Colonel Tye, Black Loyalist Guerrilla in the American Revolution

At the beginning of the American Revolution, the British offered freedom to any black slaves who joined them to fight the Americans. Of the many slaves who managed to escape and ended up as soldiers, sailors, or workers in the British army, one became the most feared and respected guerrilla commander of the Revolution. Born in 1753, Titus was the slave of a cruel, quick-tempered Quaker named John Corlies of Shrewsbury in eastern Monmouth County, New Jersey. When the Quakers in that region began to free their slaves, Corlies refused to do so and by 1775 was one of the few remaining Quaker slaveholders in the county.

Ethiopian Regiment.soldier
by Bantarleton

Things changed when on November 7, 1775, after being forced to flee onto a British warship off Norfolk by the patriot militia, Virginia’s royal governor, Lord Dunmore, issued a proclamation offering emancipation to any slaves belonging to rebels who were willing and able to bear arms for the crown. Twenty-two-year old Titus escaped the following day, joining a flood of blacks from Monmouth County who made their way to Norfolk to enlist in Dunmore’s newly formed Ethiopian Regiment. In spite of warnings by outraged slaveholders that runaway slaves would be executed and that any who joined the British would be sold to sugar cane plantations in the West Indies if caught, within a month about 800 slaves had escaped, many bringing their families with them.

The Ethiopian Regiment served in 1775 and 1776, and with its uniform emblazoned with “Liberty to Slaves” became a symbol of hope for black Americans. Although the men were most often used for foraging, constructing fortifications, and other work, they also saw battle. They fought effectively alongside the Regulars to defeat patriot militia forces at the Battle of Kemp’s Landing. After Dunmore’s defeat at the Battle of Great Bridge, he loaded his black troops onto ships of the British fleet headed for New York, where he hoped to give them better training. The cramped conditions led to the spread of smallpox, however, and with only 300 of the original 800 soldiers surviving, Dunmore disbanded the regiment in 1776.

Death of Major Peirson by John Singleton Copley
January 6, 1781

Nothing further is known of Tye until the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778, the first military action he’s known to have fought in and during which he captured an American militia captain. As the leader of the Black Brigade, an elite guerrilla unit of 24 men that served in New Jersey alongside the Loyalist Queen’s Rangers, he became known as Colonel Tye, an informal rank given out of respect since the British Army didn’t formally commission black officers in the 18th and 19th centuries. He and his band raided and plundered Shrewsbury the next month, capturing two of the town’s inhabitants. During the severe winter of 1779 they and the Queen’s Rangers provided protection for the British in their stronghold at New York City and launched raids to obtain food and fuel for the garrison.

Thomas Peters, Nigerian-born slave and black Loyalist
in British Black Company of Pioneers

By 1780 the Black Brigade had become a significant military force and the most feared Loyalists in New Jersey with a reputation as fierce and canny fighters. Tye’s familiarity with the area’s swamps, rivers, and inlets enabled his Black Brigade to strike swiftly and unexpectedly, and then disappear before the Americans could respond. In one week in June he led three raids in Monmouth County. On June 9, he and his men killed Joseph Murray, hated by Loyalists for executing captured Tories under a local vigilante law. On June 12, while Washington’s hard-pressed army fought the Regulars, he and his band made a daring raid on the home of militia leader Barnes Smock, captured him and twelve of his men without taking casualties, plundered their homes, destroyed their cannon, then took their captives to New York without being detected, thus depriving Washington of badly needed reinforcements and terrorizing local patriots. The British paid Tye and his men well for their efforts, sometimes as much as five gold guineas, and as a result of their exploits the number of slaves escaping to the British kept growing.

That September Tye and his Black Brigade attacked the home of Captain Josiah Huddy, an officer who had been wanted by the Loyalists for several years. Huddy and a friend, Lucretia Emmons, managed to hold off their attackers for two hours, until the Loyalists torched the house. Tye was shot in the wrist during the battle, a minor wound that became infected, and he died from gangrene within weeks.

With Colonel Stephen Blucke of the Black Pioneers in command, Tye’s raiders continued fighting long after the British defeat at Yorktown. And Tye left behind a reputation that lived on among his comrades as well as among the patriots who fought against him.

Black Heroes of the Revolution

George Washington by John Trumbull, 1780
with Will Lee in background

Black Americans served in the Revolution, as they have in every war this country has been involved in. By the beginning of the war black men already had a long history of serving in colonial militias, though they were often assigned to support duties like digging ditches. And in the spring of 1775, as opposition to Britain turned into a shooting war, a number of both slave and free black men fought bravely at Lexington and Concord. A couple of months later at the Battle of Bunker Hill, the actions of a former slave named Salem Poor were so heroic that 14 officers wrote to the Massachusetts legislature to commend him as a “brave and gallant Soldier” and recommending that he be rewarded.

General George Washington, however, like other slaveholders, opposed recruiting blacks into the newly formed Continental Army, whether slave or free, fearing a slave uprising. Not long after his appointment as commander in chief, he signed an order forbidding their recruitment in spite of the valor of black soldiers like Poor. Hoping to divide the colonies on this issue, Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, promptly offered freedom to any escaped slave who joined the British forces, and thousands of slaves grasped the opportunity. As a result Washington compromised by allowing blacks already in the army to stay but prohibiting new enlistments. But as the war continued and the need for more soldiers grew, he turned a blind eye to new enlistments, while still refusing to approve them. By the end of the war the army was actively recruiting black soldiers, and some in the New England regiments rose to the rank of colonel. Watching a review of the army at Yorktown, a French officer estimated that about a quarter of Washington’s troops were black, though today most historians believe that 10 to 15 percent is more likely.

General John Glover

When John Glover, a prosperous businessman in the Atlantic fishing trade, became the commander of the 21st Massachusetts Regiment, he recruited experienced seamen and fishermen, many of whom had been his shipmates. Among them were many of the Indians and Blacks who lived in the New England seaport villages. Thus when the regiment became the 14th Continental Regiment, dubbed the “amphibious regiment” for these soldiers’ naval skills, it was the first fully integrated unit in the Continental Army. Washington came to depend heavily on Glover’s well-armed and disciplined Marbleheaders. Among other noteworthy accomplishments, they made possible the army’s miraculous escape from Long Island after a disastrous defeat as well as the crossing of the Delaware on Christmas Day 1776, that led to the victory at Trenton.

Washington Crossing the Delaware
by Emanuel Leutze

Speaking of which, the famous 1851 painting by Emanuel Leutze depicts a black soldier at the far side of the boat’s bow that some historians believe might represent Prince Whipple, a former slave of General William Whipple, who served in exchange for his freedom. After the battle of Princeton a week later, a free black soldier named Primus Hall reportedly tracked down and captured several British soldiers single-handedly. And Washington’s personal servant, Will Lee, a mulatto slave whose equestrian skills were equal to his master’s, accompanied Washington wherever he went, even in the thick of battle. He was the only one of Washington’s slaves freed outright in his will.

Battle of Cowpens, William Ranney 1781

During the terrible winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge, with soldiers dying of starvation and exposure and deserting in droves, Congress turned to the states to supply more troops. Faced with the reality that their required quota was higher than the number of available white men in the state, the Rhode Island legislature not only promised to free all black, mulatto, and Indian slaves who enlisted, but also offered to compensate their owners for freeing them. By now Washington was so desperate for men that he agreed to the proposal. More than 140 black men signed up for the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, better known as the “Black Regiment,” which served until British Gen. Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. During the battle of Newport, Rhode Island, in 1778, the regiment repelled three fierce Hessian assaults, fighting so fearlessly and inflicting so many casualties on the Hessian mercenaries that one of their officers resigned his commission rather than lead his men to certain slaughter against them.

1781 watercolor showing a black infantryman
of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment at Yorktown at left

Units from Connecticut and New Jersey also had high rates of black enlistment. Black soldiers served in almost every unit and every battle from Concord to Yorktown. During the Revolution the United States Army was the most integrated it would be until the Korean War. The 1st Rhode Island was the Continental Army’s only segregated unit, commanded by white officers, with white and black soldiers assigned to separate companies. Throughout the rest of the army, however, black soldiers fought, drilled, marched, ate, and slept with their white comrades and shared hardships equally.

When the war ended, some black soldiers like those in the 1st Rhode Island returned to new lives as freemen. Others, however, returned to slavery. While a few were eventually freed, many who served as substitutes for their masters ended up fighting for freedom they would never receive. But all of these black heroes were forgotten over time. The new Congress passed laws forbidding blacks to serve in the military, and by the time it got around to offering pensions to the veterans of the Revolution, most of the black men who served had died.

Today the heroism of black soldiers in the Revolution is finally being remembered and celebrated. These men stepped up at a time when our country desperately needed all the fighting men it could get, and they performed with heroism and honor equal to that of any white soldier for little, if any, reward. That’s why I included black soldiers in my American Patriot Series—to bring this history to the fore, along with the involvement of women and Native Americans in the Revolution.

How much did you know about black soldiers in the Revolution before reading this article? Do you recall learning anything about black Revolutionary War heroes when you were in school?

The Native American War for Independence

Pontiac Calls for War

Refiner’s Fire is scheduled to release April 15 next year. In this episode of the story Jonathan Carleton returns to the Shawnee as an emissary for George Washington. The issues he has to confront as an adopted member of this proud tribe in its fierce push-back against the incursions of white settlers into their ancestral lands have radically changed my way of thinking about Native Americans.

We celebrate the American Revolution as the seminal event in which we Americans won our independence from Britain. It’s ironic that throughout our history we’ve largely remained blind to the fact that Native Americans fought us for exactly the same reason: to preserve their liberty, rights, and way of life from an oppressive power. I’ve been deeply impressed by this fact while doing research for this series. In delving into how the war affected women as well as men, blacks as well as whites, I couldn’t avoid the question of what impact our Revolution had on the native peoples who inhabited this continent long before white people showed up. How did they view the colonists’ claim that England denied their lawful rights while at the same time denying Indians the freedom to live unmolested on their own lands, feed and protect their families, and maintain their long-held traditions?

This struggle goes all the way back to the arrival of the first Europeans on the shores of North America. In treaty after treaty, Indian lands and freedoms were whittled away. The loss of land accelerated in the late 1760s and 1770s as settlers increasingly pushed their way into the fertile western territories where land could be had for the taking. And the taking was often bloody, with atrocities committed on both sides.

Sketch of Stockbridge Mahican warrior
in Continental Army by Von Ewald

Long before the Revolution the Ohio Valley became a fiercely contested war zone. The Lenape, Shawnee, Mingo, and other tribes made Ohio Territory their homeland due to its rich hunting grounds; fertile cropland; expanding trade opportunities, first with the French, then with the English; and the ever increasing pressure of white settlers’ westward expansion. When the British won the French and Indian War and took control of the trans-Appalachian country, the opposition of the native peoples stiffened. Between 1763 and 1764 a coalition of tribes led by the Ottawa chief Pontiac and Guyasuta, a Seneca-Mingo chief, unsuccessfully tried to push British soldiers and settlers out of Ohio Territory. Then in 1774, in what became known as Lord Dunmore’s War, the Shawnee went to war to keep white settlers out of their Kentucky hunting grounds. Their towns and crops were put to the torch, forcing them to give up claim to the land and agree to recognize the Ohio River as the boundary between Indian lands and the British colonies.

Cornstalk by Sherman

When the Americans went to war with England the following year, it came as no surprise to the Indians that their lands were once again up for grabs. At the beginning of the conflict, the majority of the tribes tried to remain neutral, but that was not a viable option for long. The Stockbridge, or Mahican, Indians of western Massachusetts were one of the first to join forces with the Americans. Later some Lenape, along with the Oneida and the Tuscarora, did the same. But in the end most of the tribes came to see the Americans as the greater threat to their liberty and way of life than a distant English king.

In 1776 the Cherokee independently attacked frontier settlements to drive trespassers off, only to have their communities devastated. Other native nations formally allied with the British and suffered the same result. Among the Shawnee, the great chief Cornstalk tried to cultivate peaceful relations with the Americans, only to be murdered along with several companions by militia soldiers in 1777. Even so, his sister, Nonhelema, continued to assist the Americans and work for peace. But as Kentucky militia crossed the Ohio River almost every year to raid Shawnee villages, about half of the nation migrated across the Mississippi to Spanish-held lands, while others moved farther and farther west to put space between them and the Americans, and increasing numbers joined the war of resistance. By the end of the Revolution most of the Ohio Indians were concentrated in the region’s northwestern area.

General John Sullivan's Campaign against the Iroquois

The Iroquois Confederacy, or Haudenosaunee, was shattered by the war, with the Oneida and Tuscarora fighting on the side of the Americans, while the Mohawk and Seneca allied with the British, tearing apart clan and kinship ties. Like the Cherokee, many Iroquois lost their homes during the Revolution. In 1779 George Washington dispatched General John Sullivan to conduct a scorched-earth campaign in Iroquois country. During Sullivan’s Expedition, his troops burned forty Iroquois towns, cut down orchards, and destroyed millions of bushels of corn. Thousands of Iroquois fled to the British fort at Niagara, where they endured exposure, starvation, and sickness during one of the coldest winters on record. In desperation their warriors attacked American frontier settlements as much for food as for scalps. At the end of the Revolution many Iroquois relocated in Canada to avoid American reprisals.

Gnadenhutten Massacre

The Lenape were also initially reluctant to take up arms or support the British. Their chief White Eyes led his people in concluding the Treaty of Fort Pitt in 1778, the first treaty Congress made with Indians,  in which the two nations agreed to a defensive alliance. But American militiamen murdered White Eyes, America’s best friend in Ohio Territory, and claimed he died of smallpox. Then in 1782 a detachment of American militia marched into a community of Moravian Lenape named Gnadenhütten, or “Tents of Grace.” That these Indians were Christian pacifists made no difference to the soldiers. They separated the men, women, and children, and with their victims kneeling in front of them singing hymns, used butchers’ mallets to beat 96 people to death. Outraged, the Lenape allied with the British and exacted brutal retribution whenever American soldiers fell into their hands.

David Zeisberger

As the Revolution began, in spite of American assurances, Indian nations feared that the Americans’ ultimate goal was to steal their lands. Those fears turned out to be well founded. In April 1783 Britain recognized the United States’ independence at the Peace of Paris and transferred to America all her claims to the territory between the Atlantic and the Mississippi and from the Great Lakes to Florida. No Indians were invited, nor did they receive any mention in the treaty. When they learned that their British allies had sold them out and given away their lands, they understandably felt betrayed.

The United States won its Revolution, but in the west the Indians continued their war for independence for many years afterward. Once subdued, they were confined to reservations and were denied their culture and even their language. You’ll find accurate and heartrending accounts of what the native peoples suffered in their struggle against white expansion in Black Coats Among the Delaware by Earl P. Olmstead, based on the diaries and letters of the Moravian missionary David Zeisberger, who lived and ministered among his beloved Lenape until his death. It’ll change the way you view the history of our country.

New Release for Janet Grunst!

Today is the release day for my friend Janet Grunst’s latest novel, A Heart for Freedom, book 2 in her series set during the American Revolution, and I’m celebrating with her! Below are the details. I encourage you to get your copy, and if you haven’t read book 1, A Heart Set Free, you’ll want to get it too! You’re going to love the characters and the setting of this series!

A Heart for Freedom
Book 2

Matthew Stewart wants only to farm, manage his inn, and protect his family. But tension between the Loyalists and Patriots is mounting. When he’s asked to help the Patriots and assured his family will be safe, he agrees.

She’s seen the cost of fighting England, and she wants no part of it. In Scotland, Heather Stewart witnessed the devastation and political consequences of opposing England. She wants only to avoid war and protect the family and peace she finally found in Virginia. But the war drums can be heard even from their home in the countryside, and she has no power to stop the approaching danger.

The consequences are deadly. When Matthew leaves for a short journey and doesn’t return, Heather faces the biggest trial of her life. Will she give up hope of seeing him again? Will he survive the trials and make his way home? What will be the consequences of his heart for freedom?

A Heart Set Free
Book 1

2017 Selah Award Winner for Historical Romance

In 1770, Heather Douglas is desperate to escape a brewing scandal in her native Scotland. Penniless and hoping for a fresh start far away, she signs a seven-year indenture and boards a British merchant vessel headed to Virginia.

Widowed planter Matthew Stewart needs someone to help raise his two young children. The tall blond standing on the Alexandria quay doesn’t look like much after her harrowing sea voyage, but there’s a refinement about her that her filthy clothing cannot hide. Could God be leading him to take this unknown indentured servant as his wife?

When Matthew purchases Heather’s indenture, marries her, and takes her to his farm, she is faced with new and constant challenges. And Matthew wonders if they can ever bridge their differences and make a life together.

But in the Virginia countryside, Heather begins her greatest journey, one of self-discovery and of maturing faith. Here, she discovers that her emotional and spiritual scars bind her far more than her indenture . . . and love will finally set her heart free.

~~~

Janet Grunst is a wife, mother of two sons, and grandmother of eight. She lives in the historic triangle of Virginia (Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown) with her husband and West Highland White Terrier. Before pursuing a long-held dream of writing fiction she was employed in the banking industry for ten years and as a freelance writer for two regional publications. After taking a break to raise her children, she worked for an international ministry, Community Bible Study, most recently as the Executive Assistant for the Executive Director. She continues to serve as a leader in her local Community Bible Study class and in her church.

Her love of writing fiction grew out of a desire to share stories that can communicate the truths of the Christian faith, and entertain, as well as bring inspiration, healing, and hope to the reader.

Unveiling Refiner's Fire Cover!

We have a cover, and a lovely one it is, with all the credit going to my designer, Marisa Calvin Jackson! We just received the proofs I ordered so we could check how the central image would print. It was smaller than we like to have for print, but it turned out amazingly well.

The image, of course, is the one in this blog’s new header, which I mentioned might turn out to be the cover when I introduced our new look. It’s a painting titled L’Attesa, or The Expectation, by Arturo Ricci (1854-1919), an Italian artist of genre subjects. This particular painting perfectly illustrates the French setting for much of the story, with the central figures stunningly similar to my vision of my characters. The man on the left and the beautiful lady on his arm represent Caledonne’s son, Lucien, and Elizabeth beautifully. The older woman, the little girl, and the seated man at the painting’s center are wonderful stand-ins for Tess Howard, Abby, and Caledonne himself. It was indeed a serendipitous find, and it was free on Wiki Commons! I couldn’t  ask for more or be more pleased.

What do you think? Don’t you just love the colors Marisa chose to complement this painting? I’d love to hear your feedback!

Romancing France

America’s alliance with France during the Revolution was a decisive factor in defeating Britain. But as is normal in the relations of nations, treaties are not so easily formed, and a whole lot of maneuvering, arm-twisting, romancing, and sleight of hand went on behind the scenes to get France on board. Today I’m going to take a brief look at the American commissioners delegated by Congress to manage the process, beginning with the first man on the ground.

Silas Deane by William Johnston

Silas Deane was born in Groton, Connecticut, on January 4, 1738. He was a lawyer, a prosperous merchant, and a delegate to the Continental Congress. On March 2, 1776, Congress appointed him as a secret envoy to France, and as soon as he arrived in Paris he began negotiating with French Foreign Minister Comte de Vergennes for financial aid and unofficial shipments of arms and munitions. His position became official when Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee arrived in Paris with congressional orders appointing the three of them as the diplomatic delegation to France.

A month after the Treaties of Amity and Commerce and of Alliance between France and America were signed on February 6, 1778, Deane received a letter from Congress recalling him. He arrived in Philadelphia to discover to his shock that reports by Arthur accused him of financial improprieties even though both Vergennes and Franklin had written letters commending him. After a long and bitter dispute over the charges, Deane was allowed to return to Paris in 1780 to settle his affairs only to discover that he was almost ruined financially because his investments had plummeted in value and ships carrying his merchandise had been captured by the British.

Even worse, the British intercepted letters in which Deane described America’s military situation as hopeless and suggested negotiating with Britain. Nicely, they forwarded them to General Clinton in New York City. The general in turn gave copies to a loyalist newspaper publisher, James Rivington, who shared them in his Royal Gazette. The result was that Deane was labeled a traitor by his fellow countrymen. Sometimes you just can’t win!

Benjamin Franklin by Joseph Duplessis, 1778

Benjamin Franklin was the chief American commissioner. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706, he was one of seventeen children born to Josiah Franklin, and one of ten borne by Josiah’s second wife, Abiah Folger. Over the course of his life he founded many civic organizations and became an author, printer, politician, scientist, inventor, philosopher, postmaster, and diplomat, among other things—in addition to being one of our Founding Fathers. One might say he was an overachiever. Just thinking about his accomplishments makes me tired!

Franklin lived in London for many years serving as an agent for several colonies in addition to his scientific and philosophical endeavors. In December 1776, when he was 70 years old, Congress appointed him as one of three commissioners along with Deane and Lee and sent him to France. While living in Paris, he always wore a bearskin hat and dressed in plain clothing rather than the expected elaborate court dress, a habit that contributed largely to his reputation as the premier republican from America. Since he was well known among the French philosophes for his scientific discoveries, he was welcomed with great enthusiasm, especially by the ladies, who universally adored him. Consequently he was a prime mover in securing the alliance with France in 1778 in spite of the fact that his habit of staying up late schmoozing with the French movers and shakers (and especially the ladies), and then getting up late in the day. This frustrated to no end John Adams, who rose promptly at 5 a.m. to get to work. The commission was finally dissolved in September 1778, when Congress appointed Franklin as minister plenipotentiary to France, a position he held until he negotiated the Treaty of Paris in 1783 along with John Adams, John Jay, and Henry Laurens, which formally ended the war.

Arthur Lee

Arthur Lee was born in Virginia in December 1740, the youngest of four notable brothers that included Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, and William Lee. He was educated in medicine and law at Edinburgh and London and for several years practiced law in London, where he met Benjamin Franklin. He was critical of Franklin’s extravagant lifestyle, which was not auspicious for their relations when Congress sent him to Paris to work with Franklin as one of the commissioners. Lee didn’t get along with Deane either. In fact, he didn’t get along with most people. He was naturally suspicious of everyone and by all accounts was not liked or trusted by French officials, which, as you can imagine, didn’t help in negotiating with them. Franklin could hardly be civil to him, and John Adams was hard put to keep peace between the two men so the commission could actually accomplish its work. Although Lee persuaded Congress to recall Deane for financial irregularities, he was also recalled soon thereafter.

Interestingly, Lee was one of America’s first spies. He gathered information in France and Britain and also accused Edward Bancroft, who functioned as secretary to the commission, of being a British spy. More on him in my next month’s post. He was indeed a spy—a double agent, in fact—but unfortunately the other commissioners didn’t believe him, probably because they disliked him. As a result Bancroft continued his nefarious activities undiscovered to the end of the war. It was many years later after he and his colleagues had passed away before he was exposed.

John Adams by John Trumbull, 1792

John Adams was born on October 30, 1735, in Braintree, Massachusetts, the oldest of 3 sons of John Adams Sr. and Susanna Boylston. He’s also one of our Founding Father and served as the He was a lawyer, diplomat, politician, one of our Founding Fathers, the first vice president under George Washington, and the second president of the United States.

When Deane was recalled, Adams was named to replace him. He arrived in Paris in April 1778 only to learn that the alliance with France had been concluded in February. He found it frustrating to work with his fellow commissioners. He thought Lee paranoid and cynical and considered Franklin to be irritating, lazy, and overly accommodating to the French. He also distrusted and disliked Bancroft, though he didn’t believe Lee’s accusation that he was a British spy. In spite of not speaking French when he first arrived, Adams worked hard to impose order where it was lacking in the delegation’s finances and record keeping and soon became the commission’s administrator.

In September 1778 Congress named Franklin minister plenipotentiary to France. They sent Lee to serve in Spain, but left Adams hanging with no instructions. Feeling that he’d been slighted, Adams left France the following March. He returned in 1782 as a member of the American delegation negotiating the peace treaty with Great Britain.

We tend to idealize important figures in history like our Founding Fathers and the other heroes of the American Revolution, so it’s kind of gratifying to find out that they were very, very human, just like the rest of us. Undoubtedly it was a really fun assignment to work with this group of brilliant, but eccentric diplomats—or not so much.

Hearing 18th Century Paris

Turgot-Bretez Map, 1739

Paris is one of the settings in Refiner’s Fire, and while researching the city, I came across the fascinating video below that recreates the background sounds of the 18th century city. It was created by French musicologist Mylène Pardoen for the Bretez Project, which was presented at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in 2015. In addition to recording historically accurate sounds, Pardoen worked with experts to carefully map out the old streets of Paris and combine the audio with the city’s historical context to create a 3-D rendering based on one of the best maps of the day, the Turgot-Bretez Map of 1739. Turgot was the provost of Paris merchants who commissioned the map, and Bretez was the engineer who directed the survey of the city.

Pardoen explains that they chose the Grand Châtelet district between the Pont au Change and Pont Notre Dame bridges because in the 18^th century 80% of Paris’ background noise was concentrated there. Since there was no gas or electricity available back then, many artisans of luxury items, such as jewelers, engravers, and furriers established shops in this district to take advantage of the greater natural light along the river. The tall houses and narrow streets on either side of the bridges captured the sounds, creating a dense sound environment.

The soundscape is based on documents such as Le Tableau de Paris, published in 1781 by Louis-Sebastien Mercier and on works like those of Arlette Farge, who specialized on the history of the 18th century; Alain Corbin, who researched the history of the senses; and Youri Carbonnier, a recognized authority on houses built on bridges.

Joust of Mariners in Front of the Pont,
Nicolas-Jean-Baptiste Raguenet

In the video you’ll hear 70 sonic tableaux, many created by trades such as shopkeepers, craftsmen, and boatmen. You’ll recognize the rhythmic whoosh of air as a blacksmith in his shop in a Paris alleyway stokes his fire with a bellows; roosters crowing in the distance and pigs squealing as they’re driven to market; the babble of conversation at the street markets; carriages rolling along cobbled streets, punctuated by the clopping of the horses’ hooves; the rush of the Seine, and the washerwomen working under the arches of the bridge; the hum of flies at the fishmongers’ stalls; the noise of the loom in the woolen mill that stood at one end of the Pont au Change; the scraping of hides in the tanneries on Rue de la Pelleterie; and type being set at the print shop on Rue de Gesvres. Overhead are the cries of the seagulls drawn to the city’s waste heaps. You’ll also be able to discern how sounds echo beneath bridges and in covered passageways and the effect produced by the varying heights and construction materials of the buildings.

View of Paris from the Pont Neuf,
Nicolas-Jean-Baptiste Raguenet

According to Pardoen, most of the sounds are natural, with machine noises, for example, being recorded using authentic antique devices. However, the sound of the Notre Dame pump, which drew water from the Seine, had to be artificially recreated. Pardoen recorded an old-fashioned water mill and reworked the sound based on the estimated size of the pump’s vanes. “It is a research project that will continue to evolve,” Pardoen says. “The next step will be to include the machines and devices that are now missing from the image, and allow the ‘audience’ to stroll freely through the streets of the neighborhood.”

One thing I’d really love to have is a version that has English captions. That would really help non-French speakers like me in doing research.

I’d love to hear your reaction. What did you like best about the video, and what do you think of the sounds, the changing scenes? Did it help you to visualize a distant time and place in a new way? Please share your feedback!

New Look for the Blog!

Do you like the blog’s new look? I’ve been intending to change it forever but just haven’t taken the time. Today I decided to play a bit, inspired by the French setting in Refiner's Fire, and I really like this theme. (By the way, I just discovered that if you're looking at it on a smart phone, it looks somewhat different, and the image in the header doesn't show.)

A while back I happened across some wonderful paintings by Italian artist Arturo Ricci, and for the header image I decided to use one I particularly like, L’Attesa or “The Expectation”. It reflects my characters and parts of Refiner’s Fire quite nicely. I’m thinking the couple on the left could stand in as Elizabeth Howard on the arm of Lucien Bettár, le comte de Caledonne’s son and thus Jonathan Carleton’s cousin. Ideally her hair would be darker since it’s a dark auburn, but good enough. Her escort does look like I envision Lucien.

The little girl with the older woman could sure be Abby and Tess Howard, though Abby is 13 in the story so would be a bit bigger. Then the man seated behind them would be Caledonne, and the couple seated beside the doorway would be their hosts, Caledonne’s daughter and son-in-law le marquis and la marquise Cécile and Eugène de Sevieux. This is undoubtedly as close as I’m going to get to these characters.

The more I look at this painting, the more I’m thinking about using it for the Refiner’s Fire cover. It’s in public domain and I found a fairly large image on Wikimedia that Marisa might just be able to do her magic on and make work. 

I originally intended to use a naval battle painting for book 6, but what do you think? Would you like to see this scene gracing the cover of Refiner's Fire? Please leave your comments and let me know yay or nay—for both the cover and the new blog design.

Life at Versailles

Arial view of modern-day Versailles

In the forthcoming installment of the series, Refiner’s Fire, Elizabeth has been whisked off to France to keep her safe from British attacks. Meanwhile White Eagle is far out in Ohio Territory wrestling with the frustrating and tricky politics of negotiating with the Indians to prevent their allying with the British against the Americans.

My previous post gave a historical overview of Versailles, which is one of the story’s settings. One of the fun things about writing a sweeping historical saga is all the potential for intrigue on so many levels, and it’s so much better when history presents a treasure trove of factual material to work with, as in this case.

Versailles, just as every other royal court, was not only the nation’s power center, but also a hotbed of juicy rumors and delicious gossip. And there was plenty of fuel for the fire since even acts expected to be the most private—including personal bodily functions, dressing and undressing, sexual encounters, and births—were attended by courtiers and nobles who held various levels of rights of access. Naturally, the greater the Rights, the higher the individual’s personal prestige, so they were avidly flaunted. Louis XIV, France’s Sun King, developed these elaborate ceremonies in the 17th century as a way to control the nobles. By the late 1770s, when Refiner’s Fire is set, power struggles playing out on the field of etiquette were rife.

The most important nobles held Major Rights, which included things like being able to sit in the royal presence or to address the king as Monsieur instead of Monseigneur or Majesté, a privilege that indicated the highest intimacy. Lesser nobles and servants such as physicians and valets-de-chambres were granted only Minor Rights—much less impressive, but nevertheless an indication of a degree of royal favor that could be lorded over those less fortunate.

Marie Antoinette being dressed

Every day started with the ritual morning dressing, held separately for king and queen, beginning with a petit lever attended only by those who held Major Rights and followed by a grand lever open to those who held Minor Rights. The king and queen could not put on any item of clothing until it had been handed to them by whoever held that particular right. On one occasion, while Marie Antoinette waited stark naked and shivering, not to mention increasingly frustrated and humiliated, ever greater rights-holders kept entering the chamber, which meant that the person in possession of the article she was waiting for first had to hand it over to the one who outranked her. One presumes that by the time the grand lever began the king and queen at least had their underclothes on! The ritual undressing, the coucher, followed in the evening with the same formalities as the monarchs were put to bed—in separate chambers—with the assistance of the highest ranking members of the nobility.

Salon of the Grand Couvert

There was also a regular public dinner called the grand couvert, which pretty much anyone could attend to watch the royals eat. At left is the room where this took place at Versailles as it appears today. People did have to meet minimum standards for dress, such as a sword and hat for the men. If one came unprepared, however, the proper equipment was available for rent at Versailles’ gates. Surprisingly, considering the formality that reigned at the palace, the service at meals was usually haphazard, with special dishes for the royals sometimes going astray, only to be enjoyed by one of the servants later.

Marie Antoinette by Jean-Baptiste
Gautier Dagoty, 1775

At court ladies were expected to wear the cumbersome court dress like the one Marie Antoinette is wearing at left. It featured extremely wide hoops and a long train to display the expensive fabric it was made of. Men’s dress was no less ornate, and of course both men and women had to have their hair powdered. Pomatum was applied to the hair, then an enormous cape was draped over one’s clothing and powder was blown onto the hair. This made it impossible for men to wear hats, so they carried them under their arms at their sides instead! For ladies wool, tow, pads, and wire were added to their own hair to construct towering coiffures called poufs, which featured ornaments such as feathers and jewels. Imagine managing a really wide, long dress while wearing a tall monstrosity on one’s head for hours at a time! How would you sit down? Or go to the bathroom?

Madame de Pompadour

Wearing rouge was also de rigueur.
Because it was so expensive, it was seen as a badge of rank and distinction. No one outside the court was allowed to use it. There was nothing subtle about how it was applied either. You painted a precise circle of the stuff in a color pretty close to scarlet on each cheek, as shown in Madame de Pompadour’s portrait at right. (Look closely, and you can see the little case of rouge in her hand.) The effect was so…um, striking…that sensible Germans like Mozart thought it detestable and unbearable to the eyes.

Another interesting feature of the French court was that every subject traditionally possessed the right of access to the sovereign. This made security at the palace essentially nonexistent. The common people freely roamed through the palace’s salons, hallways, and chambers, and not necessarily in decent dress—which the poor certainly couldn’t afford. They even entered the king’s apartment as soon as he stepped out. Though the queen’s apartment was generally more or less off limits, the fishwives held an ancient right to address the queen on certain prescribed occasions. This eventually morphed into a general right of access for all the market women, and they would flock into the queen’s rooms and boldly admonish her and the princesses on their perceived failings.

What struck foreign visitors to Versailles in the 18th century most was the smell and the dirt. Much of it resulted from the royals’ numerous pets. Cats, dogs, monkeys, birds—you name it, they had it. You can imagine the chaos of animals bounding through the palace at will and doing their business wherever. To say nothing of the vagrants who settled into the palace’s many nooks and crannies in such numbers that they occasionally had to be routed out with spaniels. According to some reports, you could smell the place five miles out, though that seems a bit extreme!

All in all, life as a French king or queen wasn’t as glamorous as one might imagine. What’s your opinion of the “royal” life? How would you feel about having a whole crowd of people involved in your most private moments, including standing around gawking while you ate or even were in the process of giving birth?

The Palace of Versailles

The palace of Versailles is going to be one of the settings in Refiner’s Fire, so today let’s take a look at the home of King Louis XVI of France and his queen, Marie Antoinette.

Versailles was the royal residence and center of political power in France for little more than a century, from 1682 until the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789. Now a world-class museum, this palace is famous not only as a building, but also as a symbol of the absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime.

Before 1038 in the Charter of the Saint-Père de Chartres Abbey, Hugues de Versailles was listed as the seigneur of the insignificant village of Versailles, whose small castle and church lay on the road from Paris to Dreux and Normandy. The population of the village declined sharply after an outbreak of the Plague and the Hundred Years’ War, but in 1575 a Florentine citizen, Albert de Gondi, purchased the seigneury, and he invited the future Louis XIII on several hunting trips in area.

Versailles on a 1652 map by_Gomboust

The young dauphin was delighted with the forest and meadows that surrounded the village and the abundance of game he found there. The location was ideally situated between his principle residence at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Paris, and after he was crowned king, he hunted there again several times, finally ordering the construction of a stone and brick hunting lodge in 1624. Eight years later, he obtained the seigneury of Versailles from the Gondi family and began to make enlargements to the lodge.

The king and his successors, Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI each renovated and enlarged the structure during their reigns, creating extensive gardens and adding numerous other buildings to the site until it became one of the most costly and extravagant palaces in the world. More than 36,000 workers were involved in construction, and when the building was completed it could accommodate up to 5,000 people, including servants. An additional 14,000 servants and soldiers were quartered in annexes and in the nearby town.

The short video below is a cool 3-D presentation showing the progression of the chateau’s enlargement and the development of the gardens and additional buildings. In all, about 37,000 acres of land were cleared to make room for tree-lined terraces, walkways, and thousands of flowering plants, with 1,400 fountains and 400 pieces of sculpture.

Versailles is most associated with the Sun King, Louis XIV, who personally took on the role of architect. He made the chateau the new center for the royal court in 1682, establishing all the power of France there: government offices and the homes of thousands of courtiers, their retinues, and all the functionaries of court. The nobles of a certain rank and position were required to spend considerable time there, which enabled Louis to solidify his control of the government by preventing them from developing their own regional powers that would compete with his. Thus the French government became an absolute monarchy.

Below is a longer and very interesting video documentary about the history and development of Versailles.

In Refiner’s Fire, Jonathan Carleton’s uncle le Comte de Caledonne brings Elizabeth Howard to France to keep her safe from British assassination attempts. While there she meets the American commissioners to Paris, among others, and is drawn into the intrigues at court.

In my next post, we'll take a look at what life was like at Versailles during the mid 18th century.

What attracts me to Versailles the most is those fabulous gardens and the works of art housed there. What fascinates or attracts you the most about this palace turned museum?

Northkill Amish Series

Voting for the Christian Indie Awards is now open, and Bob Hochstetler and I covet your vote for The Return, Book 2 of our Northkill Amish Series, closely based on the inspiring true story of our Amish ancestors. Voting is open through March 31, 2018. To vote, go here, click on the link, scroll down to The Return, in the Historical Fiction category, and submit your vote. Book 1, Northkill, won the 2014 Foreword Magazine Indie Award, and The Return has already won the Interviews and Reviews 2017 Silver Award for Historical Fiction. We greatly appreciate your help in spreading the word about this series, and contest awards are one of the best ways to do that.

Below are some of the latest 5-star reviews for the Northkill Amish Series. We thank all our readers for their encouraging feedback!

“This first book in the two-part Northkill Amish series was a reading experience unlike any other. What makes this novel even more gut-wrenching is that the story is based on true events that happened to the ancestors of the authors. In astonishing descriptions based on solid research, the authors bring to life the story of an Indian attack on an Amish family during the French and Indian War. It is brutal and painful to read, yet so astounding in the depth of the spiritual struggle of the captives that are forced to undergo suffering and separation from loved ones. It is a book I could not put down and will never forget. I am anxious to read the sequel.” —HistoryLover (Amazon)

“I stayed up till 2 am this morning so I could finish The Return ... the story of an Amish family whose lives were shattered when Indians attacked their home and three family members were killed while three were kidnapped. This novel ... is based on true events. It was also written by descendants of the family, who obviously poured themselves into the research behind this book and produced a stellar series.

“I barely know where to begin with my review because this book is more than a historical tale. It is a life-changing experience as you read about people of faith who must deal with the reality that God sometimes allows suffering. The why of it is not always plainly seen. Sometimes God’s truth and purposes in that suffering are revealed in time. Yet there are situations in life that make no sense from our earthly perspective and may never make sense in this life.

“Powerfully written and engaging, The Return is a must read for Christians who think that pain and suffering only happens to sinners. For indeed it does, because we all have sinned. Yet not all of us must go through such suffering. Read this series and be changed forever. Five plus stars.” —HistoryLover (Amazon)

“Beautiful story. It is like Swiss Family Robinson, The Odyssey, Daniel Boone and Light in the Forest all rolled into one.” —Bill Hostetler (Amazon).

“I have heard the stories about my Amish ancestors, but they always seemed more legend than reality. The authors have succeeded in filling in the gaps of the family folklore by giving flesh-and-blood reality to the characters in this drama. I was impressed with the thorough research that supported the narrative, and with the vivid description of frontier life for Amish immigrants. But I was most impressed by the quality of the writing that kept me engaged throughout.” —Arvilla (Amazon).