18th CENTURY LIFE IN WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA (1966)

Synopsis

Presented by Colonial Williamsburg, Eighteenth Century Life in Williamsburg, Virginia is a 1966 story of a typical morning of a colonial household. Filmed in restored Williamsburg, the reenactment follows a family’s household slaves through their morning routines as they prepare breakfast for the master and his family. The film opens with shots of wildlife, followed by a lamplighter going around blowing out flames in street lamps. A slave pulls a bucket of water up from the well (02:15). He then collects firewood. A stable boy feeds a horse (03:04), and the coachman uses a hand-made pitchfork to move hay. The coachman leads a horse out of the stable to the water trough. The coachman and stable boy groom the horse and oil the animal’s hooves (04:28). A young boy scoops hot water from a kettle over the fire (04:50), and then he takes the hot water and some embers to the master bedroom to start a fire for the master of the house. In the kitchen, the cook puts a slab of meat on a spit and starts to cook it over the fire (05:58). In the dairy house, a boy pours milk and retrieves dough (06:30). The master of the house, Christopher Kendall, a local cabinetmaker, wakes up and washes his face in the water basin. He uses sassafras root to clean his teeth. Then he lathers on soap and shaves with a straight razor. A young girl fetches eggs while her sister feeds the chickens (09:00). A boy retrieves a slab of bacon from the smokehouse (09:54). The cook continues to prepare breakfast…

Uploader's description on archive.org

Details

Running time

21 minutes

Collection

Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• Stock Footage