Pastor Alexander Hewat -- Culture, Fashion, Food & Living in Chas.

 

 Hewatt, Alexander, An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, Volumes I and II (1779)

 All who possess lands and negroes apply their chief attention to the improvement of their fortune, regardless of the higher walks of science. They commonly marry early in life, and of course are involved in domestic cares and concerns before their minds have had time to ripen in knowledge and judgment. In the progress of society they have not advanced beyond that period in which men are distinguished more by their external than internal accomplishments. Hence it happens, that beauty, figure, agility and strength form the principal distinctions among them, especially in the country. Among English people they are chiefly known by the number of their slaves, the value of their annual produce, or the extent of their landed estate.

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Fashion

For the most part they are lively and gay, adapting their dress to the nature of the climate in which they live, and discover no small taste and neatness in their outward appearance. Their intercourse and communication with Britain being easy and frequent, all novelties in fashion, dress and ornament are quickly introduced; and even the spirit of luxury and extravagance, too common in England, was beginning to creep into Carolina.  

Pastimes

Almost every family kept their chaises for a single horse, and some of the principal planters of late years have imported fine horses and splendid carriages from Britain. They discover no bad taste for the polite arts, such as music, drawing, fencing and dancing; and it is acknowledged by all, but especially by strangers, that the ladies in the province considerably outshine the men. They are not only sensible, discreet and virtuous, but also adorned with most of those polite and elegant accomplishments becoming their sex. The Carolineans in general are affable and easy in their manners, and exceedingly kind and hospitable to all strangers.

Average Age

There are few old men or women to be found in the province, which is a sure sign of the unhealthiness of the climate. We cannot say that there are many in the country that arrive at their sixtieth year, and several at thirty bear the wrinkles, bald head and grey hairs of old

Wealth and Class

As every person by diligence and application may earn a comfortable liveli. hood, there are few poor people in the province, except the idle or unfortunate. Nor is the number of rich people great ; most of them being in what we call easy and independent circumstances. It has been remark ed, that there are more persons possessed of between five and ten thousand pounds sterling in the province, than are to be found anywhere among the same number of people.

In respect of rank, all men regarded their neighbour as their equal, and a noble spirit of benevolence pervaded the society. In point of industry the town was like a beehive, and there were none that reaped not advantages more or less from the flourishing state of trade and commerce. Pride and ambition had not as yet crept into this community ; but the province was fast advancing to that state of power and opulence, when some distinctions among men necessarily take place. their way

Lifestyle, Food and Drink

With respect to the manner of living in Charlestown, it is nearly the same as in England; and many of living circumstances concur to render it neither very difficult nor expensive to furnish plentiful tables. They have tea from England, and coffee, chocolate and sugar from the West Indies, in plenty. Butter is good, especially at that season when the fields are cleared of rice, and the cows are admitted into them ; and it is so plentiful that they export a good deal of it to the Leeward Islands. 

The province produces some flour for bread ; but it being of an inferior quality, the inhabitants chiefly make use of that imported from New York and Philadelphia. In the market there is plenty of beef, pork, veal, poultry and venison, and a great variety of wild-fowls and salt-water fish. The mutton from the low lands is not so good as that from the hills in the interior parts, but as the back country is now well settled, it is hoped that the market in time will be likewise well supplied with mutton from it. They have also a variety of the finest fruits and vegetables in their season.

Their principal drink is punch, or grog, which is composed of rum well diluted with water.  With respect to wine, Madeira is not only best suited to the climate, in which it im proves by heat and age, but also most commonly used by the people in general, though French, Spa nish and Portuguese wines are likewise presented at the tables of the most opulent citizens. Besides these, they have porter and beer from England, and cyder and perry from the northern colonies. 

Where rum is cheap, excess in the use of it will not be uncommon, especially among the lower class of people ; but the gentlemen in general are sober, industrious and temperate. In short, the people are not only blessed with plenty, but with a disposition to share it among friends and neighbours ; and many will bear me witness, when I say, that travellers could scarcely go into any city where they could meet with a society of people more agreeable, intelligent and hospitable than that at Charlestown.

 

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Pastimes

Those planters who had arrived at easy or affluent circumstances employed overseers ; and having little to do but to ride round their fields now and then, to see that their affairs were not neglected, or their slaves abused, indulge themselves in rural amusements, such as racing, mustering, hunting, fishing, or social entertainments. For the gun and dog the country affords some game, such as small partridges, woodcocks, rabbits, & c. but few of the planters are fond of that kind of diversion. To chace the fox or the deer is their favourite amusement, and they are forward and bold riders, and make their way through the woods and thickets with astonishing speed. The horses of the country, though hardy and serviceable animals, make little figure ; and therefore, to improve the breed, many have been of late years imported from England. The planters being fond of fine horses, have been at great pains to raise them, so that they now have plenty of an excellent kind, both for the carriage and the turf.

Dining out and Dining In during colonial era

 

1. Dining out and Dining In during colonial eraⁱ

Libertas, Liberty Pole, Liberty Tree, John Wilkes and the Sons of Liberty

 Libertas, Liberty Pole, Liberty Tree, John Wilkes and the Sons of Libertyⁱ

i 

Libertas

Libertas, the Goddess of Liberty became an object of Roman veneration when the people of Rome rebelled against the Roman monarchy, overthowing the tyrant King Tarquin the Proud and establishing the Roman Republic, circa 509 B.C. Thus, Libertas became associated from the start with Republican government. During the Roman Republic, Libertas also became associated with individual freedom and the act of manumission of slaves. As described at Wiki:

Libertas was associated with the pileus, commonly worn by the freed slave:

Among the Romans the cap of felt was the emblem of liberty. When a slave obtained his freedom he had his head shaved, and wore instead of his hair an undyed pileus . . . Hence the phrase servos ad pileum vocare is a summons to liberty, by which slaves were frequently called upon to take up arms with a promise of liberty . . . "The figure of Liberty on some of the coins of Antoninus Pius, struck A.D. 145, holds this cap in the right hand".

Libertas was also recognized in ancient Rome by the rod . . . used ceremonially in the act of Manumissio vindicta, Latin for 'freedom by the rod' (emphasis added):

The master brought his slave before the magistratus, and stated the grounds (causa) of the intended manumission. "The lictor of the magistratus laid a rod (festuca) on the head of the slave, accompanied with certain formal words, in which he declared that he was a free man ex Jure Quiritium", that is, "vindicavit in libertatem". The master in the meantime held the slave, and after he had pronounced the words "hunc hominem liberum volo," he turned him round (momento turbinis exit Marcus Dama . . .) and let him go (emisit e manu, or misit manu, . . . ), whence the general name of the act of manumission. The magistratus then declared him to be free [...]

Note that Libertas stands as one of our great monuments in New York – The Statue of Liberty, dressed in her Roman robes.

Liberty Pole and John Wilkes

The “liberty pole” became itself a separate symbol of liberty, tying back to the Goddess Libertas. The rod used in manumission adorned with the felt cap was a symbol of freedom from slavery. When dissident Senators assassinated Julius Caeser in 44 B.C. because he had become a dictator, they marched through the streets thereafter, carrying a felt hat (a “cap of liberty”) atop a spear.

After the Rennasaince, the Liberty Pole became a common means of depicting individual and political liberty. In colonial America of the 1760's, the single most famous example of a person suffering a tyrant's persecution was John Wilkes, the publisher unlawfully prosecuted by King George III ostensibly for blasphemy, but actually for daring to criticize the King. Here, in a satirical portrait of John Wilkes by William Hogarth in 1764, shows Wilkes sitting with a Liberty Pole leaning against him.

Issac Barre and the “Sons of Liberty”

Issac Barre was a British military officer who served extensively in North America during the French and Indian War, He suffered a debilitating and disfiguring wound at the Battle of Quebec, causing the loss of his right eye. Barre, a Whig, was later elected a member of Parliament, where he became a staunch and eloquent supporter of American colonists. His perception of Britain's American colonists could not have been more accurate. It was Barre who gave the name of “sons of liberty” to those Americans protesting the 1765 Stamp Act, during an exchange before Parliament with Charles Townshend, an MP who supported the Stamp Act:

Mr Townshend: “Will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence till they are grown up to a degree of strength and opulence, and protected by our arms… will they grudge to contribute to relieve us from the heavy burden under which we lie?”

Mr Barre: “[Were] they planted by your care? No! Your oppression planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated and inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to almost all the hardships to which human nature is liable, and among others to the cruelties of a savage foe, the most subtle, and I take upon me to say, the most formidable of any people upon the face of God’s earth…

[Were] they nourished by your indulgence? They grew by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule over them, in one department and another… sent to spy out their liberty, to misrepresent their actions and to prey upon them; men whose behaviour on many occasions has caused the blood of these sons of liberty to recoil within them… [emphasis added]

[Were] they protected by your arms? They have nobly taken up arms in your defence, they have exerted a valour amidst their constant and laborious industry for the defence of a country whose frontier, while drenched in blood, its interior parts have yielded all its little savings to your emolument [compensation].

The [American] people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any subjects the king has. But they are a people jealous of their liberties and who will vindicate them if ever they should be violated; but the subject is too delicate and I will say no more.”

Barre's famous phrase, the “sons of liberty,” was soon adopted in America, first by a group of Bostonians opposed to the Stamp Act, and then by like groups in every one of the North American colonies.

Liberty Trees

The Liberty Tree was an invention of the American colonists. The first “Sons of Liberty” organization in Boston chose “an old elm tree at the corner of what is now Essex and Washington Streets [in Boston] as the site of their first protest. . . . A few weeks later, a copper plate appeared on the tree, declaring it the “Tree of Liberty.”” Soon, virtually every “Sons of Liberty” organization held their meetings – when not in a tavern – under their own “Liberty Tree.”

In Charleston, S.C., the "Liberty Tree" was “a majestic live oak” located in the boroughs outside of Charleston proper. Specifically:

“large live-oak tree, in Mr. Mazyck’s pasture.” A similar pair of newspaper notices published in 1769 both identified Liberty Tree as standing “in Mr. Mazyck’s pasture.” . . .

Mr. Mazyck’s pasture was a large parcel of land on the east side of the Charleston peninsula, adjacent to the Cooper River, that was owned by the Mazyck family between the 1690s and the 1790s. At this point, I could dive into the long history of the Mazyck property that eventually became Mazyckborough, but I’ll resist the temptation and save that conversation for another time. For the moment, I’ll simply note that Mr. Mazyck’s pasture encompassed all the land now bounded on the south by Calhoun Street, on the north by Chapel Street, on the west by Elizabeth Street, and on the east by the Cooper River. Christopher Gadsden (1724–1805) purchased in 1758 the land immediately to the south of Mazyck’s pasture, now covered by the Gaillard Center for the Performing Arts and Gadsden’s Wharf. A tidal inlet flowing westward from the Cooper River once formed a natural boundary between the lands Mr. Mazyck and Mr. Gadsden. That inlet is now the eastern part of Calhoun Street, right in front of the Charleston County Public Library’s main branch, and still tends to flood during heavy rains at high tide.

Both Mazyck’s pasture and Gadsden’s Green, as it was once called, stood outside the original boundaries of urban Charleston until the creation of Boundary (now Calhoun) Street in 1769–70. That thoroughfare created a new boundary between the town and what was then called “the Neck.” From that point forward, Mr. Gadsden’s property, including what would become Gadsden’s Wharf, were technically within the unincorporated limits of Charleston proper, while Mr. Mazyck’s pasture remained outside the town. Knowledge of this information helps us to understand a subtle but useful geographic clue contained within a colonial-era source.

The two earliest published notices of events at Liberty Tree, dating from October 1768, both mention that the men who gathered there returned to Charleston by way of King Street. At that time, there were no thoroughfares in the neighborhood. Meeting Street terminated at Boundary Street prior to 1785 (see Episode No. 81). The tidal inlet that once formed part of Calhoun Street prevented traffic from flowing north and south along what is now Alexander Street and from Elizabeth to Anson Street. King Street, called the “Broad Path” immediately outside the town, was the only road leading in and out of the colonial capital. To reach Liberty Tree in the 1760s and 1770s, therefore, most Charlestonians would have travelled north on King Street and passed through the Horn Work. Turning east just outside the town gate, they could have walked in a straight line that is now Charlotte Street approximately 2,200 feet through Mr. Wragg’s pasture into Mr. Mazyck’s pasture. Unless they arrived by boat from the Cooper River, their return to town would have followed the same route in reverse.

. . . .  Alexander Street to witness the unveiling of a handsome bronze tablet containing a brief text commemorating the famous tree. To this day, it remains affixed to a brick column near the façade of No. 80 Alexander Street, opposite the rear driveway of the Charleston County Public Library.

Like his father before him, Rev. John Johnson probably grew up hearing stories about Liberty Tree and his family’s active participation in the struggle for American independence. It’s not unreasonable to think that Doctor Johnson might have taken his son to see the site of the famous tree near the corner of Charlotte and Alexander Streets. At the turn of the twentieth century, Rev. Johnson might have described to his colleagues how his uncle, William Johnson, had excavated its roots at the turn of the nineteenth century. Informed by these family traditions and documentation in 1905, the Sons of the Revolution selected what I believe is a remarkably appropriate site for their bronze marker. Considering the streetscape of modern Mazyckborough, it stands at a logical spot for such a public memorial, approximately one hundred and forty feet west-southwest of the tree’s former location.

Tavern Signs

 Tavern Signsⁱ

Tavern Signs

Along the Broad Path leading into Charleston (now King Street), there were several inns, as they were sometimes called, identified by their distinctive signs posted along the road. During the era of the Cherokee War, country visitors could find a room and a stable for their horses at the sign of the Bear, the sign of the Crown, the sign of the White Horse, or the sign of the Peacock.

Note: See Williamsburg Podcast.

Firewood

 Firewoodⁱ

Firewood

Fencing and Dancing Instruction

Fencing and Dancing Instructionⁱ

i Fencing and Dancing

Charleston Alcohol Traditions

 Charleston Alcohol Traditionsⁱ

i Charleston Alcohol Traditions

Treatment of Women in Colonial Charleston

 

Treatment of Women in Colonial Charlestonⁱ

Treatment of Women Pt 1, 2, and 3

Chickasaw Indians

Music, Dance, Culture & Games of the Colonial Era