Today, we toured Colonial Williamsburg, once the capital of Virginia. One day was not enough to see everything. After lunch we split into three groups, we all went and saw different things and we still didn’t cover everything.
The first thing we saw was the old capitol building. The man giving the tour stayed in character throughout, and behaved as if it were June of 1776. Virginia had just declared itself to be independent of England and was urging the other colonies to do the same. A government was still found to be necessary for administering various needs, the people were gathering to create a separate commonwealth. As we walked out, there were actors portraying scenes that might have occurred at that time. A woman found some old friends after walking all the way from Charlotte, SC. Her husband had been captured by the British, and might or might not be incarcerated in a prison ship in Charlotte Harbor. Several men spoke out in favor of asking the French to join our fight against the British. And later, General Benedict Arnold tried to persuade the people to lay down their arms and accept King George’s letter stating that he would no longer tax the American Colonies without representation.
We had a great lunch, in a period-authentic restaurant, and more actors came in playing contemporary roles. When we split up, Pam and Delia went to the drama workshop for Delia to participate in. Mica and I went to the museum, watched a short play about the three women in George Washington’s life: his wife, his sister, and his mother. Pam’s dad saw a number of things, including the smithy and some of the military fortification. We all met together to hear Thomas Jefferson give a speech. The actor who portrayed him deserves an award. He was amazing! He spoke for 45 minutes or so, with no notes. I recognized enough quotes of Jefferson’s to realize the speech was entirely composed of Jefferson’s words. And after he was done, he took questions from the audience, and responded exactly the way you would expect Jefferson to have done; evincing his attitudes, speaking plainly and directly, and with the greatest eloquence. We were floored at how great it was.
Following that, we went to see the army assembled and General Lafayette addressed the troops. There were fifes and drums, marching and martial displays, and they fired off cannons and muskets.
After that, we had to head back the way we had driven the day before, all the way to Bowling Green, VA. That is where Fort A. P. Hill is located, and that is the site for the 2010 National Boy Scout Jamboree. It was past dark when we arrived, but we found our way and I was able to get checked in and settled into my barracks bunk.
Pam, et. al., apparently got lost getting back off base, but eventually made it down to Richmond, where they stopped for the night.
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