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Eſſay II: "Diſcovering" North America

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What does it mean to Discover something? I recently discovered a new pop punk playlist on Spotify, though I do not claim to have curated it. On a more serious note, when people give hot takes on Christopher Columbus on Columbus Day, there are good faith critiques of the holiday (viz. He advocated for enslaving/killing Indigenous people, so why should we honor him?"), and ill-informed hot takes (viz. "He didn't do anything important and didn't discover anything."). The former critique makes a valid case against Columbus Day based on his abuse of Native peoples/the need for Indigenous Peoples' Day (which I fully agree needs to be a day, if not week or month). The latter critique, however, is patently rooted in presentism and misunderstanding. It is reasonable and even noble to critique Columbus for his grievous human rights abuses ( take a look at his own journal for his pride in them) , but it's simply bad history to say "He didn't even matter, s...
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Eſſay One: Debunking Facial Hair Being 'Prevalent' On Anglo-American Men, c. 1680-1800

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Did pirates wear beards? Not really... Main Point: In the eighteenth century living history community, a debate rages which may seem inane to the outsider: should men portraying Anglo-American sailors, soldiers, laborers, or aristocrats have facial hair? Few spectators at events in the Southeast (where I live) will see a pirate reenactment (early 1700s) or a Revolutionary War reenactment (c. 1770s-80s) where at least 1/3 of the men aren't fully-bearded (in the manner you see on Duck Dynasty).  As we'll discuss below, the preponderance of both primary and secondary evidence suggests that while facial hair was not unheard of, it was exceedingly rare on most Anglo-American men of the era.    I'm not advocating forcing every reenactor to shave. It is a personal choice of course like piercings and tattoos... The 18th-century maritime living history unit that I am the captain of, The Crew of the Charles Revenge ,   has adopted what we believe to be a middle-ground app...
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