Unit3

Cowpens National Battlefield Parks As Classrooms

The Robert Scruggs House on the Cowpens Battlefield property was built around 1828.

The Scruggs House on the Cowpens Battlefield property was built in 1828. “Life was hard, and children were expected to participate in the daily activities. Girls helped with the household chores while the boys accompanied the men in the fields and forests. Even very young boys were proficient hunters.”

INTRODUCTION

When the first white settlers arrived in the western Carolinas, they found a terrain which had been home to Indians for generations. The land was rugged but rich in forest and fields. Unlike those settlements along the ocean, where supplies were transported by ship, these frontier families had only the supplies they carried with them. The first necessities were shelter and food.

The first shelters were rude cabins of round logs. In the areas where the trees were cut, they planted corn. But the immediate need for food made it necessary to hunt and kill the many animals in the area. Because accuracy was required, the early settlers carried long rifles, and to butcher the larger animals where they fell, they carried large knives. Meat was cooked over the open fire on a green wood spit, or was stewed in an iron pot hung over the fire.

The forests supplied the wood for the few pieces of furniture to make the cabin more comfortable. Chairs and bedsteads were fashioned from small trees, and tabletops were made from sawn lumber. Even the household utensils were carved or fashioned from branches and small trees. Plows and farming utensils were made the same way. When the light faded, or when bad weather kept the men close to the cabins, the time was spent building.

Frontier women had little leisure time. There was food to prepare, candles to make, cows to milk, butter to churn and animals to feed. Those who had sheep sheared the animals, carded the wool into strands and spun the strands into yarn. Clothing had to be fashioned from the wool or linen when it was available. Later, cotton was available. Women used roots and vegetation to make dyes to give color to their material.

Animal hides were scraped and tanned, providing leather for harnesses, leggings and moccasins. Many frontiersmen wore deerskin hunting clothes.

Life was hard, and children were expected to participate in the daily activities. Girls helped with the household chores while the boys accompanied the men in the fields and forests. Even very young boys were proficient hunters.

These early settlers had few neighbors and no doctors. When an injury occurred, they dealt with it in the best manner they could. Sickness was a constant threat, and herbal medicines were administered. Many women died in childbirth, and many children died in infancy. In addition to natural disasters, Indian attacks were sporadic as the settlers pushed into the Indian territory.

Who were these frontier settlers, and where did they come from?

Many of the early settlers were Scots-Irish, Scots lowlanders who had fled from the border areas of Scotland and England to escape the border wars. The Scots first settled in Ireland, but were dissatisfied with that area since they were staunch Presbyterians among the Irish Roman Catholics. They emigrated from Ireland to the New World and traveled down the Old Wagon Road from Pennsylvania to the hills of the Carolinas. Fiercely independent, they were very adaptable, and they learned quickly to survive in this wild country. They modified the Scandinavian/German log cabin to their own use. They were the quintessential frontiersmen.

The lives of these people centered on families, homes, hunting, farming and herding. As the settlers pushed west, there was increasing conflict with the native people, the Cherokees, who resented the encroachment into their territory.

DISCUSSION POINTS

Long rifles (advantages and disadvantages)
Hunting
Conflict with Indians
Log structures
Lifestyles
Independence
Skills:
Candle making
Carding and spinning wool
Making linen
Cotton material
Dyeing material
Churning butter
Iron work
Carving
Plowing
Herbal medicines

Typical clothing and equipment of this period included a hunting frock, a haversack, and a musket.

Top

Settlers travel to new territory. Drawing by Scott Withrow

GOAL: To have students identify the Scots-Irish and explain their role in the Carolina Backcountry during the American Revolution.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

There is a myth that all Scotland was like the Scottish Highlands. Although there were some similarities, there were great differences in culture. Highland Scots held on to strong tradition; Anglo-Saxon England more increasingly influenced the Lowland Scots. Lowland Scots lived south of Edinburgh, many on the border with England. The latter area, often referred to as the Borders, was a land known for its herding of livestock. It was often referred to as a lawless, poor and overpopulated region where cattle rustling and other such crimes were common. The Border Collie, a popular sheep dog, was developed in the Borders region.

Life was difficult economically for these poor Lowland Scots. Some moved to Ulster in Northern Ireland. King James I of England made it government policy to settle additional Scots in Ulster. His purpose was to pacify a turbulent region with Protestant Scots loyal to the crown.

Life in Ireland was no better. Lowland Scots settlers who worked as tenants on land awarded to Scottish and English noblemen lacked power to stop higher and higher rent increases, and the Scots remained segregated from the Native Irish, with whom they had cultural and religious differences.

Higher rents, famines and difficult relations with the Native Irish caused the Scots to move again. America, providing opportunities for land and freedom, pulled them. Close to a quarter of a million Ulster Scots migrated to America between 1715 and 1775.

In America, the Ulster Scots were known at first as Irish, so-named for their last homeland. (They intermarried little with the Native Irish.) Ulster Scots later took the name Scotch-Irish (today, often referred to as Scots-Irish) to distinguish themselves from the Native Irish, who migrated to America in great numbers, beginning in 1840. The Scots-Irish, along with the Germans, made up much of the population of the southern backcountry. Log cabins, hunting, herding and subsistence farming were associated with the Scots-Irish. Contradictory and adaptable people, they valued their faith, progress and education.

The Scots-Irish grew to value land and freedom. Their independence, love for freedom and defense of their American homeland pushed most of them to become ardent Whigs in the Revolution. Many of the militia at the Battles of Kings Mountain and Cowpens were toughened Scots-Irish frontiersmen.

PRE-VISIT ACTIVITIES

Have students identify the Scots-Irish and explain their name.
Have students explain those factors that helped push the Scots-Irish out of Ireland.
Have students explain those factors that helped pull the Scots-Irish to America.
Have students use a map to trace the Scots-Irish migration from Lowland Scotland to Ulster to America.
Study material culture associated with the Scots-Irish, including: the Pennsylvania Rifle, the log cabin, foodways, farming/herding practices, etc.

Oxen pull covered wagons. Drawing by Scott Withrow

Revolutionary War Era children wore many layers of clothes depending on the season. Children living on plantations wore better quality clothing than those in the backcountry. Girls wore long dresses, pantaloons, dust caps (mob caps) and aprons, while boys wore knee-knockers and ruffled shirts.

Also, The American Girls Pastimes: Felicity’s Craft Book; Felicity’s Cook Book

Some resources are available in the bookstore at Cowpens National Battlefield Visitor Center.

A number of Colonial-Revolutionary Era Americans kept journals. George Washington was among these. Much of his journaling was in the form of agricultural notations and records. At the Battle of Cowpens, a number of people made journal entries or completed journals later in life. James Collins, a seventeen year-old soldier in the battle, wrote a journal in his old age from memory and surviving notes. Journals such as these are first-hand accounts (primary source materials) of the past. They are invaluable sources because they give important facts about the Revolutionary War Era from one involved in the events. The reader should be cautious, however; even though the journal-writer was closer to historical events, he or she might show prejudice related to specific events. Memory lapses or reliance on folklore might also contribute to misinformation.

In addition to the content of the journal, colonial writing and penmanship are important topics of study. Writing technology had changed little over the years; early Americans still used quill pens similar to those scribes used in the Middle Ages. Journals were often bound, and some later published, as with the James Collins journal.

The following activities address the making of quill pens, ink blotters, and parchment journals as well as journaling and penmanship.

2. Or, have students prepare a toothpick quill pen as follows (student directions):

Sources for ink wells, powdered ink packets, quill pens, journals and sketch books:

In the backcountry, the early settlers had few neighbors and practically no doctors. When an injury occurred they dealt with that in the best manner they could. Sickness was a constant threat, and herbal medicines were administered because herbal remedies were the only medical knowledge available. Since the earliest of times, knowledge of herbs, both cultivated and wild, had been passed down from generation to generation by oral traditions. Settlers had to rely on these oral traditions or trial and error. Most families in the eighteenth century had a kitchen garden, which contained vegetables as well as herbs.

Doctors were few and far between, and the only requirement to become a physician was to call oneself a doctor. In addition, in most families there was usually one woman who possessed the knowledge necessary to treat the family.

Many women died in childbirth, and many children died in infancy. Simple illnesses could worsen into fatal diseases even with the use of extensive herbal remedies. It was a difficult way of life by present-day standards.

The isolation of towns and neighbors was one preventative to the spread of infectious diseases, but when soldiers from different geographical areas came together in camp, disease went on the rampage. The younger soldiers were more susceptible to the illnesses, while the older soldiers seemed to have a better immunity to the illnesses. As an example of the killing power of diseases within the soldiers’ camp, musketry or bayonet killed 1,000 Americans, 1,200 received battlefield wounds, 6,000 more were interned in prison camps, while a staggering 10,000 lost their lives to illness.

Physicians sometimes knew little of diseases, and even less of bacteria and viruses. There were no diagnostic tools such as stethoscopes and thermometers. Little was known of the inner workings of the body, so doctors made diagnoses by simply observing the patient. Patient treatment for diseases included better food, cleaner water, laxatives, emetics (for vomiting), enemas, blistering (a caustic solution was applied to the skin to raise blisters; it was thought that it drew the inflammation out of the body), and bloodletting (again, drawing the sickness out.)

Herbal remedies for minor illnesses and injuries included teas, poultices and ointments made from the leaves, bark, roots, seeds, flowers, and fruit of various plants that were available in the nearby woods or that could be grown in the settler’s herb gardens. Willow for pain or fever, sage for coughs and colds, comfrey for bruises and broken bones, peppermint or chamomile for upset stomachs, ragweed for bee stings, onion and mustard poultices for coughs and colds are among some of the herbal remedies that the settlers used.