Mad Hatter, Poisonous Tomatoes, and other trip trivia
We recently returned from a trip to DC, Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown.
In DC, the big event was getting our researcher cards at the National Archives and doing genealogy research. Pretty cool - instead of waiting for an hour and a half with the tourists, we went through a bunch of security, a little training about using the archives and handling original documents and then researched some civil war ancestors.
We found original and mostly handwritten records on four relatives. One of them was charged with desertion but found not guilty. We made copies of the original court martial documents. Another we learned died of pneumonia (called lung fever on the document) shortly after being discharged. Yet another died of diarrhea after being discharged - but since the illness started before the discharge he was counted as a casualty of the civil war.
In Williamsburg we purchased tri-corn hats (not the cheap made in china felt) but ones made from a blend of wool and beaver fur (quite water proof).
We learned the origin of the phrase "mad hatter" or "mad as a hatter." Early hat makers used lead (for something) in the process of making hats. Regular prolonged exposure to the lead caused dementia.
Why were tomatoes considered poisonous? Because early Americans ate them on pewter plates. The acid in the tomatoes would leach out the lead and poison the eater.
Another interesting fact we learned at Jamestown - about 2/3s of the original settlers died from starvation although there was plenty of fish and game about. These settlers were "skilled" hunters and fishers but their techniques learned in England (stocked lakes and woods) did not transfer well to their new environs - and the settlers did not adapt so well.
Average life expectancy in the 1700s: 39 - middle aged at 15!!!
We also learned why Thomas Jefferson did not divest himself of slaves even though he fought for emancipation as part of the Constitution. Was it a simple case of hypocrisy (as some revisionist historians would have us believe)? No. Virginia law at the time and nearly up until T.J.s death put a ceiling on the number of slaves that could be freed statewide during any year. The law also required the master to pay through the nose to provide for training and other stuff for the freed slave. So even if T.J. were able, under current law, to free all of his slaves it would have bankrupted him.
