Developing Characters:
One of the first questions that people wonder about is, who should I portray? Do I portray an actual person from the past, or should I portray a 'composite character,' a character that never existed but is a 'composite' of several people who lived, worked, socialized and expressed their opinions in a particular time and place. I'm sure if you ask around you'll find various opinions among living historians, but I'd like to bring up a few of my own thoughts on this subject that have occurred to me over the last 12 years of first person living history.
Real or Composite
At first one might think that the real character is the best way to go, but to me, I hesitate to do real people based on a few of the following examples.
1. Grandpa was a whole foot shorter. Oh, I would give anything to have written down the source, but I didn't, so you'll just have to trust me <grin> Anyway... there was a reenactment where a unit of infantry were portraying an actual regiment. Between 'shows' spectators were allowed to come in and walk around and ask questions of the reenactors (typical stuff). Well, one family got to talking with one of the cannoneers, when they realized that he was in fact portraying their great grandfather!!! What a coincidence! As they concluded their conversation one of the spectators said that the gentleman did a very nice impression, but "grandpa was a whole foot shorter!"
Mr. Parker was a Union man At an immersion event that Hank attended a couple years ago all the participants were given actual names of people that lived in the vicinity, not a whole lot was known about many of them, but all were told which side their character's would be on (Northern or Southern sympathizers) Well, one of the characters was a Mr. Parker, and he was given Southern sympathies. Well, later, after the event, in just looking at the ORs, Hank and I discovered that this Mr. Parker was no Southern sympathizer and if anything was a Union spy! God rest his soul <grin>
Advantages of using a real character.
First of all, you don't have to push anyone aside. If one is reenacting an actual time and place i.e. the Battle of Gettysburg and one is portraying the surgeon of one of the regiments that was there, and decides to be the composite character 1st Lieut, John Smith -- then the real assistant surgeon has been pushed out of the way to make room for John Smith, in the past.
You don't have to worry if what you're doing is too oddball.-- I mean, who would believe that a man would be exiled from the US for conspiracy, sent into the Confederate lines, from there go into Bermuda where he catches a boat to Canada, and from there run a campaign for governor of Ohio (having been nominated in 1863 by the Ohio Democratic Party), and have an armed group of men ready to escort him to Columbus to take his seat if elected, lose the election, and after the war return to Ohio, where in 1871 he was an attorney in a murder trial and was accidentally shot while trying to show the jury how the murder happened. Likely story, right? Nope. That's Ohio's own Clement Vallandigham <grin>
And of course it can just be fun doing the research, kind of like a treasure hunt trying to find the facts about the character. <grin> But then there's the downside of not being able to find things about your character either.
Advantages of using a composite character.
Wow! I just realized I've never done a real character. Though I have helped Hank research a number of real characters. 1st Lieut. Benjamin H. Cheney for Pickett's Mill; William Worthington Goldsborough for Immortal 600; Rev; William Price (for McDowell, 2003).
There are lots of reasons why doing a composite character is much preferred over doing a real one. For example, despite having some records and such, whether or not one chooses to do a real character or a composite one there are always blanks that need to be filled in, so no matter what, all characters are almost by definition composite, though obviously some more than others.
Developing a composite character also permits one to fashion the character around themselves, or go completely wild! I personally have had 6 or 7 main characters over my 12 years in the hobby. Some of them I still use depending upon the event and my attitude at the time <grin> I am really quite a shy individual who is petrified to get in front of people and give a talk (Aaack, and I've accepted this position in the COI???). Anyway, I have a character who like myself can do things when she *must,* another one that is a complete fanatic and a real fire and brimstone-type personality, and then a third that's totally submissive and subserviant. It's interesting because motivational speakers always say that if you have to give a presentation either mentally view yourself as a great speaker, or your audience as a group you would enjoy addressing. I have found from time to time that I lean heavily upon Maggie MacGuire (my Troy Female Seminary graduate, abolitionist, and women's rights character--the one that is all fire and brimstone). I have found that it actually helps. AND I can actually get myself to act much more aggressive at events when portraying her. Problem is, I'm getting a little too old now for Troy, and Maggie is a specialized character that isn't right for all events.
With composite characters one can take a bit of one diary, a bit of one newspaper article, and a bit of political fact, etc. and create most any kind of character one wants. Chose which side they're on, their height, their profession, their education, their social class, etc. The sky is the limit as to where one can go with composite characters! And there is no historical *facts* actually holding one back as there would with someone who portrays oh, say Lincoln, or Davis...
Reasons why people don't do first person.
The reasons are as numerous as the stars, sad to say, but perhaps the biggest reasons that I see slung about is
no one else does/is doing it; I feel silly doing it; or don't know enough; the public doesn't understand it and gets confused.
Part 2
Real vs Composite. In Part I, I discussed a little about whether or not a person should create a real or a composite character. Now I want to address my recommendation, particularly for those interested in attending a semi or immersion event. And that recommendation is to have a very basic, very flexible composite character. Say for example you have chosen to do Clara Barton or Walt Whitman, what happens when the next immersion event you attend is in parts of Virginia, or Georgia, or Tennessee where the particular character wasn't known to have been, or at least not at the specific time specified by the event?
With the exception of Shaker Village, which I can return to in a moment, civilians at most S & I events are residents of a town (i.e. McDowell or Burkittsville), or a small farming community (i.e. Outpost and Wayfaring Strangers), and as such all the residents would be familiar with one another, and know this and that about each other. Therefore we create what has become known as family 'groups.' Outpost was the first such event that I am aware of to make this monumental movement within the progressive hobby, at least to the extent that it was done. As is common at progressive events, reenactors registered individually for the event, and were somewhat randomly assigned real last names and families, and were sent maps indicating where they lived and where the other families lived, and were shown what routes they have taken to get from Point A to Point B and given all sorts of information that would be necessary to make it a functional community *if* they were stopped by one of the armies. The idea of having families has continued at s&i events ever since. This event was hailed for a long time as THE event. Unfortunately, I decided to have a gall bladder attack the week before, had surgery, and had to skip this event (though Hank attended). Although McDowell didn't actually establish families for us, we had an e-mail group where we could get to know one another a bit and develop 'extended family' relationships (aunts, cousins, etc.) This proved to be fun AND exciting... <grin> We also had a nosy town gossip who was given a little information before the event and ran with it. Before you knew it all of McDowell was bustling with gossip intermixed with a little truth. You know, just like real life <grin>
Burkittsville was soon to follow and here we were given family groups. You could sign up for whatever class of character you thought you could best portray based upon your impression. The silk dressed people obviously portrayed the families that had more money, while those who had working class impressions filled the groups with the least amount of family net worth. If a family had a slave, then there was an attempt to have someone portray a slave. If the family had farm laborers, then there was an attempt to have a family group for their farm laborers, and so forth. Group 1 might have a member or two of the Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society and a member of the KGs, while group 2, might have an independent and a member of Columbia's Daughters. It just kind of depends upon what one signs up for, and believe me, it's lots of fun and you can gain all kinds of new friends and learn so much this way.
I think I've only sent the following link directly to Bill and Norma, but I'd like to send it to the list as well, so people can get a feel for the kind of mentoring and bonding that takes place *before* the event begins. The following link is to the yahoogroups for Recon II. You can see the types of questions, answers, planning and so forth. Recon II civilians
The first several messages, as is almost always the case is more administrative, but... I think you can see where we were going here.
What my goal is, is to hopefully help people on the list and at the COI to develop flexible characters so if someone is told do 'x' and they had planned to do 'y,' they can simply change a few things and have a character that's ready to go to *most* anywhere.
Oh yeah, back to the Shaker Village thing. There we don't portray the day *of* the battle but a couple days thereafter and Shaker Village sat on the turnpike. So we all pretty much portray travelers either trying to get back to our homes in war torn Perryville, or leave the war zone, or just plain had their traveling plans changed by the military takeover of the transportation systems. So if you don't know everyone there, that's fine and dandy, you probably wouldn't.
DEVELOPING CHARACTERS Pt. 3
Vickie Rumble has done a rather detailed sheet relating to developing first person characters. It covers all the basics extremely well.
Most of us are familiar with the forms, like the one mentioned above, that are handed out for us to create our personas on, but here are a few things to think about when filling them out.
Age: Date of Birth: Although this seems straight forward, the number of times I've encountered people who say they are 18 and born in 1861 is incredible. The best thing to do is to chose your own age and birthdate, and don't be ashamed when people ask you how old you are and you have to say, : This is 1862 and I was born in 1824, so that makes me....38? Yes, 38." I've done that too many times in my modern life <grin> Also, depending upon the class of character you're portraying, you might not even know exactly how old you are. Perhaps all you know is you were born near the end of planting season the year of the big snow. Or you were born during the harvest of the year Jackson was elected... If anything, people back then may have had a bit more of a ridden hard, put away wet type of an appearance (they looked older than they really were), so if you're 40 something and want to be 30 something again, here's your chance <grin>
Place of Birth: Again, no trouble, right? Well... technically speaking many towns have changed names since 1865. Just in my little south-eastern neighborhood Mercer(s)ville has become Mercerville, Chambersburg has become Eureka, and Bladensburg had become Bladen. Almost directly across the Ohio River from us is the city of Huntington (which is one of the top 5 largest cities in WV) and it didn't even EXIST!
Full name: Some, like myself, have names that were not really common or typical for the period that we portray. How can one go about finding appropriate names? First look in the area census reports for people who were born about the same time as your persona. (Remember that often names are associated with a particular age / generation of the person.) Some names like Mary, Elizabeth, John and James tend to span the ages, whereas names like Linda became popular thanks to a song by that name during WWII.
Where did you grow up? All of the things I mentioned above apply, but let's take it one step furtherif your character didn't grow up in McDowell, and you're at the McDowell event, how did you get from point A to McDowell? How long did it take? How many made the journey with you? Why did you leave?
Parent's names: Again, you can either use your own or look at the census for someone else of their approximate age. Are your parent's living? If not, how did they die? How old were you? How did your life change with his/her passing? Remember if they passed away too recently then you may have to dress for mouning.
Parent(s) Occupation: What was the major industry of the town in which you grew up? Did your father work at a factory? Did he work in the field? If your father was a farmer; what did he farm? What kind of livestock and/or crops did he raise?
Are you single, widowed/er, engaged, married, divorced? Yes, although it wasn't typical in most circumstances, divorces were granted depending upon the state and the courts, be prepared to document your particular situation..
If married, when? where? How did you meet your spouse? How long did you court? How did your parent's feel?
Do you have any children? How many alive? How many deceased? And if deceased how old were they and what did they die of? Again, remember if they died too recently, your character may be in mourning.
Husband's/wife's name? Occupation?
Children's names? If they aren't with you, where are they? They could be with parents, in-laws or other family members, neighbors, etc. Why did you leave them?
Some other things to ponder include, but are by no means limited to:
Is your husband with the army? If so what *regiment* is he with? I say regiment, because it is my own opinion through my own research that we as reenactors use the term 'unit' far more often than our period counterparts. 'Unit' *is* a period term, but in letters and such I see far more use of the term regiment. Again, both appear to be period, but it is my perception, from my research, that unit has BECOME more common amongst reenactors than it was during our ancestors' days.
Who is his commanding officer? Where *have* they been? Again, remember that most immersion and semi-immersion events have a specific date that they're trying to recreate, for example McDowell is Jackson's Valley Campaign in May 1862, that means there's been no Antietam or Gettysburg, no Vicksburg, no Chickamagua... When was the last time you heard from him?
What education have you had?
What education has your husband had?
What religious affilation are you? This is again, not as straight froward it sounds today. For example, the Methodist Church feel into several factions early on, and in 1844 split over the issue of slavery. The different branches of the Methodist church were: the Methodist Episcopal Church (Northern) which was the largest division, the Methodist Episcopal South Church (the second largest division, and then there were smaller groups, i.e. The African Methodist Church, the Methodist Protestant Church, the Free Methodist Church, I think you see what I'm getting at.
Still other questions to consider include:
How has the war affected your life?
What do you plan to do when the war is over?
Why are you here (in McDowell, Burkittsville, Gettysburg....)? How did you get here (meaning mode of transportation, escort, etc.).
Well, I think this should be enough homework for today <grin> But be thinking about these answers, and if you have any trouble with answers or you're not sure what to do, don't be afraid to ask, either on the list or privately.
