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.

Day 4 Part 2 Revolutionary City
July 25, 1776:Great excitement in Williamsburg! News of the Declaration of Independence arrives only a few weeks after Virginia's representatives have passed their own Declaration of Rights and a Constitution for their new state.

I waited under a shady tree on a bench and listened to the conversations with the townspeople. Mr. Nicholas, the treasurer, was entertaining the guests by explaining some things that were happening. He said the Declaration of Independence was superfluous, a word which he first heard his wife use, she used it about him, and he looked it up in Dr. Johnson's dictionary and it means unnecessary! He said we know we are free and the document doesn't really make us free we are already free. While he was chatting with us, he was absentmindedly practicing his golf swing with his walking stick. He said "Darn those Scots! They invented this game... well didn't invent it because the Romans played it... but the Scots have this new game... they have a ball filled with feathers and they hide it and when they find it, they hit it with a stick. He said "It will never catch on... don't worry yourselves about it... it's like the piano - dreadful noisy box."

The mayor and citizens of the town read the Declaration of Independence and listed the grievances against the king.

Then, one of the women of the town, Miss Edith, a free black woman, got up on a tree stump and started calling out the women in the audience for cheering during the Declaration of Independence. She hated politicians and kept saying "Poly means many and tick is a blood sucker. So you have many blood suckers!" She asked the women "You think they mean YOU? NO! They don't mean you, or me and what about the Indians? Weren't they here first? They don't mean anybody but rich white men." She then encouraged women to leave off their house hold chores for 6 months until the men start to notice them! She kept going on angrily about how they don't mean liberty for all until she was called away by some of the slave women. I ran into her while visiting the Raleigh Tavern and she expressed her dislike for "politickin' men" as she led us inside. She's a great character and has a charming Jamaican accent.

September 15, 1780 In Desperate Circumstances Barbry Hoy, a local woman who followed her husband southward with the army, returns to Williamsburg. She walked all the way from Charleston where she believed her husband was captured. She now seeks work at a tavern and help reading a paper which lists the names of the men on prison ships. She told the story of the war in South Caroline and the terrible defeats of the Patriot Army and how her husband's army pension is being denied her while her husband is missing. She had to sell their farm, their slave and divide up her children. She is desperate to find her husband and provide for her family. It was very moving and emotional.

April 20, 1781 The Town is Taken: The British Occupy Williamsburg News came to the town that the British army is marching into Williamsburg led by that turncoat Benedict Arnold. Unfortunately, while we waited for Arnold to come riding up, it started to pour and all Revolutionary City programs were canceled for the rest of the day.