#charles benson

[benjhawkins]

Last week I had the opportunity to bake and share Charles Benson’s ginger bread recipe ! I used coals and a bake kettle, and we had actual sour milk! It was a labor-intensive process and took about 2 hours from starting the fire to pulling the cake off the coals.

I was told it was very delicious and not a crumb was left after lunchtime, and that the recipe is going to be one used for ongoing interpretation.

I hope Mr. Benson would be pleased that this recipe has been so popular so far into the future.

[valiant-stars]

Last thing of artfight attacks!!!

Esmeralda - @wazimoomoo

Joe and Theron - @arcaneyouth

Loko, Salt, Anthony - @flowerrose14

Design me an oc - @arcaneyouth

Greer, Rem, Jace, Elis, Cyde, Damion - @imfirequeen

[sanguinarysanguinity]

When I get on shore & most to the house I always find myself trembling all over & some times so faint that I can hardly stand. [...] I was sorry to find Charlie with sore eyes also Sid is not in very good health, but on the whole they were all in much better condition than I expected to find them. Thank God for his goodness, say I.

-- Charlie Benson, steward on the whaling bark Glide (from Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African-American Whalers, Patricia and Frederick McKissack)

@benjhawkins, is this your Captain Charles Benson? If so, I was very pleased to see him (and that his family was all well, Charlie and Sid excepted)

(ETA: Not a captain; I misremembered!)

[welcome-to-raven-wood]

Just some upcoming things >w>

[benjhawkins]

As I was going through Charles Benson’s 1864 journal I came across a recipe for gingerbread that he had written down. It’s rare to come across a historical recipe written by a Black person that hasn’t been rewritten for white audiences. This is definitely a working man’s recipe for other working men. Compare it to any other gingerbread recipe you might be familiar with, or here’s a comparable 1868 recipe from “Mrs. Winslow”.

I halved the recipe but otherwise made it as Mr. Benson had written it. Molasses was the main sweetener for most working-class households in New England, and is the only sweetener in this cake. The lard is the only fat, and the leavening agents here are the sour milk (buttermilk) and (baking) soda. I baked it in a pie pan for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. It made for a very tender, lightly sweet and lightly spiced cake with a crispy top— very delicious!

[Transcription:

Ginger Bread

4 cups flour

2 “” molasses

1 “” sour milk

1 tablespoonfull of ginger

1/2 cup of Lard

1 teaspoonfull of soda]

[benjhawkins]

Charles Benson, a Black mariner from Salem, authored many journals that are a fascinating glimpse into the life of an ordinary Black man at sea in the mid to late 1800s. In his later journals he invented a code, presumably to keep prying eyes away from his innermost thoughts. 

Here’s a few I’ve translated!

Jan 26: CAPTAIN AND MATE HAD A GROUL (groul being an outdated spelling of ‘growl’, meaning argument

Oct 10: drank lots of bad BRANDY GOT TITE (got tight, meaning got drunk!)

[benjhawkins]

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here are some love poems and other sweet sentiments written by Black mariner Charles Benson of Salem to his wife Jenny (sometimes spelled Jennie). In Benson’s many journals he writes often of being homesick. He and Jenny were married in 1853 and had five children together. Benson died at sea in 1881 and Jenny never remarried.

[benjhawkins]

“Ain’t she pretty”- journals of Charles Benson, 1878

Four of Charles Benson’s journals are digitized on archive.org and are a really interesting look into the life of a Black mariner of the latter half of the 19th century. He uses his later journals as a sort of scrapbook, pasting images that no doubt reminded him of home.