Category Archives: murder mysteries

whalemen

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Most jobs  before the twentieth century were difficult and dangerous. Serving on a whaler was no exception.

Voyages were frequently months, and sometimes years, in length. Once the Right whales and Bowhead whales were diminished, whalers went after the Sperm whale. A creature of the warm waters, hunting the Sperm whale meant longer voyages/ And the Sperm whale was a fighter. He had teeth and a powerful tail.

Crew slept in tight bunks, three high. Mattresses were first invented for the whalers that went after the Bowhead whales; it was too cold for the sailors to sleep without them. Because they were stuffed with straw, the common term for them was ‘Donkey’s Breakfast.’

Even when there were no whales, the work of maintaining the ship was hard. But when whales were spotted, the job immediately became extremely dangerous. Men were killed every trip.

The whale boats were lowered, six men each, and pursued the whale. The harpoon was fired into the whale by hand, which meant that the boat had to be fairly close. Then rope was played out as the whale took off in what became known as the Nantucket Sleigh Ride.

Sometimes the whale escaped. When it didn’t, and was killed, it had to be brought back to the ship. Sometimes the whale boat was so far away, it and the whale were not found.The whale ship usually tried to follow the smaller boat.

Then the work of extracting the oil from the whale began. More to follow.

Christmas Customs and the Puritans

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Christmas Customs and the Puritans

In 1517 the Reformation arrived in England. Although many holiday customs continued for some time, well into Tudor times, but by the time of Cromwell, Christmas celebrations were prohibited, even in Churches.
This is another British custom that crossed the Atlantic. We know these people as the Puritans. William Bradford described the gloom in Plymouth Colony in his Journal of 1620. “On ye day called Christmas-day, ye Gov’r caled them out to work…but there should be no gameing or revelling in ye streets.”
In 1659 the Puritans enacted a law in the General Court of Massachusetts announcing that “anybody who is found observing, by abstinence from labor, feasting, or any other way, any such days as Christmas Day shall pay for every offense five shillings.
With the immigration of people who followed the Church of England, the law was repealed in 1681.
Why were they so opposed to Christmas festivities? Well, it was thought that the secular celebration interfered with religious devotion.

“Thar she Blows”

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In doing research for my fourth Will Rees mystery, I studied the whaling industry of the 1790’s. And I have to say, with all the problems associated with the oil we extract from the ground, taking the whales for their oil is a far less defensible practice.

What a dangerous and bloody job.

Although the Native Americans and early colonists whaled from shore, the right whales that were easily caught in canoes and with simple harpoons were rapidly depleted. But in the early 1700s, a new kind of whale was discovered: the sperm whale. Unlike the peaceable right whale, the sperm whale was a 55 ft hard fighting whale with teeth. But its head was filled with a pure oil called spermaceti that, when exposed to the air and hardened, was prized for candles. Sperm whales were also much faster. The harpoons were fastened to long ropes and the whale, when it ran, pulled the boat after it. In New England, this was called the Nantucket Sleigh Ride.

Sometimes the whale pulled the boat so far away from the mother ship, they could not find it again. Sometimes the whale, in pain, used it’s tail to flip and smash the boat and the sailors were killed.

Even whale hunting in the Atlantic might take several months. The ships were small and most of the crew slept in narrow bunks stacked in threes. If the trip was long enough, the food spoiled and even the water went bad. There were long periods of inactivity in which the crew carved whale bone – scrimshaw or made elaborate rope forms.

But these trips were, of course, much worse for any whale spotted and pursued.

Santa Claus

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Santa Claus has a far lengthier history than we realize. Saint Nicholas was Nicholas of Patara, a Bishop of Myra, during the Fourth Century. His Feast Day is celebrated on Dec 6, the day of his death. This Saint Nicholas appears in paintings from the 1400s on.

Another strand in the creation of the modern Santa, which explains how he became the patron saint of children, rests on a story about an innkeeper who murdered three boys, dismembered them, and put them in a vat to pickle. Saint Nicholas found them, reunited the pieces and restored them to life.

A pagan Father Christmas was a folk figure in Europe, but a much less sweet and ‘jolly old elf’ than the Santa we know.

Dutch settlers brought our Santa Claus to New York in the seventeenth century. By then, many of the familiar parts of the legend had already been established. Good children received gifts, bad children did not and he was already in red robes and white beard.

No discussion of Santa Claus would be complete with  mentions of Clement C. Moore, the author of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and Thomas Nast. Until the nineteenth century, St. Nick had traveled by horse, donkey, or in a chariot pulled by horses that flew through the sky.  The reindeer were certainly an American invention but by whom no one is sure. Moore’s St. Nick was an elfish figure. Nast, a political cartoonist, began a series of Christmas cartoons in which the appearance of St. Nick became the Santa we know today.

Christmas Customs – Early Days

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Early Days

I’d intended to write this post before and during the holidays but was far too busy. So even if this is a little dated, I will do it now. Bear with me, eventually I will reach Christmas customs for the Shakers.

From its early days, Christianity celebrated the Nativity. The giving of presents, the decoration of the houses with evergreens, the suspension of enmity and the proclamation of peace were all features of the festival from the beginning.

Some of the early customs aren’t so familiar to us now. The Lord of Misrule? The switching of masters and servants ? Likewise, some of our most treasured rituals were not invented yet. The Tree, for example, although known in England before Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, did not achieve its popularity until the Queen adopted it. Like so many British customs, this one crossed the Atlantic.

Disability in the 1790s

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My brother Steve had a variety of cognitive disabilities: Autism, mental retardation, anxiety and others. I began to wonder how someone like Steve would manage.

Read a very interesting book : a Disabled History of the US. As long as we had a farm, Steve would have been able to manage. He could have helped with the animals and would have lived out his days with his parents (which he did anyway.)

But what if you were blind? Or deaf? Of unable to walk well?

Well, in some ways, you might do better than now. No one would expect you to read. And many farm chores can be done by someone who can’t hear. But any of the crafts (printing, weaving, brick making) might or might not be available to you. Blindness would be particularly difficult.

And, of course, living in the bosom of one’s family would make one’s life much easier. Disabled people who had no one had short brutal lives,even those who inherited money. Other people just can’t help but steal it, and the literature has many examples of lawyers, hired to protect, who embezzled every penny.

Interestingly enough, some of the Native American tribes were far in advance of the white man in their treatment of the disabled. A deaf person might be a basket maker, and thus would suffer no stigma for the deafness. Disability might prevent a tribe member from becoming a warrior, but not everyone attained that status anyway. And, because the tribe took care of its own, an orphan would be cared for in the absence of parents.

Another advantage in the tribal setting: the regular use of sign language. The deaf would learn and use sign language and so would be able to communicate.

The Shakers accepted All Children of God and I expect for some, the Shaker Family provided a welcome refuge.

Warning Out: Welfare in the early US

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This sounds like a dry topic, doesn’t it? Well, when one reads contemporary accounts of the women and children affected by this cruel system, it rapidly becomes, instead of dry, horrifyingly real and really awful.

What was warning out? The poor, it is said, are always with us. And the poor tend to be disproportionately women and children. Mortality was high and although there were plenty of widowers, there were a significant number of widows also, many with dependent children. Women didn’t have ‘careers’; they were taught to rely on a man and everything in the culture excluded them from paid employment except for domestic chores. They worked as help or wove out of the home.  (Hence the rise of wet nursing as a profession.) So what happened if a woman fell ill? Or a young woman became pregnant out of wedlock? Or it was a bad year?

The first step the town fathers took was to c0nfirm that this family deserved help. Had the adult been born in the town? If not, she and her children were ‘warned out’ to her town of birth. It did not matter that she had left the town for a very good reason; back she went. If she was pregnant, and late in the term, the town fathers would pay for the birth and care until she could travel. (And the accounts are full of bitching about the expense!) Back she went, even if the baby’s father was still in town.

Some towns were relatively progressive for the times and tried to pay for the trip. Others not so much. A woman’s children could be snatched away and sent out to work and she might never see them again. (And the care of the kids under these circumstances was dire: see post on Orphans.)

What this charity came down to was this: The affluent men who ran the town did not want to pay for the care of anyone out of town coffers. Grudgingly, they would do so for people who they knew and whose families were long time residents, if these people were deserving. Everyone else was sent away or allowed to starve.

Does any of this sound familiar? This country has evolved in baby steps but there are some who would send us back to this.

Inheritance: the good old days were terrible!

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Most people I think are aware that for more than the first hundred years of our existence, only white men could vote. And white men who owned property besides.

Inheritance of property was another perk restricted to and for men. Like the English system, after which this country’s early laws followed, a woman lost all rights to her property upon marriage. Her dowry, if she had one (not so common in the early US), any property such as horses, even her clothing now belonged to her husband. If he gambled away the family assets, oh well.

If she divorced, which was not so common, and wanted to remarry, the clothing she wore belonged to her soon-to-be ex. In one of the examples I read, a woman had to be married in her nightgown, her new husband standing by with new clothing. As soon as she was officially wed, she changed into ‘his’ clothing.

A married woman, since she owned nothing, could not leave a will. Only a widow could prepare a will leaving her possessions, and that was dependent upon the will of her deceased husband. If she were not mentioned in his will, she became the responsibility of her eldest son. If her husband specifically left his wife goods in his will, however, she owned them and could leave them to someone in her turn.

Such restrictions upon a woman make the appeal of the Shakers easy to understand. Although one would own nothing, one also owned a piece of everything. All the members of the community were treated alike and expected to be obedient. A woman might aspire to a role governing the Family as an Deaconess or Eldress. And the Shakers cared for the elderly members until they ‘went home to Mother’.

 

Native American Herbal remedies used by the Shakers

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The Shakers’s herbal business was in full swing by the early 1800’s and most of the communities participated. Sabbathday Lak, the still existent Maine community, still produces herbs and teas which can be purchased in the shops of the Shaker Museum/Villages.

The Shakers used many herbs that had been imported to North American, either by accident or design. The common plant, now considered a weed, dock, is one such example. Lavender, boneset, barberry are just a few of the imports which the Shakers grew in their herb gardens. They also imported medical plants, such as opium, which they did not produce themselves.

They also studied various Native American remedies and added them to their medicines.

I found it surprising how many plants I recognized, although I know them simply as trees or ornamentals rather than herbs. Some are much in favor still today as medicines or for alternative healing.

Both prickly ash and white ash were used for digestive troubles. The Prickly Ash is called the Toothache tree or toothache bush.

Several bee balm species, which I plant for scent for attraction for butterflies,  have a long history of use as a medicinal plants by many Native Americans. The Blackfoot Indians recognized the strong antiseptic action of these plants and used them in poultices. A tea made from the plant was also used to treat mouth and throat infections.  Bee balm is the natural source of the antiseptic thymol, the primary active ingredient in modern commercial mouthwashes.

Bee balm was also used by Native Americans as a seasoning.

Boxberry – wintergreen and checkerberry The fruits are edible, with a minty flavor and were used as a diuretic.

Bloodroot  -Sanguinaria carnadensis), was used for typhoid pneumonia as well as ringworm, scarlatina and jaundice. One of its common names is Indian Paint. In fact, several of the herbs used by the Shakers, betrayed their origin as Native American remedies by using Indian: Indian cup, Indian Hemp, Indian Physic and Indian turnip. All of these were part of the Shaker herb stock.Cup weed or Indian cup weed,  Silphium perfoliatum is native to North America. It resembles Rudabeckia (black eyed Susans) but the center is yellow instead of brown. It was used primarily for chest complaints but is now used as an ornamental.

Lest we disparage the herbal knowledge of the Native Americans and the Shakers, here are a few examples of plants they used which we use as well.

Black Cohosh. (Actaea racemosa) Other common names: black bugbane, black snakeroot, fairy candle . Black cohosh was used for epilepsy and, like today, for ‘female complaints’.

Witch hazel.tract of the plant is used in the astringent Witch hazell Varieties of this shrub are also native to China and Japan. It was used, as it is today, as an antiseptic, particularly for skin complaints. Soaking a toothbrush in witch hazel on a regular basis also helps with the bacteria in the mouth. Hamamelis virginiana produces a specific kind of tannins called hamamelitannis . One of those substances displays a specific cytotoxic activity against colon cancer.

 

Poisonous herbs

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Natural remedies from plants, herbs and otherwise, are not necessarily safe. Some of the herbs used by the Shakers had to be used with care and, in fact, were outright dangerous. I mentioned foxglove in a previous post. Anyone read Agatha Christie mysteries? Foxglove played a starring role as a poison in at least one. Mandrake is another. A mild narcotic and a powerful cathartic, it is also called May apple or wild lemon. Belladonna is another example. It is a member of the deadly nightshade family and is a narcotic. Although it has been used for centuries (the name itself is Italian for beautiful woman. It dilates the pupils and women used it to make their eyes look large and mysterious). It is very dangerous to use as an amateur. Rhubarb, yes, the same plant in which the stalks are eaten, has poisonous leaves. They are full of oxalic acid. Poke berry is another plant with which care must be taken. Although the young leaves were eaten in a ‘sallet’, the leaves become poisonous as the summer wears on. Hellebore is a powerful poison. It was used for epilepsy, dropsy, and apoplexy. In areas where deer are a problem, hellebore can be planted for spots of color. The deer are too smart to eat them. Daffodils, used as an emetic and cathartic, is also poisonous. Another good choice for a flower if deer are a problem. Liquorice has been used for centuries as an aid to digestion. But it is also an abortifacient and should not be eaten by women in the first three months of pregnancy. No discussion of herbs would be complete without mention of opium. The opium poppy has been known in the Middle and Far East for millennia. The Crusaders brought it back to Europe. During the late 1700s, it was imported into the United States, primarily from Turkey and India. Because it was considered a medicine, it was not taxed. It was sold over the counter in apothecary shops with no control whatsoever. During that time, opium was used in a solution of alcohol (laudanum) or as a tea. The opium pipe had not been invented yet so, unless it was mixed with tobacco, it was not smoked. When we think of the opiates, we usually think of their pain killing properties. And in an age where there were few other choices, that is important. However, another important use was to control diarrhea in infants in children. Diarrhea killed many many children so they were dosed with opium. Babies and children were also dosed with opium to make them sleep or to control their hunger so I suspect there were more than a few accidental addicts.