A Winter Night in a Colonial New England Farmhouse | History for Sleep

Hey guys! We're now on Spotify 🎧 Join us here: https://open.spotify.com/show/1iLKLmP... Fall asleep inside a farmhouse in Westborough, Massachusetts, on a hard January night in 1753, the first full winter after 11 days were dropped from the calendar. A New England household burned 30 to 40 cords of wood a winter, yet the great kitchen fire warmed barely 3 feet of the room, and ink froze in its pot by a good fire. Across the town, the minister wrote "Our Wood very Short; but a Stick or two left at the Door", and his neighbours came with their sleds. One of them, Joseph Grout, owned beds worth £8, exactly what his oxen were worth. Then the brass warming pan went from bed to bed, and the fire was buried under its ash until morning. Subscribe to the channel: @oldhistorynights In this video, we talk about one winter night in a Colonial New England farmhouse, including the earth and straw banked against the sills, the woodpile and the neighbours' sleds, the beasts bedded in the barn and the threshing floor, the last water from the well, the backlog laid at the back of the great hearth, the one circle of heat, frost on the inside of the crown glass panes, supper from the cellar, tallow dips and the betty lamp, the spinning wheel by the fire, callers at eve, family prayers and the almanac, the trundle bed and the Primer's prayer, who shared which bed, the cold chambers at the top of the stair, the best bed and what it was worth, the corded bedstead and the bed key, ten pounds of feathers, the bed curtains, the warming pan, the fire covered for the curfew, the bar across the door, the first and second sleep, the lanthorn carried to the barn, the neighbours who watched with the sick, and the coals still red at dawn. 🔔 Subscribe for more long winter nights inside the homes of the past. 💬 Tell us where you're listening from tonight, and which corner of this farmhouse you would have wanted in January: the settle by the fire, the chimney seat, or the best bed behind its curtains. 📢 Share it with anyone who loves Colonial history or a slow snowy night, on Facebook, Reddit or the family group chat. You're the reason the fire here is still banked every night. Chapters: 00:00 Opening 16:57 The woodpile and the neighbors' sleds 37:09 The backlog laid at the back 57:48 Supper from the cellar 1:18:50 A neighbor at the door 1:39:40 Who sleeps where tonight 2:00:55 A bed built from the rope up 2:22:24 The warming pan goes from bed to bed 2:39:11 The fire put to sleep 2:55:08 The first sleep 3:11:14 Out to the barn by lanthorn Sources: The Diary of Rev. Ebenezer Parkman of Westborough, Massachusetts: https://diary.ebenezerparkman.org/ Colonial Society of Massachusetts, The Diary of Ebenezer Parkman, 1753: https://www.colonialsociety.org/docum... Alice Morse Earle, Home Life in Colonial Days (1898): https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/... Alice Morse Earle, The Sabbath in Puritan New England (1891), The Icy Temperature of the Meeting-House: https://reformedreader.org/puritans/s... Dictionary of American Regional English, "bank" (to bank a house for winter): https://dare.wisc.edu/words/quarterly... Concord Museum, Behind Closed Doors: Asleep in New England: https://concordmuseum.org/online-exhi... Founders Online, Inventory of the Estate of Deacon John Adams, 1761: https://founders.archives.gov/documen... DISCLAIMER: This video is based on real historical events and figures, drawn from the sources listed above alongside primary archives, biographies, court records, period press, and leading historical scholarship. While every video is heavily researched, occasional minor inaccuracies in dates, quotes, or specific details may occur — historical sources sometimes disagree, and interpretation is sometimes required where the historical record is silent. Any errors are unintentional. #OldHistoryNights #HistoryForSleep #SleepStory #ColonialAmerica #ColonialNewEngland #NewEngland #Massachusetts #Westborough #ColonialHistory #EarlyAmerica #WinterNight #Farmhouse #WarmingPan #EbenezerParkman #SocialHistory #AmericanHistory #History #BedtimeStory #SleepHistory #1750s