From: Kathryn Weiss <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 11:13:24 -0800 Subject: [RowanRoots] Early Backcountry Weddings Recently, the list had a discussion of early wedding traditions. My focus here being the period about 1750-1800, I enjoyed the following account of other, & somewhat more boisterous [I prefer exhuberent], wedding traditions. Perhaps some of you will enjoy this as well: "Albion's Seed Four British Folkways in America", David Hackett Fischer, Oxford Univ Press 1989 ISBN 0-19-506905-6 pp. 669-673 "Backcountry Marriage Ways: Border Origins of Bridal Customs" "Marriage customs among the people of the backcountry also derived from border roots. An ancient practice on the British borders was the abduction of brides. In Scotland, Ireland and the English border counties, the old custom had been elaborately regulated through many centuries by ancient folk laws which required payment of 'body price' and 'honor price.' Two types of abduction were recognized: voluntary abduction in which the bride went willingly but without her family's prior consent; and involuntary abduction in which she was taken by force. Both types of abduction were practiced as late as the eighteenth century....." "...But many backcountry marriages included mock abduction rituals that kept the old custom alive an a vestigial way. A wedding in the back-settlements was apt to be a wild affair. On the appointed day, the friends of the groom would set out for the wedding in a single party, mounted and heavily armed. They would stop at cabins along the way to fire a volley and pass around the whiskey bottle, then gallop on to the next. Their progress was playfully opposed by the bride's friends, also heavily armed, who felled trees along the road and created entanglements of grape vines and branches to block the passage of the groomsmen." "'Sometimes an ambuscade was formed by the way side, an undexpected discharge of several guns took place, so as to cover the wedding company with smoke. Let the reader imagine the scene which followed this discharge, the sudden spring of the horses, the shriek of the girls, and the chivalric bustle of their partners to save them from falling. Sometimes, in spite of all that could be done to prevent it, some were thrown to the ground; if a wrist, elbow or ankle happened to be sprained, it was tied with a handkerchief, and little more was thought or said about it.'(6)" "The two parties then came together and staged a contest in chich their champions raced for a beribboned bottle of whiskey. The results were celebrated with another explosive feu de joie. "'Two young men would single out to run for the bottle; the worse the path, the more logs, brush and deep hollow, the better, as obstacles afforded an opportunity for the greatest display of intrepidity and horsemanship. The English fox chase, in point of danger to their riders and their horses, was othing to this race for the bottle. The start was announced by an Indian yell, when logs, bursh, mud holes,hill and glen, were speedily passed by the rival ponies. The bottle was always filled for the occasion so that there was no use for judges; for the first who reached the door was presented with the prize, with which he returned in triumph to the company. On approaching them he announced his victory over his rival by a shrill whoop. At the head of the troop he gave the bottle to the groom and his attendants, and then to each pair in succession, to the rear of the line, giving each a dram, and then putting the bottle in the bosom of his hunting shirt, took his station in the company.'(7)" "Finally, both parties would assemble with invited guests from the neighborhood. these were 'bidden weddings,' which could be attended only by invitation. 'It often happened,' Kercheval remembered, "that some neighbors or relations, not being asked to the wedding, took offence; and the mode of revenge adopted by them on such occasions, was that of cutting off the manes, foretops and tales of the horses of the wedding company.'" "When all were assembled, the bride would be brought into the room by the best man -- not, significantly, by her father. The bride and groom put their right hands behind their backs, and their gloves were ceremonially removed by the best man and the bridesmaid, who took care to do so at exactly the same moment." "After the ceremony, there were more volleys, much whooping and an abundance of kissing, drinking and high hilarity. Then a dinner and dance would take place, with everyone joining in reels, sets and jigs while a fiddler scraped frantically in the corner. Before the wedding dinner, another mock-abduction was stated indoors; the bride was stolen by one party and 'recovered' by the other. During the dinner itself the party played still another abduction-game called stealing the shoe. While dinner went on, the young people crawled about beneath the table and some of the groomsmen tried to steal the bride's shoe while others sought to stop them. Four of the most beautiful girls and the most handsome men were appointed 'waiters' and had the honor of protecting her while at the same time they served the dinner. Their badge of office was an exquisitely embroidered white apron, on which the bride and her family had labored for many weeks before the wedding. If the bride lost her shoe, she could not dance until it was recovered by her champions in mock combat." "As the sun set upon this turbulent scene, the couple retired to their chamber, while hordes of well-wishers crowded round the bed and offered ribald advice. Yet another contest was staged at the foot of the marriage bed. After the couple was placed beneath the covers, the bridesmaids took turns throwing a rolled tocking over their shoulders at the bride. Then the groomsmen did the same, aiming at the groom. The first to his the mark was thought to be the next to marry. These games continued well into the night. When the wedding party finally left the chamber, a 'calithumpian serenade' took place outside -- the bells and whistles punctuated by uninhibited gunplay that sometimes caused a back-country wedding to be followed by a funeral. As morning approached, a bottle of Black Betty was sent to revive the bride and groom and the merriment continued, sometimes for several days" (6), (7) Kercheval, "A History of the Valley of Virginia" 58, 266-69 ______________________________