Tavern Tunes
Anticipation Guide
Before we start our lesson, read each of the following sentences and decide whether it is true or false.
Mark your answers in the “Before the lesson” column.
At the end of the lesson, mark the correct answers in the “After the lesson” column.
Before the
lesson
True False
After the
lesson
True False
Taverns
1. During the colonial period, taverns were places where people
could pay to stay the night.
2. Songs sung in colonial taverns often had varying versions of
lyrics.
3. The tavern songs were all set to original tunes written by
American colonists.
4. Taverns during the colonial period were similar to what a
restaurant is today.
5. Performers were always employees of the tavern owners.
6. Only adult males provided the music in colonial taverns.
7. Some songs had political themes.
8. People visited taverns to eat and drink.
9. The music for the Star Spangled Banner was originally used for
a patriotic English tavern song.
10. The violin was the only instrument used to accompany tavern
music.
Teacher Gazette January 2015
© 2015 †he çolonial  ƒoundation
Tavern Tunes
Anticipation Guide Answer Key
Before the
lesson
True False
After the
lesson
True False
Taverns
1. During the colonial period, taverns were places where people
could pay to stay the night.
2. Songs sung in colonial taverns often had varying versions of
lyrics.
3. The tavern songs were all set to original tunes written by
American colonists.
X
X
X
4. Taverns during the colonial period were similar to what a
restaurant is today.
X
5. Performers were always employees of the tavern owners.
X
6. Only adult males provided the music in colonial taverns.
X
7. Some songs had political themes.
X
8. People visited taverns to eat and drink.
X
9. The music for the Star Spangled Banner was originally used for
a patriotic English tavern song.
X
10. The violin was the only instrument used to accompany tavern
music.
Teacher Gazette January 2015
X
© 2015 †he çolonial  ƒoundation
Tavern Tunes
Quotes about Taverns
1. “Throughout the British world at that time, taverns . . . offered much more than accommodation
for travelers and refreshment for locals. They were important public spaces where a variety of
community activities took place…. they were the scenes of countless public and private
functions. Informal political debates went on openly and frequently in the public rooms…”
Daniel B. Thorp, “Taverns and Tavern Culture on the Southern Colonial Frontier: Rowan County,
North Carolina, 1753-1776.” The Journal of Southern History, Volume 112, No. 4, November
1996.
2. “Almost all of the tavern keepers owned musical instruments, usually recorded in their
inventories as “fiddles”; and James Shield had “In the Barr” of his public house [tavern] in 1750,
“1 old fiddle, 1 old Hautboy [oboe].”” Bullock, Helen Claire Duprey, On Music in Colonial
Williamsburg, thesis, March 21, 1938.
3.
“Around the simple hearth which blazes yet
The simple planters of Virginia met,
The Discussed the news, and cursed in equal terms
The odious Stamp Act and tobacco worms.”
- St. George Tucker, “An Epic of William and Mary College,” in The Southern Literary
Messenger, John R. Thompson, ed., Vol. 28. (Richmond: Macfarlane, Fergusson & Co., 1859).
4. “The music can tell us a lot. It reveals to us, in a way that text or lectures cannot, the joys, fears,
heroes, virtues, vices, politics, and aspirations of the ordinary men and women who lived two
centuries ago.” - Ed Crews, “Tavern Music,” The Colonial Williamsburg Journal, Winter 20032004.
5. “Taverns of the 1700s were partially museums, gentlemen’s clubs, circuses, schools, and
business offices. They were the grandfather of the nineteenth-century saloon, and the greatgrandfather of the modern American nightclub.” - Ed Crews, “Tavern Music,” The Colonial
Williamsburg Journal, Winter 2003-2004.
6. "For the LADIES and GENTLEMEN, There will be a BALL, AT Henry Wetherburn's [tavern] on
Tuesday Evening next, the 10th instant, and on every Tuesday during the sitting of the General
Assembly." - Virginia Gazette, March 5, 1752
7. List of rooms in the Raleigh tavern from its inventory:
Parlour
Ladies’ Withdrawing Room
Gentlemen’s Reception Room
Tap Room (bar where alcohol is served)
Apollo Room (private dining room)
Daphne Room (private dining room)
Teacher Gazette January 2015
© 2015 †he çolonial  ƒoundation
Tavern Tunes
Public Dining Room (with multiple tables, chairs, and table settings)
Six Bedrooms (each with multiple beds)
Office
Porch
-Raleigh Tavern Architectural Report, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
8. [Christiana Campbell’s tavern] provided rooms and food for people who traveled to
Williamsburg to conduct business with government officials or who attended the regular
meetings of the colony's merchants. When the General Assembly was in session, Campbell
hosted members of the House of Burgesses, including Thomas Jefferson and George
Washington. Washington recorded in his diary that he dined there 10 times in two months. –
“Christiana Campbell,” http://history.org/almanack/people/bios/christiana_campbell.cfm
Teacher Gazette January 2015
© 2015 †he çolonial  ƒoundation
Tavern Tunes
An Ode (British Lyrics)
An Ode (American Lyrics, excerpt)
God save great George our King,
FREE STATES, attend the song,
Long live our noble King,
Now independent on
God save the King.
The British throne:
Send Him victorious,
To earth’s remotest bound
Happy and glorious,
Echoing skies resound
Long to reign over us,
The sweet melodious sound
God save the King.
Liberty’s our own.
O Lord our God, arise,
Let haughty Britons feel
Scatter his enemies,
It’s dread victorious steel
And make them fall:
Make them to fall:
Confound their politicks,
Crush all the tyrant’s crew
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
Dogs that our lives pursue;
On him our hopes we fix,
WASHINGTON, them subdue
God save us all.
Conquer them all.
Thy choicest Gifts in store,
God bless the COMMONWEALTH,
On Him be pleas’d to pour,
May it increase in strength,
Long may He reign.
It’s foes annoy.
May He defend our Laws,
That George is now no more
And ever give us cause,
King of this fertile shore,
To sing with heart and voice,
From whence he drew his store
God save the King.
Completes our joy.
Teacher Gazette January 2015
© 2015 †he çolonial  ƒoundation
Tavern Tunes
Images from Colonial Taverns
Teacher Gazette January 2015
© 2015 †he çolonial  ƒoundation
Tavern Tunes
Teacher Gazette January 2015
© 2015 †he çolonial  ƒoundation
Tavern Tunes
Teacher Gazette January 2015
© 2015 †he çolonial  ƒoundation
Tavern Tunes
Teacher Gazette January 2015
© 2015 †he çolonial  ƒoundation
Tavern Tunes
Teacher Gazette January 2015
© 2015 †he çolonial  ƒoundation
Tavern Tunes
Teacher Gazette January 2015
© 2015 †he çolonial  ƒoundation