Other editions of book Home Life in Colonial Days

When the first settlers landed on American shores, the difficulties in finding or making shelter must have seemed ironical as well as almost unbearable. The colonists found a land magnificent with forest trees of every size and variety, but they had no sawmills, and few saws to cut boards; there was plenty of clay and ample limestone on every side, yet they could have no brick and no mortar; grand boulders of granite and rock were everywhere, yet there was not a single facility for cutting, drawing, or using stone.

Could you identify a sausage gun if you had to? How about a plate warmer or a well-sweep? Any idea how the term log-rolling really originated? Alice Morse Earle (1851–1911), a prolific popular historian and the first American to chronicle everyday life and customs of the colonial era, describes what these and many other obscure utensils were and how they were used. She also conveys a vivid picture of home production of textiles, colonial dress, transportation, religious and social practices, the care of flower gardens, colonial neighborliness, and other aspects of early American life.Widely read when it was first published in 1898, this fascinating and wonderfully readable guide was instrumental in promoting a renewed interest in everyday life of bygone times. Today, it offers history buffs, collectors, and other interested readers a feast of delightful information.

Though first published over a hundred years ago, "Home Life in Colonial Days" is filled with usefulness and vitality. In her wonderfully readable narrative, Alice Morse Earle provides a fascinating description of everyday life --- the chores, the tools, the dwelling places, the foods, the sights and sounds --- that Colonial Americans knew. Tough not a history of Colonial America, "Home Life in Colonial Days" contains many interesting tidbits about our country's earliest days. It also provides an excellent description of everyday life in America, with special emphasis on New England and Virginia during the 1600-1800's. As such, "Home Life in Colonial Days" would be useful not just to historians and antique collectors, but to writers, museum curators, and anyone who wants to understand Colonial America.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Alice Morse Earle (1851-1911) was an American historian and author from Worcester, Massachusetts, who wrote a number of books on Colonial America (and especially the New England region) such as Curious Punishments of Bygone Days (1874). In 1874, she married Henry Earle of New York, changing her name from Mary Alice Morse to Alice Morse Earle. Her writings, beginning in 1890, focused on small sociological details rather than grand details, and thus are invaluable for modern sociologists. A near drowing in 1909 off the coast of Nantucket during an abortive trip to Egypt weakened her health sufficiently that she died two years later, in Hempstead, Long Island. Her works include: The Sabbath in Puritan New England (1891), China Collecting in America (1892), Costumes and Fashions in Old New England (1893), Early Prose and Verse (1893), Colonial Dames and Good Wives (1895), Margaret Winthrop (1896) and Two Centuries of Costume in America 1620-1820 (1903).

A book which throws new light on our early history, "Home Life in Colonial Days" is a charming holiday gift of most unusual value, appealing to everyone who is of colonial blood; to everyone who now lives in the homes so greatly changed; and to every woman, - the homemaker. "The kitchen in all the farmhouses of all the colonies was the most cheerful, homelike, and picturesque room in the house; indeed, it was in town houses as well. The walls were often bare, the rafters dingy; the windows were small, the furniture meager; but the kitchen had a warm, glowing heart that spread light and welcome, and made the poor room a home.... The ears of corn were often piled into the attic until the floor was a foot deep with them. I once entered an ell bedroom in a Massachusetts farmhouse where the walls, rafters, and four-post bedstead were hung solid with ears of yellow corn, which truly "made a sunshine in a shady place." -Alice Morse Earle "Readable and curiously interesting....Mrs. Earle has remarkable zest and skill." -New Outlook "Useful and attractive....A fascinating volume." -The Dial "No other single volume constructs with such completeness, fairness and suggestiveness the atmosphere of colonial homes." -The Herald, Boston "Unique....valuable as well as entertaining." -Mail and Express "Mrs. Earle has already gained distinction as a fascinating chronicler of early American life and manners, and few writers carry the imagination back to the family traditions of olden times with the force and graphic power which she exercises over the minds of her readers." -The Bookman "An exceedingly interesting account....Especially recommended to those who wish aid in reproducing accurately the life and costumes of Colonial times." -University of North Carolina Extension Bulletin "Splendid material....Children will be interested in listing some of our modern furnishings that Pilgrims did not have." -Normal Instructor and Primary Plans

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