First time in full kit with my new forest green petticoat (which you can barely see). Hope to have a set of linen mitts and a pleated cap ready for the actual Battle Road reenactment in April! It was so fun to chat with fellow history people in person. I was impressed by how many people gave great thought to how the townspeople’s plight did or did not parallel the plight of modern refugees. With Ukraine front of mind for many along with refugees fleeing different crises around the world, there was much debate over what language would be appropriate to describe the people fleeing their homes along the roads near Lexington and Concord. Evacuees seemed appropriate to some, inappropriate to others, because the townspeople got to go home at the end of the day. However, they didn’t know if they would have homes to return to or if they would be burned to the ground by royal soldiers. They grabbed what they could carry - important papers, food they could carry like bread or cheese, small family valuables, things they could potentially barter, and some people buried things that were too cumbersome to bring so it wouldn’t be stolen by the British soldiers. Fleeing the gunfire that would likely occur near their homes, my friend Audrey likened it to Londoners hiding in the Underground during the Blitz, albeit on a much smaller scale. I’ve always seen living history as a valuable way to teach people not only how much things have changed, but how little. #historicalreenactment #historicalreenactor #historicalinterpreter #lexington #concord #massachusettshistory #revolutionarywar #18thcenturyfashion #18thcenturydress #18thcenturycostume #englishgown #livinghistory #americanhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/CblEkLUuMA0/?utm_medium=tumblr
