency, and it will be illegal to forge such currency.  There will also be a fine for offering goods at cheaper prices to folks who pay in gold and silver instead of the new currency.

• A report from a local merchant ship that French and Spanish ports are open to American ships, and that those ships are allowed to fly the American flag.

• In Philadelphia, alliance treaties are being set up with local Indian tribes.

• Overseas, France has turned down a request by Britain to march troops through their country.  There is “very great confusions” in Ireland, and British troops are expected to be sent there.  Spain has ceded land in the Caribbean to France, and both French and Spanish fleets, with troops, are expected to land in Jamaica.

• Closer to home, reports of losses at Fort Washington in New York after a battle there, with 1,700 killed and 96 wagons loaded with wounded.

• The War-Office is ready to receive fire-arms and cannon, and to enter into agreements with manufacturers of such items.

In short, Eli is living in a world at war.  The American army is being defeated, and may be disbanding due to enlistments running out.  Possible allies are at war with each other, and the economy is being changed by the currency of a new government.  There are some gains with the Indians, but overall the world seems pretty unstable.

On the plus side, commerce in Boston seems to be doing well.  There are several advertisements for goods for sale, houses for rent, and trades being plied; goods range anywhere from mundane items such as cloth, to entire ships being auctioned off at the wharfs.  Though busy, the paper gives Boston a small-town feel, not unlike the tourist town that I live in during modern times.  Strangers are coming and going, but streets and shops are well known.

In addition to the paper, a map of Boston from 1775 helps further define Eli’s worldview.  Overlaying the map on a modern-day map begins to give a sense of scale, and road names that are unfamiliar start to take shape.  The advertisements stating things like “midway down King Street” make more sense.

Knowing more about the details of the area of residence that I’ve chosen for Eli makes it easier to shape him.  I’ve decided to continue this sort of research by reading the newspapers of the times, at roughly the same time of year as they came out originally.  I eagerly await this coming Thursday’s Continental Journal!

Bookbinder Ads & Banishment

My copy of the Spring 2012 issue of American Ancestors magazine arrived in the mail yesterday.  In it, there was a mention that members of the NEHGS have online access to the Readex collection 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, Early American Newspapers, Series I 1690-1876.

Armed with this information, I headed to my computer last evening and began playing.  Keying the term "bookbinder" into the search box after logging in via my NEHGS account, and limiting the search to the year 1776, turned up 22 individual articles.  As I began looking through them, I saw that they were all ads for bookbinders, mostly in New York.  The others were from Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Boston.  Some of the advertisements were duplicates, printed in more than one issue of a particular newspaper.  The ads are interesting on their own, easily establishing the trade in New England, and giving a bit of insight into the occupation.  It appears that many of the bookbinders also sold the books, along with other items such as stationary.  A couple mention printing as well.  It looks like my persona could open up his options, and if I ever decided to pursue it, I might have a good basis for a small business if I ever attend reenactment events as a participant.

The ad below, from the Connecticut Courant, shows that the advertiser was not only a bookbinder, but also a stationer and bookseller.  It also gives a flavor of the political atmosphere of the time.  The Hartford printing office is also mentioned, which, the way I read it, was probably a separate business.

The next three ads come from The Constitutional Gazette, printed in New York.  The first and third again show that bookbinders also sold books and stationary, and that the topics of items being printed were related to the current events of the time.  The second item below is a help-wanted ad, looking for the services of skilled labor.

 

Another help-wanted ad appears in Boston, this time looking for someone to move to a different state.

Nathaniel Patten again appears, this time in The New-London Gazette, looking for rags for the purpose of making paper.  I like how this ad states how important paper was to the "true Friends to America."

 Next we find advertisements from The New-York Gazette.  Again we find stationers, booksellers, and the military.  These ads contain some of my favorite wording.  From Valentine Nutter: "The said NUTTER binds all Kinds of Printed and Paper BOOKS, in the neatest Manner, on the shortest Notice."  And from Philip Brooks: "He will study to give general satisfaction to his customers, and flatters himself the public will favor him with some encouragement."

 

 

 

 My marketing co-workers would love this one from The Providence Gazette.  It outlines a new publication to be sold by J. Douglas McDougal, Stationer and Bookbinder.  The ad summarizes the dramatic contents of the new book, including mentions of scenes from Lexington and Bunker Hill.  My favorite part, though, is the mention of a discount for bulk buyers. "Great allowances will be made to those who take a quantity."

 Finally, Nathaniel Patten shows up again looking for linen for paper-making.  This ad from Norwich, Connecticut uses the same wording as that of the The New-London Gazette, but the type is set differently, changing the emphasis.

In addition to all of this great information about bookbinders in 1776, I also found the primary documentation that I was looking for in regards to the Banishment Act of the State of Massachusetts.  The full text of the act was printed in The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser on October 22, 1778 in Boston[1].  William McAlpine, Bookbinder, is listed in the first column.


[1] The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser; Vol. 11 Iss. 531, Boston, Massachusetts (22 Oct 1778): p. 1. Digital image online, accessed 24 May 2012. http://docs.newsbank.com/s/HistArchive/ahnpdoc/EANX/10C02B2DB75B2480/0F418C809CE5EA70

Establishing a Home

With my persona's trade of bookbinding documented within New England, I think my next step is to establish a home for my character.  The easiest thing to do would be have him reside in Boston, as I have already established that bookbinders did work in that town during my target time period.  However, I'd also like to research New Hampshire and Vermont, since those states were on the migration path of my own real ancestors.

I started with Vermont.  Rather than look specifically for bookbinders within the state, I decided to look up the date of the first printing press used in the area.  After all, without a printer, a bookbinder isn't very useful.  This is an assumption on my part, but I think it's a comfortable assumption.

A quick Google search turns up that the first printing press used within Vermont was known as the "Dresden Press".  A search of Google Books for that term brings up a copy of The Vermonter, from August of 1905, which tells the history of printing in Vermont.  A couple of passages rule out the idea of my character, Eli Davis, living in Vermont.

"In 1777, when Vermont declared its independence, not more than 20,000 people inhabited the State. In view of the sparseness of the population in these early days it is not strange that the New Hampshire Grants were without a press during the Colonial era and that during the Revolution Vermont had no newspaper published within its borders."[1]

"The year that witnessed the organization of the New State Government of Vermont - 1778 - was marked by the establishment of the first printing office within the territory then recognized for political purposes as a part of the New Hampshire Grants. The site of the printing office was in the township of "Dresden," a name given to a district located on the east side of the Connecticut river, which included the older settlements in that section, and by an arrangement of the people themselves was under the jurisdiction of the independent government of Vermont and had representatives in the Constitutional Convention at Windsor, July 2, 1777, and afterward in the Vermont Legislature, in 1778."[2]

It appears that printing in the current state of Vermont was not available until two years after my target date.  Also, if the first press was actually set up on the east side of the Connecticut river, the press was actually in what is now New Hampshire.  With this information, I'll rule out Vermont as Eli's home.

[1] Charles S. Forbes, "History of Vermont Newspapers," The Vermonter, 11, no. 1 (1905): 9, http://books.google.com/ (accessed May 23, 2012).

[2] Ibid.