In 1940, Encyclopaedia Britannica Films created an educational film that shows the life of the early settlers of Naumkeag, a village that later was renamed to Salem, Massachusetts. It shows the lifestyles of 1626 through 1629. This video is now available online and certainly will interest anyone who had ancestors most anywhere in New England. You can see how your ancestors lived.
The film is rather amateurish, and the announcer sounds like he also recorded newsreels in World War II. However, listen closely when the actors start speaking. I suspect their accents are rather accurate. At least, they sound "normal" to me, and I was raised in Maine where the accents haven't changed all that much since the early 1600s!
The video does seem to end abruptly. Apparently, the last bit of film was not digitized.
You can watch this video on the Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/details.php?identifier=EarlySet1940&newflash=1 or else click on the icon below.
Nostalgia! I don't go back that far, although Dick may as he says the Maine accent hasn't changed much since the 1600's. Tell us more Dick.
No, nostalgia because the film is so much like what we saw once a week in grade school - in deed educational films in the 1940s.
But this was fun - thanks.
Posted by: Gloria Ishida | July 10, 2008 at 02:28 AM
I, too, remember this type of educational film, while in school, in the '50's. I remember being made very aware of our colonial beginnings, all through school. Through my father's side we are Mayflower descendants. A film like this, even though a bit stilted, leaves me wondering if I could have survived those difficult times, as my ancestors did.
Posted by: Bette | July 10, 2008 at 08:06 AM
Very interesting. Although it does come across as a '50s educational film, it's very informative. I've been able to trace one of my husband's lines back to Salem in 1642, so this was extremely interesting for me. Thanks!
Posted by: Elaine | July 10, 2008 at 12:54 PM
I remember similar films from the late 1940s. Went down in the basement of the school auditorium beside the smelly cafeteria -- which still smelled two years after it moved out to the new building. This one is actually pretty good, despite the newsreel voice; it seems to be made at one of the living history places.
One part of my mother's family was in Massachusetts in the 1620s; others started coming a few years later to Connecticut and Maine/New Hampshire.
I too found it very interesting and really quite well done.
Posted by: Anne | July 11, 2008 at 02:02 AM
I'm wondering about the film's statement that the farmer with tobacco "has a crop smaller than the larger ones south in Virginia?" I didn't think there WERE people in VA that early? What have I missed all these years? Just curious...
Posted by: JINNY COLLINS | July 11, 2008 at 09:32 AM
This 1940 video was filmed at the current Pioneer Village in Salem MA. I grew up 2 streets away for this area. As a young girl, I went into Pioneer Village many times. I remember actors working in original clothing talking in the original accents. There was replica of the ship Arbella outside the entrance. I remember climbing all over this ship. It was destroyed in a storm and never replaced. Last year 2007, I went over to see Pioneer Village. It is being restored by a new owner.
I played with my friends and climbed on the rocks where the film was shot. The area housed Governor Bradstreet's home with gardens. Thank you for giving me a wonderful visit down my memory lane!
Posted by: Deborah | July 11, 2008 at 12:23 PM
This is way before my time. My husband's family arrived in N.H. in 1626.William Wentworth, the Elder. My husband and I both arrived in R.I. in 1921 Which makes us 87 yts. old. Been to the Plymouth Colony many yrs. ago. Similar to this one in Salemn. Enjoyed the film.
Posted by: Jo | July 11, 2008 at 01:58 PM
I watched this video and thought it was filmed in Pioneer Village (Salem, MA) as well. I was born in 1946 and have many memories of Pioneer Village, the Arbella, as well as the seashore which wraps around the park. We used to ice skate on the pond (still there) in Pioneer Village. It is a wonderful place to visit, but wait until it is fully restorred and open to the public once again
Posted by: Betsy Wood Melin | July 11, 2008 at 07:50 PM
From the darker side of our history: The first African "slaves" (not yet called that) arrived in VA in 1619. (http://www.innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html) Tobacco was already a profitable crop. One of the reasons the Indians had "abandoned" the cleared land in the Naumkeag area was that it is estimated that "In 1618–1619, smallpox wiped out 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans. (David A. Koplow Smallpox The Fight to Eradicate a Global Scourge)
That said it was an interesting film!
Posted by: Donde | July 13, 2008 at 09:39 AM
Nice movie,liked the period customs and costumes. But why does it play only a little over five minutes and quit? It obviously wasn't the end of it, but----
Posted by: William Lester | July 13, 2008 at 02:59 PM