The Past Becomes the Present

Post date: Mar 26, 2015 12:08:36 AM

For 5 days we were immersed in Revolutionary realities. We visited Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown, VA. As described in colonialwilliamsburg.com, we met "the tradespeople, shopkeepers, political figures, women, and the enslaved"  who called Williamsburg home. We walked through their city and their homes and shops. Everywhere there are people (most are volunteers) in period dress, who speak of colonial life in vivid detail. We spoke to a carpenter who had gone through 6 years of apprenticeship to learn his 200-year-old trade. There are professional furniture makers, printers and coopers who use 18th century tools and techniques to make beautiful creations. This is not a hobby to these people.  It is a career and a way of life.  We heard more about Revolutionary America than we could possible retain, but we will remember the reality of it all.  It became clearer to me that the more things change, the more they are the same.  There were the very rich and the very poor and an instinctive need to feel superior to other human beings. Slavery was viewed as a necessary evil by some and simply a god-given right by others.  White slaveholders were greatly outnumbered by the enslaved, but were ingenious enough to retain their human property for another hundred years. 

Jamestown is the "before" of Williamsburg.  They have re-produced the Jamestown Settlement there.  There is a Native American (Powhatan) village, a fort and even reproductions of the ships that brought settlers there in 1607.  There is also a gorgeous museum with room after room of artifacts and illustrations about the colony. Again, there are volunteers who are happy to answer questions or just to chat about the daredevils who settled there.

Yorktown is the "after." It is the site of the final battle of the Revolutionary War, in which Washington and French forces soundly defeated Cornwallis. There is little to see here except cannons and battlefields, so you have to use your imagination here more than in the other two towns.

I had no idea that these 3 cities had so much to teach me.