19th Century Life Styles: Homes, Food, and Traditions

1. Unit 2: Chapter 5 Life Styles in the Nineteenth Century Outcomes: 2.5.1 – 2.5.11

2. Nursing station – small hospitals in coastal communities which were manned solely by nurses, in many cases only 1 nurse. • Telegraph - apparatus used to communicate over a long distance using a wire (usually in Morse code).

3. 2.5.1 • Houses in the 1800’s were varied depending on what you did for a living and how much money you made. • Merchants – They had more stately homes that had a different roof structure. The roof was called a mansard roof and it allowed for more headroom on the second floor which could be used for storage and as living quarters.

4. 2. Fishermen - • Earlier houses or those of the less prosperous fishers would have been small, peaked roof structures, by the 1850’s most out port houses would have had 2 or 2.5 stories with a main center – hall plan. The larger ones would have had four rooms on the main floor, the smaller 2 rooms with a lean – to (or linhay) at the back. These were sometimes referred to as saltbox houses. Other homes during this period had a square roof design with a small slope for runoff. These homes were more common in the early 1900’s.

5. Salt Box - Residential architecture drawing dating back to the 1800’s. - It has a peaked-roof design. • One of the earlier house forms in rural Newfoundland. • Lived in by average people (fisherman and miners)

9. Square roof - A flat style roof, with a small slope for water runoff. - Common in the outports of the early 1900’s. Lived in by fisherman.

11. Mansard roof • It featured a curved slope pointing outward at the bottom. • A house owned by the wealthy; mostly merchants

14. Tilts - made of logs, chinked with moss, sheltered the solitary trapper during the long season. - Used by hunters/trappers in Labrador - Main season used: October to March

16. 2.5.2 • Like housing, the food you ate also depended on the type of work that you did. Most early settlers ate a variety of wild game and fish especially cod. When they settled they created their own gardens and grew vegetables that would be kept in root cellars for the winter. Some families had chickens, sheep or cows that provided the necessary dairy products for the family.

17. Other staple foods such as flour, molasses, tea, beans, etc, had to be imported to Newfoundland from the West Indies and had to be purchased from the local merchants. • The wealthier families often purchased more expensive items such as spices and dried fruit which allowed them to prepare more elaborate meals.

18. Mummering • What is mummering??

19. 2.5.3 Mummering (or jannying) • Popular Christmas activity • Brought to Newfoundland by English and Irish immigrants. • Usually starts on St. Stephen’s Day (Boxing Day) • Groups of people disguised themselves in outlandish costumes, paraded through the town and visited homes. • Sometimes when mummers entered a house they performed a traditional Christmas play or sang and danced. There was always a snack and a drink to be shared along with the laughter.

20. Kitchen Party • MONDAY DECEMBER 20, 2010 • Hand out/Assignment • Who will bring food? • Who will entertain? • Who will dress as mummers?

21. 2.5.4 Recreational Activities • 1. Story telling was central to all ethnic, social and religious traditions. Many members of the community were great storytellers and people often gathered to hear the stories. • 2. Music, songs and dances were also a vital part of traditions in the 1800’s. The fiddle and accordion were the main instruments and people often gathered in the home or in community centres for get – togethers.

22. 3. Cards were a favorite pastime for the adults. Games like 120’s (Auction or Growl) or 45’s were the common choice. • 4. Other activities such as dances, garden parties, games such as rounders, piddly and annual celebrations such as Guy Fawkes Night were celebrated throughout the year. One of the more common activities in the winter was copying pans or going on the clampers. These pieces of ice that were in the harbour and the children jumped from pan to pan for fun.

23. 2.5.5 Church’s Impact • The church played a huge role in community life. The church provided the spiritual, social and educational needs in the respective community. The church was usually the largest building in the community and was found in the center of town where it could be seen by everyone.

24. The churches had volunteer organizations that would plan fundraisers and did a great deal of charitable work. The churches also controlled the education system and set up orphanages in St. John’s to house children whose parents had died or were unable to care for them.

25. 2.5.6 Health Care • The basis of healthcare in the 1800’s was the community. Knowledge of remedies was passed on from one generation to the next, usually to the women. Women took care of the sick and served as midwives. Aboriginal peoples also provided home remedies. There were no “modern” hospitals.

26. Midwife Video • https://www.historica-dominion.ca/content/heritage-minutes/midwife?media_type=41&

27. From outside the community, healthcare came from visiting clergymen and missionaries. Many of these people had received medical training and could administer to the sick. • From the 1800’s on ward the Grenfell Mission provided healthcare in Northern Newfoundland and Labrador. Sometimes came from doctors on board British and French naval ships.

28. In 1895 there were 61 doctors in Newfoundland and Labrador located in the communities such as St. John’s, Burin, Bonavista, etc. • Life as a doctor was difficult with very heavy workloads and dangerous travelling conditions. There were few nurses because nursing was viewed as an extension of women’s domestic work.

29. Medical and surgical procedures in the 19th century were provided in the patient’s home. The purpose was to protect the spread of disease as little was known about antiseptic surgery, medical procedures, germs, etc. • Clean, Cover and Contain came much later.

30. 2.5.7 – 2.5.8 • Already covered. • Write a paragraph about the role women played in everyday life in the past in Newfoundland.

31. 2.5.9 Communication • Technology in the 18th century was very limited. Mail was sent by steamer and often took weeks for a reply. • By 1850, the telegraph and telephone replaced mail as a more efficient means of communication, it was able to place people in almost instant contact with friends, family or business associates in other parts of the country and the world.

32. The island of Newfoundland, strategically located between Europe and mainland North America, also played an important role in advancing global telecommunications by providing a station for the world’s 1st transatlantic telegraph cable in Hearts Content in 1866.

34. As well, Guglielmo Marconi received the first wireless (radio) message on December 12, 1901, from Cornwall, England to St. John’s, a distance of 3380 kilometres. Marconi watching associates raise kite antenna at St. John's, December 1901

35. Guglielmo Marconi Transatlantic Transmission • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=917p1LRFwm4&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

36. Transportation • As the number of new coastal communities increased throughout the 19th century, so did their demand for regular delivery of food, mail, passengers and other cargo from St. John’s and elsewhere. • Government subsidized steamers ran regular routes to Trintity, Placentia, Bonavista and Fortune Bay, while private operators provided marine services to Harbour Grace, Brigus, Conception Bay and elsewhere.

37. The arrival of the steamer was a significant event in the isolated communities and many people often gathered for the occasion. As well, the railway could bring people and freight from St. John’s to Port aux Basques year round.

38. The passenger steamships made travelling outside of Newfoundland much easier. With trips from St. John’s to Halifax, St. John’s to England, and by the late 1890’s regular service between Port aux Basques and North Sydney, NS, people were now more mobile than ever before and this is due to the changes in technology at that time

39. 2.5.10 and 11 • Not covered.