May 2004

Departments

Who's Who in Colonial House

Colonial House The casting for public television's latest "hands-on history" series sounds like the beginning of a bad joke: what happens when you put a California firefighter, an anthropology professor, a rug salesman and a New York City actress on a secluded Maine farm?

Viewers will learn the answer to this befuddling question as the eight-part series unfolds, but before you tune in for the premiere on Monday, May 17 at 8 p.m. , familiarize yourself with the 26 "stars" of this demanding undertaking. -- Anna Christopher

Terms

A freeman was a free -- namely, non-indentured and non-enslaved -- adult male. He owned property or was of substantial worth and also was in good standing with the church. Freemen held the full rights of citizenship, such as voting, sitting on juries and engaging in business.

An indentured servant was an individual who contracted, or indentured, him or herself to work for another for a specified length of time in return for a variety of forms of payment. Not only did they have to work for the betterment of the colony's finances, just as the freemen did, but they also had to be personal servants for those in whose homes they were housed. Often times an indentured servant had few, if any, rights, but people accepted this position for money, to learn new skills, or in order to emigrate.

Jonathon Allen

Indentured Servant

2004: Jonathon (24) is a graduate student from South Carolina.

1628: He lives with the Heinzes (the colonial lay preacher and his wife) as their indentured servant. As their only servant, Jonathon carries out all the physical work in the house: chopping firewood, fetching water, building fences, mending the mud walls, and performs colony chores like caring for the animals.

" I had not the vaguest idea of how much labor, strength, perseverance, determination, and focus was required to not only make your colony successful and eventually thriving, but to simply survive as an individual and not be inundated by the many impasses, hardships, and setbacks that gripped early colonial settlers after venturing to the New World. Having said that, I am so proud of our colony to have jumped over these hurdles with dignity and to maintain such a cohesive, tight-knit community. It is the word "community" that has, in my mind, replaced the word 'colony.' "

Julia Friese

Indentured Servant

2004: Julia (25) is an educator at a children's museum in Pennsylvania.

1628: She gave up her independent lifestyle to become the servant in the colonial governor's home. Her day consists mainly of cooking at the hearth to feed a large family and a number of servants who live in the house and endless hours milking the colony's goats.

" It was fun to learn about the practical uses of clothing. For instance, all the ladies skirts are made of wool, and it protects you from the fire. There are a lot of myths about women having to work over an open hearth and women just bursting into flames and, oh, it must have been so dangerous. Actually that's not the case. A small hole will start burning and then it will go out. So we understood the practical uses of the materials a lot more, and also we understood how impractical they were. You know, we'd have terrible rain storms all through July and you'd get these middy lines all the way up to here and you had to walk around with mud caked on you. And so, in that case, it was very impractical. "

The Heinz Family

Lay Preacher/Assistant Governor and Wife

2004: Don (63) is a professor of religious studies and an ordained Lutheran minister and his wife Carolyn (62) is a professor of anthropology. They live in California.

1628: Don is the lay preacher and assistant governor of the colony. As lay preacher at a time when church and state were far from separate, he is responsible for the colony's spiritual journey, marked by a mandatory weekly Sabbath service, and as the assistant governor, he takes over the leadership of the Colony in the event of the governor's absence. Carolyn struggles with the severe social codes of the 17th century, which upsets the egalitarian lifestyle the couple normally enjoys and gives her husband far more power in the colony than she has. One indentured servant, Jonathon Allen, lives in their house.

Carolyn: " The 17th century had its quirky charms, as did all my fellow colonists. I'm missing it all. Being a 17th-century colonist was possibly the hardest four months of my life. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad it's over. It will always be a part of me -- a brief, tough stretching of my imagination back to my ancestors' experience of the New World. "

Don: " Above all, I miss two things about Colonial House . In no 21st-century community that I know of do neighbors live at such an intense level of intimacy and mutual support. And every Sunday, as the lay preacher, I set before this community the wager that the underlying meaning of our life together was religious. The early colonists would have understood both the experience and the assertion. "

Amy-Kristina Herbert

Boarder

2004: Amy-Kristina (27) is an actor and adjunct professor from New York.

1628: She has the unenviable status of widow in the colony, which affords her no voice even though she is a shareholder. She lives with the Voorhees family and is therefore under the authority of its head, John Voorhees. A widow in a 1628 colony would have felt tremendous pressure to remarry or face the possibility of returning home.

"[One] challenge for me was my inability to challenge the Governor. I knew that in 1628 a woman could not speak her mind to the Governor, let alone a woman with no husband or home. I tried my hardest to keep my wisecracks to myself, and though Michelle [Voorhees] did get an earful, I kept it far from ears that could put me in the stocks. To try to be authentic about my "place" was the only reason I accepted the scarlet "P" for a word that was far from profane. Biting my tongue that day almost left me bleeding from the mouth. Needless to say, I left that behavior back in 1628. "

Paul Hunt

Indentured Servant

2004: Paul (26) is a former builder from England. He is currently traveling around the world.

1628: He is servant to Governor Wyers and his family. He quickly forms a strong bond with his masters and is welcomed into the family. However, he still has to work alongside the other servants in the house, endlessly chopping wood, fetching water and taking care of the pigs.

" Dealing with the diet in the first month was tough due to me having to visit the good old woods six times a day and trying to work 15 hours of hard labor on a bowl of peas that stays in your system for all of five minutes. That was hard going! "

Jack Lecza

Cape Merchant and Treasurer of the Company

2004: Jack (47) is an executive consultant and former military officer from New Hampshire.

1628: He is a late arrival to the colony, assuming the powerful role of cape merchant and treasurer. His job is to take stock of the colony's economic progress and motivate the colony to work harder. Separated from his own wife and children, Jack is further isolated within the Colony as the "new guy" and taskmaster.

" The greatest lesson I learned at the colony is that for the majority of us in the 21st century we have lost our ability to really be good neighbors. "

Jeff Lin

Indentured Servant

2004: Jeff ( 27) is a software engineer from Minnesota.

1628: He arrives halfway through the project to become a servant indentured to the Company, living in the Voorhees' house. He is a hard worker and his labor, together with that of the other male servants and freemen of the colony, provide the foundations of the building of the colony. A fiddle player, Jeff often entertains the colony.

" Colony life made me much more aware of living with the earth. I would sleep when the sun went down and wake when it rose. I drank water from the ground, and bathed in the ocean. There was a constant awareness of the tidal patterns. High tide was the time to swim, bathe, wash clothes, and row the shallop (rowboat) out for fishing expeditions, whereas low tide was the time for collecting clams and mussels. "

Dominic Muir

Freeman/Quartermaster

2004: Dominic (26) is a private tutor from England.

1628: He is the colony's quartermaster, responsible for rationing out supplies from the food store, such as dried peas, salted pigs' feet, and, most importantly to some, alcoholic refreshments. He lives with the colony's two other single freemen, Danny Tisdale and Don Wood.

" I didn't expect to weep like a child twice -- that's what happened. I expected to meet my future wife -- I didn't get so much as a kiss on the cheek in five months. I didn't expect to consume circa 1,000,000 oats in five months. We worked it out one lunch, over savory oats and salted bacon, that the "big eaters" had surpassed that landmark. "

Clare Samuels

Indentured Servan t

2004: Clare (27) is a theatre educator from England.

1628: She joins the colony with the new arrivals halfway through the project and goes to work for the governor. Soon after he assigns her to cook for the freemen ^ a task she fears is beyond her skills, as she rarely cooks in her 21st-century life.

" Apart from overcoming my fear of mice, my greatest achievement was probably my newfound culinary skills! Plus the unlooked for achievement of taking to the life like a duck to water! "

Danny Tisdale

Councilor

2004: Danny (45) is a teacher and publisher from New York.

1628: He holds high office in the colony. Not only is he the head of the freemen's house, which essentially means he gets the only bed, but he is also councilor, and thus aids in the running of the colony. Among his other duties, Danny is responsible for the wake-up call -- getting everyone in the colony out of bed after the cock crows to start work.

" As an American that's of African descent, it helped me understand the journey to where we are today. It certainly helps me to understand some of the sacrifices made by both slaves and non-slaves for us to be here today. So I think in a lot of ways, too, the impact is not completely settled yet. "

Craig Tuminaro

Indentured Servant

2004: Craig (28) is curator and part-time graduate student from Virginia.

1628: He is indentured to the Company, living in the Voorhees' house. Although he arrives halfway through the project, he quickly transitions into a 17th-century workhorse, laboring tirelessly on the colony's building projects, including spar (ship mast) production and other profit-making ventures.

" I feel our greatest success as a colony was just that ^ that we were a "colony," a community of men, women and children who, despite personal, religious, or ideological differences, looked out for one another and put the needs of the colony and their fellow colonists before their own. We relied heavily on one another; each person brought a different set of skills and perspectives that was valued. I think that is really hard to find, and something many of us, including myself, are searching for today. "

The Verdecia Family

Freeman and Family

2004: Dave (47), a firefighter, and Debbie (44) Verdecia, a substitute teacher and homemaker, are from California. They arrive with their three children Maddison (15), Tony (13) and Emily (9).

1628: They occupy the newest house in the Colony, a home built by Dave and the Colony's other men, using only the basic hand tools available in 1628. The Verdecias endure a unique colonial experience, arriving midway through the project as a group of unexpected new colonists. For Dave and Debbie, the experience has redefined what it means to provide for their family -- in the 17th century or otherwise -- as they struggle to find their place, literally, in a small community.

Dave: " The most challenging thing about the colony for me was having to get used to the idea that I wasn't in control of what happened to me or my family. Because our family had to live with eight other people while we built our home, we had little control over what we ate and how much we ate. My wife was not in control of our food supplies and we were very hungry most days. As a husband and father this was probably one of the most difficult things to deal with. "

Debbie: " I realized when I came home, pretty much what I think everyone realized, and that is that the 21st century is full of stuff that is so unnecessary. We had a small house, limited food, few clothes, no car or TV and my kids were happy. What does that tell you about the things we think are essential? "

Emily: " The colony was fun because every morning I got to go see the animals. My favorite animals were the piglets. I also liked cooking with my mom and learning new ways to make food. We had time during the day to sew and go down to the ocean to sit in the sun. It was fun to explore and hike on Sabbath when we didn't have as many chores. I really missed my friends back at home, but now I really miss the friends I made on the colony. "

Maddison: " I think that the thing I learned most on the colony was that I'm more adaptable that I thought. I didn't really even mind not having the typical teen things such as make-up, television, and the Internet. What I missed the most was having peers my own age to talk to and laugh with. "

Tony: " My greatest achievement on the colony was working with my dad on our house and handcrafting a bow. "

The Voorhees Family

Freeman/Hunter/Negotiator for Native American Trade and Family

2004: John (37) is an Oriental rug salesman and his wife Michelle (38) owns her own custom sewing business. They made the trip with their son Giacomo (11). The family lives in Massachusetts.

1628: The Voorhees represent the bulk of early colonists: skilled, middle-class adventurers seeking opportunity in a new world. John is named the colony's designated hunter and negotiator with Native Americans for trade furs. For John, who is part Native American and grew up on a reservation, the colonial experience has been especially poignant. For Michelle, an outspoken non-believer, the era's mandatory Sabbath services prove to be a struggle. The family also houses boarder Amy-Kristina Herbert and two male indentured servants, Craig Tuminaro and Jeff Lin.

John: " Before I started the project I was asked what I thought would be the most challenging thing I would face. My answer was "the clothing," since I don't like either wool or linen. Well, with the completion of the project my answer remains the same. I had a couple of very course linen shifts (long shirts), thick wool socks that went above my knees, and heavy wool breeches. "

Giacomo: " I basically had to develop a whole new different way of amusing myself -- all kinds of different things I found to do, like exploring the woods, trying to hunt, not finding a single thing, making wooden swords, all kinds of stuff. And somehow or other, I just kind of found a way to get through it. "

Michele: " I was very addicted to NPR and read the newspaper and paid attention to the news. I don't do that anymore. I really am out of touch with what's going on in the world now and I'm not interested. I don't know if that's a good thing but it's definitely happened since we've come back. "

Don Wood

Freeman and Foreman of Building Projects

2004: Don (36) is a carpenter from New York.

1628: He quickly becomes an indispensable member of the Colony, particularly with the building projects. His skill, combined with his work ethic, earns him respect within the community and also qualifies him to improve his status during the run of the project. He lives in the Freemen's House with Danny Tisdale and Dominic Muir.

" My greatest achievement during the project would have to be shared with the other colonists: the fact we didn't kill each other before it was over. "

The Wyers Family

Governor and Family

2004: Jeff (45) is a Southern Baptist minister and his wife Tammy (44) is a homemaker. They brought three of their children from their home in Texas to the colony: Bethany (20), a college student, Amy (17) and David (10).

1628: Jeff was chosen to be the colony's governor and the family takes possession of the finest house in the colony. As governor, Jeff is responsible for promoting the interests of the sponsoring company and ensuring that the colony's ventures are profitable. He is also responsible for the physical and moral survival of the colony and its members. Three indentured servants live with the family, Paul Hunt, Julia Friese and Clare Samuels.

Amy: " I was surprised at how much I enjoyed being away from modern-day technology. I expected to really miss TV and radio but once I returned home, I realized that not only had I not missed them, but had never really even thought about them. Once home, I actually found the noise kind of irritating. I missed sitting around with my friends in the evening visiting and laughing together. "

Bethany: " I expected life to be more simple in the colony but instead it was grueling and tough. The day's work was very challenging but at night I would have a real sense of satisfaction at all we had accomplished. I'm still shocked that I didn't really mind wearing the same clothes day after day, not taking baths and going to the bathroom in the woods. "

David: "I thought I would really be bored in the colony without modern toys and entertainment. But when I got there I found all kinds of neat things to do. My friends and I went exploring everyday and had adventures. I miss the rabbit tunnels we crawled through and played in. I also felt really proud of myself when I cut down trees and chopped firewood for my family. "

Jeff: " What I miss most is working together each day with my friends, the quiet sounds of nature, and the beautiful starry night. When walking in the wilderness of Maine, I was impressed by the beauty of the wildflowers and berries growing everywhere. It was easy to see why the original colonists thought that they had found Eden. "

Tammy: " In some ways life was more complicated and in other ways, much simpler. Everything you did in the colony was so time-consuming and difficult yet you didn't have the countless decisions to make each day that you have in the 21st century. I wish everyone had only one or two outfits to wear. "