ALBION'S SEED: Four English Folkways In America

This thick, massive tome by Professor David Hackett Fischer is about the four main English groups who settled America in the 17th and 18th Centuries.  The book explores their impact on America's socio-political landscape and how it still affects our society even today.  These four groups are the Puritans, Cavaliers, Quakers, and Scots-Irish.  Each group settled in a different region and brought their own customs and folkways with them.  
      Fischer defines "folkways" not as something primitive dating from way back when, but as a complex system of beliefs and customs that remain the same even as a culture goes through change.  These are often found in the way people talk, their architecture, family structure, marriage rituals, death rituals, food, etc..  And we can still see the impact of these customs today.  

The Puritans were the first wave of English to come to the New World.  These are the famous "Pilgrims" who landed at Plymouth Rock and celebrated the first Thanksgiving with their Indigenous neighbors.  Staunch Calvinists, they believed that Christ only died for the elect and looked for signs of God's favor.  They are infamous for their obsessive fear of witchcraft.  It was the Puritans founded the Ivy League schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and are the ancestors of today's Liberal elite.

The Cavaliers were the second group to cross over the Atlantic.  In fact, a certain governor of Virginia intended to bring over second sons of the nobility in order to recreate the old Feudal system.  These became the planter class that dominated Southern society.  Cavaliers tended to be Anglican and held loyalty to the king.  Among them were the ancestors of Robert E. Lee and George Washington. 

The Quakers were the third set to come to America, settling in places like Delaware.  Called the Society of Friends, they focused on what they called the "Inner Light" and the work of the Holy Spirit.  They were very strict in areas such as sex and marriage to the point of asceticism.  This led to one group breaking away and becoming the now-extinct Shaker sect.  The Quakers would later become leading players in the Abolition Movement of the 19th Century.  

The Scots-Irish were the last group to arrive in the U.S., settling in the border areas and the Appalachian Mountains.  They have long held a reputation for being fierce and vicious fighters, in fact, many were brought over to be the barrier between the Europeans and the Indigenous tribes.  The Scots-Irish were a very clannish group and feuds were a way of life.  The most famous of these was the feud between the Hatfields and McCoys, which started as a quarrel over livestock and resulted in the deaths of nearly twenty people.  Surprisingly, a majority of American Presidents were Scot-Irish, including Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Ronald Reagan. 
           
Albion's Seed is a demanding read, but a good read nonetheless.  It does a good job of explaining who settled where and when, what customs they brought with them, and how it has shaped our society and continues to do so. 

One Year Later

 It's been a full year since Dmitri Hvorostovsky died, but it still hurts a little bit.  I never knew the man but I admired him very much.  So his death was still painful for me.  

I've talked before about when I first heard him and the various performances he was in that I went to see.  But I want to focus on just one of them right now, the last one I saw him in.  Ironically it was also the first time I had seen him live on the stage instead of in simulcasts.  Hearing Dima sing in a live auditorium is something that I will always remember, especially his final encore, Proshchay, radost (Farewell, happiness).  This simple folk song, sung without accompaniment, is a sentimental piece about a man saying good bye to his beloved.  Considering that Dima had terminal cancer at the time he did the recital at the Lyric, it was more than fitting that his last song that night was a farewell song.  I still remember that night every time I hear the song. 


When I heard he was going to do a recital at the Lyric, I knew I wouldn't get another chance to see Dmitri Hvorostovsky again, so I grabbed the opportunity to buy tickets and go see him.  I'm very glad I did, because that was the very last time I ever saw Dima perform.  And even though I never met him, I will still miss him very much.