Colonial Williamsburg

Colonial Williamsburg

One year ago I was on vacation to Colonial Williamsburg. I had a wonderful time and learned an incredible amount about the Revolutionary War era from the actor/interpreters who portray the citizens of Williamsburg. You can read more about Williamsburg and learn about the real people of the town on their fabulous website at history.org. I am going to blog my journal and some photos in hopes that you will learn something as well.

Monday Day 5

I first toured the Wythe House and property. It belonged to George Wythe, a lawyer, a leader of the patriot movement in Virginia, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and Virginia’s first signer of the Declaration of Independence. The house also served as General George Washington's headquarters just before the British siege of Yorktown, and French General Rochambeau made the home his headquarters after victory at Yorktown. In 1776, the house accommodated Virginia General Assembly delegate Thomas Jefferson and his family. The grounds are beautiful. The Wythes had a small farm with chickens and horses. They also had basketmaking and spinning and weaving outbuildings. The house is very large and lovely. It is two stories with 4 rooms of each floor and furnished very nicely.

Next stop was the Peyton Randolph house. Peyton Randolph was the Speaker of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, first president of the Continental Congress, an enormously popular man referred to as "the father of our country" and probably would have been our first president if he had not died in 1775. The Randolphs owned 27 slaves who lived and worked on the property. The Randolphs had no children but many nieces and nephews stayed with them at times. Our guide handed us tags with the names of people who lived on the property and a brief biography of each. As we toured the house, the guide explained what the role of each person in the household was. Peyton Randolph and his wife both had personal slaves to attend to them. We learned about the slaves in the slave quarters. Many of the slaves learned to read and write. It made them more valuable. Our guide told us about a slave who understood "Scots" and could song "Scots songs." We learned that after Peyton Randolph's death, his slave John ran away. The runaway slave ad described him as light skinned, gray eyed and straight haired. Our guide thought John may have gone to Philadelphia and passed as a free man because he had been there with his master and may have had contacts there.

My last visit was to the Governor's Palace. It is set up as the home of the last royal governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore who was forced to flee for his life in 1775. He lived there with his wife and their two daughters, infant daughter and two sons who usually lived at school at William & Mary Grammar School. It is huge and beautiful. There is a lady's dressing room for Lady Dunmore where she could spend time with her children. The ballroom has a brand new instrument like a piano and features an adjoining supper room. The grounds are extensive and I didn't get a chance to explore it all.


That concludes my visit to Williamsburg. I had so much fun and hope to return again some day! I hope you had fun following along! To see all of my Williamsburg and Jamestown photos, visit my Williamsburg and Jamestown album on Kodak.