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In our first chapter we said that there was little evidence that rushlighting was ever used in Colonial America. The same cannot be said about Betty lamps. The name "Betty lamp" was often used for a type of lamp that included a crusie, Phoebe, or slut lamp. Colonial Sense will make distinction between the different types. The first lamps were brought over from England and Holland with the Pilgrims. Captain John Carver, the first Governor of Plymouth Colony, brought with him a Dutch iron betty lamp purchased in Holland. The simplest form of lamp brought with the colonists was an iron saucer with one or two lips at the edge to hold a wick. The lamp had similar form to the Greek, Roman, and Assyrian versions. There was a need for lighting in the early days of our country. Edward Winslow, the second Governor of the Plymouth Colony, wrote a letter back to the prospective colonists in 1621 stating, "Bring paper and linseed oil for your windows, with cotton yarn for your lamps."

It might seem ill-conceived to call Arkansas a colonial state, for it was not one of the thirteen original colonies. It was a state in the 1700's that gave shelter to the French, English, Scottish traders, slaves, and pioneers. The Arkansas post was inhabited by mainly hunters and vagabonds. Arkansas was noted for its poverty and cultural backwardness. Horse powered grist mills came to Arkansas in 1791, almost one hundred years after they appeared in Illinois. The Arkansas Post's first sawmill was erected in 1804, one year after the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France. Arkansas was well underdeveloped compared to Louisiana during colonial times.

On Saturday, December the 4th 2010, Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site held its annual Iron Plantation Christmas. Today the furnace was quiet prior to the Christmas Holidays. However, during Christmas when the furnace was operating in the nineteenth century, Christmas was just another work day. Hopewell Village was a small self-sustaining village in colonial times which was built around a cold-blast, charcoal-burning iron furnace. The community life was in some respects similar to that of the small feudal manors of medieval Europe and was largely self-sustaining. Little had changed of the village from colonial times up through most of the nineteenth century.

Article update at Colonial Sense on Herbs; colonial growing practices, uses, preparation, etc.

10 Questions for C. Roger Cooper, insurance salsesman, "reenactor" amateur historian, and creator of 'An American Colonial Experience'

The Web Site for All Things Colonial -- All aspects of Colonial American history and early American antiques. Original articles on wide variety of aspects of early American life. Community includes nationwide event calendar, antique dealers and show promoters, downloads, online resources (links to other colonial-themed websites), early American recipes, marketplace, forums with book & film reviews & much more!

Here is a little tin box with a finger handle, and with a candle socket soldered upon its lid and a loose lid inside containing a piece of flint, a piece of steel, a scorched rag and several splints of wood tipped with sulphur, which is the apparatus for making fire used in our colonial ancestors in Bucks county and from time immemorial by all the so-called civilized people of the work. To make fire thus, four operations are necessary. You must make the spark, retain the spark, then produce the flame and retain the flame. Holding the circlet of steel vertically in your left hand you strike diagonally downward upon its outer edge with the flint so that a spark of percussion flies downward into the tinder, which is a scorched linen rag lying in the box beneath; the latter holds the spark as a smouldering ember, until you touch the spunk or sulphur-tipped splint upon it, whereupon with a little blowing the sulphur takes fire and you have a lighted match with which you light the candle set in the socket in the box lid. Perhaps this is not much to look at, but from a historic point of view it is a thing of such importance that it might be described as the master of human progress from prehistoric time down to 1835, or as visible proof of perhaps the greatest discovery that man ever made.

In Colonial America, pewter was a staple of everday living. A collection of polished pewter, used and proudly displayed, symbolized prosperity to the wives of the artisans and shopkeepers. The eighteenth-century housewife kept her pewter polished. The gentry ate from silver and imported china; the very poor made out with wooden trenchers and pottery mugs. This lasted about 1825, when the white ware of American potters invaded simple dining rooms and banished pewter to the kitchens...

During Colonial times in Durham County, North Carolina, there was a plantation which extended from the east of the Flat River almost to West Point on the Eno, and from the vicinity of Bahama on the northwest past the Neuse River into Wake County on the southeast. The land covered 30,000 acres and more than 973 slaves worked the fertile land.

New Colonial Sense article on the Swedish Cabin, a 17th century log cabin in Drexel Hill, PA. Includes history, architectural details, usage, etc.

New article at Colonial Sense on, using advice and tips from the era, what to look for when you go to market.

Colonial Sense would like to share another yearly Christmas House Tour in one of the nation's oldest parks, Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We visited the Park on December 10, 2010. The mansion tours were begun 38 years ago with the help of V. Elizabeth Person who recently died.

In the antique industry, some of the more affordable pieces for a collector to start collecting are barrels, piggins, buckets, firkins, and butter churns. However, if collectors only knew the amount of time that is dedicated to each piece, there would be a greater appreciation to the value of such items. The colonial trade that makes barrels and various casks is known as a cooper. His work was performed in a cooperage. It is a trade that dates back to well over 4000 years. The word "cooper" is derived from "cuparius" of Roman times, makers of cupals or wooden casks in which wine producers of Cisalpine Gaul stored their wares.

The sale of the reward of merit fraktur at Pook and Pook completed by schoolmaster Johann Conrad Gilbert (1734-1812) who emigrated from Germany in 1757 and settled in Montgomery County Pennsylvania may have sparked an interest to our readers as to how the bunny or rabbit became an indelible symbol of Easter in colonial America. As it turns out so many times you must thank the Pennsylvania Dutch for this great contribution to our country. These are the German immigrants like Heinrich Gudehus who emigrated from Palatinate, Germany in the eighteenth century.

Colonial Sense has brought to its readers a few Shaker items to build. The classic period of Shaker furniture started in the 1820's and ended approximately 1860. The furniture was the expression of a utilitarian and simplistic design. But who were these communal artisans who were inspired by the belief that their love of God should be expressed in their workmanship?

Colonial Sense visited the home of our first President, Mount Vernon on October 5, 2011. Our first part at the tour was taken in the interior of George Washington's Mansion. As a three year old in 1735, George lived on the property with his father, Augustine Washington, and family. Augustine acquired the property from his sister in 1726. The Mansion at Mount Vernon did not exist as we know it today, although a home existed on the site. By 1740, the property was given to George's older half-brother, Lawrence Washington. Prior to his death in 1752, Lawrence razed the original house and built a new one and one-half story home wider and longer likely on the site of the original foundation. The initials "LW" were found on a small rectangular stone in the partition wall of the Mansion basement. The stone would have been originally as a foundation corner of Lawrence's newly constructed home. It would have been moved into the wall by George Washington during the reconstruction of the basement in the 1770's.

On December 4, 2010, The Peter Wentz Farmstead in Worcester, Pennsylvania will be holding their Candlelight Tour of the colonial home. The path to the home will be lit with soft glow candlelights. The Farmstead will be showcasing period music and seasonal decorations.

A little late, but added a new article on the real Thanksgiving by guest contributor Dr. Margaret O'Shaughnessey…it wasn't what you were taught...

New chapter added to "John Woolman's Journal," a diary kept by a traveller in America in the mid-1700s.