need some help

[Hammerhead]

im finally gonna sit down and get my persona settled. iv decided for a voyager or highwayman in ohio/indiana after the french and indian war. any information that would help me will be appreciated

[old salt]

If you are going to dress as a voyager I suggest you look at this site

http://www.northwestjournal.ca/XVII1.htm

The guns you would likely have would come form 2 categories

French, or English
The French would be the French military musket, the grenadier, or a tulle
The English would more than likely a brown bess

[Hammerhead]

i dont think im wantin to be a voyager then im not wanting to represent someone who worked for a company i am looking for more of a lone traveler

[mongrel]

Some extensive research is in order, then, Kris, to find a role suited to your wanting to portray more of a lone wolf type. The problem you will run into is that Colonial society, both French and English, was geared toward the common good, not the individual. You have to keep in mind that all the European colonies in America (and other regions of the world, Africa for instance) were established for the primary purpose of increasing the wealth and power of the mother country. An individual venturing to one of these outposts was expected to keep to his place and contribute as he was able to the society he found himself in. Basically it was a totally different world and way of looking at things than we're accustomed to today; in fact if you read accounts by foriegn visitors to this country, in the years after the American Revolution, one thing that's often commented on, that either amazed or horrified outsiders, was the independence and self-reliance of Americans in general and frontier folk in particular. This indicates that such individualism was NOT the norm in the societies these visitors came from.

It doesn't have much bearing on French Colonial culture, but as an example of how much individualism and being on one's own were NOT encouraged in many Colonial societies -- in the largely Puritan Massachusetts Colony a single man without parents was ASSIGNED the home of a family to live with. Dissent from the community's views was punished. Those who persisted in their dissent, which might be nothing more than a contrary way of seeing things, might find themselves imprisoned or even executed; one thing that was adamantly NOT permitted except as a punishment was for a person to simply leave. He could be thrown out, exiled, but leaving of his own free will was a touchy thing. Not saying it never happened, but by and large the folks in Massachusetts and neighboring regions strongly preferred their people staying to contribute and modifying their thinking to do so with a minimum of fuss.

This was a fairly typical attitude in most colonial societies. The establishment and building of colonies wasn't seen as an adventure, especially for individuals -- it was deadly serious business to the French and English. The English went so far, after the enormous expense and loss of life and property of the French and Indian War, as to issue the royal Proclamation of 1763, forbidding settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, as well as any trade and negotiations with the Indians there that weren't specifically ordered and controlled by the English government. The English rationalization for this law was classic Colonial attitude -- individuals had no business going off on their own to places where they couldn't be kept track of, where they might very well act on their own initiative and interfere with official business, and where they were liable to get themselves into all sorts of trouble which would then require the intervention of some portion of the English military. It was considered absolutely the right and duty of the English government to look after its own interests and officially put the interests of individuals in a very distinct second place. The situation in French territories would have been much the same, or even stricter, with loners being essentially outlaws -- not necessarily in the sense of being criminals, but in the sense of operating outside the permission, protection, and policies of the government.

Considering the numerous dangers a man was liable to encounter, in those days, once he strayed outside civilized social boundaries, going off alone and without support or assistance wasn't a step to have been taken lightly. So, to return to my original suggestion, some serious research is in order to work out a reason why a man would have taken that step. Simply wanting to most likely wouldn't have cut it, not in the mid-18th century. If it was just for the sake of adventure and seeing new country -- there was plenty of that to go around even as a trapper or trader operating in the service of the French government.

[Mortblanc]

French hunters were a common sight all over the frontier.  Even in the south they were common in the period you state.  They might work as fort hunters or market hunters for a contractor.  Some were independent.

The French did not pull up stakes and leave the Ohio territory when the F&I War ended.  They stayed and resented the British untill the Americans took over, then they resented the Americans.  George Rogers Clark enlisted the help of resident French when fighting the western campaign.

Nashville TN was porigionally known as the French Lick due to the presence of a French trade post and numerous French hunters.  Uriah Stone, a longhunter/explorer of fame in the TN region was last seen chasing his French partner, who had stolen his deerhides, down the Cumberland river toward the Ohio.  I have read of a couple of French hunters drifting into Boonesboro and the further you go north the more you would find.  

Your clothing would be basically universal in the role of a hunter but your accrutrements and habits would be different.  

There is a lot of information on the French habitants and Coureurs.

[Bulldog lady]

    Thank you guys, you never cease to amaze me with your weath of knowledge about any and everything - and always to so freely share it with all of us.  Figure I'm kinda like Kris in that can't decide exactly what my persona is or wants to be.  Kris had the advantage of youth and if it doesn't suit him - he has plenty of time to change, me that is a whole different subject but another topic   Again  thanks Mike esp. and all of you other folks too!

[mongrel]

I got one major point wrong, though, the result of writing late at night -- the brain goes foggy and I get a sort of tunnel vision.

Kris specified AFTER the F&I War. At that point, French trappers and traders originally attached to the French Colonial establishment would have been on their own hook and probably doing their best to avoid all but the most necessary contact with the English. The English in turn more than likely didn't give a hoot whether the Frenchmen stayed or went or said yea or nay, as long as they didn't cause trouble and were properly submissive in the presence of any form of English authority. So, Kris' idea of being an independent French trapper or trader isn't off-base at all.

What I mainly wanted to get across is that our modern-day admiration of loners like the longhunters and mountain men wasn't shared to the extent we might like to think, by their fellow citizens of the time. Special disdain (you could call it flat-out hatred) was reserved for white men who adopted the ways and customs of Indians, and their fellow frontier folk were generally the most violent in this regard -- understandable when you consider that the fellow making that choice was in a very real sense siding with people that those on the frontier considered murderers and thieves, more demon or animal than human. The French seemed to have a far lesser helping of this particular prejudice, but, again, it needs to be understood that a majority of persons would NOT have appreciated or approved the admiration and sympathy that a lot of reenactors today feel toward the Indians. Luckily, someone adopting the persona of a loner or semi-renegade, now, won't meet with the hostility and prejudice likely to have been encountered on the original frontiers, but to stay as true as possible to actual history one needs to take it into account.

[pathfinder]

i've been around this silly game fer @ 30+ years now,and this "persona" thing is "new" to me. What I've done is tried to find a profession that is easy to portray and remember!

I'm a market hunter. I work for any and all who need meat. I found it's easy to find work around military outpost's since they didn't want the soldier's going out hunting,they had a habit of not comming back!

The year is 1812(2012) I was born in 1754(1954 for real) I spent some time in the military during the war for independence(coincides with Viet-Nam,which I did not serve in,4H),which is why I carry a Brown Bess,war prize for duty served,and now being an older guy,which I am,the hunter persona is much more beliveable.