Category Archives: weavers

Triangle looms

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I recently discovered what looks like an intermediate step between the backstrap looms used, for example, in Peru, and the more modern looms hand weaver use now, and have been in use since before the middle ages. These looms require a warping board, and the loom has several shed, heddles and treadles.

I am still researching the triangle looms, which one source claimed to have been in use since the 1600s. These are much simpler than the looms above. They come in square, rectangles too and can be built at home. So far, I’ve found one source that indicates the Native Americans used the single or double strand weaving method on a rectangle loom to make sashes and wampum belts. The triangle looms can be built to any size but also, the triangular pieces can be sewn together. A fichu (that piece of cloth that Colonial women wore to cover their chests, both for modesty and warmth) or a large shawl are two possibilities for this loom. Fine threads can be doubled up to make a closer weave.

So, how do these looms work? Well, the warp is put directly onto the loom. As with a backstrap loom, the weaver’s fingers lift the warp to allow the weft to be put through. No shuttles or spools. The photos of the looms employed by some of the Native American tribes string the warp between the curved ends of a stick like a bow or between a triangular piece of wood like the crotch of a tree or a giant sling shot.

Since there are no treadles, some of the fancier patterns look difficult to do, at best. However, the finished cloth can be made of several colors, a hood added, the ends looped up to make sleeves. I can just imagine someone sitting in a cabin weaving cloth on something like this, when the more complicated and certainly more expensive loom would not be available to her.

As my research progresses, I will continue this thread. (Pun intended).

Speaking

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Usually I blog about interesting facts I find in my research, facts I find fascinating and want to share. Lots of information about the textile crafts because I love them!
But today I plan to talk about something more personal; some of the tasks that go along with the craft of professional author.
Blogging and social media are certainly important parts of my new job.
But my favorite by far is speaking to groups. I am constantly surprised by how much I enjoy it. What did my readers not understand? What did they like? Were the characters appealing? I must confess that I learn as much from the back and forth, maybe more, than my audience does.
Why did I choose to make one character so strong or demented or whatever? Sometimes I honestly don’t know and I have to think about the motivations I had.
And sometimes a reader pulls out some interpretation from my story that I never thought of, not consciously anyway, but when I ponder it, it makes such sense to me I include it in my planning for the next book.
So, to all the people to whom I’ve spoken so far, I can only say thank you. You are helping make me a much better writer.

Sperm whales and more

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Will Rees #4 will take place in Salem, Ma. The merchant captains from Salem opened up American trade with the Orient which, at that time, included India as well as China.
New Bedford and Nantucket are more well known as whaling centers but Salem also had an active whaling industry. The right whales were the first to be taken. Since they kept close to shore, the Indians paddled out in canoes. When the settlers began whaling, they sailed out in shallops, small schooners. The right whales were soon decimated,
Whaling ships then went either to the Arctic, for the Bowhead whale, or to southern waters for the Sperm whale. Of course, as the whaling industry went on, the herds of these whales were exhausted as well, and soon whaling ships were sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to the Pacific.
Although the sperm whales were fighters, plenty of them lost the battle, and very cruelly too. The harpoons didn’t usually kill the whale, that was the job of the lance. That had to be thrown accurately and twisted. Descriptions mention the bloody sea all around the dying whale.
Then the whale was towed back to the ship to be cut into pieces. The blubber, which was not soft fat as we imagine but hard, was cut into large pieces called blankets. Then these were cut into squares about one foot by one foot and then minced. These small pieces were boiled in try pots, or kettles, upon the brick stove which looked sort of like a fire pit, called the try works. The oil was boiled out of this and then the remains were thrown into the fire. Descriptions mention the black greasy cloud of smoke that hung over the whale ships for days.
The sperm whales were prized because their heads contained a chamber, called the case, which contained many barrels of oil. The case was cut open and the oil drained.
. The size of the whale did not determine how many barrels of oil were acquired from the whale and the number of barrels was the final determination of a successful trip. One account described the taking of a smallish whale that still produced 91 barrels of oil.
Whale bone, which was actually taken from the teeth, was also much in demand in this day when women wore corsets. At one time, whale bone was valued at $6.00 per pound, a large sum at that time.
And sometimes whalers found ambergris. It is thought that ambergris was a secretion that formed around a scar or other injury. It t was very valuable as a fixer for perfumes. In those days, the perfume was usually attar of roses. Ambergris is still used sometimes for very expensive perfumes but for most the scent is fixed with something synthetic. A good thing in my opinion.
The whale industry began dying a rapid death after oil was discovered in Pennsylvania in the mid 1800’s, at least in the U.S. Other countries take whales to this day. What a shame! IMHO these magnificent animals should be left alone.

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.

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’.

 

Ornamental plants as herbal remedies

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The Shakers for many years did not plant flowers simply for beauty. Everything had a purpose. That did not mean, however, that plants we now think of as purely ornamental did not have places in the Shaker garden. A by no means exhaustive list of plants that were used as remedies follows.

Boxwood – now used as a hedge. The Shakers used the bark as a tonic and astringent and sometimes as a substitute for quinine. (Who knew?)

Foxglove – A showy plant prized for its flowers. The Shakers used it for the heart (the active ingredient is still used for heart medicine) and asthma.

Gentian, blue fringed – A powerful tonic that improves the appetite and aids digestion.

Hollyhock – Used to treat coughs, female weakness (yes, really) , and inflammation of the bladder.

Hydrangea – A mild diurertic

Iris- Used for fragrance. It’s root was used as a powerful cathartic.

Lavender, English – Stimulant and tonic. Used in flatulence and fainting and to arrest vomiting.

Lobelia – Also called Wild or Indian Tobacco. Antispasmodic and emetic. The milky sap is poisonous.

Marigold – A tincture is used for cuts, bruises, sprains, and wounds, especially to prevent gangrene.

Peony – Both root and flowers were used as antispasmodics. particularly for epilepsy and spasms, and also for whooping cough.

Privet – Another common hedge plant. The leaves are astringent and used for mouthwash.

Rose – The petals were used as astringents. Rose hips also make a tea that is very high in vitamin C.

Sunflower – The seeds were used as expectorants and were used for coughs and pulmonary infections.

Violet – Used in colds, coughs and sore throats.

Were these herbs effective? We know some were because the active ingredients have since been isolated and put into modern medicines. Most of these at least did not harm.  However, there are many herbs that were used in small doses that were, like the lobelia above, poisonous and had to be used with great care.

Medicinal Herbs used by the Shakers

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For millennia, people have depended upon herbs to treat sickness. Before the advent of modern antibiotics and so on, herbs were the only way of treatment. In fact, more than a few of our current medicines : quinine, penicillin, and aspirin to name just a few, were used in their natural states. People didn’t know why they worked but years of observation had told them some of these plants did work.

The Shakers were no different from the previous immigrants to the United States; they brought their herbal lore with them and collected plants from the woods and fields around them. Since they found new and unfamiliar herbs in this new land, they studied the plant knowledge of the Native Americans around them. An epidemic, especially when the numbers of the Shakers were so small, would be disastrous.

Although they at first gathered herbs, they later planted physic gardens and grew certain varieties. If they produced more than required by their Families, they sold the remainder and purchased other medicines they could not produce themselves.  Although their religious beliefs and practices were suspect, (celibacy? Gender Equality? What were they thinking?)  their herbs, as with all their other products, were not only respectable, but reliable.

These medicinal herbs became a source of enormous profits for the Shakers.

What were some of the herbs used by the Shakers?

Many of the herbs are known to us today. Chamomile, which was used as a tonic, and chicory, for example. Black, blue, red and white cohosh were all used. Black Cohosh was used for ‘female complaints’, and has regained favor again for that purpose.

Other herbs, such as boneset, were known and used during the Middle Ages. As the name suggests, it was believed that this herb aided in the healing of broken bones. The Shakers used it for colds, fevers, jaundice and as a general tonic.

Burdock is now commonly considered a weed. Used as a salve or poultice, it treated gout and other rashy diseases, including leprosy and the rash associated with syphilis. I wonder how well they worked.

Another weed used as a medicine was the common dandelion. The young leaves can be eaten in a salad. However, the young plant does possess some slight narcotic properties. It was used as a tonic and a diuretic and used in constipation, dropsy and uterine obstructions.

Flax, which was used to make linen and flaxseed, as well as yellow dye from the flowers, was also given internally for coughs.

One of the ‘herbal’ uses that surprised me was common garden lettuce – used as a narcotic where opium was objectionable.

Pepper

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As I research my next book, I am continually drawn into new channels. Everything is interconnected.

When one thinks of the spice trade, we think of the more exotic spice like cinnamon or cardamon. Not lowly pepper. But pepper was extremely valuable. When the Salem merchantmen began sailing east, before they traded in cloth they traded in pepper. Carnes, the first Captain who sailed to Sumatra for pepper, brought home a cargo that made a 700% profit.

The enormous profits continued to the early 1800s, but fell victim to the pirates in the east.

Since pepper was easily portable, the sailors could carry trade something (butter was a big favorite) for a stash of pepper of their own. This could be traded at home for a little profit. In the 1980s, when the ship, The Mary Rose, was raised from the ocean floor, almost every sailor’s corpse carried a supply of pepper. This ship sank in 1545.