Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

What a blessing it is that our country, The United States, has set aside a national day of giving thanks to our creator for all of the blessings he has bestowed upon us. Take a moment during this busy day of cooking and football, of family and friends to give thanks for all that we enjoy.

I tried to find images of firearms that would have been carried by the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, but all I could find were images of rusted out actions and a couple barrels. I did however find a great paper by the Plymouth Archaeological Rediscovery Project on the Firearms in Plymouth Colony. This paper covers the firearms owned by the colony during it's first 50 years.

Three general types of firearms have been identified in what was once Plymouth colony: matchlock, wheelocks, and flint arms. Within these general categories there are several smaller subdivision pertaining to specific types of pieces...

...Seven general types of firearms have been identified as being used in Plymouth Colony through a comparison of the archaeological and historical records, these are the musket, harquebus, caliver or cavalier, fowler, carbine, pistol, and the blunderbus.

The paper goes into good detail in describing each of the firearms listed above, another nice history lesson for those who are interested.

I found the high percentage of pistols being used by the colonist to be very interesting.

Pistols always appeared relatively popular weapons in the colony, averaging between 15 and 18 % with only a slight drop in occurrences in the 1650s to 1660s. These light weapons appear to have been popular with both Natives and colonist alike due to their ability to add extra firepower with little additional weight.

The paper also mentions the earliest record of a negligent discharge that I have found:

The first recorded mention of firearms in the writing and records of Plymouth Colony was in 1620 while the Mayflower was at anchor in Provincetown harbor. At this time one Francis, son of passenger John Billington, took his fathers fowling piece that was stored charged in their cabin, and shot it off. This subsequently set fire to the cabin and there were many "flints and iron things about the cabin" but the fire was extinguished (Mourts Relations). The fact that Francis was able to shoot his fathers fowling piece indicated the possibility that this piece was equipped with a flint and steel ignition system as opposed to a matchlock. This suspicion was confirmed by the report that there were many flints in the cabin, presumably for the piece. The type of lock that Billington probably had was a snaphaunce, as this incident occurred in 1620 and the English dog locks were not invented yet. From this report we know that at least one snaphaunce fowler was among the pieces carried to Plymouth Colony.

The snaphaunce was the height of innovation in 1620, the colonial version of an assault rifle.

A second incident in 1620 also illustrated the types of pieces that were present. This incident occurred on Cape Cod early one morning when an exploring party searching for a place to settle was beset by a group of Nauset Natives. At about five o'clock in the morning the party began to stir, and two or three who doubted whether their pieces would go off or not, fired them. Soon after a group of Natives attacked the group. As they did the men ran to recover their arms that they had brought down to the boat. In the meantime, Captain Miles Standish, had his snaphance ready and made a shot, which was afterwards followed by another who presumably also had a snaphaunce. The others who were recovering their arms heard three of the pieces go off, possibly indicating that there were three snaphaunces, and then they heard someone call for a firebrand to light the matches for the rest of the pieces. This incidence indicates that there were at least two and possibly three snaphaunces carried by the group of eight with the remainder being matchlocks.

It appears that the colonist at Plymouth had amongst their arsenal the most modern and effective firearms of the time.

There has been some recent revisionist history stating that firearms were neither common nor plentiful during the early years of America's settlement. I believe that this town law kind of reputes that notion:

A 1633 order that every household be furnished with firearms was further clarified in 1643 when the court ordered that "It is agreed upon that all householders within the Township shall forthwith pvide sufficient armes according to the act of the court for themselves and their servants able to beare arms within month after the 5th June next on wch day they are to trayne viz Muskett either wth snaphaunce or matchlocks with match callivers and carbines wch are allowed and also fowling peeces not above foure foote and a half long and reasonable bore."

Now that is what I call common sense firearms laws.

The paper can be found here.