Colonial American Shoemakers and Cobblers

If ever I Saint Crispin’s day forget

     may my feet be never free from wet,

But ev’ry dirty street and lane pass through

     without one bit of sole to either shoe.

Susan F. Craft 

In colonial times, a cordwainer was a shoemaker as opposed to a cobbler. Cobblers had as much as five years less training than cordwainers and were often prohibited by law from making shoes.

Shoemakers had arrived in Jamestown, VA, by 1607, and were flourishing by 1616. Christopher Nelme, a British shoemaker, arrived in Virginia in 1619. He was the first officially recorded shoemaker in America. Thomas Beard, the first shoemaker in Plymouth, arrived in 1629. Some resources say that Captain John Smith was a cordwainer, but this was never established.

Before leaving England, each colonist was allotted four pairs of leather shoes called “Well-Neat Leather” shoes. Colonists walked everywhere, and with the rough conditions in the wilderness of the new world, all four pairs of shoes wore out quickly, and were expensive to replace.

     Working shoes were fully welted and made from heavy leather on the top and bottom. The earliest shoes did not have buckles but were secured with overlapping straps. They were made on a straight form, which means that there was no right or left shoe. Shoes could be worn on either foot. To ensure an even wear and to make the shoes last longer, men and women would shift the shoes from one foot to the other.

     Boot making was the most sophisticated and prestigious branch of the trade. By tradition, the making of boots and shoes for men and the making of shoes for women were separate pursuits. Dancing shoes had lighter soles and were usually made out of material.

The shoemaker’s took kit included items with names such as “helling sticks,” “petty-boys,” and “St. Hugh’s Bones.”

There’s an interesting story about St. Hugh, a prince of Britain in 300 AD, who fell on hard times and became a shoemaker who preached the gospel.   He fell in love with a woman who was arrested and condemned to death for her devotion to God. He too was condemned because of his association with her. It is said that his fellow shoemakers held a vigil during his execution while he was made to drink poison. He was so destitute, all he had to leave behind were his bones. After his death, his friends pulled his body from the gibbet and distributed his bones. These were made into shoemaking tools. Hence, the name “Hugh’s Bones.”

Cordwainers in New England set up small shops, sometimes in their homes, where they made shoes on request.  For custom made shoes, models were made of people’s feet. These models, called lasts, were carved out of wood and kept for subsequent shoe orders. Large plantations usually had a shoemaker to maintain the families’ shoes.

Cobblers travelled from town to town, exchanging shoe repair for room and board and circulating news and gossip. They sometimes used a unique shoemaker’s lamp, an oil lamp with water-filled globes that amplified the light at the work area.

            Saint Crispin is the commonly recognized patron saint of shoemakers, though there have been others. Since medieval times, October 25 has been celebrated as St. Crispin's Day feast day and the shoemakers’ holiday. Boot and shoemakers would close their shops on this day in celebration.

       My prize will be a copy of my Revolutionary War romantic suspense, The Chamomile, as well as a packet of chamomile flower seeds, and a mobcap (the white ruffled cap that most colonial American women wore.)

And don't forget we are giving away a Kindle and a $25 Amazon gift card
For each day you comment on CFHS you receive one entry in the kindle and $25 Amazon gift card giveaway. Comment on every post in the month of March and earn 31 entries!

Rise Up and Walk!

This week, I’m celebrating a huge personal milestone. As many of you know, I have dealt with constant back issues since I was assaulted by a patient some 28 years ago. It was my ‘thorn’ as Paul would put it, and after several years of being angry at God, I finally accepted it as part of this race I’m on. 

But a few years back, the pain increased to the point where I could barely function. Sitting and standing became impossible, and I found myself flat on my back for the majority of my days. I was terrified by the possibility of surgery but when weighted against the unbearable pain, Danny and I decided I didn’t have any other choice. So, today, exactly one year ago, I gave this problem over to the Lord and went under the knife.

Which is why I took noticed of the recent obituary of Dr. Jacquelin Perry in the New York Times.  Dr. Perry passed March 11th at the age of 94 after a life dedicated to studying the complexities of walking and developing surgical techniques to help polio victims in the 1940s and 1950s regain their capacity to walk. 

Studying the complexities of movement is an extraordinary feat, but Dr. Perry broke the act of walking down into eight movements using twenty-eight muscles. By using this method, she was able to develop surgical techniques for straightening curved spines and fusing vertebrae. She also helped with inventing a device to help polio victims break their dependance on the iron long by provided extra support for their neck muscles--a vest with a ring encircling the head called a ‘Halo.’

As I continued to read Dr. Perry’s obituary, a fresh sense of gratitude fell over me. Here was this woman, born in 1918 who pushed aside the expected norms of her day to become not only a doctor, but an orthopedic surgeon passionate for helping those once thought beyond help.  Because of her research and work in the fields of polio and spinal fusion, I’m walking and sitting relatively pain free after my spinal fusion, writing my stories and enjoying my life for the first time in years. 

Thank you, Dr. Perry! Thank you for letting God use you!

God's Never-Ending Story by guest blogger Patrick Whalen

Patrick has been a lover of history since an early age and a lover of historical fiction since he picked up his first Louis L'Amour book in high school. The Civil War has long been an era of interest and intrigue due to the dramatic histories, tragedies and triumphs it represents. His love for digging deeper into the real stories and histories of the past played a part in his coming to Christ. His passion is finding God's love and divine hand through the course of past events.

Please welcome Patrick Whalen to Christian Fiction Historical Society. We are so happy to have you here today. Patrick is giving away a $10 gift card. Be sure to leave a comment along with your email addy to be entered.

God’s Never-ending Story

Many people often ask why I am so intrigued by history. The prevailing thoughts of people who ask me that consider the subject to be a dry recollection of dead people, triviality, and tedium. When confronted by such an attitude, my response is almost as strong as when I am given an opportunity to witness to someone about Jesus Christ.

I agree that history is often presented in educational settings as dry, rote memorization of places, events, and dates, but in my mind this is not a proper method of studying history. There is an addictive quality to going deeper into understanding the lives, politics and reasonings of the people who have gone before us.

Perhaps the prevailing attitude is a product of our over-saturated culture. It does take time to reach a deeper understanding of any given time in our past and time seems to be in short supply these days. It is interesting to note however that in the course of many conversations it is not uncommon to hear such words as, “I wish I could just slow down,” or, “I wish I could go back in time to simpler days.” I do want to laugh when I hear such things because in the first case all one as to do is figure out how to find the time to slow down and in the second case, it would be interesting to learn which time in our past are they speaking about.

I can’t gloat though, as if I have never uttered such words because I know that I have. Part of the very reason I am so interested in history is due to my curiosity to discover which time periods before us had it easier than we do today. The fact is, I have yet to discover just such a time, but the stories left for perpetuity are nothing short of fascinating.

When I put down the institutional textbooks and instead picked up autobiographies, diaries, sermons, and official records, the past comes to life before my eyes. People from all walks of life and from every corner of the globe have had stories to tell that can still ignite the imagination. In trying to see the past through the eyes of people who experienced it helps us to better understand the lives we are living today.

Studying primary sources (the actual documents from the time) as opposed to modern, biased retellings also gives one a better understanding of our past. Take for instance George Washington. He, among many others of our Founding Fathers, is being more often represented as a Godless deist rather than a true Christian. There is one book in particular which I love to read over and over again which is full of primary documentation that refutes such claims.

In “Answering the Call: the Story of the U.S. Military Chaplaincy from the Revolution through the Civil War, written by William E. Dickens, Jr., many of Washington’s writings are presented which clearly point out his dedication to the Christian faith and the evangelization of the soldiers. In one instance, Washington was particularly discouraged by the caliber of certain Chaplains appointed to the job in the Revolutionary Army. He submitted a proposal to Congress to rectify this:

“I have long had it on my mind to mention to Congress, that frequent applications had been made to me respecting the Chaplain’s pay, which is too small to encourage men of Abilities. Some of them who have left their Flocks, are Obliged to pay the parson acting for them more than they receive. I need not point out the great utility of Gentlemen whose lives and conversations are unexceptionable, being employed for that service in this Army. There are two ways of making it worth the Attention of such; one is, an advancement of their pay, the other, that one Chaplain be appointed to two regiments; this last I think may be done without inconvenience, I beg leave to recommend this matter to Congress whose sentiments thereon I shall impatiently expect.”

The research into our rich history alone is reason enough to motivate me to write Historical Fiction and I know that I am not alone in this passion. My heart races when I discover some facet of our present day that draws a parallel to some historic period. When we think our experiences are superior or inferior to some other time it isn’t difficult to find pertinent advice from a people or time in the past. I have found that to be my mission, to bring forward the voices of experience into the light of our present.

This is the same mission shared by many writers of the Historical Fiction genre. To read and to write about our discoveries of past events that somehow fit different aspects of modern life. We may romanticize certain aspects and underemphasize others, but the passion of sharing the past remains unchanged. It is in researching the past in order to tell a story in the modern day that we find God’s truths remaining true. While we have always been a people seeking a way to navigate the present, God has woven His providential works throughout the history of humankind and has given us the tools to discover His constant love. “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." (Acts 15:18 – KJV)

Savannah Tidbits

Savannah, Ga. is one of my favorite cities to visit. Courting Holly (my next novel with a fall release) was set in 1882 Savannah. This naturally allowed me to visit once again. There are some little known facts about Savannah you might not be aware of. Savannah did not have large cotton plantations, even though Savannah was one of the largest cotton selling ports in America. Rice plantations made up the greater share of the plantations.
Another interesting tidbit is that of Bonaventure Cemetery. It was established in 1882 as Evergreen Cemetery by Peter Wiltberger who opened it to the public. Prior to that it was a private cemetery for the families who lived on the plantation. Here’s a picture of the from the 19th century of the Bonaventure.

And here is a photo I took in Dec 2012

The family plots are small and many were fenced in. Here’s an example.

I chose 1882 because Savannah was expanding at this time. My characters had to make changes in their lifestyles in order to succeed in business. At this point in Savannah’s history folks were regaining from their losses during the Civil War. The census said there were 37,333. 20,514 white and 16,819 colored (term used in the 1882 source I believe that included hispanics but I'm not sure.)

Another fun tidbit about Savannah that dates before 1882 and more into the 18th century was the use of ballast stones. As ships would load their vessels with stone to help weight them down and stabilize them when they were less than full, these stones would need to be removed to make room for cargo. Today you can travel on many of these ballast stoned streets on the waterfront.

And the last, but certainly not the least, tidbit about Savannah is the squares designed by Olgethorpe when he founded Savannah in 1733. These squares make the city an interesting place to visit. Which was Olgethorpe's original plan, to have a place where neighbor could meet with neighbor. He also designed the streets so wide that even today you can have cars parked on both sides and have traffic going both ways. As you go further south in the city the streets become narrower.

There are so many things I love about Savannah, but walking the streets, soaking up the history and enjoying the architecture are only a few. Perhaps your travels will allow you to go to Savannah one day.

Courting Holly won't be coming out until the Fall. But if you would like to enter a drawing for Key West, a collection of four historical novels set in Key West, simply comment on this post and you'll be entered into a drawing for that as well as the items below.

Don’t forget to leave a comment to be in our daily giveaways!
Grand Prize – Kindle, drawn on April 1st
2nd Place Prize - $25 Amazon gift card
For each day you comment on CFHS, you’ll receive one entry in the Kindle and one in the $25 Amazon gift card giveaway. Comment on every post in the month of March and earn 31 entries!

Lynn A. Coleman is an award winning & best-selling author who makes her home in Keystone Heights, Florida, with her husband of 39 years. Check out her 19th Century Historical Tidbits Blog if you like exploring different tidbits of history.

Hospitality Southwest Style

Hi folks! Linda Farmer Harris here. Thanks for stopping by.

I’m putting the final touches on my Easter Sunday menu. I’m thinking about Easter eggs – scrambled, not chocolate, served over Portobello mushrooms. That made me wonder how a Fred Harvey chef would prepare that dish.

I discovered the Harvey Girls and their style of Southwest hospitality in the February 1992 issue of Texas Highways. Rosa Walston Latimer wrote about this unique group of women in Southwest history. That began my admiration, no, my downright love affair, with these courageous young women who wanted to be independent and self-sufficient.

From a variety of backgrounds, many of them supported parents and siblings back home on $17.50 in wages plus tips, while they carved out a future for themselves. They also received free room, board, clean uniforms, and a train pass to their training facility. Your family tree may have a Harvey Girl among its branches.

From the late 1800s to the mid-1950s Harvey House restaurants and dining rooms upheld their tradition of quality food, high standards of service, and reasonable prices. The Harvey Girls served weary travelers gourmet meals in thirty minutes. Some served in restaurants, others in lunchrooms. All donned the standard uniform of black or white starched skirt, high-collared blouse, with a bib and apron. They served their patrons with practiced precision and polished etiquette.

Each patron would tell their waitress whether they preferred coffee, hot tea, iced tea or milk. The cup code enabled their choice to be served quickly. If the waitress left the cup right side up in its saucer, that meant coffee. Upside down meant hot tea. Upside down, but tilted against the saucer meant iced tea. Upside down, away from the saucer meant milk. Patrons who changed the positions of their cups risked getting the wrong drink.

The advertisement for “young women 18 to 30 years of age, of good character, attractive and intelligent” as waitresses in Harvey Eating Houses on the Santa Fe Railroad in the West is legendary. Their contribution to the growth of the American West is preserved in poetry, song, and film. The humorist, Will Rogers, observed that the Harvey Houses kept the West in food and wives.

You’ve probably seen the 1946 musical romance movie The Harvey Girls, starring Judy Garland, as a mail order bride. You may have sung “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” along with her. Visit http://harvey-house.info/blog-hg/category/fred-harvey/ to watch a 1946 trailer.

When Fred Harvey entered the hospitality arena, Americans were still looking to England and France to define style and substance of an elegant lifestyle. Harvey gave them a look at their own country, encouraged them to explore places like the Grand Canyon, take home Indian artifacts, dine on exquisite regional foods, all the while taking in the Wild West. He’s credited with inventing the “Santa Fe style.”

At a time when the American West had a reputation of being hospitality-challenged, Fred Harvey offered meals that were culinary masterpieces. Cowboys could eat a steak that wasn’t cooked to resemble shoe leather, and cowgirls could toss aside “mountain oysters” and taste fresh Maine oysters. Reading through the recipes in The Harvey House Cookbook by George H. Foster and Peter C. Weiglin and Stephen Fried’s Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West--One Meal at a Time will make you hungry and motivate you to try your hand at cooking up some of the recipes.

While you read recipes like Fred Harvey’s Chocolate Custard—yum—you will chuckle at some of the directions and ingredients in other recipes. I still wonder about macaroni that can be coiled around the bottom of a buttered mold or exactly what is loppered milk. I’ve gathered the ingredients for Hungarian Beef Goulash with Potato Dumplings for Sunday dinner.

At its peak, Harvey Girls worked in over sixty-five restaurants and lunch counters, at a dozen large hotels. We often take up the Fred Harvey story when he was at the height of being the “father of the American service industry.” We don’t hear much about him starting at the bottom of the ladder as a dishwasher — a pot walloper. He learned the restaurant business from the ground up. As a government postal worker, he participated in the nation’s first traveling post office. He had first hand experience about the miserable plight of travelers and their meals.

Stephen Fried’s Appetite for America gives a fresh look and some little known facts about Fred and the Harvey Girls. Fried called Fred Harvey “the founding father of the American service industry” and creator of one of the first nationally recognized American brands. Visit http://www.stephenfried.com/blog/ for a wealth of information about Fred Harvey and the Harvey Girls.

Lesley Poling-Kempes wrote The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West (1989). It is one of the first definitive works on the topic. She also produced a two-book historical paper doll fashion series, which is very valuable for writers and researchers in describing outer and inner wear for the women at work and play. View her books at http://www.lesleypoling-kempes.com/mombooks.html.

There have been fictional accounts, created from historically accurate sources, about the Harvey Girls. My co-author, Artie Stockton, and I submitted our first Harvey Girl novel, Three Came by Rail, in May 1994. Tracie Peterson penned her delightful Desert Rose trilogy beginning with Shadows of the Canyon in 2002. Sheila Wood Foard wrote Harvey Girl (2006) for teens. Frances M. Wood wrote When Molly was a Harvey Girl (2010), a fictional account of her great-grandmother’s experience as a Harvey Girl.

During the research trips for Three Came by Rail, I had the opportunity to visit the Castaneda hotel and tour of some of the women’s room. Trips included Lamy, Belen, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Vegas. Below, I’m at the Castaneda and below that is an old picture of the whole hotel.

Cynthia Hickey, who writes on the 3rd of each month for this CFHS blog, has an upcoming four book series "Finding Love the Harvey Girl Way" beginning in July, 2013. The first book is Cooking Up Love. Here's a preview-- TABITHA MCCLELLAND seeks employment as onr of "Harvey's Girls", moving to Topeka, Kansas, and a new life out West. Knowing one of the restrictions of her job is to remain single, Tabitha is dismayed when she begins to have feelings for the restaurant's cook. Surely, love can't be God's will for her life. It didn't go along with her plans at all. ADAM FOSTER works as a cook at Fred Harvey's restaurant in Topeka in order to save money to open his own restaurant in California. Although his parents are helping with half of the needed funds, he wants to pull his weight and signs a six-month contract with Fred Harvey. The last thing he wants is to fall in love. Tabitha wants a life of adventure. Adam wants to be an entrepreneur. Can they set aside their separate goals and find what truly matters?

The Harvey House web site at http://www.harveyhouses.net/index.html has a collection of photographs, links, and comments about various Harvey Houses in Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Another site with pictures and information is http://harvey-house.info/.

New information about restored and renovated Harvey Houses is raising awareness and renewing interest in this era in history. The Castaneda Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico, considered one of the nation’s most promising and most endangered historical landmark is on the brink of rising from closure. News reports say that it will be restored. That’s great news.

Tom VanWormer, the "unofficial coordinator" for the Harvey Girls in Colorado, especially on the Colorado Midland, was able to document reimbursements from the Fred Harvey Company to the Colorado Midland in a 1893 ledger. Mr. VanWormer confirmed the discovery of three possibly four “new” Harvey locations in Colorado–which the company ran from 1890-1895, the years the Santa Fe owned the Colorado Midland. So it can now be reported there were Harvey Houses and Harvey Girls in: Cascade, Idyllwild, and Leadville.

It's been a pleasure sharing a bit about one of my passions with you.

Oh, the Harvey Chef served his eggs with minced chicken, mushrooms, and garnished with buttered asparagus tips.

Come back on April 27th and see what's going on.

Don't forget to leave a comment to be in the CFHS giveaways!

My give-away this month is a alpaca wool scarf knitted from an 1898 pattern used during the Spanish American war. Plus a fun scarf that’s all the rage now—Starbella Flash lace.

CFHS's GRAND PRIZE—Kindle.

Second Place winner will receive a $25 gift card to Amazon.

For each day you comment on a CFHS blog entry, you receive one entry in the Kindle and $25 Amazon gift card giveaway that will be drawn on April 1st. Comment on every post in the month of March and earn 31 entries! Enjoy the posts!

Thomas Jefferson and The Big Cheese

Hi.  Winnie Griggs here.  I subscribe to one of those “This Day In History” Calendars.  Not only do  I enjoy reading the interesting little tidbits to be found there, but it’s also a great idea sparker for future stories. 

When I checked out the entry for today, this is the note I found: 

Mar 26, 1804:  On this day in 1804, President Thomas Jefferson attends a public party at the Senate and leads a diverse crowd in consuming an enormous loaf of bread dubbed the “mammoth loaf.”

 

Intrigued, I had to do some follow-up research and came across an even more intriguing tidbit - that the loaf was baked to go with a mammoth cheese that had been given to the president two years earlier.  And for the record, I’m using the word mammoth deliberately, because that’s how these items were described at the time.  I found a footnote that stated Americans of this period were enamored with the term due to fascination with the discovery of a giant woolly mammoth skeleton in New York in 1801.

But I digress.  This massive wheel of cheese was the brain child of John Leland, the Elder of a Baptist  congregation made up of the staunchly Republican citizens of a farming community located in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. The goal was to recognize and commemorate Jefferson’s long-standing devotion to religious freedoms.

It was reported that the milk from 900 cows went into the making of the cheese and that it was formed in a cider press that measured six feet in diameter.   The final product, once cured, measured more than 4 feet in diameter, 13 feet in circumference, 17 inches high and weighed 1235 pounds.

 Transporting this huge cheese wheel from Massachusetts to Washington D.C. was no small feat.  It was moved by wagon and sleigh to the Hudson river where it was loaded into a sloop.  At Baltimore it was then loaded into a wagon once again for the remainder of the trip.  All told it took about a month to complete the journey. 

John Leland presented it to Jefferson on New Year’s Day 1802 at a White House ceremony. Leland declared it “the greatest cheese in America, for the greatest man in America.”   In part of his speech, the Baptist Elder praised Jefferson for the “singular blessings that have been derived from the numerous services you have rendered to mankind in general.”  Jefferson, in turn, praised the people of Leland’s congregation for the "extraordinary proof of the skill with which those domestic arts which contribute so much to our daily comfort are practiced by them."   Because President Jefferson adhered to a policy to refuse gifts while in office, he paid Leland $200 for the cheese.

The cheese lasted for quite some time as it was gradually consumed at various White House functions over the next two years.  Finally, on March 26, 1804, the President attended the above-mentioned party designed to rally support for a naval war with the Barbary States. A Navy baker wheeled in the huge loaf of bread as well as the remnants of the “mammoth cheese” and large quantities of roast beef and alcohol.  It is assumed that the last of the cheese  was consumed during the event.  An alternate theory is that after this party, the remnants were disposed of in the Potomac River.

So, is this a bit of history you were already familiar with?  And why do you think we have such a fascination with things of an unusual size?  Is it just the novelty of it?  Or something else?

Now for the giveaway!

Any of you who comment on this post today will get their name in the hat for my drawing.  I’m giving away a copy of my RT Reviewer’s Choice nominated book Handpicked Husband along with a booklovers pin.

And don’t forget about our Grand Prize Drawing happening at the end of the month.  For every day you post during March you’ll get another chance to have your name drawn for one of the following: 

•  Grand Prize – Kindle
• 2nd Place Prize - $25 Amazon gift card

Comment on every post in the month of March and earn 31 entries!

Steamboats and Indian Wars--by Jennifer Uhlarik

Hi, everyone! Thanks for stopping by. Can you believe that it’s already March? I blinked once, and January and February both disappeared.

March is typically a fun month for me, as that is the month that my husband requests his big vacation time for the upcoming year. We don’t always have the money to get away during his time off, but March tends to be the month of the year that I get to dream about packing my bags for the next adventure our family might take. In the nearly six years hubby and I have been married, we’ve gone on several fun trips, from a week cruising around the Hawaiian Islands (our honeymoon), to eight days learning our nation's history in Washington D.C., a few days investigating the rich histories of Savannah, GA and St. Augustine, FL, or relaxing amongst the beauty of the mountains of Georgia. All of them were wonderful trips in their own way!

This year as I consider possible vacations, I find myself daydreaming about taking a riverboat cruise along the Mississippi River. Not too many months ago, I discovered that the American Queen Steamboat Company does a variety of tours on old-fashioned rear-wheel steamboats like those of Mark Twain’s day. Trips range in length from six to fourteen days. I’ve got grand memories of a two-hour steamboat trip I took as a child during a family vacation, and would love to experience a longer trip with shore excursions to the towns along the Mississippi River. Southern plantations, local restaurants, historical sites, and museums. All of these sound fascinating to me. Such a trip is probably out of reach for now, but there’s no harm in daydreaming, right?

In addition to the fun of vacationing, I’d love to take one of these trips to aid in researching a story that’s percolating in my brain. I recently did some cursory research on steamboats in the Old West to see if a scene I’d dreamed up would work. I was aware that steamboats were prevalent along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, but hadn’t realized they were able to navigate some of the smaller tributaries of the Missouri River. Come to find out, a common joke about steamboats was that they could sail on dew alone.



photo by Dave Gostisha

In the tiny bit of research I have done so far, I learned that the steamboat, the Far West, was actually an important part of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. It was commissioned to be a supply ship for the battle, carrying 200 tons of supplies from Fort Abraham Lincoln to the 7^th Cavalry’s camp along the Yellowstone River. In the Far West’s cabin, Generals Terry, Gibbons, and Custer planned their battle tactics. The boat ferried soldiers and horses from one side of the river to the other. And after the massacre, the steamboat carried the news of the battle, as well as the wounded back to Fort Abraham Lincoln. I’ve always tended to have a fairly romanticized view of steamboats, and learning these facts showed me a side of steamboat history I’d never known before. It certainly got my mind spinning with story ideas. More research is necessary before I’d feel confident to write a full novel centering around steamboats, but there’s plenty there, I’m sure, to carry a novel.

So let's hear from you...what is the best vacation you've ever taken, or what dream vacation do you hope to take some day? Make sure to answer one of my questions to be entered in the drawing for this beautiful vintage pin. Winner announced tomorrow morning!

What would make you abandon the country of your birth?

Winner of the Drawing for a free copy of Forsaken Dreams is Joy Isley!! Congratulations,Joy! 

 

Those of us who love to learn about history, often find the Civil War in America fascinating. Not because of the cruelty and death, but because a nation could be so torn apart on the issues of slavery and economics that they saw the need to split into two nations and fight brother against brother!  Even more remarkable is that, despite the animosity and hatred,  history proves that the two halves became a whole again. Surely the hand of God played a huge role in that.

But did you know that a great many Southerners fled the South after the war? Frustrated and disillusioned, they abandoned the country of their birth and took off for greener shores.  Think about it, what would make a person do that? What would make you do that? Let’s take a peek at the reasons

The post-Civil War South was unrecognizable.

J.S. Pike from South Carolina comments

“The banks were ruined, railroads destroyed. Their few manufactories were desolate, their vessels swept from the seas and rivers their live-stock was consumed. Notes, bonds, mortgages, all the money in circulation, debts, become alike worthless. The communities were without clothes and without food.  Lawlessness, poverty fear, hunger violence ruin and social disorder were to mark the south for many years. Northern merchants and speculators moved into the Southern states after the war, taking away economic opportunities from Southerners. The southern landscape was in shambles. . .never was there greater nakedness and desolation in a civilized community.”

In addition, almost every family mourned the loss at least one relative in the war. Then to make matters worse, Congress declared 150,000 leading Southern citizens guilty of treason without a trial and denied them rights of citizenship. 

From the diary of confederate officer Douglas French Forrest: “the whole country for miles around was filled with predatory bands, utterly irresponsible, recognizing no rights of property, utterly demoralized”

Many Southerners felt that had no choice but to leave. So they did!!

Three million people migrated from the former Confederate States in the decades following the Civil War. Most moved to sparsely settled lands in western North America, to the larger cities of the north, to Canada, and to Mexico. But some went to Brazil’s golden shores!! We don’t know how many actually went to Brazil because few had passports and they just boarded ships and went down.  However a study of available figures, newspaper reports and data gathered from descendants makes it safe to estimate that at least 20,000 Southerners came to Brazil Their descendants now number over 100,000  and are spread over the country.

Most of these “Confederados”, as they came to be called, were professional farmers and planters. However, others included generals, admirals, governors, senators as well as mechanics, machinists, preachers, teachers, and even a few freed slaves.

In 1869 George Washington Keyes, formerly of Montgomery, Alabama, from his plantation in Brazil, wrote to a friend back in America “I left the United States because of anarchy which I expected to prevail, poverty that was already at our doors, and the demoralization which I thought and still believe will surely cover the land.: 

Fifty years after the war Dr. Robert Norris, another immigrant to Brazil replied to an American visitor as to why he never returned to the U.S. “You folks made our lives so impossible in the United States that we had to leave. We were welcome here in Brazil. This is our country now and here we are going to stay. “

In fact, you may find it interesting that a few miles outside the Brazilian town of Santa Barbara, at least four times a year, a group of people gather at a small chapel and cemetery in the middle of sugarcane fields. What’s so weird about that? They are all dressed in costumes of 19^th century America, sing old Protestant hymns and listen to a sermon. Afterward, they share a meal of fried chicken and biscuits and gravy and dance to the tune of Dixie. If you look real close, among the Brazilian features, you may find some blue eyes here, some red hair and freckles there and you may even hear English spoken instead of Portuguese.

These are the descendants of the Confederados who fled to Brazil after the Civil War.

And this is the history upon which my new series, Escape to Paradise is based.

Disclaimer: I am neither in favor of the North or the South. I abhor war and slavery and am proud of my country for finally freeing the slaves. Death and atrocities occurred on both sides of this war. However, my series is told from a Southern perspective. 

Don’t miss book 1 in my Escape to Paradise series, Forsaken Dreams!!

Available online at Amazon,  Barnes and Noble, CBD.com

 

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