Even More From Woodmason's Journal

I’ve been continuing my reading of Charles Woodmason’s  journal and, as I noted before, although one may have to look past Woodmason’s tremendous biases one can still glean some fascinating details about life on the southern colonial frontier.

“March 8 [1768]) Preached at Beaver Creek to a vast Concourse - on the 13.  at Grannys Quarter – 20^th Lynchs Creek – but almost punish’d in these Journeys – the Weather sharp and cold.  Their Cabbins quite open and expos’d.  Little or no bedding, or anything to cover them. – Not a drop of anything, save Cold Water to drink – And all their Cloathing, a Shirt and Trousers Shift and [one word illegible] Petticoat.  Some perhaps a Linsey Woolsey.  No Shoes or Stockings – Children run half naked.  The Indians are better Cloathed and Lodged.  All this arises from their Indolence and Laziness. “¹

 

It is interesting to see the great poverty experienced by the folks along the frontier.  Woodmason comments repeatedly about the sparse furnishings of the cabins he saw.  As a reenactor, is it possible that I carry more in my knapsack than some settlers had in their cabins?  The fact that he also mentions a scarcity of outer garments for both sexes as well as the absence of shoes is particularly fascinating.  Perhaps some people had shoes but chose to wear them very rarely since they couldn’t be readily replaced.  Certainly they would have had access to animal hides with which to make moccasins; perhaps those were also rarely worn around the settlements.  Although Woodmason attributes this scarcity of European-style clothing to the laziness of the inhabitants, it could be more a result of the lack of affordable clothing on the frontier coupled with the fact that dressing like the Charles Town gentry wouldn’t have been particularly advantageous for the backcountry settlers. 

“Last Sunday I distributed the last Parcel of Mr. Warings Tracts on Prayer. It is very few families whom I can bring to join in Prayer, because most of them are of various Opinions the Husband a Churchman, Wife, a Dissenter, Children nothing at all. My Bibles and Common Prayers have been long gone, and I have given away to amount of £20 of Practical Books, besides those I received of the Society -  Few or no Books are to be found in all this vast Country, beside the Assembly, Catechism, Watts Hymns, Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress -- Russells -- Whitefields and Erskines sermons. Nor do they delight in Historical Books or in having them read to them, as do our Vulgar in England for these People despise Knowledge, and instead of honouring a Learned Person, or any one of Wit or Knowledge be it in the Arts, Sciences, or Languages, they despise and Ill treat them -- And this Spirit prevails even among the Principals of this Province. -- total miles 2510”²

This excerpt is particularly interesting.  Here Woodmason gives us an insight into what types of books were available along the frontier.  It is no surprise that with the great influx of Presbyterian Scots-Irish settlers into the backcountry there would be some proliferation of the Westminster Standards there as well.  John Bunyan’s works have already been referred to in a previous post and would be particularly treasured amongst the Baptists.  Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine were Scotsmen who were among the last of the Puritans.  Practically everyone’s heard of the great evangelist George Whitfield and so it’s no wonder that his works would be disseminated along the frontier.  I’m at a loss for who “Russell” is.  Perhaps he was a preacher from the colonies, who knows.  The greater point is that although Woodmason dismisses the settlers as those who “despise knowledge” they must have been particularly knowledgeable in terms of theology.  Most folks today would struggle with reading 18^th century sermons; these folks embraced this type of literature and it was essentially all the literature they had.  If future historians were able to look into our libraries of today, would they be able to say that ours contained such edifying works? 

Christ, not man, is King!

Dale

 

1)      Richard J. Hooker, ed., The Carolina Backcountry on the Eve of the Revolution (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1953), p. 33. 

2) Ibid., 52.