The lost Colony Of Roanoke.

Last Of The Mohicans (Black & White)

So What Equipment & Foods Will You Need To Start Your New Life?

You have just arrived in the New World; you managed to pay your own passage so you are a free man/woman. You may be alone, or you may have a family but you should be able to work out what you will need to start this new life of yours.
You are not likely to be carrying a gun unless (A) you worked as a stage wagon driver or a forester in the old country or (B) you had enough money to purchase a gun before you left or when you landed. If you do have a gun then you will need: gun tools, gunpowder, powder horn, shot pouch, lead, ball & shot moulds.
You will need a blanket and you might be lucky enough to have a piece of oilcloth. You will need decent clothing and warm clothing for winter. You could have spare clothing such as a shirt and weskit so you can double up on clothing in winter, wear two shirts and two weskits. You will need mittens and a Monmouth cap would be good.
You are probably wearing shoes at present and they will have to do until you can make yourself a pair of moccasins.
You will need a pack to carry things in and you probably arrived with something you can use, a knapsack, haversack, market wallet, snapsack or a sack. This will be for carrying trail foods, perhaps a small trade kettle and a drinking vessel of some sort. Perhaps a gunpowder wallet/bag and some more lead.
You will need a water bottle, a hatchet or tomahawk, a good hunting knife (a butcher knife works well and is inexpensive).
When you make those moccasins you will also need to make yourself some leggings.
I have often wondered how a hunter on foot managed to carry the meat and skin back to camp/home. If you are not carrying a pack and just have your gun and shot pouch then it may be possible, but if the animal is a full grown deer it will be hard work even after dressing the animal out. I know because I have done it.
Two people can carry the burden between them on a pole carried on the shoulders, I have done this too, but I think a person alone may have to fashion some form of travois. I have never read of this being done, but to me it seems like a natural thing to do for a thinking person. What say you?

Shelter First, Then A Home.

These are some images of the half-faced shelter I built in Fox Valley in Wychwood Forest. The ground here was very hard so there was no way of putting upright posts into the ground and I had to utilise standing trees.

This is the sort of shelter I imagine a settler would put up first before building a more permanent structure. This Half-Faced shelter was reasonable quick and easy for me to construct on my own just using the tomahawk that I always carry. If I wanted to I could close this shelter in a lot more and make it more weather proof to house a small family through winter.

This was a project that I have wanted to do for a long time now because I wanted to know if the average settler without many tools and no horse or cattle to carry a burden could infact make a decent shelter large enough to house a small family. For me this Half-Faced shelter proves that they could. I have slept in this shelter in winter and even with the front and one side open I stayed reasonably comfortable. But for really cold weather I would close it in a lot better than this.

I could have used bark on the roof but it would have meant killing several trees, so I compromised and used thin ply. If this had been in the Northern Hemisphere I could have used Birch bark. Alternatively I could have made a less permanent roof covering by using oilcloth and covering it with brush. When I make a simple lean-to for myself I use my oilcloth as is with no brush cover and it works very well.

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.

More Bags & Pouches.

The belt bag or belt pouch went out of fashion in the 17th century, but it was retained as a utility bag by tradesmen, women and hunters into the 18th century. I use mine to carry my flint & steel and my fishing tackle because I always have this pouch with me at all times.

The powder wallet or powder bag was used to carry extra gunpowder. When it was no longer in use for containing gunpowder some people would use it for storing extra tinder for fire lighting.

"...........takes fire readily from the spark of a steel: but it is much improved by being kept dry in a bag that has contained gunpowder."

Samuel Hearne, Northern Canada 1772.

My fire bag is made of leather and made water resistant by rubbing in a mixture of tallow and beeswax. This contains my tinderbox and some small pieces of kindling plus a small candle used for drying out wet kindling if I have to. This with my steel is carried in my belt pouch. The steel is tied off to the bag buckle so it cannot be lost.

This is another knapsack that I made out of a second hand Chinese all cotton school bag. I attached leather shoulder straps made from second hand waistbelts & I removed the friction buckles and staps from the flap closure and added three bone buttons. The bag cost me $2.00 at an op-shop.

Early to mid 18th century equipment & accoutrements.

This is my knapsack with my blanket and oilcloth tied to the straps. Again variations of these packs were carried by military and civilians.
This pack is used for carrying the bulk of your equipment and food rations. In the bedroll I also carry a: wool shirt, wool weskit, and a wool Monmouth cap for use at night in winter. When travelling by water I wrap the blanket roll in the oilcloth, but when on foot I keep it seperate. If it starts to rain and I am still on the trail I can quickly untie the oilcloth and put it over me to keep myself and my packs dry, or I can set up a quick shelter where I am.

This is my haversack. This bag has a variety of names depending on who is using it and what they are using it for. Bread bag, food bag, it does not matter what you call it, it is generally used for carrying food rations on the trail or for foraging. It can be used to carry an extra water bottle or for collecting fire lighting materials along the trail. This type of bag was used by civilians, militia, and military.

This is my shot pouch & powder horn. This pouch has to carry everything I need to use & service my 20 gauge fusil. The horn is not attached to the shot pouch as some were later in the century.
On the shot pouch strap there are: vent pick, pan brush, powder measure, ball block, & vent quills. The shot pouch strap is finger woven in two lengths and then sewn together as some originals were. The powder horn strap is loom woven.
Not all shot pouches used a button closure on the flap, but I have one on this pouch. It is quick and easy to release and if I take a fall I will not drop everything out of my shot pouch.