Our Visit to London Town

Our field trip to London Town, once a bustling tobacco port on the South River, gave the third graders a glimpse of what daily life was like for tradesmen, landowners, indentured servants, and slaves before Maryland became a state. Archaeologists have been working in London Town since 1991 to restore buildings such as the carpenter's shop and to preserve artifacts such as clay smoking pipes and pottery once used in the tavern known as the William Brown House. During the day the girls tried making rope, assumed the identities of residents known to have lived in London Town, and prepared cakes from the kernels of an ear of corn. Our field trip helped the girls see the connection between archaeology and history right here in Maryland.

Ask your daughter to tell you who she was and what part she played in the colonial life of London Town.

Having made rope, the girls listened carefully before trying to move a hundred-pound barrel using a system of ropes and pulleys.

Making a corn cake meant plucking kernels off the cob, pounding the corn into flour, and mixing the flour with lard. All the girls agreed that doing this once was fun, but that life in colonial times was hard work!