:*¨¨*:·..·:*¨ Curiosity Freeman ¨*:·..·:*¨:·..·:
This is an example of some of the materials I put together for the major characters.
Curiosity Freeman:
image ca. 1792
- 1734, born in rural Pennsylvania, into slavery
- 1760, Elizabeth's Grandfather Clark (a Quaker) buys freedom for Curiosity and Galileo, and offers them work on the New York frontier in the village of Paradise, where his daughter is newly married.
- 1761 Curiosity delivers Richard Todd and begins her work as a midwife while she and Galileo remain in Alfred Middleton's employ.
- 1765 Mohawk raid on Paradise
- 1766 - 1770 her children are born
- 1784 Curiosity and Cora deliver Hannah and Hannah's stillborn brother
- 1791 Cora Bonner dies
- 1792 Elizabeth and Julian Middleton come to Paradise
- 1793 both of Curiosity's daughters marry freedmen
- 1800 Daughter Polly and two grandchildren killed when horses bolt
- 1802 Selah Voyager (Curiosity's new daughter-in-law) comes to Paradise and has a son.
- 1808 Galileo dies.
- 1812 Her son Almanzo comes home from the west
- 1813 At age 79 Curiosity helps deliver Elizabeth's last child.
- 1822 Curiosity is 88, and is in relative good health.
Household: (formerly Dr. Todd's residence): Hannah and her family, her son Manny, two of Curiosity's unmarried granddaughters.
Related households: Her widowed daughter Daisy Hench keeps house for her son Emmanuel, who took over as blacksmith when his father died of a stroke. Emmanuel as yet unmarried. Leo, her youngest (age 16) also lives in the household. He is a clerk at the Emporium (formerly Anna's Trading Post) and is getting ready to go to the African Free School in Manhattan.
Images
Curiosity wears a headwrap, as most did most women of all colors who kept house. In slave holding states, there was greater significance applied to different kinds of head coverings and social status (or lack of it). More here.
A betty lamp, one of the kinds of lamps and lanterns to be found in Curiosity's home. This one from the kitchen.
The Betty evolved from the simple crusie lamp. A wickholder in the base was added to the design which channeled the drippings from the wick back into the bowl of the lamp where it could eventually be consumed. A cover was added to confine heat, decrease smoke, and make the oil burn efficiently. These changes also reduced the chance of dangerous house fires. Unlike the crusie, a second pan was not needed on a Betty lamp. A handle attached to the opposite end from the flame that curved up to a short chain was attached to most Betty lamps as well. The chains were fitted with a hook on one end for hanging the lamp and a pick for adjusting the wick. This better lamp design, named the Betty, from the German word, "besser" or "bete," meaning "to make better," produced good light for its time. The Betty lamp was used widely by the American colonists and by Europeans. Sometimes the Betty lamp was hung from a lamp stand that was on a table or a tall iron or wooden stand that rested on the floor. Another form of elevating the Betty lamp was a turned wood or tin pedestal that sat on the table. On that sat the lamp and illuminated the work surface or reading material of the person sitting there.
←Curiosity gives a penny to a child who has helped her harvest beans and cabbages.
Rosina,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANKY YOU for sharing this with us.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading all that information on Curiosity, she has always been one of my favourite characters in the series. The information on the 'betty lamp' was very interesting. It is great to have your image of Curiosity in my mind - the drawing is not quite how I imagined her but the more I look at it the more I think yes that is Curiosity!
Cooool:D Didn't know that bout the significance of the headwrap, be interested in how that works. I know it was a status thing for the europeans back then. Hats, wigs indicated status for the men. I think that was why the beaver trade flourished back then.
How interesting, thank you! It's such a privilege to have this unique glimpse of the characters.
I started rereading Dawn on a Distant Shore this morning and was grateful afresh to all the information you include at the beginning of each book - maps, dramatis personae, family trees etc. It makes things so much easier and clearer.
While the betty lamp is certainly interesting, it is odd to have it lumped in with Curiosity. I guess I would tend to file the lamp under household items or some such category.
But hey, whatever works. Thanks for sharing all of it.
Very, very interesting info on Curiosity and the background behind the headwrap. The researcher in me is fascinated beyond belief! :)
THat is almost exactly what I thought Curiosity would look like. You describe characters so well in the books its easy to see what you think they look like. And I also found the information about the headwraps very interesting.
I am so relieved to see that she will be alive and in good health at the start of Six. I was afraid she would die in the between years the way Galileo did.
Hi Rosina
I'm in Hong Kong and haven't read QoS yet - hopefully getting it for Xmas via Amazon or family in Australia. Always enjoy your website and thank you for sharing with us your approach to character development, setting etc. One question and it might be in QoS but thought I would throw it in here as Curiosity may have the answer and I'd hate to see her take it with her to the grave, but will we in Six find out who Eliabeth's real father was? I think it might have been Bump's friend but I can't recall if that was clear and my books are in storage for a few years.
Thanks :-)
Sherryl
Curiosity looks just as I imagined she would, I kind of expected to see her hands because I think I can imagine them also.
Healing hands - does that make any sense? but hard working hands at the same time.
Curiosity is beautiful and this is so interesting Rosina thanks so much for sharing.
Yes very interesting.
(Did I miss this info in the books?) - I was surprised to learn that Cora died only the year before Elizabeth's arrival in Paradise. I would love to have read the passage where Elizabeth and Cora met, if Elizabeth had arrived a year or two earlier.