King's Mountain Celebration, 2011

Thomas Jefferson called the Battle of King's Mountain "the turn of the tide of Success." It was fought on October 7, 1780 during the Revolutionary War. It was the first major patriot victory to occur after the British invasion of Charleston in May, 1780.      There is a 26 minute film, produced by the History Channel, that gives an excellent overview of the battle, as well as introducing the major players.      After watching the movie, you will want to visit the museum. There is an original Ferguson rifle there, as well as many artifacts found on the site.       Each year the National Parks Service invites the public to view a reeenactment of this battle, visit the camps of reenactors, and see how the army lived during a campaign. The living history demonstrations make the world of the eighteenth century  come alive.     On Saturday, October 8, of this year, I had the opportunity to be a part of this year's celebration. With my knitting in hand and my books ready to autograph, I spent the morning beside Dr. Bobby Moss, the noted author of nine books on the Revolutionary War. What a privilege to talk to him!

I was asked to speak about the lives of women during the Revolutionary War and set up a table of pewter, wool, knitting, corn husk and church dolls, a butter churn, paddle and mold, etc. This was my version of show-and-tell.

Gourds were used for containers and dippers; today we see them made into clocks  or decorative pieces. Someone has called them the natural Tupperware. I believe it helps all of us to both see and touch articles that we aren't familiar with to get a better understanding of their usages.

This butter pat was my husband's great, great grandmother's. Even with much use, you can still tell that one side is flat for patting the butter into the mold. The other side is rounded for allowing the whey to fall back into the crock. Even though my churn is made of crockery, rather than the more typical wood, it shows a different container used during these times.

This butter mold is also a family heirloom that has a carved out design for the presentation top of the butter.

 I showed balls of virgin wool from both lambs and sheep that look and felt quite different. Then I had yarn spun from that same herd of sheep. Lastly, there was a wool blanket, hand made from their wool. The children were quite interested in how long it all took to get from the sheep to the blanket; my only reply was that it took a long time. Does anyone know the approximate length of time from shearing to laying the blanket on the bed?