From the following list of supplies, what does your character need or want from New Orleans?

• Cloths such as calico, silks, and woolens are needed for clothing, bedding, and linens. There are no weavers or stores for purchasing cloth in French Illinois.
  
  
• Foods such as sugar, tea, coffee, chocolate, mustard, and pepper are important supplements to locally grown foods, allowing for variety in the diet.
  
  
• Gunpowder is needed to fire guns that provide fresh game for the table and to protect the colony.
  
  
• Shoes with hard leather soles last longer than the soft-soled Indian moccasins. Shoes are very important to the comfort of the family, hired men, and slaves.
  
  
• Wine is the most popular beverage among the French people, and the vineyards of France provide some of the best wines of the world. Wine, brandy, liquors, and ales are imported to French Illinois in barrels and casks. Upon arrival they are decanted into glass bottles for serving on the table.
  
  
• Knives and forks, made from iron and steel, are forged in France. Handles are often made of horn, wood, or ivory.
  
  
• Perfumed French soap is preferred for bathing and is considered quite a luxury. Colonial women make their own soap from lye for washing clothes.
  
  
• Candlesticks hold tallow candles made by women in Illinois. Brass candlesticks are more popular than glass or pottery candlesticks because of their durability.
  
  
• Fiddles are popular instruments in colonial Illinois homes. Although folk instruments can be made in Illinois, the best instruments are made by craftsmen in France.
  
  
• Glass bottles are needed to store many things, including wine, olive oil, spices, ink, medicines, coffee, and tobacco. Glass is not made in the colonies.

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© Illinois State Museum 31-Dec-96