Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Month 8 - Civil War Melodies - Rations

This month's blocks are called 'Rations."  There are songs that the North and the South sang to complain about their food supply.  It is stated in the literature accompanying the block instructions that the South had very little food; even though, they had an agrarian society, most of the men were away fighting and the 'economy began to collapse because the government could not pay an adequate rate for crops and other supplies.'  The Southern soldiers subsisted on peanuts, a Southern staple crop.  They sang "Goober Peas" to make light of the poor diet.

The North had 'more industry' and could afford more goods and food but they did have shortages from 'time to time.'  They also sang, "Hard Crackers Come Again No More" as a way to complain about the time when there were food shortages.

Here are the two blocks that were designed to reflex these "rations."

We just added Picasa3.  I am not sure how to use it.  I will figure it out soon. I was able to crop and move the block on the bottom but I could not do it to the block on top.






1 comment:

  1. I love the history related to these blocks. How do the blocks reflect the rations? Is it the color or the little flowers, etc.?

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