Presented by Colonial Williamsburg, Eighteenth Century Life in Williamsburg, Virginia is a 1966 story of a typical morning of a colonial household. Filmed in restored Williamsburg, the reenactment follows a family’s household slaves through their morning routines as they prepare breakfast for the master and his family. The film opens with shots of wildlife, followed by a lamplighter going around blowing out flames in street lamps. A slave pulls a bucket of water up from the well (02:15). He then collects firewood. A stable boy feeds a horse (03:04), and the coachman uses a hand-made pitchfork to move hay. The coachman leads a horse out of the stable to the water trough. The coachman and stable boy groom the horse and oil the animal’s hooves (04:28). A young boy scoops hot water from a kettle over the fire (04:50), and then he takes the hot water and some embers to the master bedroom to start a fire for the master of the house. In the kitchen, the cook puts a slab of meat on a spit and starts to cook it over the fire (05:58). In the dairy house, a boy pours milk and retrieves dough (06:30). The master of the house, Christopher Kendall, a local cabinetmaker, wakes up and washes his face in the water basin. He uses sassafras root to clean his teeth. Then he lathers on soap and shaves with a straight razor. A young girl fetches eggs while her sister feeds the chickens (09:00). A boy retrieves a slab of bacon from the smokehouse (09:54). The cook continues to prepare breakfast for the master and his family—a breakfast that includes traditional southern waffles. She slices off strips of bacon while her son pours the batter into the waffle iron. Several different foods are cooked or heated over the open stove cooking fire. The boy roasts coffee (14:00) and then grinds the beans. Meanwhile, the master of the house dresses in traditional colonial dress (16:10) including a powdered wig. The boy carries breakfast from the cookhouse into the main house. The family sits down around the table for breakfast. The film shows the porcelain and china dishware and silver forks they use to eat the meal. The master and the eldest son leave the house to head to work (19:50). A woman walks her cow down the street, greeting the two men on the way. Two horses pull a wagon down the street, which concludes the film.
Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting part of an historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Colonial Williamsburg’s 301-acre (122 ha) Historic Area includes buildings from the 18th century (during part of which the city was the capital of Colonial Virginia), as well as 17th-century, 19th-century, and Colonial Revival structures, as well as more recent reconstructions. The Historic Area is an interpretation of a colonial American city, with exhibits of dozens of restored or re-created buildings related to its colonial and American Revolutionary War history. Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area’s combination of restoration and re-creation of parts of the colonial town’s three main thoroughfares and their connecting side streets attempts to suggest the atmosphere and the circumstances of 18th-century Americans. Colonial Williamsburg’s motto has been: “That the future may learn from the past”.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
