Example of 18th Century Food Options: Domestic Animals

The Animals Discussed are Meant to be Examples, Not Exhaustive!

Domestic Animals

Cattle

1. Description
1. Cattle Brought to the New World in 1624 and 1625 by Dutch and Swedish Settlers
2. Cows in Early Colonial Days: Small, Scrawny, and Unproductive
3. Means of Sustenance: Browse, Weeds, and Native Grass in Forests, Marshes, and Uncultivated Clearings
4. Struggles for Cattle
1. Weather
2. General Neglect
3. Wild Animals
4. War Losses
5. Improvements in Feeding and Breeding after 1790
2. Uses
1. Meat
2. Milk
3. Motive Power

Swine

1. Description
1. Brought to the New World by Early Dutch, Swedish, English, Spanish, and German Colonizing Expeditions. Earliest Entry: Columbus Bringing Swine to the West Indies in 1493
2. Major Rivals of Cattle for Most Important Livestock in Colonial Pennsylvania
3. Lived Primarily in the Wild and Fed on Acorns, Beechnuts, Chestnuts, and Various Roots
4. Gradual Shift of Swine from the Wild to the Farms as Food Supply Diminished
5. Struggles for Swine
1. Wolves
2. Bear
3. Panthers
4. Hog Stealing
5. War Losses 
2. Use
1. Salt Pork

Sheep

1. Description
1. Very Common in Early Trips from Europe. Earliest Recording: Brought Over by Columbus in 1493
2. Sheep of Colonial Days: Very Scrawny, Long Legged, Narrow in Breast and Back, and Slow to Mature
3. Fed on Ferns during the Winter and on Young Grass During Warmer Weather
4. Struggles for Sheep
1. Bear
2. Wolves
3. Dogs
4. Weather
5. Poor Food and Shelter
6. General Neglect
7. War Losses
5. Improvements in the Type of Sheep made after 1800
2. Uses
1. Mainly Kept to Clothe the Family
2. Some Commercial Implications
3. Mutton Viewed with Distaste

Chickens

1. Description
1. Came with the First Settlers 
2. Very Common in the New World 
3. Chickens would Fend for Themselves 
4. Management and Preparing of Poultry Left to the Women and Girls of the Household
5. Struggles 
1. Night Vision
2. Weasels
3. Red Fox
4. Wildcats
2. Use
1. Meat 
2. Eggs
3. Sometimes Feathers Used
4. Sometimes Weeding and Controlling Insects

Link to images of animals in Colonial Williamsburg: "Livestock as an Object Lesson: History Education on the Hoof." http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Spring10/coach.cfm

Sources: Chadds Ford Historical Society's Guide Training Manual p72-75, A-32-A-34; "Here a Chick, There a Chick, Everywhere a Chick, Chick."; Pennsylvania Agriculture and Country Life: 1640-1840 p67-76, 174-196, 202-203 and PAST MASTER NEWS Volume 2, Issue 3, p9-11  (See Bibliography)