Crafting a Persona.

Settlers building a log cabin By John Buxton.

One of my favourite pictures, a print by Robert Griffing showing settlers travelling to their new home. Note the spinning wheel on the pack horse. Not everyone was so fortunate to have horses to carry them and their burdens.

Who are you? Where do you come from? What class are you, e.g. upper class? Middling sort? Did you pay for your passage or are you indentured? What items of equipment and foods did you bring with you? Do you have any possessions you can trade for more practical items? Do you have a trade? Do you have money? What do you want to do in the New World?
These are all questions you need to ask yourself if you wish to craft a persona for yourself. For some people it is just a matter of becoming what they have always wanted to be, say a woodsman or woodswoman. For others it helps to craft a persona and perhaps even use a different name from their own.
Crafting a persona can be fun, it helps you understand what it would have been like to start a new life in the New World. If you were indentured you may have to work for someone for a period of three to seven years. The captain of the ship that carried you to the New World sells your indenture to cover his transport costs.

Just imported, on board the Snow Sally, Captain Stephen Jones, Master, from England, A number of healthy, stout English and Welsh Servants and Redemptioners, and a few Palatines [Germans], amongst whom are the following tradesmen, viz. Blacksmiths, watch-makers, coppersmiths, taylors, shoemakers, ship-carpenters and caulkers, weavers, cabinet-makers, ship-joiners, nailers, engravers, copperplate printers, plasterers, bricklayers, sawyers and painters. Also schoolmasters, clerks and book-keepers, farmers and labourers, and some lively smart boys, fit for various other employments, whose times are to be disposed of. Enquire of the Captain on board the vessel, off Walnut-street wharff, or of MEASE and CALDWELL. Pennsylvania Gazette (weekly Philadelphia newspaper), August 17, 1774
http://www.answers.com/topic/indentured-servant

James Best. Who was under Indenture of Redemption to Captain Stephen Jones now cancelled in consideration of £ 15, paid for his Passage from London bound a servant to David Rittenhouse of the City of Philadelphia & assigns three years to befound all necessaries. Record of Indentures, Philadelphia, 1771-1773, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1973.
http://www.answers.com/topic/indentured-servant

Some indentured servants were supposed to be supplied with clothing, farm tools and a piece of land once they had served their indenture time, but in reality this rarely happened.
If you arrived in the New World a free person or once you had completed your indenture, then you could look for land. Some lands could be had for the taking, and these land claims were known as “tomahawk claims”

PHILIP BEALL was born in Prince George County, Maryland in 1747, an heir of an ancient Scottish family. His bloodline could be traced back to the powerful MacGregor and Campbell Clans of Scotland. As a young man he came to the King's Creek Valley (present Weirton) and took up a tomahawk claim of six hundred acres. This being the early 1770's, and Indians being numerous, Philip along with neighboring settlers endeavored to construct a fort for the safety of their families. To legalize his tomahawk claim, Philip spent his time clearing his land and tending his crops. He and his wife raised nine children to adulthood in a hard and often dangerous time. Philip Beall was reportedly a very large and strong man having inherited this trait from his predecessors, he took to pioneer life and became a successful farmer.
http://www.wvgenweb.org/brooke/bios.htm

JAMES CAMPBELL was born in Scotland in 1719 and emigrated to "The Colonies" as a young man. He took as his profession the dangerous vocation of overland pack merchant. He would routinely travel across the Allegheny Mountains through Indian Territory delivering badly needed supplies and news to settlers in the frontier. James first settled in Chartiers Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania on three vast tracts of land, two of which were named Saint James, and James' Fancy. The wilderness drew James and his family west into the Kings Creek area where he marked out his "tomahawk" claims and set out improving his land.
http://www.wvgenweb.org/brooke/bios.htm

Land grants made by one authority might not be honored by another. Increasing the opportunity for land disputes was the historical practice of "tomahawk rights" or "corn rights" to claim frontier lands. This method consisted of staking a claim by blazing hatchet marks on tree trunks or planting and harvesting a crop of corn. These varied perceptions regarding who held legitimate claims coupled with the absence of a single, consistent authority, left settlers with little motivation to abide by treaties that limited or nullified personal holdings. Without a singular authority to negotiate and enforce the terms of a treaty, promises made continued to be promises breached and intensified the atmosphere of violence and misunderstanding between new settlers and native inhabitants.
http://innumerablebiographies.blogspot.com/2009/09/frontier-currents-part-4_22.html

As they claimed land for their families, they advanced the boundaries of the nation. As they engaged in warfare with Indians, they subdued the indigenous people's claim to their native land and resources. As they made improvements in crops, roads and buildings, they began the infrastructure that would support the new nation. Their rebellion against perceived injustice, contributed to the larger rebellion that secured their independence. In this way, the course of individual lives directed the course of American history.
http://innumerablebiographies.blogspot.com/2009/09/frontier-currents.html

Simon Kenton begins an extensive exploration of the Can-tuc-kee country, making "tomahawk claims" to tracts of land he finds particularly attractive. He reaches Boonesboro and develops a strong friendship with Daniel Boone, who is now in his mid-forties.
http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/dodson_eckerthistory3.html

Tomahawk Claim
A practice occurring mostly during colonial times and into the 1830s. On the western frontier, the settlers (squatters) would take up land and mark the corners by ringing a tree or trees at each corner of the tract, thereby killing the trees. Much of these Tomahawk Claims occurred on Indian lands, so the squatter would need to wait until the government authorities could coerce the Indians to relinquish title to the land. Then the tomahawk claim could go through a process to become legal, or in land language, to be granted.
http://www.tngenweb.org/tnland/terms.htm

During early period of frontier settlements in the United States, a "tomahawk right," was viewed by settlers as a way to claim title to a tract of land. The process was to deadening a few trees near the head of a spring, and marking the bark of some one or more of them with the initials of the name of the person who made the improvement. Whether these claims were legal or not, it is claimed that "tomahawk rights" were bought and sold among settlers.
http://www.wvexp.com/index.php/Tomahawk_Rights

Then began the hard work of building a shelter or cabin, clearing trees and brush, tilling the earth and planting crops which means that you have to first buy seed unless you brought some with you. Both men and women worked the land plus the women looked after the home, they cleaned, cooked the meals, made the clothes and if there were no children to do the other chores then she had wood to collect and water to carry as well as a garden to tend and washing to do.
The men worked the land, built the home, and hunted and trapped for food. They might also hunt and trap for profit or trade. All the family were responsible for security and fighting off any raiding Indians. This meant that everyone that was old enough to use a gun had to know how to load and fire a flintlock gun. If there were more people than guns then others might load the guns for others and melt lead in the fire to mould round ball and shot.
Children had their chores to do which covered firewood collection, carrying water, looking after younger siblings, tending the garden, setting traps to catch small game and sometimes hunting as well. They might have charge of caring for any livestock too and making sure the milk cow was brought in each night.
In colonial times the whole family worked together as one unit, everyone had their work to perform and at the end of the day they were secure in the thought that they had in their own way contributed to the family’s well being. In Living History today the activities we perform are not as vitally important to our well being, but at the same time it does bring families together in various activities, and it is still important that family members should have that connection with each other.