Tuesday, July 7, 2026

Susanna Explores The Revolutionary War in Rhode Island

Susanna and the Women in Revolutionary Rhode Island

White linens drying in the sun on the grass

Laundry day

It's laundry day! We must was our linen. By linen I mean the clothing I wear next to my skin. My shift is made from linen. My persperation (that's a big word. Did I spell that correctly?) soaks into the linen. It cools me off on a sunny day. I change my body linen when I am hot and when I sleep. I must wash it in the river and dry it in the sun.

I take a break to watch the babies and help them play with their toys.

18 inch vinyl doll with dark hair looking at colonial children's toys lying on the grass

We have poppets, bilbocatch (cup and ball) and a hornbook to practice our reading.

18 inch vinyl doll with dark hair in a purple calico print dress standing on a brick walkway in front of eighteenth century children's toys lying on the grass

Next is market day.

We grow many herbs in the kitchen garden. Some are used for medicine and others for cooking. This lady has extra herbs she sells in the marketplace.

18 inch vinyl doll with dark hair looking at jars of garden herbs

We do not drink tea in our household any longer. I tell the herb seller my friend Felicity has a recipe for raspberry leaf tea. When I feel poorly after indulging in too many biscuits, Mamma brews me a tisane of peppermint leaves. I love peppermint tea. Raspberry leaf tea tastes like grass.

The ladies break for tea (leftover from before the boycott or maybe some of the fine herbs grown in the garden) and games.

Tea biscuits and white porcelain tea set on wooden tea table

Shrewsbury Cakes
I tell the lady I have made those with my friend Felicity in Virginia.
She knows Felicity!

Hands of a woman in colonial era long sleeve dress playing a card game outside

This lady plays cribbage

Life goes on in the usual ways for now. Come and visit again soon. I am sure I will have more to tell you if this war continues.

Editor's note: We had a conversation about Felicity and Pleasant Company (twice with both sets of reenactors) and how she inspired us to DO history. Everyone misses Felicity, even an older adult who was not a child in the Pleasant Co. era has original Felicity and Beforever Felicity. History nerds and librarians are the best!

Friday, July 3, 2026

Susanna Explores the Revolutionary War in Rhode Island

Rhode Island Independence Day

May, 1776

It's May ye 4th Seventeen Hundred and Seventy-Six. Today the Colony of Rhode Island has renounced allegiance King George III.

Act of Renunciation

Act of Renunciation Transcript

What does that mean for the ladies?

Women in Revolutionary Rhode Island

We have tea to discuss the news. (No, I am not Felicity. No I am not Samantha. How do YOU know them?)

Dark haired 18 inch vinyl doll in purple dress standing in front of women in colonial costume sitting around a small wooden table with tea ware and food

We have tea and discuss things like fresh food in season now it is spring. We have strawberries (in New England? This early? Never. Maybe in Baltimore or Virginia where some of these ladies are from.)

Tea table with wooden tea caddy, pewter pot and sugar bowl, three tiered stand with food

Women in colonial costume sitting around a small wooden table with tea pot, tea caddy, three tiered stand with food and 18 inch vinyl doll standing on chair

Then we discuss clothing, especially undergarments. I am wearing my stays under my gown over my shift. Yes I DO complain my stays are too tight.

Most cloth comes from Britain at this time.

A block printed cotton scarf and example of printers' block

A block print scarf of India muslin and the printers' block

An embroidered pocket. Not as pretty as mine.

While there is fighting happening not far away, women are not allowed to fight. We females (the grown ladies who manage the households) have found ways to make an impact. We have decided to boycott British goods. Women have burned the tea, held spinning bees to create homespun fabric. We are knitting stockings for soldiers and

are prepared to sacrifice sheets and shirts to the war effort.

Dark haired 18 inch vinyl doll in long dress and frilled cap in front of a sign Daughters of Liberty

We talk about how we must learn to make our own clothing now we are boycotting British goods. We will form a Daughters of Liberty group to boycott British goods and make our own homespun clothing.

Here the ladies have made a linen frock for a young child. It closes in the back. My frocks are made from cotton. Cotton is imported from England (via India). Linen is made from flax. We grow flax on our farms.

Sign about colonial era reproduction linen child's gown and lady's cap

Not everyone supports renouncing the King.

Sign about Loyalist women in Rhode Island

Some women choose not to become Daughters of Liberty. Jemimah Bull lives in Newport. She is a slave. If the British promise freedom, she would take it.

Sarah Slocum is a widow with young children. In 1777 she will be ordered to take her family away from their coastal farm and move inland because the General Assembly suspects she is a spy! She is accused of communicating intelligence and providing food to the British in occupied Newport.

This is Mrs. Metcalf (Ann Fairchild) Bowler of Newport. Her husband is a legislator and judge. I am unsure of his loyalties. It may be some day in the future it will be known that he was using his prominent position to spy for the British! Does his wife know about this? If so, what can she do? Her daughter will marry the Marquis Langfroi de Lisle an aide-de-camp to the Marquis de Lafayette.

Portrait of a woman in a long blue gown with white lace sleeves and white cap.

Anne Fairchild Bowker

Her fine dress looks very familiar. The silk and lace likely come from France imported from Britain.

I must go now but will return another day to share more of the activities in the STATE of Rhode Island!

Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Rhode Island Independence Day

May 4, 1776

It's May ye 4th Seventeen Hundred and Seventy-Six. Today the Colony of Rhode Island has renounced allegiance King George III.

He has been behaving like a tyrant. We have had enough! (We are not yet ready to declare ourselves independent but in the future, this day will be known as Rhode Island Independence Day).

Small vinyl doll with red ponytail and long floral print dress in front of a bronze plaque

Mini Felicity May 4, 1776

The Rhode Island General Assembly passed the Act of Renunciation at the Old State House on Benefit Street in Providence. We have five colony houses actually, but Providence is where the General Assembly is at the moment.

Small vinyl doll with red hair and long floral print dress in front of an artist drawing of a large Georgian brick building with tower

The Rhode Island State House in 1776 (an artist rendering)

Mini Felicity stands in for me as she visits the Colony House. (ed. note: newly renovated Old State House)

Small vinyl doll with red hair and long floral print dress outside a large Georgian brick building with tower

Mini Felicity outside the Old Colony House in Providence

'Twas built between [17]60-62 [ed. note: and later expanded twice in the 19th-c. ]. after a fire destroyed the first colony house. This style of building is classic Georgian architecture. It takes up the whole block between Town Street and the new part of Town Street now called Benefit Street. (It was widened for the benefit of all).

Here is mini Felicity at the parade ground outside.

Mini Felicity stands on the Parade Ground

She heads inside to listen to a reading of the Act of Renunciation in the Council Chamber.

Mini Felicity waits to hear the General Assembly read the Act of Renunciation

The General Assembly have added in some new oaths stating we no longer have to swear loyalty to the King. They declare the General Assembly will continue to govern itself. All court proceedings will be performed in the name of the state, not the King!

Such news!
The Rhode Island General Assembly has declared ...
independence?!

This floor holds the Chamber of Deputies. The Governor’s Council Chamber is upstairs.

Mini Felicity heads up the stairs to look at this chamber.

Small vinyl doll with red hair and long floral print dress in front of a brick fireplace with white wooden mantle and old map above

Mini Felicity upstairs in the Old State House

Here is a map of Providence. The college edifice is way up on the hill on the top right of the map.

Small vinyl doll with red hair and long floral print dress in front of a map of colonial Providence

Mini Felicity

Antique map of Providence buildings and rivers

Map of colonial Providence

While Mamma visits with Mrs. John Brown, we learn the alarming intelligence from the newspaper!

What does this mean?

Hint: For women? Nothing. Come back very soon for a look at Rhode Island Independence Day from a girls' eye view!

The Providence Tea Party March 2, 1775

The Providence Tea Party

March 2, 1775

Providence

White porcelain tea set on a small wooden table

An English tea set imported to America

To support the tax on tea or not to support the tax on tea? That is the burning question of today, March 1, 1775. I walk over to Mrs. John Brown's residence on Power Street to see what is happening. Mr. John Brown is a wealthy merchant. He does not support the "insidious" tax the Crown has placed on tea. Other people have different ideas.

Women are organizing a tea boycott and a tomorrow they will march on Market Square and burn the tea! GASP!

Man and woman in colonial style clothing

Citizens of Providence call for tea boycott

"No tax on tea!" I am prepared to cry out. "No taxation without representation!"

Not so fast.

The men are debating the tax.

Three men in colonial costume standing against a wooden rail

Lawyers discuss the tax

A lawyer says the tax is small and only affects wealthy merchants who can afford to pay it. Another argues that most British subjects, even in England, are taxed without representation. The tax is to pay for a war fought on American soil.

Others argue we never asked for the war so why should we pay the tax?

Moving along to Mrs. Brown's parlor, a lady is drinking tea. My adult person asks her how SHE feels about the tax on tea. My guardian argues it is women who do the shopping and drink the tea. Men have other options. They can visit a coffee house. Men drink spirits and coffee. Tea is a social beverage for ladies.

This lady owns a small shop and says the boycott will harm her business. She is not in favor of it.

Woman in colonial costume with tea set sitting at wooden table with men in colonial costume standing around her

No taxation without representation?

I don't know what to think! Should I sign the boycott or not?

18 inch vinyl doll in colonial dress and cap looks at signatures made with a quill pen on a piece of paper

Boycott list

I must explore more about where tea comes from and how it is made.

Tea comes from the leaves of a plant. In China they pick and dry the leaves. Then they compress them into bricks like this one for shipping across the ocean. [Editor's note: Or not really... museums just like to buy them because visitors think they're cool].

18 inch vinyl doll in colonial dress and cap touches a brick of compressed tea leaves

This is tea?

In the end I decide I prefer chocolate!

18 inch vinyl doll holding wooden stick in a glazed clay jug

Making drinking chocolate is hard work.
This is why Felicity has Rose.

Grown up things like taxes do not concern me.

More to come... I expect this is not the last we will hear about the cruelty of the Crown!

In Which I Meet The Marquis de Lafayette

In Which I Meet

The Marquis de Lafayette

August 1824

Greetings to you my good friends, I am here to write to you today about my latest encounter with a famous person! Last week I met the Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the Revolutionary War.

He thought I was Felicity! Do I look like Felicity?! And how does Felicity know him when independence hasn't yet been declared? He must have met her later.

Mark Schneider of Colonial Williamsburg

I tried to sketch some self-portraits with Lafayette in the background. I gave up and let my guardian draw the picture instead.

I heard from my friend Faith in Boston the Marquis was a bit of a fop but he is not such a fop any longer. He is a very interesting man fighting to abolish slavery, freedom of worship and rights for women. If he had known he was creating a nation of slavery, he would never have come.

This year, 1824, Lafayette is making a tour of America. He came to Providence to speak with an audience. He spoke about his time in America during the Revolutionary War and how he helped secure victory at Yorktown in October 1781. Lord Cornwallis was curiously ill that day and tried to send his second in command to surrender but General Washington would accept no one less than first in command! Lafayette helped corner Cornwallis and forced him to surrender.

Did you know Lafayette was at Valley Forge during that devastating winter of 1777-1778? He was then asked to lead an invasion of Quebec from Albany, New York. Finding there were not enough men, Lafayette recruited the Oneida tribe (Iroquois Nation) to the cause of American independence. 47 Oneida traveled back to Valley Forge to offer assistance to George Washington. The Oneida considered Lafayette a great warrior and named him Kayewla (fearsome horseman). Lafayette befriended a young Oneida man, Peter Otsiquette, and brought Peter back to France to stay in his own home and be educated. On his return journey in 1784, Lafayette visited the Oneida again and helped them negotiate better peace and trade relations with Anglo-America. On this tour, 1824-1825, Lafayette wanted to see his old friends. Most of the Oneida were too young to know Lafayette but a few warriors were still living, including Peter's father who could not die without meeting Kayewla.

Lafayette married his wife when she was 14 and he 16! It was an arranged marriage but they loved each other very much. They had four children. The boy, Georges Washington Lafayette, died young. The youngest girl was named Marie Antoinette, plus another name in honor of Lafayette's friend, American ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson. When the name Marie Antionette fell out of favor, they called her by her middle name, Virginie!

A man named Thomas Coles presented this sword to Lafayette.

After he visited the Brown family mansion, Lafayette visited the Masonic Lodge and that night there was a ball in his honor. I was not invited to either of those events!

It was a short visit on a warm day. We had to go back to the future and back to work! No fair! My guardian refused to buy me a new gown! She said she doesn't have the money. Why do you work other than to provide for ME and sometimes my friends?

I will write more soon about another famous person I happened to meet last year.

Your friend,
Susanna

A Visit With the Durfees of Fall River in the Eighteenth Century

A Visit With the Durfees of Fall River

in the Eighteenth Century

Good day my friends!

It has been a long time since I have had anything of note to write to you about. My guardian got a JOB and doesn't have as much time for me anymore. Boo!

The weekend before last, we traveled to Fall River, Massachusetts to visit the Durfees. This home, in the 18th century, is one of 18 homes near the Taunton River. Judge Thomas Durfee built his house high on the top of a hill, around the year 1750. Judge Durfee was a strong patriot during the war and mortgaged his fine home to pay for the war.

Col. Joseph Durfee led the militia of Fall Rover during the Revolutionary War, served under The Marquis de Lafeyette, fighting in battles in New York, Fall River and Rhode Island. The Marquis was a frequent visitor to Col. Durfee's home.

In the house, we met Col. Durfee and a few merchants selling their wares. We purchased a chocolate block sweetened with sugar for hot chocolate and coffee beans. Both came from the West Indies!

Downstairs there were samples of beautiful gowns and merchants selling buttons and wool, men's vests and caps.

Milliners and Mantua Makers

One lady recognized me! She thought I was Felicity. I get that a lot. Felicity or Samantha! [Ed. note: She was sad not to see girls in Boston clutching red bags full of beautiful clothing and accessories We are too! The lady was surprised and sad to hear Felicity's lovely things are not available.]