~~~It's August in an 18th century agrarian society~~~
As you will soon see, August is slightly confused---it is a month that is part July and part September~~~part summer with hints of fall. It's not sure where it fits in, for it tends to be a bit disoriented with a touch of befuddlement.
And this is why I do what I do in living history---to try to make sense of it all in a personal and immersive way---and why I write about daily life the way I do.
Daily life of the past has always been my primary interest in history. Sadly, even though I very much loved the subject in school, I did not get any kind of scholarly grades. Just the opposite, in fact. They wanted me to learn names and dates. At that time, nothing in history bored me more. Then I slowly began to find books based in history that I found a great interest in---books that opened up the world of the past beyond what the teacher tried to teach me. Books like The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz gave me a great insight to 18th century America. This book, more than any other, was my Big Bang of history. Click the link (the book's title) to see how and why.
Meanwhile, onward to the past...about 250 to 260 years ago...
Yet, I do also touch on urban life of the 1700s about halfway through this post.
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To begin the next chapter in this series, let's have a general idea of summer life in ways history books tend to skip over:
The heat of summer, to this 1700s generation who had no knowledge of future generations and their electric fans and air conditioning comforts, only added greatly to the discomfort of those who lived in those days of old. The cooling down opportunities were slim, aside from a jump in the pond or a nearby stream, and one was compelled to keep their doors and windows shut tight to make the attempt to keep the winged pests so prominent on hot summer days out. Those pesky flies...especially where there was fruit and food, and were attracted to the wonderful aromas wafting through the open screen-less kitchen window, seemingly giving the insects an invitation to come and eat. Covering food with cloth was a common way to keep the flies off, though once they found their way inside the home, they multiplied and swarmed throughout. Many times the youngest children made a game of waving feather-fans about the kitchen to keep the food protected.
This only made the heat of a summer night even more unbearable, therefore making sleep nearly non-existent. As you can see, besides the heat, our ancestors suffered with flies and mosquitoes with far greater difficulty than we do in our modern day. Summertime brought an invasion of the flying (and crawling) insects from which there was little defense. Garbage and human waste all highly contributed to the factor of an over-abundance of these pests, as did the large number of horses and other livestock that were so prevalent in nearly all walks of life at the time.
The extinguishing of any light from the candles proved to be necessary as well "for if you do not, you will find yourself eaten up by mosquitoes."
But, if you preferred to have some light, be prepared; Mary Almy wrote on a hot August night in 1778, "frightful dreams and broken slumbers, listening to the noise of a fly or mosquito as they hummed around a candle."
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| Drying some of the summer plants |
Remember the summer wheat that was harvested in July?
Here is a step-by-step reminder:
Wheat was harvested by cutting the straw near the ground with a hooked hand “sickle” or “reaphook;” or mown with a scythe or even a “cradle scythe.” Cut wheat was gathered in bundles and tied into “sheaves.”
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| Harvesting wheat in July. |
Workers tied the stalks into bundles called sheaves and stacked them into shocks to dry.
From harvest and drying, the next step on bread-making/flour-making was threshing the wheat with a flail. Threshing wheat with a flail uses a manual, two-stick tool to repeatedly beat dried wheat stalks. This forceful pounding breaks the seed heads open, separating the edible wheat kernels (grain) from the inedible, papery husks (chaff) and stiff stalks.
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| The harvested wheat is inside the canvas tarp. I keep it covered up while flailing to keep it from bouncing away and all over the ground. |
Then comes winnowing: winnowing is the agricultural process of separating threshed wheat from lighter chaff by tossing what was flailed---usually the wheat berries/seeds---lightly into the air for the wind to blow away the lightweight chaff.
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| Winnowing. |
Finally comes grinding. In the 18th century, grinding wheat into flour was primarily done using water or wind-powered gristmills. However, if a nearby gristmill wasn't available or if there was not a nearby gristmill to travel to, colonists relied on hand-powered quern stones or large wooden mortars and pestles to grind winter wheat at home.
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| Once the wheat has been threshed and winnowed, it can now be turned into flour for baking. Here we have a quern (in front) and a wooden mortar & pestle: ready for the transformation from wheat berries to flour~ |
What this all means is that in the 18th century there was no running to the local CVS or stores to pick up a loaf of bread. 'Twas all done by hand - from farm to the table, as the saying goes. And since getting bread was such a laborious task, I can pretty much guarantee you that there was little waste, if any at all.
From the book Horse-hoeing Husbandry, written by English agronomist Jethro Tull, he discusses Lammas wheat as a specific variety of winter wheat, noting that it could be reaped relatively green compared to other varieties like white-cone wheat. He also shared an observation from a unique year where his drilled Lammas wheat produced ears of monstrous length with large grains.
In the 18th century, "Lammas wheat" typically referred to winter wheat varieties associated with the agricultural festival of Lammas (August 1st), marking the start of the grain harvest. It also belonged to a large European class of heirloom wheats known as "White Lammas" (such as White May).
The wheat shown in this post is not Lammas Wheat.
By the way, George Washington used Tull’s Horse-Hoeing Husbandry book to help run his farm at Mount Vernon.
Every year, on August 1, many colonial farmers celebrated the Lammas holiday (or holyday, as these special days of celebration or worshiping were called) known as Lammas Day, which marked the first major harvest of the beginning fall season. As such, it became a sort of Thanksgiving, and so it remained for many colonial families until a national Thanksgiving Day came toward the end of the century. On Lammas Day, the farming family attended church, and the head of the household brought with him the first loaf of bread to be blessed. That loaf was used as the center of their Lammas Day Thanksgiving feast.
As historian Eric Sloane wrote in his book, Seasons of America Past: "Lammas Day was a logical and meaningful holiday which, it seems, should not have disappeared, because the first harvest of the year seems so ideal a time for thanksgiving and celebration. On this first day of August, the old-time farming family always went to church. The head of the household dressed in his best, and brought with him the first loaf of new grain bread for consecration, that loaf later becoming the center of a feast not unlike our present day Thanksgiving dinner."
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| We are representing a colonial family living out on the frontier with no others around. However, the minister travelled out to the cabin to take part in blessing the bread for the Lammas Day celebration. Minister Norm located a Lammas Day prayer from the 18th century in which to consecrate the bread. |
On August 3, 1805 Noah Blake wrote:
"Very warm. The harvest fly was two days late."
The 'harvest fly' is what we call the cicada. It's supposed to make its first appearance on Lammas Day, but the year of Blake's diary, 1805, it decided to come a bit later, it seems.
I, myself, hear the loud evening buzzing of the harvest fly/cicada every August (though many years it actually arrives in late July around my Michigan area).
The continuation of work in the fields seemed non-stop, from harvesting the early crops to watering those not yet ready.
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August truly is the first month of harvest! This photo was taken on August 14. |
The importance of caring for your garden in the pre-electric era cannot be overstated. It was their lifeblood, and the farmers & their families would risk life and limb to save what they could, for otherwise loss of property and starvation could become a reality. Jean Fritz describes this situation very adequately in the young teen book about life in the 1780's, The Cabin Faced West:
All at once the sky itself seemed to drop down on Hamilton Hill. The rain came in one great sheet and lashed the hill first from one side, then another. In the cornfield, people and cornstalks both bent low.
Mr. Hamilton tried to shout orders, and when he couldn’t be heard he ran from one to another. He sent Mrs. Hamilton and Ann home. He and the boys stayed to finish the corn and take it to the barn.
Ann and her mother fought their way step by step against the rain. When they reached the door of the cabin, Ann turned to look at her vegetable garden. There were her poor peas tossing back and forth, crumpling with each new sweep of the rain! The straight little rows were being dashed to the ground.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Ann said to her mother, and started off for the garden.
“It’s too late,” her mother called. “We’ll rescue what we can later.”
Ann dropped to her hands and knees in the mud beside the tattered pea vines. She picked what she could find and filled her soaking apron. Each time her apron was filled, Ann went to the cabin and emptied the peas inside. Each time, in spite of her mother’s urgings, she went back to the vegetable garden. The neat little garden lay tattered and broken, but Ann worked on.
Then the wind started. It blew the rain right off the hill and set to work on the trees. Branches snapped and crackled, and Ann picked up her last apron-load and went to the cabin.
As she opened the door, her mother and Mr. McPhale stood ready to bar it quickly behind her. She dropped the last apronful of peas on top of the others she had brought in.
Finally the wind stopped. The three Hamilton men burst into the cabin.
"Tell us," Mrs. Hamilton said, "what is left on the hill?"
"We have much to be thankful for," Mr. Hamilton said. "We were able to save a good part of the corn. The late crop we have, of course, lost. There will be much work to do over again in the south field. I see Ann has saved many of the peas. Some potatoes and pumpkins may yet be rescued..."
An apt description of the importance of saving your crop under the worst conditions.
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Here in mid-August, the corn is almost ripe enough to pick. Oftentimes it actually is ripe enough! The pumpkins are certainly doing well! You can see why August is considered a harvest month~ |
Corn is an excellent companion plant for pumpkins because it provides shade and helps to stop the squash vine borer beetle from feasting on the pumpkin vines. According to Plants Spark Joy, you can even use squash vines and the vining cucurbits as a kind of living mulch. From a recent search: "Vining cucurbits are climbing or trailing plants". "The Three Sisters," are the three main agricultural crops of various Indian/Native peoples of Central and North America: squash, maize ("corn"), and climbing beans (typically the common green beans).
Sarah Emery, born in 1787, acknowledged daily life in early America in her book, Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian, which contains descriptions of many aspects of life on the family homestead, that what she had written was "chiefly derived from the recollections of my mother; but recitals by my father, grandparents, and other deceased relatives..."
Her remembrance of a typical day with her family in her 18th century youth are, to me, a vision of the past - an actual vision of the past - that puts flesh on the bones of the people we see in paintings and sketches from an era of nearly 250 years ago:
In those summer days, when my recollection first opens, mother and aunt Sarah rose in the early dawn, and taking the well-scoured wooden pails from the bench by the back door, repaired to the cow yard behind the barn. We owned six cows; my grandmother four. Having milked the ten cows, the milk was strained, the fires built, and breakfast prepared. Many families had milk for this meal, but we always has coffee or chocolate, with meat and pototoes.
The milk being from the ten cows, my mother made cheese four days, Aunt Sarah having the milk the remainder of the week. In this way, good-sized cheeses were obtained. The curd having been broken into the basket, the dishes were washed, and unless there was washing or other extra work, the house was righted. By the time this was done, the curd was ready for the (cheese) press....After dinner the cheeses were turned and rubbed.
Next came the preparations for dinner, which was on the table punctually at twelve o'clock. In the hot weather we usually had boiled salted meat and vegetables, and, if it was baking day, a custard or pudding. If there was linen whitening on the grass, as was usual at this season, that must be sprinkled.
In the sultry August afternoons mother and aunt Sarah usually took their sewing to the cool back room, whose shaded door and windows over-looked the freshly mown field, dotted by apple trees. My grandmother, after her afternoon nap, usually joined her daughters, with a pretense at knitting, but she was not an industrious old lady. There was no necessity for work; and if idle hours are a sin, I fear the good woman had much to answer for...she beguiled the time (by joining in) the harmless gossip of some neighboring women...
At five o'clock the men came in from the field, and tea was served. The tea things washed, the vegetables were gathered for the morrow, the linen taken in, and other chores done. At sunset the cows came from the pasture. Milking finished and the milk strained, the day's labor was ended. The last load pitched on the hay mow, and the last hay cock turned up, my father and the hired man joined us in the cool back room, where bowls of bread and milk were ready for those who wished the refreshment. At nine o'clock the house was still, the tired hands gladly resting from the day's toil. Except for the busiest of hay season, my father went regularly once a week to the neighboring seaport town, taking thither a load of farm produce. For years he supplied several families and stores with butter, cheese, eggs, fruit and vegetables. These market days were joyful epochs for me, as at his return I never failed to receive some little gift, usually sent by some of our "Port" relatives and friends.
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| Three months after planting, our flax can be harvested, to be processed, spun, and woven into linen fabric or thread or even candle wicking. |
There is a whole flax process, from plant to linen, of which can be done any time of year, once the plant is harvested. But we'll get to that in October, for there is still much to do here in August, including harvesting much from the kitchen garden, which is really beginning to give up its yield.
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This picture of the Daggett kitchen garden was taken on August 27 - just days before September - so it can fit easily into either month. But even though some do not like thinking in this manner, harvest time - autumn - has begun, as you can see from the flourishing plants, even though it's still considered the last month of summer (in our modern time). Yes, our colonial ancestors might have been amused at the idea of having a day off to celebrate Labor! |
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Now that we have spent time on the farm in August, let's now take a walk through the heart of a village, town, or city from the later 18th century (1760s, 1770s, 1780s). Like farmers, these artisans work throughout the year, masters at their crafts and serving a purpose in daily life.
Perhaps our first stop will be a visit to the tinsmith, who crafted lightweight, affordable household goods such as candle holders, plates & cups, molds for candles, etc.,~~~~~
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| Tinsmith~ |
I see a gun shop, which were usually operated primarily as local repair and custom-build workshops rather than retail stores. Most standard firearms, like military muskets, were imported from Europe, so colonial gunsmiths made their living fixing broken parts or handcrafting specialized longrifles.
The millinery shop was a fashion and social hub where skilled women sold accessories, imported fabrics, and tailored trimmings for both men and women.
And then there's the ever-popular blacksmith shop: using a coal or charcoal-fueled forge and hand bellows, the blacksmith shaped heated iron and steel into essential tools, including farm tools such as axes, plowshares, cowbells, hoes, horseshoes, nails, and hardware, along with wagon parts required for daily survival and growth. They also made hammers, candleholders, tools, files, locks, fireplace racks, and anvils.
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| Blacksmith. "Ol' Smithee" lol |
There was a need for a cabinet maker, who was a master woodworker that created quality, fashionable furniture using hand tools like hand saws, chisels, planes, and great wheel lathes. These artisans worked with local woods like walnut and cherry alongside imported mahogany.
Most villages, towns, and cities had at least one general store, which sold dry goods, including bolts of linen, wool, silk, ribbons, buttons, and sewing thread, as well as some groceries & spices such as tea, coffee, sugar, molasses, pepper, and nutmeg kept in large casks. They also sold hardware & tools, including axes, iron nails, scythes, cookware, flint, and gunpowder.
The printer used a wooden hand press and movable metal type to print government laws and legal forms, books and religious texts, advertisements, and broadsides.
The cooper shop was a vital tradesperson who made and repaired wooden, staved containers like barrels, casks, buckets, and tubs using shaped timber staves held together by wooden or metal hoops. Because the era relied on wooden vessels for shipping and storing everything from water and rum to flour and tobacco, the cooperage trade was foundational to daily life and global commerce.
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| A cooper shop: notice the shaving horse in the lower center, the hoops hanging from the ceiling, and the various draw knives center left on the wall. |
Then there was the farrier. Because horses powered transportation, agriculture, and military operations, farriers were vital to daily life, functioning as both a sort of specialized blacksmith and an early type of veterinarian, shoeing horses, caring for the hooves of the animals, as well as the beast's well-being.
There would be numerous taverns, for taverns were the pulse of 18th century urban life, and their importance to the local community cannot be overstated. Colonial taverns were also usually a stage coach stop for travelers; a patron could spend the night and eat breakfast, dinner, and supper, should the need arise. Taverns were also the main source of out-of-town information for the locals.
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| A busy tavern, filled with news and conversation. |
The weaving shop was a busy workplace filled with large wooden looms, spinning wheels, and natural dye vats. Master weavers, apprentices, and hired or enslaved laborers worked in these spaces to turn raw wool, flax, and even cotton into everyday cloth, clothing fabric, blankets, and military uniforms.
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| Working the loom. |
An 18th-century tanner turned raw animal hides into durable leather using a slow, harsh, and foul-smelling vegetable-tanning process. Operating on the edges of towns near rivers, tanners spent months soaking, scraping, and treating skins with natural tannins from tree bark to supply vital leather for shoes, harnesses, and bookbinding
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| The tanner working out doors. |
The local tailor was a skilled craftsperson who hand-sewed custom, fitted garments for men and women.
Wheelwright was an agrarian tradesman, closely connected with the wagon shop, who built and repaired wooden wheels, carts, wagons, and farm equipment. It was a demanding job that required expertise in both heavy woodworking and basic blacksmithing to shape functional, high-stress horse, oxen, or even people-drawn transportation vehicles, including the simpler wheel barrow.
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| Wheel wright shop. |
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| This truly takes a special skill, like all of the other occupations here. |
A bookbinder practiced a highly specialized handcraft. Workers folded printed sheets into sections, sewed them onto raised cord supports, rounded the spines, and laced heavy boards on before covering them in calfskin, sheepskin, or sometimes vellum with decorative blind or gold tool embossing.
A wagon shop was where master craftsmen, helpers, and apprentices, built and fixed heavy wooden carts and large freight carriers like the famous Conestoga wagons, by way of using hand tools.
The chandler was a merchant and tradesman who made and sold candles, soap, and other household necessities. The trade was split between tallow chandlers, who made cheaper animal-fat candles for everyday use, and wax chandlers, who produced clean-burning, expensive beeswax candles for the wealthy and for the local churches.
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| Chandlers - candle makers |
A silversmith made ornamental silverware/eating utensils, candle sticks, plates, bowls, and other fine items, which were usually bought by the wealthier folk.
A saddler & harness maker was a vital artisan who hand-crafted and repaired essential leather goods for riding, transport, and farming, utilizing specialized hand tools like round knives and awls to build durable saddles, bridles, and wagon harnesses.
A shoemaker (often called a cordwainer) crafted brand-new footwear from fresh leather, while a cobbler mended and repaired worn-out shoes.
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| New shoes direct from the cordwainer (or shoemaker)~ By the way, do not call the shoemaker a cobbler, for that would not end in a friendly manner. |
Many folks might visit one of the bakers, who was a vital tradesperson that supplied daily bread and baked goods to towns and even military forts.
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| Baker Jeff checks on the bread in the oven. |
And, seen on the outskirts is the gristmill and surrounding farms.
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| The gristmill in the distance on the edge of town awaiting summer wheat. |
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| Luckily I could have the bulk of my wheat prepared at the gristmill. If you look closely you can make out the waterwheel over my left hand. |
In the 1760s, 1770s, and 1780s, around 90 percent or slightly more of the population in the American colonies worked in agriculture and lived as farmers. Most people relied on agriculture to feed their own families or to sell small local surpluses.
Also, much of the yield could be used as barter.
Instead of using cash, colonists often relied on local networks of trust, keeping running account books where goods and services were valued in British monetary units (like shillings and pence) but paid for with crops, livestock, or labor. Colonies legally recognized certain staple goods—like tobacco, corn, or pork—as legal tender or "country pay" to settle debts and taxes when coin was missing.
Because transactions relied on delayed payment rather than instant cash, a person's reputation, "creditworthiness", and community standing mattered just as much as the goods they produced. Townsfolk like blacksmiths, shoemakers, and storekeepers rarely did straight, simultaneous swaps (like a chicken for a horseshoe, for example). Instead, they ran an ongoing tab. A farmer might drop off firewood and grain at a town shop in October, racking up credit, and then draw on that credit over the next six months to buy nails, fabric, or, in some cases, rum.
So...while moving about this village, town, or city, seeing folks on foot, wagons, carts, and carriages pulled by oxen, and/or horses that may trot hither and thither - watch your step as you cross the road! - water from the recent rainstorms cause puddles if there is brick pavement, and muddying the dirt roads that cling to the bottoms of the shoes of the townsfolk.
More often than not, there were multiples of each business mentioned here.
Now, with Lammas Day passed, harvest time had begun during August. We now enter into the late summer and early autumn period of the year, when the words autumn and harvest pretty much meant the same thing. The word "harvest" comes from the Old English word Haerfest, which refers to the entire autumn season. It means to gather, reap, and store what has been grown. "Harvest" can also refer to the crops that are gathered, or the process of gathering them. The season of autumn was once called "harvest" because it was the time of year when farmers would harvest their crops. By the 17th century, the terms "autumn" and "fall" became more popular.
So, yes, "harvest" and "autumn" are related terms.
With that, as the song (from the 1950s) goes: See you in September...
Until next time, see you in time.
I have numerous links included in the above posts where I snatched much of the information - much being word-for-word. I also nick'd some information off of various internet sites, most of which came from my own Passion for the Past blog.
Click HERE to learn more about colonial city life by way of Colonial Williamsburg
Click HERE for a blog post on historic occupations
To check out my first five 'chapters' in this monthly series, please check out the links below.
For the month of March, please click HERE
For the month of April, please click HERE
For the month of May, please click HERE
For the month of June, please click HERE
For the month of July, please click HERE
To learn about ancient farming practices, please click HERE
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