Here is an excerpt from the Intro Chapter of the upcoming book entitled:
Bent, Holed, & Folded. Coin Talismans for protection against misfortune and witchcraft in Colonial Jamestown.
*Pictures and Endnotes are not included here. BUT, I did add a very cool picture for this posting; one that has never been seen before.
*The book will be available in early 2018.
Chapter 1.
A lustrous shilling was valued for the bread and ale that it bought, but a bent penny was revered for the protection it offered. This may seem like an odd assertion. But these were the priorities in seventeenth-century England.
A lustrous shilling was valued for the bread and ale that it bought, but a bent penny was revered for the protection it offered. This may seem like an odd assertion. But these were the priorities in seventeenth-century England.
As much as I like
to fantasize about traveling back to a time when soldiers wore plate armor and
cabassets, I would not have wanted to live then. Life was precarious. Diseases,
accidents, and violence were common. People rarely lived past forty, and those
that did suffered daily from new and old wounds.
And yet, it was
the devil that worried folks the most. Evil lurked in every corner. Witches
lived next door. Even nightfall was considered a portent of hell, full of
villains. No one – rich or poor – was safe.
This worldview
left nothing to chance, as misfortunes were attributed to moral failings.
Hence, the press to gain God’s favor while also defending against evil was
relentless. Merely saying one’s prayers incorrectly – a word omitted or said
out of place – put one at risk. Many folks adopted rituals such as “crossing
thy self” as a protective gesture before stepping outside. A common retort in
the face of adversity was to ask: “Have you crossed yourself today?”1
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Here we have a deliberately bent Charles I
penny found in the plow zone.
Several pennies like this one have been
discovered at Jamestown and in early sites
along the James River.
The bending was likely talismanic.
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With all these hazards,
we can agree that the daily concerns of people living back then were quite
removed from our own. I worry about the caffeine in my morning coffee, but I
don’t fret too much about witches. Heart disease is today’s evil. This contrast
reminds me of the opening lines to L. P. Hartley’s novel, The Go-Between: “The past is a foreign country; they do things
differently there.”2 How true. We simply cannot squeeze our feet
into their laced shoes.
Like many
historians interested in the English colonies, I overlooked the impact of
supernatural beliefs on their actions. Yet, we acknowledge that our spiritual ideas
(or lack thereof) shape what we say and do. So it was in colonial times. Unfortunately,
few colonists bothered or had the wherewithal to write down what they were thinking
while sipping their ale.
But they left
their relics.
I stumbled onto
this subject after reading about several mutilated coins excavated at Jamestown,
Virginia. The coins appeared to have been damaged on purpose. I was intrigued.
And so, I set out to find out how these coins – bent, holed, and folded – were
used. The archaeologists provided some cursory interpretations in their field
notes, but I wanted to know more.
This book
recounts my quest to understand how the colonists used these objects to stay
safe and prosperous. But I give you fair warning: magic is not easy, as facts
and folklore blend together like butter and margarine. You must tolerate
ambiguity while embracing the incredulous. And, I hope you enjoy chasing
tangents, as my journey meanders like a restless stream folding back on itself.
Along the way, I encountered
battered coins that appear no more magical than a rusty nail. But looks can be
deceiving. I also learned more about divine providence, dead saints, and witches
that I anticipated. But mostly, I was impressed with the ingenuity of common
folks who conjured up occult forces when needed.
More to come ... .
More to come ... .
