Be sure to check out the full Time Travel to the 18th Century CD-ROM
(available from Folkus Atlantic)

Except for people living in the most isolated areas, 18th century
North Americans had access to a rich diversity of material goods.
What could not be produced from the land was imported.

North Americans still looked to Europe for luxury goods. Fashions in
clothing were set in France, and the upper classes eagerly ordered
the latest fabrics and styles. Each spring, European boats brought
books, furniture, violins, and window glass to North American ports.

Even in isolated areas, people had luxury goods. Settlers in Virginia
traded tobacco for luxury goods. Even the Loyalists who arrived to
farm in the Canadian wilderness brought along their mahogany
sideboards, silver tea services, and fine china.

Most new settlers brought their customs with them. Before long,
however, these customs were altered. European settlers began by
building houses similar to those they had known in Europe. Soon
they adapted their houses to suit the local climate and available
building materials. European palates became accustomed to oyster,
which grew plentifully on American shorelines.

Through their trading links, North Americans were coming into
contact with people from many countries and cultures. In the end,
newcomers to North America did not recreate European culture.
Instead, they created their own unique cultures, based on a mixture
of old and new.
         
   
 
   
   

FURNITURE FOR ALL SOCIAL CLASSES

Farmers often made simple furniture themselves, using only an axe, a knife and an auger. These settlers used local woods, including pine, maple and walnut. They also used animal hides to make chair seats.

The parents usually had a big bedstead, which stood in the main living area. Children sometimes slept in small trundle beds designed to fit under their parents' big bed when not in use. In this way, people conserved space in a small cabin. In cold climates, beds were sometimes built into an alcove. A curtain on the open side kept out draughts. Family members also slept on straw mattresses in front of the fire or in an attic.

Sandy Balcom

Upper Class Furniture
Some homes had rocking chairs. The rocking chair was invented in the 18th century, some say by Benjamin Franklin. It was originally invented for rocking a baby. Shortly after its invention, people began adding rockers to their old chairs. It was not until the next century, however, that cabinetmakers began to produce rocking chairs.

In many homes, a copper chandelier, with candles made of sheep tallow, provided light. Lamps were also used, burning anything from whale oil to codfish oil.

Towards the end of the century, most homes in New France had a stove for heating. In fact, the stove was often the most expensive item in the house. These stoves relied upon a new kind of fuel -- coal.

These stoves were easily dismantled for removal to another room or another house. Eighteenth-century houses often had a series of moveable wooden partitions that could be rearranged to create new rooms. This flexible arrangement meant that furniture had to be mobile. Nor could it take up too much space. The large extended families meant that many people were living in what we today would consider a single family dwelling.

Carpenters and cabinet makers devised furniture that accommodated to these special conditions. Stacking chairs, folding tables, trundle beds, and folding mattresses could all be whisked out of sight. Benches known as settles often opened out to form beds. A hutch-chair had a large flat surface that doubled as a table. Once the meal was concluded, this table top was tipped back to form the back of the chair. Not only did it take up less space, but it also served as a protection against draughts.

Instead of a single large chest, people began using separate drawers to organize their possessions. In fact, some early chests of drawers contained a large chest on top and several single drawers below. These pieces represent the transition between the two forms.

Most middle class people purchased their furniture from a cabinetmaker. By mid-century, joiners, cabinetmakers and chairmakers were making a good living in North American cities. Some cabinetmakers even produced harpsichords. These local artisans often copied elements from imported European furniture, including the curve of a leg or the lines of a chair. While these pieces may have been made of native woods, they were often stained to resemble imported wood such as mahogany. In contrast, the upper classes imported the real thing from Europe. These pieces were made by the finest European craftsmen and often contained gold trim known as gilt.

French artists took their inspiration from many sources. Towards the end of the century, furniture was modelled on the Greek furniture displayed on excavated sculpture and vase paintings. This fashion was due in part to the new French republic's fascination with ancient Republican Greece.

Thanks to trade with the East, there was also a distinct Chinese and Japanese influence on furniture. Many people owned tea sets, flower vases, and bowls made of Chinese porcelain. They imported black-and-gold lacquered commodes and screens, often painted with serene Oriental landscapes. This furniture was collectively referred to as "chinoiserie."
   
   


   
   
 
   
   

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS

In Europe, centuries of settlement had resulted in the harvesting of vast tracts of forest. By the 18th century, Europeans no longer had access to wood for construction. In contrast, most North Americans built in wood. In the early years of North American settlement, especially, only government buildings or the homes of the wealthy were built of stone.

To their surprise, the colonists found that local varieties of pine and other softwoods were far more durable than the softwoods of Europe. As a tree ages, the growth rings build up and the wood becomes denser. In North America, the land was still covered with old-growth forests that had never been cut. Today in North America, we no longer have the same durable wood that was available to people in the 18th century.

The mortar was often made on the construction site, using sand and lime that the colonists had burned themselves. To make lime, they layered a pit with wood and limestone, arranged in layers. By setting it on fire, they obtained quicklime. When wet, this was called slake lime and was ready to be mixed with the sand. Lime was also obtained from oyster shells.

   

Some lessons were learned at great cost. For example, French settlers in the town of Louisbourg tried to shingle their roofs in the European style, by nailing wooden shingles onto widely-spaced roofing strips. When heavy rain and snow settled on these roofs, however, they tended to cave in. As a result, the carpenters began nailing the roof boards together, using slightly overlapping bevels, before putting the shingles on top. No matter how hard it rained or how tiny the particles of snow, these roofs remained impervious.

Some early pioneer homes had wooden chimneys daubed with mud. More often, the chimney and hearths were made of flatstone, brick, or rubblestone.

Houses in Canada and New England often had a central chimney. A hearth on each side ensured that the heat warmed the entire house. Many houses in the snowy St. Lawrence Valley had three chimneys.

The cooking chimney was larger and more elaborate than the others, and often had an adjacent warming oven made of brick or stone. Woodburning and coal stoves made of iron were built during this period in New France and New England. These were used for heat, rather than cooking.

Some of the builders raised their houses on stone foundations made of rubblestone or dry-walled field stones. Although not yet basements, these foundations did serve to lift the houses off the cold, wet ground. They also provided a warm air space between the ground and the floor. In some cases, this small space was used for storage, but most extra storage space was found in the attic.

Colonies were often forbidden to manufacture products sold by the mother country as exports. Instead, the colonies served as a market for these goods. For this reason, window glass was exported from France to Louisbourg in large sheets, which were then cut into tiny panes. Many settlers also had wooden shutters at the window. In cold climates, wooden shutters were essential to keep out the cold and possibly deter thieves as well. In warm climates, shutters kept the houses cool inside. Rural farmers who could not afford glass depended on wooden shutters and glued parchment at the windows.

Trade links within North America provided the colonists with other needed building materials. Louisbourg, for example, obtained much of its brick from New England. People in the town also purchased Boston board and even pre-fabricated frames for houses. These were marked with Roman numerals as an aid to reconstruction.

As more and more towns were ravaged by fire, the townspeople began building in stone instead. Quebec and Montreal even established laws that forbade the use of wood in any new building projects.

The careful construction of the homes and interiors did not necessarily extend to outer buildings. Warehouses were often built of piquet (or poles). Even city properties contained barns and stables. Some barns merely consisted of a thatched roof balanced on posts. This kind of roof could be raised or lowered on its poles so that it rested on the pile of hay and kept it dry.

LOG CABINS

Logs were cut and roughly hewn in the woods, before being brought to the building site for final hewing. At first, before sawmills were constructed, all the cuts were made by hand, using hand tools. These included pit-saws, long-saws, hand-saws, hewing axes, two-handled knives, planes, chisels, gouges, and files. In many cases, two men stood in a pit with the log laid across it and worked the saw back and forth between them.

Some logs were left in the round. Other settlers chose to cut the logs lengthwise, so that they had a flat edge. In this case, the two outer edges of the log were reserved for the roof. These roofing pieces were laid with their bark covering turned outward to protect the building against rain and snow.

The end of each log was grooved to fit onto the log which lay underneath it. Sometimes the very end of the log was grooved in order to form a cabin with neatly fitting corners. Other builders cut the groove about six inches from the end of the log, so that the ends protruded past the corner of the house.

The appearance of the houses varied according to the skill of the builder. Some immigrants were unskilled urban dwellers with little experience in hewing and joining techniques. Their houses were rather crude, rough structures. Other immigrants were highly skilled carpenters who could compete on an equal basis with any of our carpenters today. They usually chose to square the logs, using a hewing axe or an adze. These squared logs were then joined with elaborate dovetailed, rounded or v-notched corners. (There are two theories on the origin of log cabin technology in the New World. One theory holds that the technology was brought over by Scandinavian settlers. The other theory attributes the technology to German settlers.)

Birchbark was sometimes placed between the wall and the planking as insulation; sometimes they used pine needles. Today we use building paper.

Even the quality of shingle depended on the skill of the builder. They varied from simple pieces split off the log with an axe, to finely crafted shingles. In the British colonies, some settlers shingled the entire house. Others preferred clapboard.

MORTISE AND TENON JOINTS

In frame construction, the builder erected a frame of squared timber which was filled with logs, brick or rubblestone. The most secure joint was the mortise and tenon. In this joint, a groove, or mortise, was cut into the post. The end of the other post was cut to form a tongue, or tenon. This tenon fit snugly into the mortise and was secured with wooden pins. Where settlers had access to a blacksmith's forge, iron nails were also used. However, since nails were made one at a time, by hand, they were kept to a minimum. Often the nail had a decorative head in the form of a diamond, rosette, or mushroom.

PARTITIONS & MOVEABLE PANELS

In a half timber house, the roof was supported by posts at the corners and at intervals along the walls. Because the roof rested on their outer walls, inner walls served only as partitions. These partitions were often moveable. As the family grew or diminished, or as more storage space was needed, these wooden partitions were rearranged to create new rooms or corridors. Deep closets and cupboards were created by adding a partition to a chimney corner.

Such innovative use of partitions and other moveable structures was quite common in the 18th century. The upper classes, for example, often had expensive mouldings or pannelling on the interior walls of their houses. These were considered part of the furnishings. When a house was sold, the panels were packed up and moved, along with beds and other furnishings.

Some homes had sleeping alcoves built right into the walls. A curtain drawn across such an alcove provided both privacy and warmth to the occupant. An attic under the eaves of the roof provided additional sleeping quarters.

GARDENS

There were few strictly residential districts. A fine house was often located next to an inn or warehouse. Rich and poor lived side by side. At a time when cities had no proper sewage facilities, the fragrant gardens of the upper classes were a peaceful refuge from the odor and filth of the streets. The sweetest-smelling plants were arranged close to the path. Clover and other sweet grasses were planted to release a pleasant scent when trod upon. Fountains were also popular.

WAINSCOTTING AND WALLPAPER

Many New England and Loyalist homes used wainscotting on their walls. In wainscotting, a chair rail ran parallel to the floor at a distance of 20-30 inches. The wall below this rail was panelled with thin strips of wood. Wallpaper was produced in the American colonies at this time and people who could afford it sometimes papered the wall above the wainscotting.

 

Also covered on the CD ROM (available from Folkus Atlantic):

  • Furniture
  • Clothing
  • Wigs