Williamsburg Trip

We spent a delightful five days in Williamsburg, arriving in the evening of August 10. The next morning we drove to the Visitor Center to purchase our tickets. We opted to purchase the Independence Pass which gives us full access to colonial Williamsburg for a year, including evening programs. We were so glad we did this as the evening programs were a favorite part of the trip. The first morning and many other times that week we decided to walk from the Visitor Center to the colonial city. The weather was beautiful all week and it was a pleasant 10 minute walk. The first morning we stopped to visit Hope Farm which is along the path from the Visitor Center and is in the process of being recreated. This is a picture of men sawing logs into planks for a building. Looks like hard, time consuming work. No need for a gym work out in colonial America.

Every day from 10:30 - 12:30 there were performances in the Revolutionary City. These were wonderful and we saw at least part of them almost every day. Sometimes there were speeches about what was happening on whatever day of colonial history they were portraying. We enjoyed the country dancing demonstration on Monday. Other days we "eavesdropped" on a conversation between a woman and her husband as they "discussed" his joining the continental army and listened in on an informal discussion of men on the need to declare independence from Great Britain.


One day we were outside the Capitol building awaiting a visit from Martha Washington who was coming to the city to accept a presentation for her husband. While there we heard from a man who had served in General Washington's army and complained to the crowd about being injured in the battle and was now unable to work and had not been able to receive compensation from the army. Mrs. Washington "overhead" this conversation and called the man to her where she listened compassionately to his story, assured him that his grievance would be heard and then took coins from her purse to give him, thanking him profusely for his service to his country. It was a very touching scene. I found myself really getting caught up in all the little dramas, forgetting that I was viewing actors and actresses and not the characters they were portraying. I found myself often getting teary eyed. It really brought the history of this time to life for me.
Another day we heard a black preacher who had just been granted his freedom. What a powerful speaker this man was and showed a love for the Lord and compassion for his people. I wasn't alone in that crowd to be wiping my eyes as he spoke of the plight of the slaves in trying to gain their freedom. I thought it was a bit sad, though, when I looked around and saw how few blacks there were in the audience. It was a large crowd, but mostly white. It seems that this would be something very interesting and valuable history for black people to be a part of. The preacher spoke as though he were addressing his congregation, which I assume would have been entirely black. So it really made me put myself in the place of a slave during the colonial period.

We chose three evening programs. On the first evening we attended "Dance, Our Dearest Diversion" which was an audience participation program. Anyone who desired it could volunteer to be a part of the dances. This was interspersed with demonstrations of dance by actors in colonial costume. Of course, Bill and I both took part. We were chosen for different dances so that we could observe each other from the sidelines. It was a lot of fun. There were many families we saw during the week who came dressed in colonial costume--I suspect many of them were homeschooling families! Especially at the dance programs there were many little girls in long dresses and we were actually surprised at how many girls and women were in skirts or dresses even during the day, strolling the streets. I wished I had packed more skirts as it seemed more appropriate to the culture than wearing shorts or capris. Below is a picture of me with my colonial dance partner of the evening.

Another evening we attended a colonial ball at the Capitol. That was Bill's favorite program. We first saw a puppet show, then were escorted upstairs to meet some colonial men partaking of punch and singing drinking songs and we were all taught some of the lines and encouraged to sing along. Then we proceeded to the ballroom where we witnessed more colonial dancing. During one of the dances the dancers went through the crowd asking some of the children to join them for a simple dance. It was cute to see, one young lady in particular, who had some dressed in a sweet "twirly" dress, as she took the floor and just beamed through the whole dance. We also went one evening to witness a witch trial which was very interesting and also interactive. After we had heard evidence we were asked to vote on her guilt or innocence. She was found guilty by a slight margin. The woman charged was a real person from history but the records were destroyed in a fire during the Civil War and they don't know whether she was found guilty or innocent but from records from her home county they know that she was still alive twenty years later. She could have been found guilty but given a lesser sentence than death or been pardoned or found not guilty.

We also attended some daytime programs. One was on the theatre (one of the actresses is pictured above). Although it was staged outside, in colonial times it would have been at one of three indoor theatres. Later, we went to a program at Raleigh Tavern or song, theatre and dance. We really enjoyed learning a little more about the entertainment (diversions) of that time.

On our last day we attended a lecture by Patrick Henry. The actor was excellent and I was spellbound by his words. How relevant to today's politics. All of the things he warned against about this new form of government were so true. He was very much against uniting the states and foresaw that if we did that we would one day have a civil war. He cautioned the audience of that day to be vigilant about controlling the government and saw it as a real danger to have too much government control. At the end, he took questions from the audience. In answering one question about his family he told the sad story of his wife, who had recently died, after having struggled with a mental illness for over four years, after the birth of her sixth child. He told of our he cared for her at home for all that time after having looked into putting her in the public hospital. We had just that morning toured the public hospital which was the first hospital in America to deal solely with mental illness. After touring the hospital, Patrick Henry said that he could not subject his wife to that treatment and instead built an apartment for her in the basement of the family home where he could take care of her. In 1970 my mom and I visited Scotchtown, VA and toured the home of the Henry's and I remembered hearing the story of his wife then. After that, I always teased my mom that when she got old I was going to lock her in the basement.

We also spent a day in Yorktown and enjoyed that day as well, touring the historical town and having lunch in a restaurant (The Tomato Tree) housed in a historic home. In Williamsburg we several times packed a lunch and ate on a bench while enjoying the ambiance of the city. One day we had lunch in the garden of the Kings Arms Tavern and one evening enjoyed dinner inside the same tavern. Before leaving to head home on Friday we had an early dinner at Shields Tavern. It was fun to go in the evening when the candles were lit and always there was a little period entertainment, often participatory (we got to sing along--which would have been true in colonial times). Sometimes we ate in our motel room in the evening, thanks to a microwave and refrigerator in our room. Just about every afternoon we came back to our motel and enjoyed the pool and some relaxation before heading back out in the evening. Almost every morning we enjoyed making our own Belgian waffle at the motel's continental breakfast, although one morning we headed into town early and visited the Raleigh Tavern and chose some baked goods and a couple of ham biscuits to eat in their garden for breakfast.

It was a delightful week and the only rain we encountered was the last day as a storm began while we were dining in the tavern. It was still raining when we headed to the bus to go to our car so we did get a bit wet. But at least we were heading home at that point so it didn't matter that we (well, at least I) looked like a drowned rat!