Alexander Hamilton ~ Founding Father, Anonymous Author, Doomed Duelist

Note ~ The Florida Artists, Architects, and Authors Series will continue next month.

A FOUNDING FATHER

 

Though Alexander Hamilton is considered a Founding Father, he is one of four in that historic group who didn’t sign America’s Declaration of Independence from the British on July 4, 1776.

The other three are George Washington, James Madison, and John Jay. 

 

General Washington was too busy actually fighting for that independence. However, he read the newly-signed document to the Continental Army on July 9th. Alexander Hamilton was only 19 years old at the time.

Or maybe he was twenty-one. His birthday is January 11th, but historians disagree on whether he was born in 1755 or 1757.

Here are a few details historians accept as fact:

• Hamilton was born out-of-wedlock in the West Indies and orphaned in 1768. His father had abandoned the family before then.
• From 1777 to 1781, he served as George Washington's trusted aide-de-camp.
• He was an artillery officer in the American Revolutionary War and fought in the Siege of Yorktown (1781).
• After the war, he was a lawyer and founded the Bank of New York.
• As a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, he was involved in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.
• As the first Secretary of the Treasury, he served in President Washington's first cabinet.

 

AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR

 

Along with all his many historical political achievements, Hamilton also bequeathed a tremendous literary legacy…many written under a pen name.

 

Let’s take a look at a few of his better-known works.

 

The Revolutionary Versus the Loyalist

 

In 1774, Loyalist Samuel Seabury, a Church of England clergyman, published pamphlets intended to scare the American colonists from rebelling against the king. He wrote under the pseudonym of A. W. Farmer, an abbreviation for A Westchester Farmer.

 

In response, Hamilton anonymously published A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress. Seabury published another pamphlet in response to Hamilton and then Hamilton responded with The Farmer Refuted.

 

Pen Name ~ Publius

In 1778, Hamilton signed three accusatory letters with the pseudonym Publius. The name came from a book titled Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. The original Publius Valerius, better known as Publicola or “friend of the people,” helped to found the ancient republic of Rome. 

The three letters accused Samuel Chase—who is a signer of the Declaration of Independence and, in 1787, represented Maryland in the Continental Congress—of using insider knowledge to benefit from the flour market.

The Reynolds Pamphlet

To defend his own integrity, Hamilton wrote a ninety-five-page pamphlet confessing to an affair he’d had during his tenure as Secretary of the Treasury. 

 

While not excusing Hamilton’s behavior, it’s widely believed Mrs. Reynolds and her husband conspired to set Hamilton up so they could blackmail him. 

 

In the pamphlet, published in 1797, Hamilton admitted he was guilty of adultery but vehemently insisted he was not guilty of corruption.

 

The Federalist Papers

Hamilton is most well-known for writing fifty-one of the eight-five installments of The Federalist Papers. The remaining essays and articles were written by James Madison and John Jay, but each one appeared under the pseudonym of Publius—the same pen name that Hamilton used for his letters attacking Samuel Chase.

Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote The Federalist Papers to encourage public support for the proposed U.S. Constitution. The vast majority of the essays were published between October 1787 and August 1788 in New York newspapers and sometimes reprinted in other states' newspapers.

 

The collected Federalist Papers
in one volume and
an advertisement for the book.

 

Poetry

 

Before embarking on his political writing career—remember that his first anonymous pamphlets were written in 1774—Hamilton wrote a few poems and a hymn that appeared in the Royal Danish American Gazette, a St. Croix (Virgin Islands) newspaper.

 

The first two published poems were printed with Hamilton’s query letter. He wrote:

 

“I am a youth about seventeen, and consequently such an attempt as this must be presumptuous; but if, upon perusal, you think the following piece worthy of a place in your paper, by inserting it you’ll much oblige Your obedient servant, A.H.”

 

Another poem, “The Melancholy Hour,” was published on October 11, 1772 under the pseudonym Juvenis.

 

“This brooding work,” writes Ron Chernow in his biography of Hamilton, “reprises the theme of the hurricane as heavenly retribution upon a fallen world.” He quotes the following two lines:

 

Why hangs this gloomy damp upon my mind 

Why heaves my bosom with the struggling sigh?

 

An unsigned four-stanza hymn, “The Soul Ascending Into Bliss,” appeared in the Gazette on October 17, 1772. Chernow calls this “a lovely, mystical meditation in which Hamilton envisions his soul soaring heavenward.”

 

Here’s an excerpt:

 

Hark! Hark! A voice from yonder sky

Methinks I hear my Savior cry…

I come oh Lord, I mount, I fly

On rapid wings I cleave the sky.”

 

The Gazette published another poem, “A Character” by A.H., on February 3, 1773.

 

“In this short, disillusioned work,” Chernow writes, “Hamilton evokes a sharp-witted fellow named Eugenio who manages inadvertently to antagonize all his friends.” 

 

Here are the final two lines of the poem: 

 

Wit not well govern’d rankles into vice

He to his Jest his friend he will sacrifice.

 

A DOOMED DUELIST

 

On July 11, 1804, Hamilton and Aaron Burr fought a duel. 

 

Though Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson held opposing political views, Hamilton supported Jefferson for the presidency over Burr who was considered to be power-hungry and unprincipled scoundrel by his contemporaries. 

Burr accused Hamilton of impugning his honor and challenged him to a duel after Hamilton refused to apologize for disparaging remarks he’d made.

 

Hamilton told his second that he would purposely miss Burr and may have expected his opponent to do the same. 

 

However, Burr aimed at Hamilton and wounded him. 

 

Hamilton died the next day.

 

Whether born in 1755 or 1757, he wasn’t yet 50 years old.

 

HONORING HAMILTON

 

“…he was first on the $5, then the $2, $20, $50, $500, $1000 (those larger denominations were only used to move money among banks or between banks and the Federal Reserve). Since the currency was redesigned and given a standard size in 1928, Hamilton has been on the $10” (Brian Phillips Murphy).

 

RE-IMAGINING HAMILTON

 

The highly-acclaimed Broadway production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton was nominated for 16 Tony Awards and won 11 including Best Musical, Best Actor, Best Choreography, and Best Orchestrations. The script was based on Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton.

 

Your Turn ~ Which of Hamilton’s writings impress you the most?

Johnnie Alexander writes award-winning stories of enduring love and quiet courage. Her historical and contemporary novels weave together unforgettable romance, compelling characters, and a touch of mystery. A sometime hermit and occasional vagabond who most often kicks off her shoes in Florida, Johnnie cherishes cozy family times and enjoys long road trips. Readers are invited to discover glimpses of grace and timeless truth in her stories. Connect with her at johnnie-alexander.com.

 

Sources

 

Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. New York: Penguin Press (2004). https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilto00cher/page/38/mode/2up. (Accessed on June 29, 2025.)

 

Murphy, Brian Phillips. “Alexander Hamilton on the $10 Bill: How He Got There and Why It Matters.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/alexander-hamilton-10-bill-how-he-got-there-and-why-it-matters (Accessed on June 30, 2025.)

 

https://blogs.loc.gov/catbird/2017/09/a-look-at-alexander-hamiltons-saucy-religious-sentimental-poetry/

 

https://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/faq/founding-fathers-not-signers

 

https://historythings.com/the-many-written-works-of-alexander-hamilton/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Federalist_Papers

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_(musical)

 

Photos ~ All photos are in public domain except the Hamilton poster which is categorized as “Fair Use." 

"Alexander Hamilton" ~ Portrait by John Trumbull. 

 

"Alexander Hamilton in the Uniform of the New York Artillery" ~ Portrait by Alonzo Chappel.

Portrait of Hamilton authoring the first draft of the U.S. Constitution in 1787.

A 1901 illustration of Aaron Burr fatally wounding Alexander Hamilton in their 1804 duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. 

The Federalist Papers.

An advertisement for the book edition of The Federalist. 

Tadeusz Kościuszko, Romantic Hero

by Kit Hawthorne

Readers of historical fiction—and of history—are familiar with the plight of members of European gentry and nobility who have fallen on hard times. We have all read about poor but worthy gentlemen who earn their bread through military service, church work, or educating the children of the upper classes. Any other form of work was considered a degradation for the gently born. Tutors and governesses were in a particularly sad state, isolated both from the laboring staff of the household and from their employers.

Such was the case with Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the youngest son in a noble Polish family, who ultimately fought on the Patriot side in the American Revolutionary War. Kosciuszko’s family was at the lower economic end of the szlachta, a broad class of Polish nobility. In my last month’s post, I wrote about how his education at a military academy prepared him for a distinguished career in the fledgling United States. Under the guidance of the academy’s superintendent, the Oxford-trained Englishman John Lind, Kosciuszko not only learned the art of war, but was exposed to Enlightenment teaching that emphasized democratic ideals and personal freedom.

While the storm of war rose in the American colonies, Poland was experiencing its own political turmoil, which culminated in the nation’s being carved up by the stronger European powers of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The Polish people, chafing under this humiliation, found common cause with the colonists in their struggle against British Imperialism. They applauded the brave protests of the Sons of Liberty, whose exploits across the Atlantic were written about in Polish press reports.

But there was another pivotal experience of Kosciuszko’s that set him on the road to the New World, and that one concerned his love life.

Engraving by Josef Grassi

In 1774, after finishing his studies in France, Kosciuszko returned home to find that his older brother’s profligacy had nearly bankrupted the family’s estate. According to Gary B. Nash and Graham Russell Gao Hodges, “Kosciuszko’s bleak future seemed to be that of half of Poland’s nearly landless noblemen, who, owning no serfs, plodded into the fields to do the farm labor themselves, often hanging their sword on a tree while plowing and harvesting. As a partitioned Poland fell into a deep slough, only a sense of class superiority based on birth, equestrian skills, and physical bravery remained for such impecunious gentry” (Friends of Liberty: Thomas Jefferson, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, and Agrippa Hull).

Like many an impoverished romantic hero, Kosciuszko took a job as a tutor. His employer was Józef Sylwester Sosnowski, a member of the high-ranking magnate class of Polish-Lithuanian nobility, and the wealthiest man in Poland. Kosciuszko went to work teaching Sosnowski’s daughters…and soon fell in love with one of them.

Portrait by Josef Grassi

Eighteen-year-old Ludwika Sosnowska was no mean scholar herself. While under Kosciuszko’s tutelage, she and her sister made the first ever French-to-Polish translation of La Physiocratie, a comprehensive treatise by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours on physiocracy, an economic theory that emphasized the role of agricultural production in national prosperity. Ludowika’s father refused Kosciuszko’s request for her hand, telling him that “ringdoves are not for sparrows, and the daughters of magnates are not for the sons of the szlachta.” Undeterred, Kosciuszko and Ludwika planned to elope, but they were found out. Sosnowski had Kosciuszko beaten and driven from his estate under threat of death. Living on borrowed funds, Kosciuszko left Poland in search of a new livelihood.

His travels ultimately led him to the United States, where he enjoyed a brilliant career fighting valiantly on the Patriot side. Later, after the end of the Revolutionary War, he returned to Poland and continued to contend for the cause of liberty in the uprising that bears his name.

Ludwika ultimately married Prince Józef Aleksander Lubomirski, a member of the magnate class, at her father’s behest. In 1788, she used her influence as a Polish princess to try to get Kosciuszko an appointment in the Polish army, but was unsuccessful. (Six years later, he rose to prominence as the leader of Kosciuszko’s Uprising.)

Kosciuszko himself never married. To the end of his days, he carried a lock of Ludwika’s hair and kept it close to his heart.

American Colloquial Sayings from History + Giveaway

By Tiffany Amber Stockton

In December, I wrapped up a year of featuring Kentucky frontiersman and notable settlers. If you missed last month's post, you can read it here.

Today, it's a stroll down the language lane of history with some catch phrases coined for specific times, but they have since developed a meaning slightly different than originally intended.

AMERICAN COLLOQUIALISMS

Shotgun!

The best seat in the car is shotgun — AKA the front passenger’s seat. The term was inspired by America’s Wild West stagecoach days. That "shotgun" seat was occupied by the man holding the shotgun to protect the stagecoach driver and the contents or people being transported. It often meant U.S. Mail or in some cases payroll prior to the train being used for such transportation. If you ever see a group sprinting toward a vehicle while yelling “shotgun,” chances are they’re just trying to lay claim to this coveted spot, and not necessarily looking to protect anyone else's interests but themselves. :)

Take a Rain Check

If you’re looking to politely turn down an offer for drinks with colleagues, or a last-minute dinner invite, you might tell someone you’ll “take a rain check.” This charming Americanism comes from baseball. If a game was rained out, ticket holders were given a ticket — or rain check — for a future game. Originally hand-written, they shifted to being typed and eventually computer-printed. Since this sport has often been played in the spring, when rains are abundant, games getting rained out is a common occurrence. Where I used to live in Colorado, they have always had shorter seasons due to spring rains.

John Hancock

America’s colonial history pops up in American slang. If you ask for someone’s John Hancock, you’re asking for their signature. John Hancock was a real man, an American revolutionary patriot who made a literal name for himself with his flamboyant signature on the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He is known for his audacious action, saying if he was going to put his name on such a treasonous document, there would be no doubt whatsoever that it was him! He was just one of many bold and determined founding fathers who forged this great nation.

Freshmen / Sophomores / Juniors / Seniors

Whether you’re in high school or university, American students typically progress through these levels, based on their year of study — a practice not followed outside of America. Interestingly, these terms originated at the University of Cambridge in England, only to fall out of favor until they were revived by Cambridge graduate John Harvard, when he, you guessed it, founded Harvard College. Today, these distinctions belong solely and uniquely to students attending higher learning institutions in the U.S. In other countries, studies are classified by "first year" followed by the degree path.

More Bang for Your Buck

This American expression refers to getting a good deal, but the origins are a little more nefarious. President Dwight D. Eisenhower coined the phrase in the 1950s, with the aim of expanding America’s armed forces while decreasing military spending. He believed a strong economy was just as important as a strong military presence, but he also believed the United States shouldn't get involved in some of the more petty and smaller skirmishes and wars with what he considered insignificant countries. Instead, he felt the U.S. should engage with the nuclear weapons and utilize its power to threaten rather than demonstrate its strength through the free enterprise system and individual liberties.

In the Ballpark

While a professional ballpark is defined by the baseball diamond, the outfield, the stands, the concessions, and the walls around it, neighborhood fields might not have the same boundaries. Even the original fields where baseball was first played had rather loose boundaries. Sometimes, it might be a copse of trees, a fence, town buildings, or even a barn or body of water. What made this sport so appealing is it could be played anywhere, including in the street, an open field, or in a yard behind a house.

So when the word "ballpark" is used off the field, it usually means you're in the right general area, but maybe not within specific and exact boundaries. You can ballpark an estimate, hit something out of the ballpark, or meet someone’s guidelines by being in the same ballpark. It's similar to horseshoes. You'd be "close enough" to win.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* What phrases above do YOU use on a regular basis?

* Do you know of a colloquial phrase with origins in American history that is still popular today?

* Share some of your favorite phrases, even if you don't know their origins.

Leave answers to these questions or any comments you might have on this post in the comment box below. For those of you who have stuck around this far, I'm going to start a new pattern of sending a FREE autographed book to one person each and every month from the comments left on this blog. You never know when your comment will be a winner!

Come back on the 9th of February to learn about .

For those interested in my "fictional" life as an author and industry news about other authors, subscribe to my quarterly newsletter. Receive a FREE omitted chapter from my book, A Grand Design, just for subscribing!

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BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those skills to become an award-winning, best-selling author and speaker who is also an advocate for literacy as an educational consultant with Usborne Books. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help improve their lives in a variety of ways.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children and four cats in southeastern Kentucky. In the 20 years she's been a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and is represented by Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook and GoodReads.

Motherhood in Colonial Times

         

by Kiersti Giron

Today we continue our series on motherhood throughout the ages (last month we read about medieval motherhood), focusing this month on being a mother in the 18th century, particularly Colonial America. I hope you enjoy learning about mothering in this period as much as I did; as always, I am moved to see yet again that however much times have changed, the heart of being a mother and raising children really does remain the same across the years.

Mother and child, American 18th Century. File donated to Wikimedia Commons
 by the National Gallery of Art. See Gallery's Open Access Policy.,
CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81303921

A Full-Time Job

Even today, mothering can easily be a full-time job—or more!—but in colonial America, motherhood typically was truly a woman’s life-work. With families of ten or more children not only common but the norm (though several children often would not survive till adulthood), a woman likely would spend most of her life between the ages of twenty and forty-five either pregnant or nursing. Thanks to breastfeeding’s natural contraceptive quality, children were usually spaced a couple of years apart, but large families were both expected and desired. After all, many hands were needed for building the new immigrant society.

Then as now, it was easy for new mothers to feel overwhelmed by the intense and sometimes all-consuming needs of their little ones. As a new mommy myself, I sympathized with the words of Esther Edwards Burr, mother of Aaron Burr, who wrote after the birth of her second child in 1756:

“When I had but one Child my hands were tied, but now I am tied hand and foot. (How I shall get along when I have got ½ dzn. or 10 children I cant devise.)”

Bless her heart.

By Thomas Quine - 18th century gown, CC BY 2.0
Wikimedia Commons. 18th century styles
were easily adaptable for motherhood.

Motherhood Fashions

Since motherhood was such an integral part of most women’s lives, clothing fashions of the 18^th century were actually fairly adaptable to pregnant and nursing mothers. While the stays that squeezed women into fashionable narrow waists might seem—and were—quite unhealthy in pregnancy, they were in fact designed with lacings to be let out at the sides as an expectant mother’s waistline grew. Other women ditched the stays entirely in late pregnancy, like the Duchess of Marlborough, who wrote in 1735 that during the last three months of her pregnancy, she merely “wore a warm waistcoat wrapped about me like a man’s and tied my petticoats on top of it.” Women’s dresses also were made to be easily let out or adapted with different inserts or aprons to transform them into maternity wear.

For breastfeeding mothers, the era’s low necklines, often filled in with a light scarf or fichu, were already quite practical. At least one set of stays from this period also survives with special flaps inserted, doubtless to make nursing even easier.

Coral Teethers and Pudding Caps

Silver and Coral teether made by Paul Revere, late 18th century.
By Daderot - Own work, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Many ups and downs of the baby and toddler years haven’t changed much over the centuries, from teething to toddler tumbles. For teething babies, colonial mothers who could afford them might offer an elaborate teether made of silver, complete with bells to jingle when the baby shook the toy, a rattle, and a piece of polished coral for little gums to gnaw on. Coral was actually thought to be protective for teething children at the time, as 18th century parents actually considered teething quite dangerous! Once babies learned to walk, mothers often tried to protect their heads from tumbles with a padded cap, called a “pudding cap.” If you’ve ever heard someone affectionately refer to a little person as a “puddin’ head,” the term comes from those caps!

"Pudding Cap" child's head protector, Swiss, 18th century.
This file donated to Wikimedia Commons by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
See Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59659879

Boys and girls were dressed much alike for their early years, in cloth diapers or “clouts” and layers of petticoats and gowns—and even miniature stays/corsets—as infants, then graduating to dresses for both sexes as they grew older. Boys were “breeched,” or transitioned from gowns to breeches, somewhere between the ages of four and seven.

Though times of boys in dresses, pregnant mothers in stays, and infants teething on coral may seem far from us, mothers’ love and concern and care for their children has not. What stands out most to you about these mothers of colonial times? What surprises you, or seems familiar? Please comment and share!

Kiersti Giron holds a life-long passion for history and historical fiction. She loves to write stories that show the intersection of past and present, explore relationships that bridge cultural divides, and probe the healing Jesus can bring out of brokenness. Kiersti has been published in several magazine and won the 2013 and 2018 Genesis Awards – Historical for her novels Beneath a Turquoise Sky and Fire in My Heart. An English teacher and member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Kiersti loves learning and growing with other writers penning God's story into theirs, as well as blogging at www.kierstigiron.com. She lives in California with her husband, Anthony, their two kitties, and their new baby boy.

References:

https://www.history.org/history/clothing/women/motherhood.cfm

https://colonialquills.blogspot.com/2017/05/motherhood-in-colonial-times.html

https://www.history.org/history/clothing/children/cglossary.cfm

The Versatility of Goats

So, let’s talk goats. I have a friend who raises goats, and she makes all kinds of goat cheeses, goat’s milk ice cream (it’s SO good!), soaps, and lotions. The heroine of my latest novel set in the 1790s Mississippi territory has a small herd of goats, so I decided to research the various by-products that can be produced from goats.

Obviously, milk is the first thing that comes to mind. We’re used to pasteurized milk these days, but back in the 18^th century, there were a lot fewer steps from milking to table. Milk the goat (or cow), strain the milk through a cheesecloth and drink. That was pretty much the entire process. They could keep milk cool in a crock in a root cellar or in a creek to make it last a bit longer, but if they weren’t going to drink it all before it spoiled, they made cheese, butter, and soap.

While goat’s milk cheese can be quite strong for some, I imagine our ancestors were quite used to strong cheese. Check out this cool video from The Townsend’s:  



I’d venture to say that a family with goats would make goat’s milk soap. I was surprised to find that making soap doesn’t require some magic ingredient or special containers. All you need is animal fat/grease—or vegetable/plant oil, water and ashes. And women in the past would have learned at an early age how to save their ashes and leach them to get lye. 

The primary ingredient is the potash or pearl ash from ashes. Pure potash can be achieved by leaching wood ashes. To do this under primitive conditions, take a small container with a small hole or holes punched through the bottom. Place a one-inch layer of gravel or sand in the bottom of the container, and a one-inch layer of sand on top of the gravel. The gravel and sand act as filters.

Fill the container with ashes from a cooled campfire. Place another container under the first container to catch the runoff and slowly pour about a gallon of water over the ashes allowing a brownish-gray water (the lye) to exit through the bottom into the second container.

Pour slowly. If the ashes start to “swim”, you are pouring the water too fast. During this process, if the lye coming out starts to lose its color, more ash can be added. Next, boil the lye water until more than half of the water has evaporated. The mixture may foam, and the resulting solution is potash or lye. Add lard, grease or animal fat to the boiling mixture and continue cooking for about 30 minutes.

When the desired consistency is reached, place the mixture into molds. The shape doesn’t matter: a wooden mold carved from a tree limb, a small coconut shell, seashells, anything will do. Let the mixture dry for about two days, then remove from the mold.

Can you think of a scent my 18th century characters would have added to their soap to give it a pleasing aroma? Wild honeysuckle is rampant in Mississippi and wild roses would be heavenly. In addition, there are over 50 different species of native orchids in Mississippi. I can imagine how wonderful that would smell. Do you enjoy homemade soaps? If so, what’s your favorite scent? What native flowers or other plants from your state would make a lovely scented soap?

These soaps on the left are made by my friends and they are lavender. Not only are they gorgeous, they smell divine!


The Crossing at Cypress Creek, Coming June 2019

Click Here to Enter!

Have You Hugged Your House Lately?

Back in the 80s, I got my first job in an office. We had a word processor that was supposed to make our job easier. We had visions of all this “free” time in our future. Even funnier, I was a big believer in the power of computers: I had a degree in computer science after all.

The sales department gradually moved from hand written invoices to computers and software to spit out invoices with the click of a few buttons. Accounts payable eventually went to software that printed our checks for us. Wow! All we had to do was sit back and watch the checks spit out of the printer. Surely our breaks would be longer and more often because of so much automation.

The purchasing department went from calling vendors and placing orders over the phone, to faxing in orders, then to placing orders via email. Before I left the company after 28 years, many vendors had online options where I could place orders, check status, locate tracking numbers, and a host of other things without ever even contacting a salesperson.

Now that I work from home, it’s the same thing. I have a laptop, phone that’s connected to the world, washing machine, dryer, vacuum cleaner, dish washer, oven, stove, microwave, refrigerator, hot and cold running water, electric heat in the winter and electric A/C in the summer. Other than writing a check (or using automatic payments), I don’t have to do anything except pay for the electricity to run all those appliances and electronics.

Jump back to the 17th century and how people lived. Let’s specifically look at the farmer and the housewife. A household in the countryside was largely self-sufficient. The woman of the house had to bake bread, brew ale (since water wasn’t always safe to drink), cure bacon, salt meat, make jellies and jams, pickles, can vegetables. She had to make candles, sew all the family’s clothes and stuff bedding, tend the garden, the chickens and milk the cow and churn the butter.

The farmer planted the corn that fed his cows that fed his family. He saved seed for the next year. That bread, ale, bacon, and cheese his wife made to sustain them came from the animals and crops they grew on their farm. He chopped wood to cook their food and keep the family warm throughout the winter. He hunted for wild game to supplement their diet. By and large, farm families were self-sufficient and could survive for months, years even, without buying or trading for anything outside of what they could produce on their own.

In a word, they made do.

You’d think that with all these fancy gadgets, computers, phones… goodness, these days we can order our groceries from our phone, pay for them, then drive by the store on the way home from work and pick everything up. And if that’s not fast enough, someone else can prepare our burger and fries, and we just drive thru and eat it on the road.

But here’s the rub. On the surface, many of us seem to be just as busy, or busier, than our counterparts two and three centuries ago. But is that really the case? I’m generalizing of course, but even when we think we’re burning the candle at both ends, or thinking we’ll never get ahead, let’s stop and take a deep breath…

Think about living without electricity (and all the electronics that come with it), running water, an insulated home with a/c in the summer, heat in the winter. Think about either having to walk everywhere or hook up the wagon or saddle a horse. Think about having to lug gallons of water to wash clothes. Think about the worry over a sick child or a farming accident with no doctor or hospital within miles. I could go on and on…

Granted, everything isn’t rosy in 2019, and there are families who are struggling to survive, but I don’t think I want to go back in time to the 17th or 18th century.

Although I do love writing and reading about it. :)

I think I'll hug my house today!

What is the one thing you can’t imagine living without? And by one thing, I mean necessary thing. A loaded pizza from your favorite pizza joint isn’t exactly necessary… even though it does sound yummy! Some ideas of what I’m looking for… Electric lights vs. candles/lanterns? Stove vs. fireplace? Washing machine vs. hand washing? Heat-pump vs. fireplace? Automobile vs. walking/wagon?

Check out this Scavenger Hunt!

Have you heard about the Spring Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt? If not, you're just in time! It ends on the 17th, so hop over to Lisa Bergren's website at Stop #1 and get started. Make sure you enter my giveaway at Stop #21 at pamhillman.com for a chance to win all three books in my Natchez Trace Novel series.

Go to Stop #1 to start your journey on the
Spring Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt, Stop #1

The O'Sheas: The Bond of Brotherhood

by Pam Hillman

You’ve probably heard the saying “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.”

It goes back to the late 1800s. The story goes that a young Scottish girl was carrying her little brother who was almost as big as she was, and someone commented about how heavy he must be. Sounding somewhat surprised (and quite protective), she replied with a phrase similar to the iconic one we’re so familiar with today.

Ballads have been written, works of art painted, and photos taken of youngsters bravely toting even smaller youngsters on their backs, soldiers carrying their comrades out of battle, and even animations of animals with similar themes. Statues have been erected, orphanages formed with the saying adopted as the catch phrase for caring for—and carrying—each other.

Siblings. Brothers. Sisters.

There’s a special bond between siblings that transcends any other bond on earth. Siblings are the only people who know each other from birth until death and all the stages in between. Granted, being siblings doesn’t mean being alike in personality, having the same goals in life, or even expressing faith in our Lord and Savior. The truth is, siblings might not see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. But the bond is still there, and in healthy relationships, that bond is hard to break.

But sometimes misunderstandings, outside influences, mental illnesses, or tragedy can cause that bond to become frayed or even broken.

Such is the case for the O’Shea brothers in the 18th century in the Natchez, Mississippi district. The eldest brother, Connor O’Shea, was forced to leave Ireland years ago when he became romantically involved with a woman of the upper class. Quinn O’Shea, the hero in The Road to Magnolia Glen, arrives in Natchez harboring feelings of resentment that his older brother had abandoned the family when they needed him most. And, then there’s the third brother, Caleb, who left for parts unknown some years ago and hasn’t been seen since. Throw in deceased parents and two younger brothers, and all of this makes for some serious grudges between the three oldest brothers.

I have two sons of my own, and while they’ve never had to deal with the tragedy of losing a parent, being torn from their homeland or separated from their siblings, they were your normal rowdy, rough and tough boys. Sometimes I despaired that they’d ever get along.

You moms know what I mean. You’re in the kitchen preparing dinner after a long day and hear a ruckus that raises the roof. It might be the fight over the remote. Or whose turn it is to choose the next video game, or whose job it is to take out the trash this week. It could be anything or nothing, but it was always huge at the moment. This stage seemed to last about 15 years or so with my boys.

But sprinkled throughout those 15 years were times I heard (mostly second-hand) of my oldest coming to the defense of the younger when someone else mistreated him in some way. There’s nothing like having a big brother on the bus when other kids start picking on you, is there?

There’s another saying about siblings. Variations abound, but the gist of it is, “You mess with my brother, you mess with me.”

It’s one thing for brothers and sisters to argue and fight with each other, but if someone else attempts to do the same, their own squabbles are forgotten and they band together to stand against the “enemy”.

I grew up with two older brothers, and as the “baby girl” in the family, I knew they’d come to my rescue. It’s funny, I can’t think of a single time when I really needed either of them to save me. There were no bullies, no crazy accidents, and no late night clandestine shenanigans. But somehow I knew that if I needed either of them, all I had to do was ask. Decades later, nothing has changed.

The O’Shea brothers in my Natchez Trace Novel series can square off, glare and growl at each, circle like half-mad tigers in a cage, and even consider throwing a punch or two, but you know what?

When all is said and done, their true allegiance comes out when someone else threatens one of them. Past hurts aren’t always easily forgiven or forgotten, but when push comes to shove, the O’Shea brothers still stand shoulder-to-shoulder against the world.

And that’s as it should be.

He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.

CBA Bestselling author PAM HILLMAN was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn't afford two cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove an Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn't mind raking. Raking hay doesn't take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that's the kind of life every girl should dream of. www.pamhillman.com