by Linda Lee Graham | Life in the 18th Century, Slide, Voices Whisper
The story of well-traveled cobblestones paving America’s streets is a romantic one. But is it true? Did ballast rock from foreign ports pave America’s colonial seaport streets? Ballast Ballast is what’s carried in a ship’s hull so the ship doesn’t topple....
by Linda Lee Graham | Life in the 18th Century
If you spent any time abroad this summer—especially with children—you might appreciate Samuel Clemens’ humorous disdain for the food he encountered while traveling in 1878: Foreigners cannot enjoy our food, I suppose, any more than we can enjoy theirs. It is not...
by Linda Lee Graham | Life in the 18th Century, Slide, Voices Echo
Kara Walker’s “Subtlety” is Anything But Appearances notwithstanding, it’s safe to say Kara Walker didn’t intend to present a sugarcoated history when she created her cast of sticky subtleties in the defunct New York Domino Sugar refinery earlier this...
by Linda Lee Graham | Life in the 18th Century, Slide, Voices Echo
Sugarcoating the Unsavory Side of History Sugarcoat history? Of course we can, but should we? Not in my opinion. Still, it’s a fine line to straddle when writing romantic historical fiction—particularly a story that takes place in brutal 18th-century Jamaica. I...
by Linda Lee Graham | Life in the 18th Century, Voices Beckon
18th-Century Style Shrub 4th July by Linda Lee Graham This 4th of July, party like a colonial. Drink shrub! Shrub? It’s a blend of fruit, sugar, and vinegar, and it was a colonial favorite. It’s thought the word derives from the Arabic word meaning...
