Colonial Challenge

Indentured servitude. Bi-monthly baths. Public punishment. Twenty-six volunteers from America and England discover the hardships of colonial life when they inhabit an isolated stretch of Maine coast in Colonial House, public television's latest "hands-on history" experiment. Like its predecessors Manor House and Frontier House, this eight-part series shatters historical myths by tracking the modern-day time travelers as they struggle to create a functioning and profitable 17th-century colonial settlement using only the tools and technology of that period.

Arriving in their "New World" by tall ship, the men, women (including Philadelphia resident Julia Friese, pictured) and children soon realize this cooperative venture will test more than physical survival skills -- it will be an experiment in deprivation, economics, and social and religious tolerance. Although the volunteers are tied to stakes in the cornfield for religious dissent, subject to15-hour workdays and forced to endure unhygienic conditions, they find that after being isolated from the modern world for five months it is surprisingly difficult to return.

Premieres Monday, May 17 at 8 p.m. on TV12

Applause Online Extras:

Read a WHYY exclusive interview with Philadelphia resident Julia Friese, who participated in Colonial House as an indentured servant.

Discover what the colonists found most difficult about living in the 17th century, the daily lessons they learned and the people and possessions they missed.