here’s the last of my coffeehouse-related information:
I have learned that the City of London
(not to be confused with the lowercase city of London) is divided into
wards, and two of the wards are called Farringdon Within and Farringdon
Without. This has no major relevance to the coffeehouse history I’m
currently relaying. Just, I didn’t want to let that pass without
comment. Anyway, the highest concentration of coffeehouses with in the
Farringdon Within and Broad Street wards.
Different coffeehouses had different clientele – one might be the particular haunt of Scots, one
of doctors and physicians, one of Jacobites, etc. – though these
distinctions weren’t quite so rigid at places outside of London. But
there were definitely coffeehouses for Whigs and other ones for Tories,
and governments had perpetual anxiety about political unrest being fomented in these places. By, like, rabble.
In
addition to being places for debate, coffeehouses had ads and
news items posted on their walls, and people would sell news to and buy
news from coffeehouses – for instance, a House of Commons clerk might
sell news of what happened in Parliament that day, and the coffeeman
would distribute it to his clientele in printed or verbal formats. In
more official news sources, coffeehouses had to subscribe to lots of
local papers in order to have them available for patrons; if they failed
to do this (and it was expensive!), they would lose clientele.
(Incidentally, the politician Robert Harley – who under Queen Anne was kind of an ur-prime minister before the office of prime minister actually existed – had the idea to make use of the coffeehouses. He recruited people like Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift to run periodicals that could serve as the mouthpiece of the government to the public. Basically they’d frame the news in the way the government wanted it to be framed! His agents also arranged for coffeehouses to get excellent rates on government-approved newspapers, which helped to ensure that they’d be in stock at all the important coffeehouses. THANKS FOR THE PROPAGANDA, GUYS.)
Regulars
at coffeehouses could also ask the proprietors to accept mail for them.
The proprietors did this basically for free and as
a favor. In the middle-late 1600s, when specie was in short supply,
coffeehouses would issue adorable lil tokens with their logo on that you
could redeem at the premises. This was very illegal, and the practice
basically died out (at least for coffeehouses) by the end of the
seventeenth century.
no fucking lie, William of William-and-Mary was prone to prosecuting coffeemen and their patrons for uttering and spreading, AND I QUOTE, “false news”
Weirdly, coffeehouses and pirate ships were both loci for Jacobite sentiment in the years following the Glorious Revolution. I don’t really have any conclusions to draw from that; it is just a fact.
good God if I am going to do this much research then it might as well benefit the rest of the Black Sails fandom, so here’s a post about 18th-century coffeehouses and what went on at them and what people drank and stuff. This is going to be a multi-part post because it is a whole book’s worth of information.
it is my brand new headcanon just formed this instant while reading this one book about libraries in the Atlantic world that Miranda and Thomas, in addition to doing salons like the big old rhetoric nerds that they are, were regulars at London coffeehouses
This is all coming from The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse by Brian Cowan (Yale UP, 2005), which is excellent. I skipped the bits about coffee and commerce because I didn’t care, but hmu if you have questions about that side of things and I will try to find out the answers. Putting this under a cut bc it’s going to be long.
I shall invent a coffeehouse that I have not yet named but it will be run by a single lady with a teenage son and she will be Miranda’s pal because poor Miranda, I want her to have some friends in old-time London. And also that my book says occasionally coffeehouses were run by single ladies. All the information is under the cut.
Drinks you could get:
weak coffee (or mixed with milk to make “milk coffee”) (also this was made with Thames water so try not to think about that too hard)
tea
chocolate drinks (sometimes mixed with eggs, sugar, milk, or a bit of bread, ew)
chocolate with flour in for “breakfast chocolate” (ew)
chocolate with wine in (ew)
sage tea
“content” which was mainly milk and eggs (seriously ew, wtf England)
ratesia (“a drink fortified with brandy”, no further information given)
also alcohols: “mum, mead, metheglin, cider, perry, usquebaugh, brandy, aqua vitae, strong-waters, beer, and ale”
Hours: as early as 6AM to as late as 9 or 10 PM. There were laws against places staying open much later than this, but of course some people flouted that. Still, coffeehouses that were open later than 9 or 10 were suspect in terms of propriety.
Pretty early on in the life of London coffeehouses, there would be clubs that met there regularly for vigorous intellectual debate. The Rota was an early such club; Samuel Pepys paid one and six to be a member. An estimated forty percent of former Rota-men went on to become fellows of the Royal Society. Though the Rota club didn’t last super long, people really remembered it (and made fun of its armchair philosophers), and it established a pattern for coffeehouses as a site of intellectual debate.
Unlike a lot of other places you could go to socialize (like taverns), coffeehouses lacked the association with various kinds of sins. The idea was that men of widely different social status could come and exchange ideas and hang out on relatively equal terms. It was cheap and convenient!
By the 1690s, there were separate chocolate houses. These were posher than coffeehouses. IDK why.
Many coffeehouses acknowledged the Turkish origin of the drink and would have names like The Turk’s Head or The Sultan’s Head or Murad the Great. They were prone to employing vaguely orientalist decorating patterns.
Coffeehouses were Ground Zero for auctions in England. Who the hell knew! Book and art auctions were particularly popular, as well as auctions for rare manuscripts and curios from faraway countries. Will’s Coffeehouse in Westminster was so well known for auctions that it changed its name to the Auction House in 1691. One satire that occurred in pamphlets in the seventeenth century (though it stopped by the eighteenth) was that bachelors and women were being auctioned off. A lot of people found this extremely unamusing; the Athenian Mercury (run by a guy who looooooved the Society for the Reformation of Manners) said “‘Tis a teaguish sort of witticism to dispose of what’s another bodies, without their consent.” TRUE.
i don’t even need to know the context of this drawing
pussy game so strong it scared the devil
no but literally that is what is happening, there have been long periods of western history where spirits were said t be frightened by the site of lady business. Sailor’s wives used to flash their husbands ships (mind you this was a time before underwear so you just lifted your petticoats and BAM) in order to scare away the spirits and devils that made storms. A woman could flash her crops to keep away spirits that might ruin them.This was also back when the vagoo was seen as something taboo and horrible so literally looking directly at some labia was thought to be so scary the devil would poop himself. Misogyny so intense it gave the pussy superpowers.
Hidden, or disappearing, fore-edge painting is a technique that dates back to the mid 17th century, when London bookbinders began decorating not the flat edge of a text block, but rather the gently fanned edge. Doing so caused the image to appear and vanish depending on how the pages were held. In some cases, as with the views of Boston and Philadelphia above, two different scenes were painted on either side of the fore-edge, so that only the gilt edge is visible until the pages are fanned in one direction or the other.
There’s more about these fore-edge paintings on theFrom the Stacksblog!
Fore-edge painting of York
Cathedral. Thomas and Katharine Macquoid. About Yorkshire. 1894. New-York Historical Society.
Double fore-edge painting
of oval views of Hull and Olney, with decorative surrounds. John Scott. The Life of the Rev. Thomas
Scott, Rector of Aston Sandford, Bucks. 1836. New-York Historical Society.
Double-fore edge paintings
of Boston and Philadelphia. Washington Irving. The Sketch Book of Geoffrey
Crayon, Gent. 1864. New-York Historical Society.
Fore-edge painting of Eton
from Windsor Castle. Thomas Gray. Poems and Letters. 1867. New-York Historical
Society.
So – for anyone who was not aware, the treaty that the historical Maroons signed, and that was the basis for the treaty Woodes Rogers offered in the show – sucked. It sucked big time, and here’s why.
A little background. Historically, the Maroon Wars were ended by not one but two treaties, given that there were two different groups of Maroons, the Windward and Leeward Maroons, both of whom inhabited Jamaica at the time. I’ve picked out a selection of clauses from both treaties, because they strongly resemble each other.
All of these quotes come from the website of the National Library of Jamaica
That the said Captain Cudjoe, the rest of his Captains, Adherents and Men, shall be for ever hereafter in a perfect State of Freedom and Liberty, excepting those who have been taken by them, or fled to them within the two Years last past, if such are willing to return to their said Masters and Owners, with full Pardon and Indemnity from their Masters and Owners for what is past. Provided always, That if they are not willing to return, they shall remain in Subjection to Captain Cudjoe
Please note this clause. It’s bullshit, because it’s asking the Maroons to hand over their own people or, even worse in some ways, to enslave them themselves.
“But wait!” you might say. “Couldn’t that clause be taken to mean that they’ll just be subject to Cudjoe’s rule?” And yes, it very well could, except:
That if any Negroes shall hereafter run away from their Master or Owners, and fall into Captain Cudjoe’s Hands, they shall immediately be sent back to the Chief Majistrate of the next Parish where they are taken; and those that bring them are to be satisfied for their trouble, as Legislature shall appoint.
From the Windward Treaties:
That in case Captain Quao, or his people, shall take up run away negroes that shall abscond from their respective owners, and shall be paid for so doing as the legislature shall appoint.
Yeah. There it is. They were expected to not only hand over any people who had fled to them within the last two years – they were expected to hand over any escaped slaves PERIOD who made their way to the Maroons. I’d also like you to note the phrase “satisfied for their trouble.” They were offering A REWARD for the Maroons to participate in slavery from that point on – asking them to fucking SELL PEOPLE BACK TO THE ENGLISH. If the treaty that was offered to Madi and her people was anything like this – why the fuck would Julius support it? He and his people definitely fall into the category of “people who had run away to the Maroons within the last two years.” They definitely would have understood that they were not safe among their own people – go ahead, raise your hand if you think that the English definitely intended to have black people selling black people, even perhaps those who were not runaways, while the local magistrate gave a wink and a nod and just took whoever was brought to him on the theory that they ran from SOMEONE. I’m not saying it happened that way, but I’m saying that was the intent.
Onward. Next Problematic Clause:
That they shall have Liberty to plant the said Lands with Coffee, Ginger, Tobacco and Cotton, and breed Cattle, Hogs, Goats, or any other stock, and dispose of the Produce or Increase of the said Commodities to the Inhabitants of this Island. Provided always, That when they bring the said Commodities to Market, they shall apply first to the Custos, or any other Majistrate of the respective Parishes where they expose their Goods to Sale, for Licence to vend the same.
So….they have the liberty to grow those crops, but pray tell which one of them in their right mind is supposed to risk someone deciding they’re a runaway slave when they come to market and ending up getting sold themselves? Furthermore, which local magistrate do these people imagine is going to give them license to sell their goods when there are white farmers and white merchants who were most definitely going to get priority and then whoops all the space at the market is gone, so sorry!
That in case this island be invaded by any foreign Enemy, the said Captain Cudjoe, and his Successors herein and after named, or to be appointed, shall then, upon Notice given, immediately repair to any place the Governor for the Time being shall appoint, in order to repel the said Invaders with his or their utmost Force; and to submit to the Orders of the Commander in Chief on that Occasion.
Again – pray tell, whomst exactly is to decide what constitutes appropriate threat for these people to be summarily used in a war that maybe has nothing to do with them? Who exactly gets to say when they’ve done enough, or are they now meant to be soldiers for the English with no say in the matter, aka FUCKING SLAVES AGAIN?! There are holes in this treaty Swiss Cheese would be proud of.
That Captain Cudjoe shall, during his Life, be Commander in Trelawney Town, after his Decease the Command to devolve of his Brother Captain Accompong; and in case of his Decease, on his next Brother Captain Johnny; and, failing him, Captain Cuffee shall succeed, who is to be succeeded by Captain Quaco,and after all their Demises, the Governor or Commander in Chief for the Time being, shall appoint from Time to Time whom he thinks fit for that Command.
See my above criticism, only about a hundred times more strongly stated, since this essentially states that if, say, all of these men were to be killed by – gosh, I don’t know, the fucking Governor himself, perhaps, since he’d benefit greatly from it – the said Governor then gets to appoint his puppet to have control of the Maroons. In fact, I don’t see anything stating he can’t put a white man in charge of them and thus end Maroon independence entirely.
That in case any white man, or other the inhabitants of this island, shall disturb or annoy any of the people, hogs, flock, or whatever goods may belong to the said Captain Quao, or any of his people, when they come downto the settlements to vend the same, upon due complaint made to a magistrate, he or they shall have justice done them.
Yeah. Uh huh. Sure. Anyone care to make a bet on how often justice was actually received in the case of a white man hurting Maroons? I’ll wait.
That Captain Cudjoe with his People shall cut, clear, and keep open, large, and convenient Roads from Trelawney Town to Westmoreland and St. James, and if possible to St. Elizabeth’s.
Uh huh. Sounds legit. Sure. Except, you know – for that thing where open roads – wide open, convenient roads – are really great for anyone who wants to, say, march soldiers to the Maroons’ camp in the future. And oh look – that’s exactly what fucking happened LESS THAN A CENTURY LATER.
That two White Men to be nominated by his Excellency, or the Commander in Chief for the Time being, shall constantly live and reside with Captain Cudjoe and his Successors, in order to maintain a friendly Correspondence with the Inhabitants of this Island.
My, what lovely spies you’ve sent, Lord Governor! Please note that in the case of the Windward Maroons, this number of white men living among black people, reporting back on them, probably assisting in raising tensions and generally causing trouble, was raised to four.
So uh – yeah. Tell me again that the treaty wasn’t shit, or that Madi shouldn’t have rejected it out of hand, or that Julius would have agreed to this, being that it would see him enslaved again in all likelihood? I don’t think so, somehow.
Buccaneers aboard the flagship of notorious 18th-century pirate Blackbeard apparently enjoyed a rollicking read, according to an unlikely discovery in a cannon chamber.
A handful of paper scraps recovered from the wreck of Queen Anne’s Revenge have been identified as fragments of the 1712 book A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World, Perform’d in the Years 1708, 1709, 1710 and 1711, by Captain Edward Cooke.
The discovery was announced Thursday during a presentation by conservators from the Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR) Conservation Lab at the annual meeting of the Society of Historical Archaeology held in New Orleans.
Queen Anne’s Revenge went aground outside of what is now Beaufort, North Carolina, in 1718, and Blackbeard was killed while battling British naval forces in the Pamlico Sound a few months later. Read more.
Meg's Mumbles 