This Issue's Character feature
This issue features: Felicity, Josefina, and Kirsten(The chronologically first American Girl, Kaya, was not yet introduced when the Handbook was published.)
From the American Girls Club Handbook:
Felicity grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1774, just as America was about to become a nation.
Felicity woke up each morning in a tall-post bed with a tester, or canopy, on top. If the weather was chilly, the red-checked curtains around her bed were closed to keep out drafts. If the weather was warm, the curtains stayed open to let cool breezes blow throuogh. Felicity had her bed all to herself, but in other families children often had to share a bed with their sisters, brothers, parents, or even houseguests!
Colonial homes had separate rooms for sleeping, dining, and visiting, but not for bathing. There were no indoor bathrooms--in fact, there was no indoor plumbing or running water at all! Instead of bathrooms, people used outdoor toilets called necessaries and kept chamber pots in their bedrooms. Felicity also had a pitcher and washbasin in her bedchamber for her quick morning washup. She had a bath only a few times a year--colonists didn't think bathing was healthy! Baths were also a lot of work. For each bath, a bathing tub had to be set up in the parlor. Then a screen was placed around the tub for privacy and to keep out drafts. Finally, buckets and buckets of water were hauled from a well, heated, and poured into the tub. No wonder colonists didn't bathe very often!
Felicity spent most of her day learning to become a proper gentlewoman. One colonial gentleman proudly described his daughters' day this way: "They are every day up to their elbows in Housewifery, which will qualify them to be useful Wives, and if they live long enough, Notable Women." After breakfast, Felicity helped her mother supervise the activities of the household. What a great deal there was to learn! Colonial homes often looked like small villages, with separate buildings called dependencies for the kitchen, laundry, servants' quarters, stable, dairy, and smokehouse. In each building, servants or slaves performed their duties according to the mistress's directino. As she went about her daily activities, Mrs. Merriman taught Felicity how to make and mend clothes, preserve fruits and meats, and dry herbs for cooking and medicines. Outside, she showed her how to pick the best berries for jams and jellies and how to plant a proper colonial garden with sweet-smelling flowers near the house and herbs and vegetables near the kitchen.
In addition to learning to manage a household, colonial girls were expected ot learn the art of being a lady. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his daughter, "Follow closely your music, reading, sewing, housekeeping." So Felicity's day also included lessons with Miss Manderly. At Miss Manderly's, Felicity learned to dance, to write elegantly, and to create samplers of fancy stitchery. Felicity grew tired of writing the same letters and doing the same stitches over and over. She thought it would be much more exciting to learn Greek, Latin, philosophy, and geography, just as young men did. She wasn't the only colonial girl who felt that way. One girl stitched these words into her sampler:
Patty Polk did this and she
hated every stitch she did in it.
She loves to read much more.
Even the dullest day in a colonial girl's life, however, could always be brightened by visits with friends and neighbors. After supper, Felicity's family often gathered with friends in the parlor. There, they amused themselves with singing, reading aloud, listening to music, playing popular parlor games, and talking abou the important events of the changing times.
Josefina and her family worked, prayed, and celebrated on a rancho in New Mexico in 1824.
Josefina awoke each morning just as the first pink streaks of sunrise began to creep over the mountains in the east. She knew by the stirrings of the animals in their pens and the familiar wake-up call of the cranky old rooster that is was time to start the day. The cool morning air chilled her toes as she slilpped out from her bed of soft sheepskins and stepped onto the woven rug in the sala (SAH-lah), or room, she shared with her sisters. She dressed quickly. She had chores to do before the village church bell rang at seven o'clock and her family gathered at the small altar in their home for prayers led by Papá.
Josefina's days followed the steady rhythm of her family's work on the rancho (RAHN-cho). Like most girls her age, Josefina spent much of her time learning household skills like cooking, cleaning, gardening, and weaving. Her first chore every day was to carry a large pottery jar, or tinaja (tee-NAH-ha) down to the stream to get water for cooking, drinking, and washing. She used a dipper made from a gourd to pour the water through a horsehair strainer. Then she placed a soft cushion made of yucca root on her head and carefully balanced the jar on top. Josefina knew how precious the water she carried was. Even impatient Francisca carried water with care, remembering Mamá's gentle warning: "De gota a gota se agota la mar," or "Drop by drop, even the ocean becomes dry."
By the time Josefina returned with water, the rancho was bustling with activity. her sisters were already sweeping the dried-earth floors with brooms made of long stalks of dried grass. They welcomed Josefina's help as they dipped their brooms in the water to "lay the dust."
In the corner of the courtyard, a fire was already blazing in the outdoor oven. Carmen, the cook, sometimes let Josefina test the oven temperature with a piece of wool. She'd place the wool on the end of a wooden paddle, stick it into the oven, and count to twenty. If the wool turned brown, the oven was ready for baking.
Josefina had learned many other cooking skills under Mamá's watchful eye. She used a mano (MAH-no), or stone held in the hand, and a metate (meh-TAH-teh), or large flat stone, to grind corn. She placed pieces of pumpkin to dry on the ledge called a shepherd's bed above the hearth to preserve them. And she pounded dried beef on a metate until it was paper-thin and tender. "Pégale Rieso!" (PEH-gah-leh ree-EH-so) her sisters would cry as she pounded. "Hit it hard!"
At noon, the village church bell rang again, calling everyone to prayer and to the main meal of the day. After her siesta (see-ES-tah), or rest, Josefina often spent the hot part of the afternoon within the cool adobe (ah-DOH-beh), or mud-plaster, walls of the weaving room. There, she carded, or untangled, the wool between brushes and spun the wool into yarn by twirling a long spindle called a malacate (mah-lah-KAH-teh).
Different days brough different chores. Monday was wash day at the stream. Josefina spent other days tending the garden or gathering plants for dyeing wool. Each season brough special work as well. Every fall, the women gathered all the children to husk the newly harvested corn. Josefina remembered the lively tales her mother would tell to keep the children from getting bored during the husking. In the spring, Josefina helped the women put a new coat of adobe plaster on the rancho's tall walls. Josefina had fun spreading the plaster with her bare hands, but Clara insisted on using sheepskin pads.
The ringing of the church bell at six o'clock signaled evening prayers and the end of the workday. The quiet evening was Josefina's favorite time of day. She loved the chill of the clear evening air and spicy smell of the piñón (pee-NYOHN), or pine, wood burning in the fireplace. Curled up in front of the fire in the family sala after the evening meal, Josefina practiced colcha (KOHL-chah) embroidery and listened to the stories and songs of the viejos (vee-EH-hohs), or old people. Not every evening passed in this quiet manner, however. A wedding, a religious feast day, or the arrival of guests would bring music, dance, and laughter--a celebration called a fandango (fahn-DAHN-go). At a fandango, guitar players, fiddlers, and other musicians played music such as waltzes, quadrilles, and minuets for the guests, who often danced until dawn!
Kirsten Larson and her family came from Sweden in 1854 to make a new life on the Minnesota frontier.
Kirsten and her family worked hard to make a good life in their new American home. The Larsons started their workday with the sunrise. There were no alarm clocks in 1854, and very few pioneer families had clocks of any kind. They kept time by watching the sun. When the sun was high in the sky, it was time for the noontime meal. When Kirsten could hold out her hand and fit two fingers between the bottom of the sun and the horizon, sunset was a half hour away. That meant it was time to call the men in from the fields for the evening meal.
One of Kirsten's first chores of the day was milking the cows. Then she turned them out to graze for the day. What the cows ate while grazing changed how their milk looked and tasted. Kirsten kept the cows away from wild garlic and onions. If the cows ate those things, the Larsons' butter would taste awful! In the evening, Kirsten rounded up cows for the evening milking. Some cows came to the sound of a bell or horn, but others were stubborn. A pioneer girl named Anna Olsson wrote, "We have a mean calf that chases me. I got so mad I told Mama that that calf would never grow up to be a decent person!" Children also had the job of churning butter. It took about a half hour of steady churning to turn cream into butter. In the winter, when cows couldn't graze on green grass, the butter was almost white. Some pioneers added carrot scrapings to their butter for color.
In the springtime, the whole family helped with the plowing and planting. Children like Kirsten and Peter had the job of planting corn. They put six corn seeds in each hole. They put in six seeds because they knew some wouldn't sprout. While they planted, they repeated rhymes like this one:
One for the blackbird,
One for the crow,
One for the cutworm,
And three to grow.
Pioneers often planted pumpkins around their corn plants. Pumpkin vines spread out on the ground to smother the weeds. Pioneers learned about corn planting from Indians. They taught the pioneers to save the best kernels from their harvest and soak them in water and herbs. Soaking the corn kernels helped them grow faster when pioneers planted them the following year.
During the fall harvest, children helped by carrying water to the workers in the fields. It was a tough job. The heavy buckets were hard to balance, and children often had to carry them a mile or more. Children also had the job of stripping handfuls of wheat kernels for everyone to chew while they worked. When the kernels were chewed, they turned into a kind of gum. Chewing helped keep everyone's throats moist in the dusty fields.
One of a pioneer child's most important chores was helping to keep the home fire burning. Pioneer families depended upon their fire for both cooking and heat, so the cabin's fire had to be kept going night and day. Children helped keep the woodbox full of logs and kindling, smaller twigs that would catch fire easily. If the fire went out in the cabin, a girl like Kirsten might be sent to a neighbor's house to bring back live coals in a small pot. To keep the coals glowing all the way home, she had to blow on them every few minutes.
The Larsons had lots of work to do, but there was time for relaxing, too. In the evenings, the family gathered to share news of the day or tell stories. They took time out to celebrate special events like barn raisings and birthdays. And of course everyone looked forward to holiday celebrations like the Fourth of July and a special Swedish celebration called Midsummer.
