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Revolutionary War Tunes

September 13, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

Songs from the 1776 Trenches

KarenAChase_Yankeedoodle_Sprit_of_'76.2 — One of several versions of a scene by Archibald MacNeal Willard in the late nineteenth century, the painting came to be known as *The Spirit of ’76.*

Although many historians focus on the tune of Yankee Doodle, often referring to the image here as such, some Revolutionary War songs are far more free-spirited. Sung by soldiers, they were sometimes influenced by the men’s varied heritages. Case in point, the song, “Maggie Lauder.” It was known to be sung in the American trenches, but it originated in Scotland.

Francis Sempill of Beltrees, who lived from around 1616 to 1685, wrote the ditty, and then it had the added benefit of having an easy and completely memorable tune put with it. (Careful, as it will get stuck in your craw when you watch the below version by The Corries.)

The song also has the benefit of having one heck of a funny word in the first verse. Blatherskite. Though back when spelling wasn’t standardized, they spelled it bladderskate…

Wha wadna be in love
Wi bonnie Maggie Lauder?
A piper met her gaun to Fife,
And spier’d what was’t they ca’d her:
Richt scornfully she answered him,
Begone, you hallanshakerl
Jog on your gate, you bladderskate!
My name is Maggie Lauder.

To call someone a blatherskite, is basically to say they are full of B.S. I truly love how Maggie shares her moniker with this bloke, the piper, while also putting him in his place by calling him names. Incidentally, if anyone has a definition—or a more modern spelling—of hallanshakerl, please let me know.

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Reader Insights: When you’re writing historical fiction, if you put too many period-appropriate words or phrases into dialogue, it can be clunky for readers. So, I use them sparingly. While I’m reserving blatherskite for my next novel, you’ll find I happily used the curse, blistering blackguards. You can read it within an excerpt with Captain Blythe on the Frontier from my novel, here.

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

A Million Daughters

September 3, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

The DAR Million Members Celebration

I am a DAR. As a Daughter of the American Revolution, I can prove my lineage back to a “patriot” who supported the Cause. This fall, I will become one DAR in a million.

Although the DAR currently has about 185,000 active members worldwide, at some point between now and November the DAR will welcome its one millionth member since the organization was founded in 1890. As this milestone comes, I know what such a celebration provides for the future.

What the DAR Millionth Member Means to Me

First, we’ll get to build on the DAR’s (and my) immense love of education and preservation. Scholarships, grants, and school support for boys and girls come from the DAR. Without the DAR, the Block House at Fort Pitt, PA and the Custom House at Yorktown, VA might not be standing. They are just two examples of historic places the women and chapters of our organization saved, own, and maintain.

Secondly, we are moving into the future as an inclusive organization. It is not religion, politics, or race that define who we are, and this openness fits with who I am. Gone is the privileged DAR featured in movies or shows like the Gilmore Girls. This new DAR is made up of welcoming career women, moms, students, and everyday women who are eager to contribute and get things done.

By comparison, the Sons of the American Revolution has about 35,000 active members. So make no mistake, it’s women getting it done. And soon, we’ll be a million strong.

If you think you might be a DAR, contact a local chapter (search here by zip code) and ask for the Registrar or Membership Chair. They’ll help you with an application. And check out our Facebook Page filled with Million Member Testimonials.

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Reader Insights: I became a DAR while researching my novel, CARRYING INDEPENDENCE. In my travels for research, I kept finding markers at historical sites and upon graves revitalized by DAR chapters. So in addition to researching the book, I researched my own lineage. Although I am Canadian, it was Jacob G. Klock of New York who I proved to be my ancestral patriot. Who is yours?

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

Revolutionary Food

August 2, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

City Tavern and Early American Food

From 1774 through 1776, a tavern in Philadelphia that had only been open a few years was the place where our founding fathers assembled after a day of debates. City Tavern, just a few blocks from the State House, was a spot where they could lift a pint, stay the night, and further discuss (or eavesdrop) on the issue of separation. It was also a place to taste dishes made from the game, fruits, and spices coming into the port city.

It still is.

Recipes Recreated

Although City Tavern was destroyed by fire in the 1800s, the National Park Service rebuilt it completely because the original architectural plans existed as did the original footings. A dozen or so years ago, along came Walter Staib—a chef one could describe as obsessed with understanding the origins of 18th century food. In addition to a TV show called A Taste of History, Chef Staib developed a Colonial menu for the tavern.

Now, one can stroll into City Tavern just as folks did in 1776, and order numerous dishes off a lunch or dinner menu, including a chicken or turkey pot pie described as, “tender chunks of turkey, mushrooms, early peas, red potatoes, sherry cream sauce & flaky pastry crust,” and with a, “Pennsylvania Dutch egg noodle accompaniment.” I’ve eaten it. Oh my word. That gravy! This is my idea of Chasing History. (You can see the pot pie in the photo below.)

One might also meet or dine with an actual founding father or two—it was a delightful conversation, Ben and T.J.—as I did while in Philly to see the live reading of the Declaration on July 8th. All of this is to say, that when it came to writing about the Revolution, having such a spot where I could experience the food was crucial to creating the era and setting. Food is universally how we humans experience a time and place.

Including Food in Fiction

I love it when books I read include food, so naturally, it’s in mine, too. I’m also in a book club that often chooses stories so we can try new recipes. This month, my own book club read Carrying Independence. (Yes, there was some trepidation—I’ve seen this group when they don’t like a book—but they were lovely.)

Thanks to Chef Staib’s recipe book and TV shows, and a few revolutionary food-inspired websites, we created a feast of salmon and corn cakes, an elegant salad platter of corn, tomatoes, and greens, asparagus, a succulent pot roast, apple galettes, and Shrewsbury cookies, among other things. Swoon is the word you’re looking for. (Thanks to Becky for the food shots.)

Reader Insights: Chef Staib’s food and City Tavern are recreated within Carrying Independence. My characters meet, drink and dine in a back corner booth of City Tavern in Philadelphia (see photo), and the food and spices they experience are taken from my own in this same place. On my website I’ve included an excerpt—a full chapter—that takes place in City Tavern in that booth.

Now you can get a taste of the history behind Carrying Independence, too. Be sure to mop that gravy off your chin.

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

Why July 19th, 1776 Matters

July 19, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

An Engrossed Copy

As many readers now know, CARRYING INDEPENDENCE is about the importance of gathering signatures on a single copy of the Declaration of Independence. Today’s date was a significant moment in history that indicated to me that I could indeed write such a story.

July 19th, 1776, was the day the Continental Congress agreed to have one “engrossed” copy of the Declaration made. One readable, handwritten copy, signed by all. Why?

New York Finally Approved the Declaration

Ten days earlier, on July 9th, New York representatives finally agreed to the wording of the Declaration—the last of 13 states to do so. This mattered because their approval finally made the separation from Britain unanimous. But words are hollow without a contract everyone will sign.

Would you agree to move out of your home, while only verbally agreeing the guy moving in could take over? Nope. You’d ensure he came in and signed some papers assuming the mortgage, and absolving you of responsibility. You’d want all parties in agreement.

So did the Congress.

If you really want to see how we began, put down the Constitution and pick up the Declaration.

So what? Why does this decision and day in history matter now?

In a country that too often operates divisively and viciously, we need to remember that this nation began by coming together. By compromising. By being optimistic in the face of grave danger and the real possibility that we might not stand a snowball’s chance of surviving the heat. We began by laying down our lives and our fortunes and our sacred honor for the sake of each other—no matter which colony or country we were born in.

If you really want to see how we began, put down the Constitution and pick up the Declaration. When you read it—actually study it— you’ll find that our country, with this document as evidence, was founded not upon seeking what was best for us individually.

Even with all its flaws, the Declaration was an agreement to collectively be better. And not just for Americans, but for and before “a candid world.”

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Reader Insider Note: I’ll admit it… not before this book had I really studied the Declaration. But with chapter 23 of CARRYING INDEPENDENCE, I wrote myself into a corner. George Wythe, the man who taught Jefferson, was to explain to Nathaniel, my protagonist, the reasoning behind the Declaration. Not the intent. The reasoning.

Of all my chapters and scenes, it took me the longest to write this one—days and days of researching the ideologies, reviewing academic interpretations, and studying the document itself. At times I wondered if I was smart enough to grasp and then convey the meaning of it all. And then I decided I would simply allow Wythe to explain it to me as if I were Nathaniel—a nonacademic, uncertain yet hopeful, resident now living in a foreign land.

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

Navigating Historic Maps

July 12, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

Geographic Time Travel

As a “popular historian” rather than a learned academic, I believe that part of my job is to explore some of the same sources that academics do, and then to bring them into today for the average person to explore with me. Case in point, historic maps.

David Rumsey Map Collection

Very early on an historian, Woody Holton, was gracious enough to have lunch with me to discuss my historical project. He shared numerous sources, including a gem of a website, the David Rumsey Map Historic Collection. It’s a digitized, catalogued historic collection, searchable by region, time period, mapmaker, and so much more. It was there I found late 18th century maps of Britain’s “Middle colonies”—what would become the middle United States. Some maps were so incredibly detailed and high-resolution that I could zoom into ferry landings where travelers would stop to cross on boats before bridges came into existence.

Making Historic Maps Relevant to Readers

While locating those ferry landings was like finding gold for a story in which a guy rides across the colonies in 1776, trying to write modern fiction around archaic maps—such that every day people now could recognize where my character might be—was like trying to dislodge that gold and contextually reposition it using a toothpick. It was tedious. I would pull up the historic map in one browser window, pull up Google maps in another, and flip between them. Or, that was what I had to do five years ago, before the collection added a new feature—the Georeferencer.

The Georeferencer Revolutionizes Map Exploration

The Georeferencer, now in version 4, according to the collection, “it allows you to overlay historic maps on modern maps or other historic maps. The overlaid maps reveal changes over time and enable map analysis and discovery.” Now, my 1776 map is set precisely over the Google map, among others, and moving a simple toggle bar allows me to fade from the old map to a current day one.

I’ve taken these three screen captures of a 1776 cross section of the land in Pennsylvania featured in my novel. Nathaniel ventures into the Kittatiny Mountains to the west, his homeland is along the Saucony Creek in the middle upper Berks County, and he travels first to Philadelphia in the bottom right. The first image below is the original map, the second shows the overlay, and the bottom image is the modern Google map.

You can pop open a new browser window and toggle the maps within the Georeferencer for the 1776 map shown above here.

Prepare to lose all track of time. Maps both of this whole wide world and those of the past are literally at your fingertips.

Reader Insider Note: I was so impressed by Rumsey’s map collection, and the changes that map-making has undergone since 1776, that it plays a small role in the novel for my protagonist. Nathaniel is often marking up old maps. It was during the early years of the Revolution that George Washington, among others, recognized the rebels were never going to win a war with antiquated maps made by the British. In 1777, Congress authorized a national geographic division to chart and draw the fledgling nation.

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

The Woman on the Declaration

July 4, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

Founding-Documents Blog Series: Part Six

On this, July 4th, my blog features the last in a brief series related to the history and signing of the Declaration of Independence… Part one began here.

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So many blogs will rightly tell you that the Declaration of Independence was not written, voted for, or even signed on July 4th. All true. Today, however, I’d rather talk about the only woman whose name graces the Declaration. A woman featured in Carrying Independence.

Mary Katharine Goddard

Her brother was a drunkard. He owned his own print-shop which often fell into neglect as he stumbled around the colonies bemoaning (whining) that Benjamin Franklin had been given the title of Postmaster General over him.

When the print shop was left in Mary Katharine’s hands in Baltimore in the mid 1770s, Mary Katharine (with two As) became known not only as the printer, but the editor and the first female Postmaster of Baltimore. (As she says in novel, “It does not take a man to organize the mail… I was already writing and publishing both the Maryland Journal and the Baltimore Advertiser, so why not know the post routes, too?”)

Postmasters in the colonies were paid by Congress, making Mary Katharine the first female federal employee of the newly formed United States. But by the end of 1776, problems in that new country were afoot.

Congress Had a Failing Army

Getting all the congressmen to sign a sole copy of a Declaration—while hiding their identities—was one thing. Ensuring troops stayed to fight was quite another. By January of 1777, the enlistments of soldiers who had joined in July of ’76 were nearly up. Their morale was severely down. Would you have stuck around after 6–8 months of marching, starving, and losing, or would you go home to tend your farm and eat?

Congress decided to admit “to a candid world” who the signers were. They put out the call to printers asking them to make a copy of the Declaration with all their names typeset so all those soldiers could see exactly who and what they were fighting for.

A Woman Volunteers

Enter Mary Katharine Goddard. In February of 1777, she volunteered her print shop in Baltimore to print documents, called broadsides. She used the font Caslon, which, ironically, was created in a type foundry in England. Two hundred copies were made and circulated among the states. To date, nine copies still exist.

Only one signer’s name does not appear on the Goddard broadside. That of Thomas McKean of Delaware. It’s believed that when Goddard printed these copies, the congressmen had yet to sign the original—further proof that the congressmen were not all together on August 2nd for the formal engrossing.

Although her name doesn’t appear on the original signed version of the Declaration, I still point to her when historians ignore women’s roles in the struggle for independence. Mary Katharine not only participated, she even had the wherewithal to typeset her own name on her copies, thereby inking herself into history.

The Smithsonian has a lovely article by Erick Trickey on Mary Katharine Goddard‘s life, background, and achievements.

Reader Insider Note: In order to make copies like the Goddard broadside, printers often worked alongside the original document. In my novel, my protagonist, Nathaniel, not only delivers the document, but stays to help Mary Katharine Goddard typeset the thing. To read how it was done, and to see the sparks fly between Postmistress and Post rider, you can get the book… (ahem—it’s just 99¢ all this week).

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

Declaration of Independence Mistakes

June 13, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

Founding-Documents Blog Series: Part Five

Between now and July 4th, my blog features an ongoing series related to the history and signing of the Declaration of Independence… Part one began here.

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While researching the Declaration for Carrying Independence, I came across a few unique things about the the document itself.

The Declaration is a Document With Mistakes

Timothy Matlack was hired to copy the text from Jefferson’s drafts onto the official document. He was responsible for the ink used for the text and the signers (see Part Four here), but in the copying, there were a couple mistakes.

As Kris Spisak wrote, when she was a guest on my blog in her article on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of an American Language, we often discuss the use of “unalienable” versus “inalienable.” Alison VanNest also wrote an article for Grammarly.com on the spelling and grammatical errors. She illustrates how some mistakes (the spelling of “Brittish” and “shewn”) are simply because of the usage at the time.

The Declaration was Later Corrected

Personally I love the two corrections that were made—some assume by Jefferson’s hand—after it was fully crafted. The word “representatives” was missing the “en” so that was penned in. The word “only” was inserted about ten lines up from the bottom into, “…our repeated Petitions have been answered only in repeated injury.” Cropped images of those sections are below (see the whole document close up here).

A Handprint on the Declaration

There is also a handprint is embedded into the paper in the bottom corner, possibly having seeped through from the back. The size is smaller, as if from the hand of a woman. It’s impossible to determine when it was set or to test for any traces that might result in a DNA examination without pulling up chunks of the actual document. So there it sits, an unknown shadow sealed forever in parchment.

Reader Insider Note: What’s more fun that an unknown piece of history like an inky handprint when you’re a fiction writer? Not much, so youbetchya… I had to scoop that up and provide a scenario for how it got there! No… I can’t tell you what that scenario is right now, but you can get the book… (ahem).

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

Faded Ink Informs 1776 History

June 4, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

Founding-Documents Blog Series: Part Four

Between now and July 4th, my blog features an ongoing series related to the history and signing of the Declaration of Independence…

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Evidence to Support An Incomplete Declaration of Independence

My novel, Carrying Independence, as covered in Part One, is fiction supported by the fact that not all 56 congressmen were in the same room on August 2nd, 1776 to affix their signatures to the Declaration. Two factors contributed to my being assured that there were men missing from that formal signing.

Ink Fades Based on the “Recipe”

“Timothy Matlack, a revolutionary leader and one of the official scribes of the Declaration of Independence, copied the official document,” writes Kelly Dickerson for LiveScience.com. “[The delegates] signed it in iron ink, which is made with an acidic chemical compound that bleeds into parchment. The staining makes the ink last longer.”

There was one batch of ink made for one hand-made silver inkwell holding the one pen used by 49 congressmen assembling in the one room at the State House on August 2nd, 1776. The subsequent signers used whatever ink was on hand—some of which are different recipes than Timothy Matlack’s. Those signatures have faded differently.

A Woman Proves the Last Signer of the Declaration

In Part Three of this series, I noted that Thomas McKean was the last man to sign the document. For proof, enter Mary Katharine Goddard (more on her in the next post).

In 1777, Congress decided to typeset a copy of the Declaration that included all the names of the signers. ALL their names. But it doesn’t.

Goddard volunteered to make the copies (shown above) in her print shop. Just like other printers, when she reproduced large documents it was customary to build the printing plates (text inserted, one letter at a time, into metal frames) with the original document before her for comparison.

She would read, and then she or an employee (a composer) would type-set that line. “When in the course of human events…” Type-set. “…it becomes necessary for one people…” Type-set. All the way down to the signatures. “John Hancock…” Type-set. “Thomas Jefferson…” Type-set.

In January of 1777, she completed 200 copies. One name, based on one signature, is missing. Thomas McKean.

Reader Insider Notes: The Goddard Broadside (of which, to date, 9 still exist) helped fix my time frame for inserting McKean into the novel. Also, when you discover a fact in history that suggests the very document your fictional protagonist, Nathaniel, is carrying ended up in the print shop of an historical figure… well, what would you do? Put him there working alongside her, of course! Here, an excerpt from the chapter informed by the research:

“So long as the document stays, so do you. I have to follow the original to replicate it exactly, and I was told your being here should be hush-hush.” Mary Katharine waggled the apron at Nathaniel, and he [reluctantly] took it from her. “Also, my pressman is ill, and my best type composer joined the Cause last week. It must be you.”

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

There is only One Declaration of Independence

May 16, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

Founding-Documents Blog Series: Part One

Between now and July 4th, my blog will be an ongoing series related to the history and signing of the Declaration of Independence. While our country and the media is lately consumed with the US Constitution, understanding our founding better begins with an examination of the documents in order of creation.

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How many copies exist of the Declaration of Independence?

Hundreds. You’ll find a tabloid size copy in historic homes like Berkley Plantation, home of Benjamin Harrison IV, signer of the original document. There’s a massive copy hanging on the wall in the Virginia State capitol building. The American Revolution Museum at Yorktown has a broadside. We see so many versions of the Declaration of Independence, and you can buy a replica for about $4 at historic museums. However, in 1776 there was only ONE piece of parchment—with hand-written calligraphy—drafted to contain all the signatures.

The Sole Declaration of Independence

Yes, it’s this document (approx. 24″x30″) at the National Archives that thousands of people (over 275,000 during June and July alone) visit when they come to the museum each year. It’s the one encased in bullet-proof glass stolen by Nicholas Cage. I wouldn’t call it a copy. A copy implies that it’s a duplicate. That ONE original document (shown above), is the only one that contains all 56 original signatures of the Congress. (Until November of 1776 there were only 55 signatures, but that’s a whole other story.)

Why was there one Declaration of Independence?

It was a contract. It was a unanimous agreement between the men and between the thirteen colonies—an agreement for the colonies to separate from the Crown AND come together as these united states (yes, lower case) of America.

The copies you see—often called Broadsides and with typeset text and names—were made before the original contract was signed and afterward. Broadsides were notices, distributed and posted, detailing what Congress had agreed to do.

What they had agreed to was not war. I find it easiest to remember the purpose of the Declaration by describing it one of two ways… It was both a divorce decree and a marriage agreement. It was one of the biggest “Dear John” letters in history.

“The #DeclarationofIndependence was not a declaration of war. It was both a divorce decree and a marriage agreement. Basically, it was the biggest ‘Dear John’ letter in history.” Huzzah to #carryingindependence and sharing #ChasingHistories with author @karenachase – Tweet This…

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

Cocktails in 1776

May 9, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

I’m throwing a party for my Carrying Independence, “Experience the Revolution” book launch, and what better way to imbibe on the era than to offer attendees a 1776-ish cocktail. The trouble is, there weren’t that many cocktails back then, and my book features just the classic spirits of Whisky, Madeira, and Port. I needed some advice.

Drink Historians

While there are several books about drinking in America, like the aptly named Drinking in America by Mark Lender and James Kirby Martin, there are also drink historians. First, who knew that was a thing? Second, why no person I met in college ever majored in it is beyond me—some of them seemed like they were. But I digress…

I reached out to one such historian, Philip Greene, author of a delightful book called To Have and Have Another (about the drinks featured within Hemingway’s stories). He suggested that if I wanted to “make what is considered the original cocktail,” which is like an Old Fashioned, it was defined in a newspaper from May 13, 1806 (Balance and Colombian Repository) as “spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.”

Phil also referred me to his friend, Mark Will-Weber—journalist and author of Mint Juleps with Teddy Roosevelt—who chimed in about three revolutionary-era cocktails. “The ‘Stone Fence,’ which is rum & hard cider mixed together—an Ethan Allen favorite… Philadelphia Fish House Punch and ‘Flip,'” which is beer, rum, and sugar, heated with a red-hot iron, and over the years eggs were added. Mark admitted that when he recently served “Flip” at an event, the general consensus wasn’t “Wow!” Most just said, “Interesting…” Uhm… maybe not that one.

The Winning Revolutionary-era Cocktails

As a result of their input, my book launch will now be replete with two aptly renamed cocktails available at the cash bar:
Patriot’s Punch. Based on the “Stone Fence” recipe.
Signer’s Cocktail. Based on the “Old Fashioned,” and using (of course) 1776 Rye by James E. Pepper.

Come hoist a glass, drown your revolutionary sorrows, and while you’re at it, visit with a few founding fathers who will be there to celebrate with us at the Patrick Henry Pub & Grill. Event co-hosted with Fountain Bookstore. JUNE 11, 6–8PM. All are welcome.

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.