Can You 18th Century

Can you live 18th century? Nine Mercersburg Academy students and two faculty explored this very question at the Karniker Chicken Institute this year. Each day's theme had a different story to help them immerse, imagine and inspire a love of 18th century culture. Day one, can you dress? A clothing presentation and lots of clothing fittings and they were all fully outfitted for their 18th century lifestyle. Day two was can you cook like a commoner? Being taught the basics of hearth cooking, baking and fire starting, the students foraged what was available on site and made very simple recipes. For many it was their first time cooking over a fire but for all it was an experience they'll keep for a lifetime. A cake, boiled asparagus, eggs served on lettuce, a pea and pork soup. Our third day can you work was a hard day of laundry, splitting wood, gardening and carpentry. We thought perhaps this would be the least popular of the days but the students loved it, though agreeing that it did make them appreciate modern luxuries more and each of them learned a new part of their skill set. Most of the work we were doing was performed historically by women and so we ended the session with a discussion on gender inequality in 18th century. Day four turned more serious with can you think 18th century? Using court transcripts from the old bailey, the students acted as prosecutors, defendants, witnesses and jury in real life cases. Such thoughtful discussions these young citizens had as they weighed up their decisions. The cases of theft, murder, infanticide and violent robbery all had correlations with modern world issues. Following such a serious day, day five was can you frolic? Cricket is one of our most popular programs and was huge in 18th century and played by both genders. After it got a little bit more vigorous, we switched to tavern games, board games, drafts, riddles and songs. Ending a positive week with these games showed the sense of colonial community we'd inspired. Day six was a feast on the frontier where we made more extravagant meals to share together. A game hen, a beef stew over the fire, numerous pies, rhubarb, artichoke and apple, french biscuits, lamb kebabs. Everyone lent a hand. Each of the students planned their own recipes using original 18th century sources and we had a nice mixture of savory meals and desserts. One thing we learned that whipping eggs into a white takes a lot of time when doing it by hand. Baking them in our bake oven, everything was ready to serve by 6 p.m. Making this a longer session for the students, an all-day experience, but all the more gratifying for as we sat down to eat around a table in our colonial town. This ends part one. In part two we'll be looking at some of the students' individual projects, what they learned and interviewing them about their experience on Life on the Frontier.