Colonial living

Tunis, Edwin, 1897-1973 (Author).

Summary:

Colonial Living is a vigorous re-creation of 17th- and 18th-century America; of the everyday living of those sturdy men and women who carved a way of life out of the wilderness. In lively text and accurate drawings we see the dugouts and wigwams of New England's first settlers and the houses they learned to build against the cruel winters; the snug Dutch and Flemish farmhouses of New Amsterdam; the homes of the early planters in the South which would one day be kitchens for the houses they dreamed of building when tobacco had made them rich. Long research and love for his subject gave Tunis an intimate knowledge of the details of daily living in colonial times, from the period of tiny coastal settlements to the flourishing, interdependent colonies which fought a major war for independence. He shares all with his reader--the building of houses, with their trunnels, girts, and hand-hewn beams, the spinning of yarn and its weaving and dyeing, the making of candles and soap, and the intricate business of cooking on the open hearth with lug poles, cranes, bake kettles, and spits. He describes the early crops, and pictures the implements and animals used to produce them; in detailed pictures we see again the tools and products of the craftsmen; the blacksmith, the cooper, the miller, the joiner, and the silversmith. Rich in enjoyment, rich in information, with more than 200 drawings, a warm, lively, and authentic panorama of a lost way of life.

Record details

ISBN: 0801862272 (paperback)
ISBN: 9780801862274 (paperback)
Physical Description: 155 pages : illustrations ; 28 cm
Edition: Johns Hopkins paperbacks ed.
Publisher: Baltimore, MD : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Content descriptions

General Note:

Originally published: Cleveland : World Pub. Co., [1957].

Formatted Contents Note:

Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: the beachheads: St. Augustine -- Roanoke -- Jamestown -- Plymouth -- New Amsterdam -- Massachusetts Bay -- Maryland -- New Sweden -- Seventeenth century: New England: House building -- Wells -- Furniture -- Food -- Cooking -- Eating and drinking -- Heat and light -- Home crafts -- Cloth -- Wool production -- Wool-spinning -- Flax production -- Flax-spinning -- Weaving -- Clothing -- Towns and discipline -- Trades and crafts -- Travel and mail -- Education -- New Netherland: Hat-making -- Houses -- Inside the houses -- Cooking and eating -- Grain -- Milling -- New Amsterdam -- People and clothes -- Southern colonies: Tobacco -- Land and bondage -- Small planters -- Cottages -- Ways and means -- Big plantations -- Manor houses -- Bricks -- Furniture -- Cooking -- Food -- Lumber and sawmills -- Plantation people -- Clothes -- Learning -- Eighteenth century: Pennsylvania: Philadelphia -- German settlers -- German houses -- Scotch-Irish -- Log forts and cabins -- Customs and trade -- Clothes -- People -- "Shootin' arns" and game -- Coastal colonies: Agriculture -- Wood and wooden implements -- Farm animals -- Pork -- Barns and houses -- Interiors -- Plantations -- Industries: Iron -- Charcoal -- Tanbark and leather -- Glass -- Paper -- Clocks -- Vehicles and roads -- Bridges and ferries -- Post and the news -- Inns -- River boats -- Ships -- Rope -- Trade and money -- Silverware -- Towns -- Buildings -- Rooms -- Furniture -- Tools -- Heat and light -- Food, eating, and cookery -- Men's clothes -- Women's clothes -- Youth -- Diversions -- Inns -- Churches -- Prison -- Sickness and medicine -- Learning.