Department of History

A tour throughout the world of the colonial farmer in the year 1777, when most of the 13 original colonies were still one vast forest. Farms consisted of small, rough clearings cultivated by hand or with primitive tools. Farm animals were smaller, wilder, and tougher than they are today. There were few roads of any kind. Historian Burt Kummerow shares his extensive and enthusiastic knowledge of the time in a stroll through an authentic re-creation of a Chesapeake farm of the period, and the people who worked it.