Pioneer Living History

Penn staff use first-person “living history” to introduce students to the lives and habits of the people that inhabited this area approximately 240 years ago. The staff step into the roles of newly arrived settlers from the Pennsylvania colony who are attempting to survive in the North Carolina Piedmont in 1781. This is the time of the American Revolution, the local Battle of Guilford Courthouse, and early Piedmont settlement. This rich local history is intertwined with lessons of everyday life without electricity, cell phones, automobiles, etc. Students participate in chores including cooking, butter churning, using tools of the time and making candles.