My Awesome Day in Richmond

Yesterday Lori and I attended the 2009 Signature Conference of the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission, entitled "America on the Eve of the Civil War." We were met there by three colleagues from NC DCR, Chris Meekins, Tom Vincent, and Mike Hill. Though they said there were 2100 registered, I think the number in attendance was somewhat smaller than that, maybe about 1500. It was certainly a full day for us, leaving the house at 3:30 a.m. and getting home about 8:30 p.m. I'm not going to give a full accounting of the conference, but if you want details you need to head on over to Kevin Levin's Civil War Memory blog. Kevin live blogged the whole shooting match and it was very nice to see him again and get a chance to say hello.

Session One - Taking Stock of the Nation in 1859 (Gary Gallagher, Christy Coleman, Walter Johnson, and Joan Waugh) Gallagher was great; engaging, funny, and just very good in general. Lori and I were both surprised by Walter Johnson. He was very serious, but made some very good points and brought things to light that otherwise may have been overlooked. I really enjoyed hearing him, having no previous knowledge of any of his work. Christy Coleman was very good, and Joan Waugh was OK, but certainly in my mind, not the best on the panel. I took four of Gallagher's books with me for him to sign at the book signing session and he did so very graciously. Lori took a photo of me and Gallagher with her phone; whenever she figures out how to get it off of her phone I'll put it up on the blog.

Session Two - The Future of Virginia and the South (Charles Dew, Robert Kenzer, Gregg Kimball, and Lauranett Lee) Dew and Kimball were my favorites on this panel, and Kenzer was very good as well. I didn't hear as much out of Lee as I expected to; I felt she should have added more to the discussion. Kimball was a pleasant surprise, much like Johnson in the first panel.

Sesson Three - Making Sense of John Brown's Raid (David Blight, David Reynolds, Manisha Sinha, and Clarence Walker) I'll admit it, David Blight and Gary Gallagher were the two biggest reasons I chose to go to this conference. Having heard Blight speak two years ago at AASLH, I was really looking forward to this. Blight did not disappoint; I thought he was spectacular. I also got the feeling that was increasingly annoyed with his fellow panelists, particularly Sinha. I was not very impressed with Sinha, but Walker was pretty good. Reynolds...how do I talk about him without saying something I'll regret. I just didn't like him. I didn't know whether to shoot him or myself; either way, one of us would have ceased being miserable. I think he was terribly out of his league and completely overshadowed by Blight. He bored me to tears and I'd never go to another lecture of his again. Sorry if I've offended anyone out there, but that's my honest opinion. I did have Blight sign two books for me as well, and he was wonderful and gracious to talk with.

Session Four - Predictions for the Election of 1860 (Jean Baker, Daniel Crofts, Nelson Lankford, and Elizabeth Varon) I think this was the most equally arranged panel of them all. Varon and Lankford were solid. Crofts, another of my book signers, was very good. I was impressed with him and glad that I got to hear him speak. Not to mention he pronounced my last name correctly on the first try (something most folks don't accomplish). Baker was a very pleasant surprise for me and Lori. She was knowledgeable and funny, just very engaging I thought.

Edward Ayers, history professor and President of the University of Richmond, moderated the whole thing and did a commendable job. He kept the speakers focused and on point, and most importantly kept things on time. And did all of this in a very friendly, gracious, and affable manner. The University of Richmond has a beautiful campus and is located in a very nice area of the city. It was just a really enjoyable day.

I saw lots of folks that I know, or at least have met at previous conferences, and it was nice to catch up with a lot of them. They are far too numerous to mention here, but suffice it to say that I was very pleased, albeit very tired by the end of the day and I look forward to future programs in this series.

Zeb Vance Featured on Another Blog

Y'all take a look at this post that features Zeb Vance on Elektratig. Since finding this blog (thanks to Chris Graham @ Whig Hill) I've enjoyed reading it very much. The blogger deals with political topics from the first half of the 19th century much of the time and all of his posts are interesting. I would encourage all of my readers to check him out.

Reenacting this Weekend

I'm off to Plymouth, NC today for the annual Battle of Plymouth Reenactment and Living History Weekend. I've been going to this event for three years now (this will be my fourth). This is a fun event for our group because we get to play around in a reproduction steam launch and burn a lot of black powder. This is unusual for us because we tend to focus more on living history and less on battle reenactments. This is the one event of the year where we are always guaranteed to do a lot of shooting. The event also has quite a few sutlers, so if I am need of some piece of equipment or other gear I can usually pick it up at this event. I'm only staying for Saturday this year; Sunday is usually a very slow day for us so I am skipping out on it this year to come home and get some other things accomplished. Still, it should be a fun weekend.

Popular v. Academic History

There's an interesting little debate going on over on Eric Wittenberg's blog that I'd encourage all of you to go check out. It involves trying to ply the waters between the popular and academic history realms in the Civil War magazine biz.

Here's the link

My Career as a Historian - Part Nine

My second year of graduate school was used to complete my coursework and take my comprehensive exams. Since I had switched from an American history concentration to a Public history concentration I had a little catching up to do. For the fall semester I took Intro to Public History, a cross-listed grad/undergrad course, with Dr. Otis Graham. The class is exactly what it sounds like, an introduction to all areas of the public history field. What was more fun about this class was Otis himself. He was an old school, New Deal liberal and your typical absent-minded professor. I began working as a research assistant for him this semester. This was not a university-funded position; he hired grad students as assistants and paid them out of pocket. Depending on what he had going on in terms of research, I'd work 5-10 hours per week, keep up with my own time, and he'd cut me a check at the end of each month at a rate of $10 per hour. A lot of what I did was simple. He'd hand me a list of books and ask me to find them in the library or order them via inter-library loan for him. He'd have me find and print journal articles from research databases. Each year he'd have me fill out forms suggesting items the library should purchase. It wasn't hard work, but it formed a bond between him and the grad students who worked for him. My friend Ryan Anderson (now a professor at UNC-Pembroke) worked for him as well. We loved Otis. We'd be heading for his office in the library quoting lines from Animal House (i.e. "Wait 'til Otis sees us; he loves us!). One final story that will give you an idea of who Otis really was.....we used to have these little get togethers on random Friday afternoons. Grad students and faculty were invited to the faculty lounge and one of the professors would discuss current research they were working on, or an article they had just published; you know, academic stuff. Ryan and I attended those gatherings with some regularity, along with some of our colleagues. The first one we attended left an indelible impression on us. Otis walked in about 5-10 minutes late (which was on time for him), sat down, opened his brief case, took out a bottle of port and a sleeve of plastic cups, and proclaimed "OK, this is now a civilized affair; we may begin."

My other class that fall was History, Memory, and Tradition in American Culture with Dr. Peggy Shaffer. At the time, this class was pretty much over my head. Unfortunately for me, this is largely what the Public History program consisted of at the time; lots of theory and little practice. I have come to appreciate this class over time and were I to take it today I would probably love it. At the time however I struggled through it and did my best. This is the class where my thesis project started out. Dr. Shaffer had been approached by a staff member at Wilmington Industrial Development about doing an organizational history for their upcoming 50th anniversary. Knowing of my interest in oral history, Dr. Shaffer put me in touch with them. For my term paper for her class I interviewed some of the founding members of the organization (and they were all big-time heavy hitters in Wilmington) and produced a paper on their memories of "saving" Wilmington from economic disaster in the 1960s. This became the seed for the larger project.

Through all of this I was still working as a teaching assistant. In the fall semester I worked for Dr. Yixin Chen doing Intro to Global History. Dr. Chen was extremely interesting and a very nice guy. Click the link for a great article about him. In the spring I was assisting with Western Civilization II with Dr. Michael Seidman, whom I had taken for the class as an undergrad. He was very easy to get along with and always entertaining.

In spring semester I had to focus on the upcoming comprehensive exams. I took a directed individual study with Dr. Shaffer which was basically a readings course. I had read large portions of the required reading list for comps through my coursework, but had not even touched the section on the field of material culture. Through this readings course, I read each book on the list that dealt with material culture and had weekly discussion sessions with Dr. Shaffer. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but I had to get it done.

I also took Conflict and Consensus in American History with Dr. Robert Brent Toplin. This was one of my favorite classes of my grad school days and I have many fond memories of it. I had lots of friends in this class and it was one of the most diverse groups I ever sat in a seminar room with. Basically, the entire class was structured in order for us to see the historiographical trends in US History as they related to major topics and issues. Our textbook reading was great; each chapter took an issue in US History and presented three divergent essays on the topic by three different historians. You would have a conservative, middle of the road, and liberal take on each issue and it enabled you to see how historians evaluate things differently. It allowed you to see all sides of an argument, which was exactly what you had to show an understanding of on the comps.

I passed my comprehensive exams without difficulty. For Public History students, we were required to declare a focus on one half of American history (either colonial-1865 or 1865-present). Our comps consisted of one public history question and an American history question from our chosen era. Even though my thesis work was focusing on post-World War II Wilmington, I chose the first half of American history because that's where my interests were and where the vast majority of my coursework had been. With the comps behind me, all that was left was my internship and thesis.

My Career as a Historian - Part Eight

Year One of graduate school, particularly the first semester is where the learning curve really reached up and smacked me upside the head. In hindsight, I was not really prepared for graduate school. Everything happens at a much faster pace and everything is more urgent. I didn't necessarily have that sense of urgency. I knew the work would be more in terms of both difficulty and volume, but I wasn't prepared for the mental shift. This will sound strange to a lot of folks, but I actually had to teach myself how to read. When you are in grad school you are often reading 2, 3, or 4 books a week, and that's just for classes. Then throw in all the reading and research required for research papers and you get the idea. You have to abandon the old mindset of cover-to-cover reading for pleasure. You have to develop a system to get the most you can out of a book without having to read every word. This was a huge leap for me, but something I felt I at least started to accomplish in my first semester. You also have to read analytically, rather than just for pure informational purposes. That turned out to be the hardest transition for me, because intellectually I just wasn't there yet.

Starting out as a part-time graduate student with a full-time job probably didn't help either. The job at Glidden was a real, honest-to-God, 40 hour a week (sometimes more) job. I was the primary delivery driver, loading up the company van once or twice a day to deliver to contractors at job sites all over Wilmington. While in the store, I spent much of my time in the back warehouse area either putting recently delivered stock on the shelves or mixing/tinting paint for customers. I enjoyed the job and the guys I worked with were great, but it took my focus somewhat away from my studies, at least for 8 hours each day.

As for school, I registered for two classes in the fall semester. First, I had to take the ubiquitous Historiography and Methodology class that is required of all graduate students in their first semester. Intellectually, I was not prepared for this class. I really didn't understand much of what we were discussing most of the time, but I managed to skate out with a B. Still, I felt that many of my new classmates had their shit together much more so than I did. Years later, that's been proven a false assumption on my part, but I'll get there later. My second class that semester is what really opened my eyes to what grad school was all about. I was back with Dr. Walt Conser taking Religion in Antebellum America. I was stoked about this class because I had done so well the previous semester in his Religion in Early America class. But that was an undergraduate class, and this was a totally different ballgame. The reading and discussions were intense and very intellectual. The research project that was required had an expectation of professionalism attached to it. I'd never done such work as an undergrad. I admittedly struggled through this class even though I enjoyed the subject matter. I was very seriously worried that I'd get a C, which is really the equivalent of an F in grad school, and would probably signal the end of my career since I was on probation and required to maintain a B average. I remember sitting outside the department office worrying about whether or not I'd come back for another semester. In the end, I got the B that I needed (I'm still not sure how) and a great sense of relief to go along with it. I had survived my probationary semester.

This opened another door for me as I was now able to apply for a teaching assistantship in the department. This would allow me to give up my full-time job at Glidden and really start focusing on the studies. I was awarded an assistantship for the spring semester, working for Dr. David LaVere. He was teaching two sections of US History I, my favorite area. I loved working for him and felt that I had finally found my place. I was working FOR a professor and working WITH students. It was great!

I also had to start thinking about what my focus area would be and what I would write my thesis on. I went into grad school with the idea of focusing on colonial and revolutionary America. I liked Alan Watson a great deal and really wanted to work with him. I proposed some research topic to him in a casual conversation (I don't even remember what it was) and he sort of shot it down. He was very pragmatic about the whole thing, telling me that in order to research that topic I would be required to travel to research libraries and repositories in the New England and Mid-Atlantic states, which would make the whole thing very difficult. He suggested thinking of a more local or regional topic. My future path changed my plans and I never revisited this idea (kind of ironic considering the amount of time I spend working with colonial sites in NC and how much more 18th century reenacting I am currently doing).

My second semester I took Mark Spaulding for a seminar in 20th Century Europe. American specialists (which I was) were required to take one non-American seminar. Since I had been through three classes with Spaulding as an undergrad this looked like a good opportunity. This was a cross-listed undergrad/grad course. In these types of courses grad students were to be given extra work in order to bring the class up a level. There were two other grad students in the class with me, and at the end of the first class meeting we approached Dr. Spaulding to ask what our extra assignments would consist of. His answer, "I don't expect more work from my grad students, just better work." We thought we were in serious trouble, but as it turns out I fairly easily managed an A in that seminar.

My other class that semester was my introduction to the field of Public History (yes, this is where it all started). Again, it was a cross-listed undergrad/grad course (we had lots of those in that day and time). The topic was Community Studies; it was basically a class on how to do local history. It was taught by a Visiting Assistant Professor, Dr. Meg Mulrooney. It was a great class, and I absolutely loved it! Aside from doing individual projects, we also had to a class project. For my individual project, I did an oral history interview with a woman at my church who was a school librarian during the tense days of school desegregation in Wilmington. Our class project consisted of a study of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot and the end result was the publication of an African-American Heritage walking tour brochure. Each of us was assigned a site to research and do a short write up for the brochure and the university published it. There was so much involved in this class, its hard to describe it all. Aside from our project work, we had regular readings, guest speakers, and field trips to local repositories, government offices, etc. to learn how to research in public documents. It was an excellent experience and the reason I switched my focus from American history to Public History. I started discussing thesis ideas with Dr. Mulrooney that semester, including doing a community history of the Winterpark community in Wilmington. This was one of Wilmington's many "streetcar suburbs" and the neighborhood where my church was located. The potential for a community history, involving oral history was excellent.

Though I got an A in Dr. Mulrooney's class, my Winterpark thesis idea crashed and burned when she was not invited back. It seems that poking around in the subject area of the 1898 riot so close to its centennial provoked a political backlash. Lots of old Wilmingtonians didn't like us portraying their ancestors as racists and perpetrators of violence, even if the evidence clearly suggested that's exactly what happened. If memory serves correctly, the department wanted to bring Dr. Mulrooney back, but were told they could not. She has since moved on to a couple of other universities (currently James Madison U.) and continues to research the 1898 riot. I credit much of my entrance into the field of Public History to Meg Mulrooney, even to this day. In another bit of irony, my colleague Lerae Umfleet researched and wrote a report on the 1898 riot while an employee at the Research Branch of NC Archives and History. She got much the same backlash as did Meg Mulrooney. Lerae's study of the riot will be published in the coming months by the Historic Publications Division of the Department of Cultural Resources. If you want to read the definitive history, I hope you'll pick up a copy!

My Career as a Historian - Part Seven

Finally, my senior year! Really my second senior year, but who's counting? This was the year to wrap things up with the major and the minor, and figure out what the hell to do from there.

Fall semester I took nothing in the History department, but did a few important things. First, I replaced my other D from a previous semester by retaking Asian Religions. This class was taught by Dr. Joe Wilson. He was really cool and so was the class; I just wasn't prepared to take it as a first-semester freshman and why my advisor ever let me do that I'll never know. So, retook it and got a B+ this time.

I also took a class in the Political Science department that counted as a history class, Contemporary American Foreign Policy with Dr. W. Lee Johnston. Aside from Frank Ainsley, he was probably more influential to me than anyone outside the History department and I think most of my current friends would love this guy. This class was interesting not only because of the topic, but because of the dynamics. There were four history majors in the class and we all sat together. After two rows of empty seats you had all the political science majors on the opposite side of the room. Dr. Johnston was a very energetic (some would even say hyperactive) professor and he loved to just ask a question, point at somebody, and put them on the spot. He'd do this to three or four of the "poli sci" folks and when they couldn't answer he'd come to us. One of us almost always had the answer he was looking for. One day, after a few rounds of this, he looked disgustedly over to the other side of the room and exclaimed "Damn it! I love history majors. You know why? Because they know their shit!" We were his favorites and the poli sci crowd knew it and despised us because of it. One day while I was in his office discussing my term paper progress I asked him why he liked history majors so much. He said, "Son, look at the wall behind you." Hanging right there was a BA in History with his name on it. I only got a B in his class, but I had to bust my tail for that, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I also took yet another class with Frank Ainsley, Geography of North Carolina. This was an open and shut A. The class was easy, the class was fun, but the class was still informative and interesting. It was an in-depth look at the physical, economic, and (mostly) cultural geography of our state.

Spring semester I had to wrap things up with two more Geography courses and two more History courses. Luckily for me I was able to take both Geography courses with Frank Ainsley. They were certainly different from other courses he taught, but both were historical/cultural geography. First was Geography of the Middle East, and second was Historical Geography of Scandinavia (yes, you read that correctly, Scandinavia). Off the wall topics, but fun classes nonetheless.

For my two History courses I couldn't have picked anything more divergent. First, I was back with Dr. Mark Spaulding to take a Senior Seminar on European Radical Right Wing movements. This actually worked out pretty well in one regard. Since I was already studying Scandinavia, I expanded that outlook for the seminar. We had to write a series of short papers leading up to a larger research paper. I focused all my research on the puppet Nazi organizations that were established in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, etc. This was a very difficult class, but I managed an A-.

My other History class was Religion in Early America, taught by Dr. Walter Conser. I loved this class because I have always been interested in the religious history of the country, and the histories of various denominations. This class was also very difficult, but I was very proud to get an A when it was all said and done.

Aside from wrapping up my coursework, I spent much of this year thinking about and applying to graduate programs. I finally decided the best way to go would be to stay in the History field. My goal was to get the MA, then proceed to a PhD and become a college professor. I liked the campus setting, the academic life, etc. My grades were not stellar; they weren't bad, but they weren't top notch. I developed a wish list of programs starting with my dream schools, and winding up with my last ditch, final options. I applied to a lot of programs, which I realize now was a huge waste of money and time. I applied to the University of Virginia and Penn State. I knew I had no chance, so I shouldn't have wasted those application fees, but I did because those were my dream schools. For my last ditch, final options I settled on Eastern Kentucky University and Old Dominion. Now, there's nothing at all wrong with either of these schools. However, their admissions standards were lower (in the case of EKU, much lower) than most other schools. In the middle were a number of schools including Villanova, Appalachian State, NC State, and UNCW. I figured if nothing else I'd get into EKU, ODU, and UNCW which is exactly what happened. I was terribly disappointed that I didn't get into ASU, and somewhat less disappointed about NCSU and Villanova. I realized that I was a borderline possibility at those schools, but I really felt that I should have gotten into App State.

Now I had a decision to make, and it was going to be based on finances. I knew the folks at UNCW had admitted me because I was a known commodity, so to speak, and I was admitted under probationary status. EKU offered me $14,000 per year in loans (not the greatest option). ODU's history department offered me nothing, but my contacts in campus recreation got me a graduate fellowship with their campus rec program. The pay was only $500 per month. Living in Norfolk on that kind of money didn't appeal to me either. If I went back to UNCW the only financial aid I could count on was in the form of loans. However, I had a full-time job waiting for me if I returned to Wilmington. I spent the summer at my parents' house mulling over my options and decided to go back to Wilmington. I informed the History department that I would be a part-time student, and I took a full-time job working with my friend Carl at a paint store (Glidden, to be exact). Grad school wasn't starting out the way I had envisioned it, but at least I was in and I was ready to prove myself.

My Career as a Historian - Part Six

The 1994-95 academic year is what I refer to as my "First Senior Year." I ended up on the 5-year plan for reasons that will become obvious over the course of this post.

So I had decided to ditch the School of Ed. and pick up a double major in Geography. I embarked whole-heartedly on this in the Fall of 1994. I had all History and Geography (or related) courses this semester. In the History Department I had History of Germany, 1648-1890 with Dr. Mark Spaulding. Being of German descent, I had been chomping at the bit to take this class. Dr. Spaulding was known as a tough professor, and the class was pretty difficult, but I managed a B. I also had the ever popular Civil War and Reconstruction class, then taught by the aforementioned mentor, John Haley. This was not an easy class and I only got a B. However, my proudest moment of the semester was receiving an A on my term paper for the class, which Dr. Haley referred to as one of the most original Civil War papers a student of his had ever written. My topic was the formation of the state of West Virginia (for those that are unaware, the western counties of Virginia seceded from the state after the state seceded from the Union; Lincoln then supported their separate statehood, calling into question his views on the constitutionality of secession).

On the Geography side I took two intro courses, Economic Geography and Intro to Physical Geography. Intro to Physical was my least favorite of the geography courses, but I took it with an adjunct instructor, which made it a bit easier. The Economic Geography course was taught by now-retired Duncan Randall. He was a Wilmington native and the UNCW library was named for his father, so he was connected. He had studied at UNC-Chapel Hill and was a pure economic geographer, having written his dissertation on the economic geography of the Lower Cape Fear. Students feared him; his nickname was "Flunkin' Duncan" because so many people failed his classes. His office was dark and wreaked of smoke because he smoked like a chimney. I loved his class and did well (comparably), making a B. I used his dissertation as part of my thesis research in grad school. He retired the semester after I took his class and I feel lucky to have had him as a professor. I was also required to take a statistics course and quantitative analysis for my double major, so this semester I registered for the stat class. It was more than I could handle mathematically, so I withdrew. This left me in a quandary as to my decision to double major. I realized that stat and quant would be my downfall and decided it was best to back down to a minor in Geography (stat and quant were not required for the minor). However, I had now wasted so much time taking classes that wouldn't really count for anything that I realized it would take me an extra semester to graduate. Being young and stupid, I said "what the hell, I'll just take a whole extra year and have some fun!"

That fun began the following semester, Spring 1995. I had three History classes and retook a math class that I had earlier received a D in. I figured if I was in it for an extra year I might as well retake two classes and replace those D grades with better ones. I followed up my class with Dr. Spaulding by taking his next class, History of Germany, 1890-Present. I actually got an A- in that class, so I was making progress with him. Unfortunately, I negated that grade by getting a B- in History of the Caribbean. We had to take at least one "non-Western" history course, and I decided that this class would be more fun than an Asian or African history class. It was taught by a visiting professor from a university somewhere in the Caribbean. She and I didn't see eye to eye socially or politically and I pretty much blew off the class as a result. I'm probably lucky to have gotten a B-, as she could easily have given me a C. Finally, I was back with Frank Ainsley yet again to take a class that was cross-listed as both History and Geography, Historic Preservation Planning. This was a great class and probably got me started thinking about the public history field. I did my research project on preservation of covered bridges in Somerset County, PA. Me and my friend Glenn took a trek up to PA to visit my grandparents and one of their friends took us to every covered bridge in the county (and there are about 8 of them). This included a bridge that was being repaired and restored by Amish craftsmen (how's that for historic preservation in action)! One of these days I'll have to scan some of those photos and add them to this post. I easily got an A in this class.

I was now finally on track. I had one year left to figure out which direction I was headed, but I knew how I would finish this stage of the race. I would end up with a BA in History and a minor in Geography. From there, it was anyone's guess, but graduate school seemed like the ultimate goal. The only question was in which field, history, geography, or parks and recreation (still a possibility due to my involvement with campus rec and intramural sports)?

I've Been Busy

I didn't realize how long it's been since I've posted, but damn I've been busy! Our weekend in Historic Bath went very well. The site staff showed us the greatest hospitality and we really enjoyed ourselves. We had about 150 visitors, but it was a steady flow throughout the day. Those in attendance all agreed that we'd be willing to go back for another event in the future.
4/5 of our merry little band at Bath (Mike Williams was sitting under the fly at the time) L-R John Moseley, Myron Roltson, me, and Chris Grimes

On Tuesday and Thursday, I spent the day at Brunswick Town-Fort Anderson helping with an archaeology project. The site staff is working on rebuilding one of the fort's gun emplacements with a firing reproduction 32-pounder cannon. The archaeological dig was to try to find remnants of the original gun platform, which they did find. I did a little bit of everything from digging, to sifting, to serving as staff photographer. It was a very satisfying project for me, and my first archaeological experience.I am in the middle of the photo wearing a red hat and black t-shirt. We are listening to Assistant State Archaeologist John Mintz discussing some point about the excavation.

Finally, on Wednesday I went to East Carolina University to serve as a judge for their regional National History Day competition. Paired with a public history grad student from ECU, I judged middle school student exhibits. National History Day is something I've helped out with for the past three years and it's normally quite interesting.

So, I have been rather busy and I hope to get back to regular posting now. Of course, next weekend I'm headed to Fort Dobbs to help out with their annual War for Empire living history and reenactment event. Surely, an event that will be worthy of a post!

Back to the Colonial Era this Weekend

This Saturday I will be joining some of my shipmates from the Carolina Living History Guild at Historic Bath for a one-day living history program. Our focus will be on the town of Bath (North Carolina's first incorporated town) and its function as a port in 1771. Why 1771, you may ask? Well, in 1771 Bath was one of North Carolina's five official ports of entry, albeit a small one, ranking fourth out of the five in trade volume. However, in 1771 the Beaufort County Militia, based in Bath, sent 35-40 men on an expedition west with Royal Governor William Tryon to put down the Regulator rebellion at Alamance. By focusing on 1771 we were able to not only provide a sailor's perspective, but also a militia perspective, thereby increasing the number of our members that might attend the event. So aside from talking to the public about trade, commerce, and the life of a sailor, we will also be talking about the duties of colonial militia service and how the local militia took part in a pre-Revolutionary action in the state's history. Of course, we'll be doing the usual musket and swivel gun firing demonstrations and things of that nature. The folks at the visitors center will be doing a rope making activity as well. So if you're in the vicinity of Bath this Saturday please stop by Bonner Point and chat for a while!