Welcome to J. Tyler's Webpage for History 150
Colonial and Revolutionary Tidewater Virginia!!
The Historic Wren Building at the College of William and Mary
INTRODUCTION
This Webpage is designed to be a journal chronicling the activities of my freshman seminar class. Each journal entry should give details as to that weekend's trip to a museum in the area dealing with the subject matter we are currently focusing on. each reflection is not only an account of the museum, but it will incorporate details from the readings, as well as my personal opinions. Please, send me an e-mail with any questions or commentsRecent Trip Entries
The Mariners' Museum Field Trip - August 30, 2003
The Jamestown Field Trip - September 6, 2003
Historic St. Mary's City - September 13, 2003
Bacon's Castle and Assorted Sites - October 4, 2003
Shirley Plantation and Westover - October 11, 2003
The Wren Building and the Page House - October 18, 2003
Christ Church / Rosewell - October 25/26, 2003
Yorktown Victory Center and Battlefield - November 8, 2003
Yorktown, George Wythe House, Peyton Randolph House - November 15, 2003
Colonial Williamsburg, DeWitt Wallace Gallery - November 22, 2003
8.30.03 The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia Week's Readings: James Axtell, "The Rise and Fall of the Powhatan Empire"
John Thornton, "The African Experience of the '20. and Odd Negros' Arriving in Virginia in 1619"First day of freshman seminar started off hot and humid. The class gathered first in Blair for the course expectations, and then in Tyler, to learn how to make a web page, a skill that I'm attempting to show off now. After a 20 minute ride, we arrived at the Mariners' Museum where, apart from documenting just about every kind of seafaring vessel and activity possible, they are cleaning and restoring the turret of the Union gunboat USS Monitor, which fought the CSS Merrimack to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads in 1862. The museum chronicled these events, as well as many others through their large and interactive displays.
The advancement in technology: From left, a 1630 Powhatan canoe measuring 26 feet long, The colonial sloop Mediator (1740), and a Chesapeake 'deadwater' from 1955 The first thing that we saw was an exhibit about the Chesapeake Bay area from the time of the Indians, to the European arrival, to the present day. Seeing the incredible differences in technology made me think about just how foreign and alien the European's ships must have appeared to the Natives. The Indians had done a fair job making do with what materials they had. Without the use of metal tools, and aided only by fire, ingenuity, and home-made instruments, they had managed to make rather large canoes that could hold more than 10 people at a time. These 26 foot vehicles had nothing on the massive, sea-going vessels of the English. The anchors or figureheads of these ships alone would have been more than half the size of the Indian canoes.
Left: Anchor of the HMS Dictator (1783) Right: Figurehead from the USS Lancaster (1880) The Indians were also at a technological disadvantage as the Europeans had metal tools with which to construct these ships.
Common tools used by the English to build their vessels One of the exhibits illustrated just what a clash of cultures occurred when the Europeans found their way to America, and just how these groups managed to peacefully, or not so peacefully, co-exist, for a while at least. In reality, it was a convergence of 3 cultures; the Indians, the Europeans, and, in 1619 a handful of Africans, whose presence in the region would grow over time. These Africans had been captured from a Portuguese ship transporting slaves from Africa to Spanish colonies. The captured slaves ended up in Point Comfort in 1619, and a new, potential workforce was introduced to America. These three cultures may have shared more in common than they realized at first.
The most striking similarity between these three cultures was their governmental structure. At the head of the government was some figure who made decisions that would govern the entire tribe or country. England had a monarchy, the Indian tribes had a chief, and the African tribes were ruled over by warlord or some sort of tribal leader. These three systems also had similar components. Towns further away from the center of government were more free to do as they chose. All three cultures also demonstrated a system of reciprocity, a policy of give-and-take for the gain of both parties.
(Left) John Smith's map of the area surrounding Jamestown. At the top left, Powhatan is shown seated upon his throne, surrounded by riches, might, and power. He presented just as formidable an image as and of the English rulers. Though these similarities are fairly obvious now, they weren't observed in the early 1600's. Though the Virginia Company had instructed the settlers to work with the Indians and to do them no harm, the first settlers could barely disguise their contempt for the Indian 'savages.' The English viewed the Indians as uncivilized for several reasons, the primary reason being that the Indians didn't share their own moral values about society. These Indians weren't religious in the European sense, though they did believe in spirits, which was tantamount to witchcraft in the eyes of the English. According to the settlers, the Indian's state of nakedness was immoral and improper, as was their apparent barbarity in war. Looking back however, the Indians were probably no more savage than the English. Savagery vs. civilized is a battle that is purely subjective. If you are at all involved with a culture, it is impossible to achieve an unbiased view about the civility of a culture. When encountering a culture for the first time that does things differently, or does things that you aren't familiar with, you might think that they aren't civilized. I believe that all cultures think they're civilized, therefore, if you encounter a culture that doesn't do things your 'civilized' way, they must be savages. One can only be objective in this circular argument if they can take a step back, and view the whole picture of a culture with which they have had no intimate or personal contact.
In one corner of the exhibit of the Chesapeake Bay area was a large map of the entire area, with different colored lights that represented settlements of Indians, Europeans, and Blacks. When the first Europeans landed, there were more than 140 Indian villages, as compared to two English settlements. As time progressed, the green lights of the English began to swarm over the map, extinguishing the red lights of the Indians. Around 1700, the purple lights of the Africans began to appear. At the end of the presentation, the English had completely conquered the Chesapeake region, with a substantial number of African settlements in the mix. There were no Indian settlements left. In less than 200 years, the English had totally wiped the Indians off the map. This is sobering considering the English came to America with mostly good intentions, and yet they decided that they couldn't live with people they considered inferior.
Left: The class takes a break from the museum to discuss what we've seen and read so far. Right: Drawing of slaves working with tobacco, a scene similar to those in Virginia
Click here to visit the Mariners' Museum Website
9.6.03 Jamestown Settlement Park and Jamestown Island, Virginia Week's Readings: Carville V. Earle, "Environment, Disease, and Mortality in Early Virginia"
Edmund S. Morgan, "The Labor Problem at Jamestown, 1607-18"
Left: A welcome to the Jamestown settlement, Right: Perhaps a good reason why there might have been a 'starving period' for early settlers The day began bright and clear. Watching an introductory film about archeological developments at Jamestown Island put us all in the mind set for what we were about to visit. The Jamestown Island project is really exciting because it is still going on; they are finding new things every day. It really is a 'living history' site, even though it was settled nearly 400 years ago. Our trip started with a trip to Jamestown Settlement, which contains replications of the 3 ships the 104 first settlers crossed the Atlantic on, as well as a Powhatan Indian Village, and a recreation of James Fort.
From left: Several authentic reproduction houses at the Indian village; Indian interpreters working around a fire; A precious waste of natural resources, which also shows their adeptness at hunting; A carved out Indian canoe, ideal for paddling up and down the river First up came the Indian settlement, which is probably the most historically accurate of the exhibits at the settlement. A clearing in the woods is scattered with four or five 'yehakins,' or houses. These houses were really ingeniously made; the roof was covering in tightly woven cattails to make it completely waterproof. Although the Indians would not have had a village so close to the fort, in fact, the nearest Indian village to James Fort was some 10 miles up the river, the class got an excellent idea of what Indian life was like on a day-to-day basis. The settlers arrived with the idea that they would make the natives of the land provide them with food. This gave the Indians an enormous bargaining tool over the English. If relations weren't working out, the Indians could simply withhold food until the settlers relented. Even though they weren't as technologically advances as the Europeans when it came to farmer, the Indians managed to make out just fine. The agricultural villages relied on the 'Three Sisters,' corn, beans, and squash, for most of their diet, supplemented by any game or fish they could catch. Not only did the three sisters work together to provide a healthy diet, but they also complimented each other in the ground, which is why, unlike the English, the Indians let everything grow together in a large field, recognizing that this was the most productive way to grow. At the village, we also saw how the Indians ground maize, made dug-out canoes, cooked and smoked meats, and how they started fires, which was a complicated procedure of rubbing a dowel into a block of wood, with friction eventually providing enough heat to start a fire.
When the first Europeans interacted with the Natives, they thought that women were basically slaves to the men. They saw women working in the fields and in the houses while the men just sat around and smoked or played games. What the settlers didn't realize is that there was a system of division of labor in Indian society that worked quite well. True, the women did most of the farming and housekeeping, but the men were often out in the woods hunting or warring. In fact, one could argue that the Indians had more respect for women than Europeans did. All families were matriarchal, with the oldest woman of that family in control. Also in government, women had a primary say in what should be done about issues in and around the village. Though they had no role in peace or war-making with other tribes, it was often the women's decision whether or not to go to war. While it may have seemed to an outside that men were domineering over the women, this was not the case at all.
Before we left the Indian village, we had an oral report about the most famous Indian in history, Pocahontas. Born in the late1590's, she tried to be the voice of logic and reason in Indian relations. Daughter of the Powhatan, she spent much of her childhood turning cartwheels naked inside Jamestown fort. There, she may have met John Smith, though this would not have been the Disney encounter most people believe, as he was in his late 20's, and she only 11 or so. When Smith was captured by the local Indians, he fully expected to be executed. In his memoirs he describes an event where it appears that he is to be killed, but Pocahontas rushes in at the last minute to save his life. Historians now suggest that this was not a scheduled execution, but a dramatic adoption ceremony where Smith was welcomed into the Indian tribe. Whatever the case, Smith is released and not long after returns to England. In 1610, she was captured by Captain Samuel Argall, who wanted Powhatan to return some English prisoners he was holding. She met John Rolfe in 1613, and he wrote asking for permission to marry her in order to 'civilize' her. Pocahontas' marriage to an Indian apparently doesn't matter, and she and Rolfe are married. He takes her to England to show her off to the Queen and court. Just as Rolfe was preparing to return to Virginia, Pocahontas contracted pneumonia or tuberculosis and died soon after. The death or his daughter had a quite an effect on Powhatan, who was an old man by this time. He died soon after learning of her death. His departure would change Indian-English relations, and perhaps pave way for the Massacre of 1622.
From left: The largest of the first settler's ship the Susan Constant; The smallest of the three ships the Discovery; On deck of the Discovery, kind of a tight fit From the Indian village, we went down to the river where two of the three ships were docked. The largest, the Susan Constant, and the smallest, the Discovery were there, with the Godspeed engaged elsewhere. It was fairly amazing to think that ships just like these crossed the Atlantic safely, especially the Discovery, which was just 50 feet long, and yet somehow managed to carry 21 people (9 crew, 12 passengers) The Susan Constant was a more comforting 116 feet, and could carry 71 people (17 crew, 54 passengers) as well as most of the supplies that the settlers would need. And I use the term crew loosely. It was pointed out to us that, in fact, the men operating the ships weren't career sailors, most were soldiers who happened to know how to sail a ship. It was postulated by the class that the crew of the Discovery stayed in Virginia while the other ships returned. If the 9 men had stayed, that would tally up to 104 settlers.
From left: Ornamental pulley apparatus below decks in the Susan Constant; Steering mechanism topside; Where it attaches to the rudder below Next came the centerpiece of the museum, the recreation of the James Fort. It was a three sided structure, protected by rough-hewed boards and a palisade at each corner of the triangle. It was probably not a very sturdy structure at all. The walls surrounding the fort at the settlement don't really accurately represent the haphazard construction that the settlers probably used. The boards wouldn't have been securely fitted, and they wouldn't have been all the same height. There would have been holes and slits between the boards, rendering it merely for show, not so much for defense. Inside was a church, a storehouse, a guardhouse, a forge, and some assorted houses. The structures of these house differed from those in England for several reasons. There wasn't really time to establish a foundation and build a house up from there. Because houses needed to be erected as quickly as possible; the settlers had to resort to hasty construction. As there were no carpenters among the settlers, the soldiers were set to the task of setting up houses. Many had previous experience with this kind of construction as they had to build shelters when campaigning back in European wars.
The class experiences life back in the settler's day, from dressing funny, to carrying water, to starting a fire While at the settlement, information from the readings, along with what I was seeing came back to enforce the point that the colonists were fairly unprepared for life in the New World. Granted, they had a plan, but the Spanish system of enslaving the locals and forcing them to work for invaders of their counties has several obvious flaws. Many in the past have blamed the Virginia Company for sheer incompetence in the setting up of the expedition. It is very true that they weren't as prepared as they could have been. Infrequent supply ships, lack of a permanent work force, and a host of bad coincidences made Jamestown quite a project. Sure, the Company thought they could rely on the natives, but perhaps they should have brought their own men along, just in case cooperation wasn't immediate. They did bring many craftsmen, but none that were adequately equipped to start a colony. The gold-workers and the like who came along on the trip would have been better used once the colony was firmly established. Another problem was the lack of leadership. Occasionally a viable person would come along, like John Smith, but too often, the only ones there to direct labor were young men from rich families who had bought stock with the Company and had come over expecting others to do the work for them. The thought that they would be able to just sit back and rake in the profits. The Virginia Company couldn't do too much about these rich settlers, they couldn't very well say that they couldn't buy stock in the company, so the Company had no choice but to let them tag along.
Left: An explanation as to why nothing ever got done; Right: One of the palisades at the settlement fort Another problem with the colony was location. The settlers probably couldn't have picked a worse place on the river to start a village. One of the readings pointed out that Jamestown island was right at the point in the river where fresh water mixed with salty water from the ocean. This point in any river that leads into the ocean is called the oligohaline. Because of the location of the colony, water, particularly during the summer was far too salty for human consumption, a fact that the settlers didn't seem to realize until thousands had died. This contaminated water could cause typhoid, dysentery, and salt poisoning. In the cramped quarters of Jamestown, these diseases could spread right through the population, decimating just about everyone. By the time the first supply ships reached the new colony, only 38 of the original 104 colonists were alive. John Smith realized that the epidemics were caused by the bad water and the close living conditions. He ordered people to move upriver and spread out, which would reduce the risk of a large contamination area. His plan worked, until politics and a gunpowder incident recalled him to Europe. When the new leaders arrived, they countered all of his orders and ideas, and the death began again. Because of the high turnover rate of leaders and colonists, very few ideas, even those that could help the colony, actually stuck. Lessons that had been learned hard to be re-learned the hard way.
Another impression that I got when visiting the settlement was that the Virginia Company may not have been planning to set up a permanent colony. Of the 104 settlers, none were women. It therefore would have been fairly difficult to keep the colony populated, especially considering that the English weren't likely to interact with Indian women like that. As mentioned before, they didn't really bring along anyone useful for starting a colony. Perhaps they thought to get the gold the expected to find there, shape it into something, and send it back to England, along with other resources. After spending the land, they may have planned to move on to some other place. Complimenting this theory is the fact that the workers who actually came over weren't working for themselves; they were working for the Company. The noblemen who came weren't expecting to do any work. The normal worker was getting no extra money or personal benefits out of trying any harder, and as a result, he was apt to not try all. They worked very little, maybe 4 to 6 hours a day, and even less in the winter. Laziness was pervasive in the colony for a long while before order was finally regained, and colonists were given their own land to farm. They now had incentive to try harder.
Left: Re-creation of the Jamestown fence at the Settlement Site; Right: A more accurate representation on Jamestown Island After the trip to the settlement, we headed out to Jamestown Island, where archeologists are currently uncovering more remains of the fort everyday. Dark marks in the soil, called post-moles where wood was previously placed and rotted, outline where the fence of the fort was originally. Recent developments have lead to the discovery of the last of the 3 walls. The line of that wall lets historians know exactly where and how big the fort was. It was feared originally that much of the fort had already collapsed into the river due to erosion. The US Army Corps of Engineers built a retaining seawall on the bank about 100 years ago. Because of that preventative measure, only about 10%, just about all of that being one palisade, is underwater.
The land on which the fort was on is now part of a 22 acre parcel bought by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities in 1892. The surrounding area is owned by the National Park Service. Also on the property owned by the APVA is Jamestown Church. Though the church has burned down several times and been rebuilt, the church tower, added in 1647 is still original, and is one of the oldest English buildings in America. Progress is being made everyday (except for most weekends) by archeologists looking for more evidence from the colony. In the tent that we visited, they had already marked out several places in the ground where graves were. You think that when you're working on a place that had been inhabited for 400 years, you'd be falling over bones everywhere, but this isn't the case. Unless the soil conditions are exactly right, a body can complete disintegrate, leaving nothing behind. Further on down the island, we saw where row houses once stood, and where the first 'Congress' so to speak of Jamestown took place. This will figure in more prominently when we deal with Bacon's Rebellion in a few weeks.
Before we left, we had a report about John Smith, the soldier of fortune who found himself a lone voice of reason in a new world. He was born in 1580 and fought against the Spanish and the Turks as a young man. He was captured at one point, but escaped back to England to be greeted as a hero. A short, boastful, and fiery man, he was one of the 7 men named to Jamestown's original council. After being capture by Powhatan, meeting Pocahontas, and laying the law down in Jamestown, he was seriously injured in a gunpowder accident and returned to England where he died 1631. He is most well known for his encounters with Pocahontas, and his strict sense of order and discipline when he ruled in Jamestown. Had he not returned to England, things might have turned out differently.Visit the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities Website
From left: Where wall actually was, you can see it eventually ended up in the river as the bank eroded; Footprints of row houses erected in 1640; One of the oldest English structures in America, a church the settlers built in 1647; Another possible reason why work progressed so slowly The entire trip helped paint a clearer picture in my head as to what the colonists had to deal with. Not only did they have to face horrible, cramped, diseased living conditions, but they had to work to keep themselves alive amongst sometimes hostile Indians. The staggering mortality rate in the first 20 years of Jamestown is a testament to just how bad things really were. In hindsight, there were several things that the Virginia Company could have done to ensure a more successful colony, but we are looking back on factors that settlers then wouldn't have taken into consideration, so they can't be blamed entirely for the lack of initial success.
9.13.03 St. Mary's City, Maryland Week's Readings: Edmund S. Morgan, "The First American Boom: Virginia 1618 to 1630"
Russell R. Menard, "A Small Planter's Profits: The Cole Estate and the Growth of the Early Chesapeake Economy"Before leaving early Saturday morning, I knew nothing about St. Mary’s City, except for the fact that it is in Maryland, and therefore at least a 3 hour drive each way. I had never heard the city mentioned in any American History
Class before; so I didn’t know what to expect. When we reached the museum segment of the city, after a journey which I passed in a state of semi-consciousness, we began to learn a little more about the settlement. It was founded in 1634 on land owned by the Lord Baltimore of England. He gave the prominent Calvert family a charter to start the state of Maryland. In late 1633, 140 settlers left the Isle of Wight on 2 ships, the Ark and the Dove. Led by Leonard Calvert (pictured on the right), their reasons for coming on the expedition were varied. In contrast to previous English settlements, St. Mary’s was religiously very liberal. Though there was constant upheaval in England at the time between Protestants and Catholics, both religions were present among the first settlers. Even after the founding, which established the third English settlement in the New World, both groups, the Protestants being in the majority, continued to live in relative harmony for the most part.
The structure of the city was to be set up like that of Rome’s. This style, with 2 symmetrical triangles meeting at a point, is called the Baroque style. The town center was located where the main roads (the sides of the triangles) met. You could go one of four directions from the town center, and at the end of every one of those roads was a building important to the functioning of the city, like the seat of the government.
Left: A bell from the city dated 1691; Right: A map showing the locations and dates of early settlements
by colonial powers.Even in the very beginning, there was a great mixing of cultures and races. Aside from the religious issue, the settlers were sharing land with local Indians. These Indians, the Yaocomaco, were apparently very friendly and helpful to the settlers, helping them grow food and survive the first years. Blacks also played a role in society. Coming to St. Mary’s first as indentured servants, and then as slaves, blacks added another cultural aspect to the open and accepting society. It was in this city that the first black man, Mathias de Sousa, in the New World was given a voice in the local legislature. It was also in St. Mary’s where women petitioned the legislature for voting rights. Aside from these advances in suffrage, St. Mary’s was home to the first common inn, the first water mill, the and first printing press south of Boston in the New World. The city, which had a year-round population of about 200, also served as the capitol of Maryland until 1695 when it moved to Annapolis and St. Mary’s was abandoned.
From Left: A small cannon, or saker, found in St. Mary's River, possibly sent by Lord Baltimore in 1674; Image of Mathias de Sousa; Replication of the first printing press in the city Before we left the museum, we had an oral report on Philip and Anne Calvert, a prominent couple in the early days of St. Mary’s. Anne was a Catholic who came to the settlement in 1657. Philip, the 6th son of the 1st Lord Baltimore. In the 1650’s there was great turmoil in the St. Mary’s government as the Protestants and the Catholics tried to wrestle power away from each other. Despite this struggle, the Calverts were heavily involved in politics for almost the entire time they remained in the colony. Philip was one of the keys in keeping peace with not only the Indians, but with the Dutch and Virginia. Anne died in 1681, and Philip remarried, but died soon after. Their lead coffins, along with that of a child, were found underneath the chapel floor. Their remains were very well persevered; we can even guess what Anne looked like, and we can tell that she suffered from bad teeth and a broken leg.
Left: The lead coffin of Philip Calvert; Right: A guess at what Anne may have looked like based on her skull structure After the museum, we went outside and sat under a large tree to have out class discussion about the readings. The discussion focused mostly on the Morgan reading which focused on the running of the Virginia Company, and how the mind-set of the colonists changed as time progressed. The original shareholders of the Company weren’t that concerned with immediate profits, they were willing to sit back and let the colony develop. In the mid 1610’s though, there was a hostile takeover of the company. The new leaders, lead by Secretary George Sandys, were members of the middle class who wanted more immediate results. They were determined to work the land and milk it for all the profits they could. Before the reforms that Sandys enacted, people were working for the company and getting very few profits for themselves. This sort of communal system was not effective at all, because people could do the bare minimum of work required and still squeeze by, but now people began to receive their own land that they could control. The new message from the company was one of acquisition. Free enterprise was driving the new colonies, with more people looking to make a profit for themselves. This type of greed became one of the foundations for the democracy that developed. People realized that they could make more money working for themselves than for the company, which was of course a desirable idea for them.
Colonists who convinced more workers to come over were rewarded with land under the ‘head-right’ system. They would bring indentured servants over from England and work them as hard as they could. This was not slavery though, eventually the servants would get their freedom and some land of their own to start with. This is the bad side to the capitalism that developed in Virginia; it really did set the scene for slavery. People were basically being used as currency, and even though they were thought of as people, plantation owners were still buying and selling workers with little moral qualms about the entire situation. The idea that it is OK to trade people and force them to work for you began in America about this time, and would persist until the Civil War.
From Left: Next stop on the tour; An oddly attired man we encountered on the trail; The tobacco shed
After a tasty lunch from the Cheese Shop in Colonial Williamsburg (try the chicken salad with house dressing), we paid a visit to the Godiah Spray Tobacco Plantation. No one is quite sure why they chose to name it that, as there is little or no evidence that anyone by that name was involved. After applying an ample does of bug spray, we encountered a man in the woods, who was just happening to go check on his tenant farmer. Along the way, we found that this oddly attired, barefooted man was in fact the master of the plantation, which covered some 200 acres. He explained how most plantations of the day worked, with poorer settlers working as indentured servants until they had enough tobacco to buy their own land. It wasn’t that the land was terribly expensive, in fact it was almost free, but before buying, one had to have the land surveyed, which involved paying for the surveyor, his time, his amenities, and his equipment. The cost of this could be more than 1000 pounds of tobacco. Because of the prevalence of tobacco, this seemed to be the primary method of payment for the St. Mary settlers. Even though the Calvert’s eventually began making their own currency, tobacco remained a viable payment option. And why not, when people could actually grow their own money?
Before we reached the farmhouse, we stopped by the tobacco drying shed, perhaps the most important building on the entire plantation. Here, tobacco hung drying from the rafters.(see below)
On the floor were barrels in which the tobacco would later be packed and shipped. A fairly large plantation could churn out thousands of pounds of tobacco a year, and though the
prices of the weed in England were constantly dropping, the master could still make out handsomely. The tenant farmer happened to be absent when we stopped by the house (pictured on the right), but we were able to look inside anyway. It was a sparsely furnished, dirt floored, one room house, with a fireplace, a table, and blankets in the corner to serve as a bed. There wasn’t much in the way of luxury, just what was necessary to get the job done. The master scoffed at the idiocy of his tenant, saying that indentured servitude was a much better financial deal then paying the master of the plantation rent and much of your crop.
The master then introduced us to one of his workers, a black man who lived in Virginia, but moved to Maryland to try to make a life for himself. He was in charge of taking care of the valuable plants. He showed us a group of plants that would produce
the seeds for the next year’s crop. The plants themselves are very ferny, with many large, wide leaves. When they reached their peak, they could be 8 or 9 feet tall. According to the worker, the most common enemy of these plants was a small grubby green worm, about an inch long. They would destroy plants just by eating large holes in the leaves, rendering them unsuitable for public trade. The only way to defeat this worm appeared to be to bite it in half, which no in our group seemed keen to try. We also learned that one pound of tobacco was roughly equivalent to 4 tobacco plants. It was here that we met one of the plantation cats, who followed us around for the rest of our time there. On the section of the plantation we saw, the tobacco seemed to be scattered, with no discernable planning to the planting, and no attempt to remove the weeds and other plants that surround the tobacco. There is a great demand in the New World for more help with the harvesting of tobacco, and owners of plantations are willing to pay more for help in the short term, because it will lead to more profits later on.
From Left: The spiral staircase at the Master's House; The Master's wife, tending the house; Spacious living accommodations upstairs The plantation worker then directed us to the house of the owner of the plantation. Inside was the master’s wife who showed us around the house and explained why the family decided to move to St. Mary’s. The house differed dramatically from the house of the sharecropper. There were numerous tools and pieces of dishware lying around. Some of the silverware was obviously imported from England, something that most farmers couldn’t accomplish. The kitchen floor was paved with stone slabs; it wasn’t dirt like the other house. The fireplace was massive and located right in the center of the house. The outside was lined with bricks, also something that most people couldn’t afford. A large and expensive looking table graced the center of the room, apparently brought or at least bought from England. The thing that most distinguishes this house from all the other houses is the presence of a second floor, and a solid circular staircase leading up there. The second floor is just as large as the ground floor, with two rooms that would be used as sleeping quarters for the many children of a colonial family. Outside the house was a small garden that would have been used to growing different types of vegetables and things to supplement the family’s diet. Pumpkins and squash figured quite prominently. It was here that we were forced to say goodbye to the cat. One side of the garden overlooked the river, no more than 200 yards from the house. All major plantations were located very close to a river so that the tobacco they were shipping back to England could be easily transported.
Left: A view of the garden at the Master's house; Right: From the garden, looking out to the river, the lifeline of the plantation
From Left: The Statehouse; Inside the legislative chamber; A feat worthy of being put in the stocks Following our intrusion into the house, we walked up and down where the actual city used to stand. We visited the common house, where locals and travelers could spend the night and eat dinner. We saw the Maryland State House, which served as the capitol building until the capitol moved. Outside the building were the stocks, where petty offenders would be locked up and subjected to public ridicule. The storehouse was next. The owner would keep this building locked up unless
someone made an appointment with him, and only then would he open the store up for business. The shopkeeper there may have used at method of calculation like an abacus by moving stones or markers around a board divided by lines representing numerical values (see right). From there, we visited a dormant archeological site which has the potential to be a major discovery when the workers come back. A little further up the road was a small re-creation Yaocomaco village. It appeared not much different from the village at Jamestown; it had several small huts with furs and weapons, firepits, and a dugout canoe. It was also fairly close to the city, so I'm not sure if the village is on the same location the original one was.
The trip ended on that note, and the trek back began, interrupted by a dinner break at a quaint little diner with sketchy bathrooms. I can, however, recommend the food (see said sketchy diner on the left). In the end, the trip enlightened me about a city that I had knownnothing about. The plantation visit certainly brought that system to life far better than the second reading, with its graphs and figures. It also illustrated how the system of indentured servitude would eventually lead to the outright slavery of blacks later on. The visit also showed that America was truly founded on capitalism and greed. Without these factors, the population wouldn't have grown as fast, the nation wouldn't have had a real economy, and we would have never become as powerful as we needed to be to become a new country.
10.4.03 Bacon's Castle, St. Luke's Church, Smithfield Courthouse Week's Readings: Edmund S. Morgan, "The Volatile Society"
James. P. Whittenburg, "After the Fort: Jamestown, circa. 1620-1699."Due to a technical disagreement between the starting of class and my sleep cycle, I missed some of the finer points of this week's trip. I do know a bit about Nathaniel Bacon, and the house he would live in before the Rebellion. Bacon was born in Suffolk England in January 1647, a ‘gentleman of no obscure family.’ His cousin had been the president of the VA Counsel of State during a previous reb
ellion against Berkley, so Bacon had some name recognition in the colony already. His family was well-off and involved with local government in England. Bacon was educated at Cambridge University and took a tour of Italy, Germany and France while in his twenties. At one point during his time in England, Bacon was married. Eventually, disputes with his wife’s family led him to feel England and settle in Virginia at the head of the James River. Bacon’s wife was aquainted Lady Berkley, the wife of the governor, and Bacon was a cousin by marriage to the governor, which gave Bacon another head start politically in Virginia. Bacon arrived with 1800 pounds and used that money to buy two estates.
During this time, many poor planters in Virginia were dissatisfied with their government, and just with life in general. A poor tobacco crop, lower tobacco prices in England, and frequent troubles with Indians all had the colonist's ready to revolt. This was the perfect place for Bacon, who always had a knack for attracting followers, his impassioned speeches had no trouble rousing the hearts of downtrodden farmers just willing to get some payback. Not that he was always a rational or cool-tempered man; he often had a fiery temper. He has been quoted as calling Secretary Ludwell a “mechanick fellow” “puppy” “son of a whore.” Bacon was no friend of the local Indian community, and it was them that would be the scapegoats for his followers. "We must defend ourselves] against all Indians in general, for that they were all Enemies." In 1675, Bacon was denied a request to hunt Indians by the governor, but went anyway. His followers convinced friendly Occaneechees to capture members of a nearby unfriendly tribe, the Susquehannahs. When they got back with prisoners, Bacon’s forces killed them all. Governor Berkeley declared Bacon a traitor. When Bacon arrived with 50 armed men to fill his newly-elected seat at the house of Burgesses, he was arrested, but eventually the governor pardoned him, instead of sentencing him to death, with would have been the normal punishment.
Bacon felt that he deserved a commission for his Indian work, but he received nothing from the government. When Berkeley rescinded on more Indian promises, Bacon returned with 500 men, forced Berkeley to give him a commission, which the governor later declared void. Enraged, Bacon declared “If the redskins meddle with me, damn my blood," but I'll harry them, commission or no commission.” Both sides, Bacon's supporters and the governor now marched through countryside trying to gain followers. People apparently though Bacon had a stronger case. Both sides promised freedom to servants and slaves that followed them. Bacon continued to attack local Indians, both friendly and enemy. Just marching captives through a town was enough to get him support from the public. In August 1676, Bacon marched on Williamsburg, Berkeley fled to Accomac on the Eastern Shore. In September of 1676, Bacon and his followers reached Jamestown, and after a siege of maybe 3 days, in which they were fired on by the fort, and by ships in the harbor, they didn’t lose a single man. Berkeley supporters melted away from the defense, and Bacon’s forces entered and burned it to the ground. Bacon died in October, probably from the bloody flux, or dysentery, and the rebellion died. His main supporters were killed, and a general peace returned to the region. Bacon's house remains.
What is known as Bacon's Castle today was built in 1665 by the wealthy planter Arthur Allen. With 6 diamond shaped brick chimneys, and built in the shape of a cross, the h
ouse was one of the most impressive displays of wealth in the colony. At that time, the size and shape of ones house, and what it was made out of, was a primary indication of social standing. Those who could (the ones with money) tried to build houses that would have fit in with English society at the time. These large, brick structures were outfitted with anything English that the owners could get their hands on. Expensive or difficult to come by pieces of art or furniture added to the overall effect. The second owner of Bacon's Castle bought shiploads of dirt from England for his garden. He had so much money that he could spend to impressive the public by enhancing every part of his life. Even his dirt (see right)
.
When the owner died, the house was passed along to his son, Major Arthur Allen, who was a member of the House of Burgesses, and a strong supporter of the governor. As a result, Allen did not sign the oath of loyalty that Bacon drew up before the rebellion. Allen would pay for his lack of support. When the governor fled, and Bacon's forces had complete control of the land, they ransacked the manors of everyone who refused to side with them. Allen's house was the unfortunate recipient of this type of looting. Bacon's rebels then occupied the house during the rebellion.
Bacon's Castle is a good example of the relationship between the lord of the plantation and everyone else, particularly the indentured servants and slaves. The house itself was huge, with two whole floors, a basement and a garret. A garret was something of an attic, a third floor with a pitched roof. There is some speculation that the upper story was used to house the indentured servants of the family. The garret only has one fireplace, and the floors were drafty with holes. Having only one fireplace would cut down on the heat that the occupants of the floor could have, and the holes in the floors cut down on privacy and warmth. The indentured servants were lucky if they had an extra set of clothes, masters weren't required to give their servants any more than they needed for a base existence. Still, the lives the servants led were far better than their slave counterparts out in the slave quarters. The slave quarters at the Bacon house appear to have been constructed with some care. But the control of their lives was complete; they didn't even have a root cellar with which to store their own food. Slaves worked at their masters command, for the rest of their lives. While the servant's indenture would eventually wear out, the slaves had no way to escape their bondage, unless they somehow managed to scrape up enough money to buy themselves from their masters.
Class separation was a major theme that existed in Virginia. The rich planters basically controlled the government, and kept their best interests in mind when coming to decisions that would affect the entire town. Plantations required a great deal of work, particularly the large ones that expected to turn a major profit every year. Owners would try and convince workers to come over from England and work for them. When jobs were scarce in England, more people were willing to come over as indentured servants, but even during boom years, owners could never get enough workers. Masters would often get land for themselves for every worker they brought over, and they were determined to work these people as much as they could before being forced to let them go. Laws were passed that extended the indenture of servants who committed minor offenses, or for no reason at all. Servants without written indentures were in danger of being made to work indefinitely. When an indenture ran out, the master was obliged to provide the servant with some money. Sometimes servants would forgo this fee in order to get released earlier. Masters would sometimes offer to lease their headright land to newly freed servants in order to prevent the former servants from becoming competition in the market. More farmers meant more competition and lower prices for planters everywhere.
The separation between the well-off and the lesser population is evident at St. Luke's Church, which is the oldest existing church of English founding. Richer families have elevated pews, which prevents drafts from disturbing the family during the service. The very wealthy were sometimes allowed to sit in the enclosed governor's box, which only increased their prestige in the eyes of the rest of the community. Those who were forced to come and weren't well-off were forced to stand in the slave gallery throughout the service, which could be terribly long. Even in death, there was inequality. The poor were simply buried in the churchyard with wooden markers that would quickly disappear, leaving no trace of the body. The rich were buried in private plots on their plantations with fancy slate gravestones imported from England.
The Isle of Wight Courthouse shows just how little influence the poor had in local government. The
judges of the court were appointed by the governor. Out of the 12 men appointed, only 4 or 5 heard a case at any time. These cases could deal with anything and any part of daily life from prices of bread to how to collect taxes. All of these judges were very influential, and when their terms of service ran out, the network of other justices would arrange that they be put up for the position again. This ensured that the concerns of the rich would be put ahead of all others.
If you weren't rich in colonial Virginia, you were out of luck. With very little say in the courts or the government, your life was decided by those richer than you. If you were lucky, you'd have one or two indentured servants at your disposal, but they would be free to go eventually, and even with a little help, it would be very hard to turn much of a profit at all. You'd have to deal with the daily inequality, and the knowing that others had power and control when you were just struggling to make a living. It was with this type of life that Bacon entered into, and it's understandable that the poor planter was willing to make something happen. Under the guise of hate for the Indians, Bacon gave his followers an excuse to take their aggressions out on their betters. It was an expression of frustration at not being able to control their own lives
Visit Bacon's Castle
Get more information about The Isle of Wight Courthouse
Visit St. Luke's Church
10.11.03 Shirley Plantation, Westover Plantation, Church, and Courthouse Week's Readings: Paula Treckel, "'The Empire of My Heart': The Marriage of William Byrd II and Lucy Parke Byrd'
T.H. Breen, "Horses and Gentlemen: The Cultural Significance of Gambling among the Gentry of Virginia"
Michael Olmert, "Necessary and Sufficient."
The day started with donuts and a brief discussion about early plantation life in Virginia in James Blair Hall. One of the main themes in the early 18th century was one of deference. This system of government and life in general was a recognition of the population that some in society were above them. This ‘legitimate elite’ was looked up to as an example of what life should be like. The elite were the ones who were well off, and lived the type of life they would have lived in England. They gained legitimacy by taking care of their community by governing over it. Deference was common practice in England. Those who had money wanted to emulate the rich, and they expected others to have no problem with being governed. None of the really affluent families had any desire to immigrate to the New World, so the closest thing to elite families the colonies got were rich plantations families who tried to build up their fortunes and reputations. They would try to show their wealth in a number of ways including, through their houses and their social habits.
The approach to Shirley, and a view overlooking the fields While families vied for legitimacy among the lower class, they also vied for power, position and land between each other. There were only a small number of very well-to-do families in Virginia, and any victory by one family was a loss for another one. Gambling was a common pastime among the elite who could afford to buy and keep racehorses. A great deal of money would be wagered on these quarter mile races. The outcome would often be contested and the matter taken to court. These races attracted many spectators who would bet on the race, adding to the wagers the participants made between each other. Betting on cards, dice, and other games of chance were also popular for a time.
Symbols of wealth, from pineapples (which cost a great deal of money to import from the West Indies) at Shirley, to the majestic eagle at Westover The most obvious indication of wealth however would have to be the plantation houses. The trend may have started in the late 1600’s with Arthur Allen building Bacon’s Castle. Soon though, the houses got more and more impressive. All the important and wealthy families built sprawling and elaborate houses on their grounds. Among the influential families in Virginia at the time were the Hills, Carters, Harrisons, Byrds, Lees, Washingtons, and Tylers. They were constantly trying to outdo each other, and impress everyone else at the same time. As stated before, there was only so much land to go around, so if you had a great deal of land, not only were you rich, but you also had a shrewd of doing business. The large houses were not only impressive from the outside. On the inside, the owners imported furniture, cutlery, and artwork from England in an attempt to recreate the life they could be living in England. The wealthy plantation owners really cared about what others thought of them. I believe this can be seen in the very end of the Declaration of Independence, where Jefferson writes: "...we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. The fact that honor is placed last, and more importantly than life or wealth is certainly telling of what order the owners placed their priorities.
From Left: The Ice House, the Tool Barn, the Kitchen, and a later addition on the Shirley Plantation grounds
From the steps of Shirley, thanks to Andrew The first plantation we visited was Shirley Plantation. It was built in 1723, on land that had been in the Hill family since 1660. It was finished in 1738, and no slave labor was used in the process. At that time, Elizabeth Hill had married the son of Robert ‘King’ Carter, and they were living the life commonly associated with landed elite. The family has remained in possession of descendants of the family since then. The house is a full three floors, and the family inhabits the top two, opening the bottom floor up to tours by the public. It truly is an impressive building. The driveway from the road is long and winding, so you don’t see the house until you have passed through a great deal of plantation. This allowed visitors to see just how much land the family owned. The house itself site on the river.The layout of the house is in the style of Georgian symmetry, in which identical buildings on either side of the main road that leads up to the main house. In the case of the Shirley house, there is a laundry and a tool barn on one side, with
the kitchen and an ice house/granary on the other side. This type of design is known specifically as a Queen Anne forecourt, and is the only example in America of this style. On the inside of the house, the walls are coated with pictures of the family. The names passed in a blur, but the family cleared had some influential connections in the 18th and 19th centuries. The house served as a supply center for the American Army during the Revolutionary War. It escaped damage during the Petersburg and Peninsula Campaigns, as well as the battle for Richmond. Ann Carter, the mother of Robert E. Lee was born and raised at Shirley. She married Henry ‘Light Horse Harry’ Lee in the parlor. The parlor in the house has a tap in the corner, which provided running water without having to go outside. It has been speculated
that the water was provided from a water tank in the attic, which let gravity do the rest of the word. The crowning achievement of the house, and the feature that would doubtless impress the guests the most is the square, flying staircase that goes three stories into the house without any visible support. This type of staircase is unique in America and is truly impressive to look at. Further showing their incredible wealth, the Byrd's managed to import the incredibly rare brick tree (see left) In the foreground of the picture overlooking the river on the right is a rock that came from England, probably as ballast on a ship.
Up next were the plantation grounds at Westover. The house at Westover was built around 1730 by William Byrd II, who also founded Richmond. Byrd II had an interesting relationship with his first wife Lucy. We read about their strange interactions in one of the readings. Byrd was a man who liked to be in control of everything. He viewed the house as his, and forbid his wife to even go into certain places in the house, most notably the library. His wife chafed under this type of control, as we can see from his diaries which remain. It appears that there was love in their relationship, but that it was sometime strained because of Lucy’s constant desire to have more freedom, and Williams’ unwillingness to grant it.
Image of the house as we crested the hill from the riverbankThe house itself is all about presentation. It too is located on the river. To see the house, we started down by the riverbank, and made our way up the bank. As we crested the hill, we saw what a visitor to the house would have seen having arrived on the riverbank. The house rises out of the ground and makes for an impressive site. Anyone who saw the house like that couldn’t help but feel small and insignificant in comparison to the people who lived in the house. The house is another example of Georgian architecture, with a main house, and an identical wing on each side. A sloping roof and matching chimneys at both ends only add to the symmetry. The library, housed in one of the wings, contained some 4000 volumes, but it was unfortunately burned in the Civil War.
From Left: Inside the pit of despair; The view looking out; The class visits the necessary; The hole the nightmen would use to collect valuable fertilizer On the ground of the house are also an ice house, which amounted to a very impressive, 15-foot deep hole in the ground. Before turning on the light on, you’d never expect it to be there. Next to that was an entrance to a tunnel that ended by the riverside. Legend says that the tunnel was built as a hiding place from Indians, but this has yet to be proven. I
n any case, the accommodations were spacious and comfortable, at least for the 5 minutes I was down there. Staying down there however, might have gotten a little old. Across the ice house was the necessary. The attempt to impress even extended to this facet of everyday life. Not only could it seat 5, but it also was equipped with a fireplace to keep all occupants warm during the winter. No one is quite sure why it was built to hold 5, but and affluence and the wealth of the family is apparent in the raised structure. In the garden on the other side is Byrd II tomb. (see left) The stone
lists all of his accomplishments, including his record of public service, and his life in England before journeying over. He must have viewed himself as quite a Renaissance man, especially with his reference to the Royal Academy. My dad points out, quite rightly I believe that the entire tombstone basically contains the message that Byrd II believed he had gone everything gracefully with panache and style. In other words, he did everything his way and was proud of it. Further down the road is first location of the Westover Parish Church. It is currently the resting place of Evelyn Byrd, his daughter, as well as those of William Byrd I, his wife, the owner of the property before Byrd I, and Captain William Perry, who may have the 3rd oldest tombstone in America. The beautiful Evelyn apparently haunts the plantation. She went to England at an early age for an English education. Somewhere along the way, she fell in love with a mystery man, but her father broke up the romance. From that point on, she withdrew from Virginia society and died sad and along. Her rather depressing tombstone (see right) inscription reads:
"Here in the sleep of peace reposes the body of Ms Evelyn Byrd, daughter of the Hon. William Byrd. The various and excellent endowments of nature: improved and perfected by an accomplished education formed her, for happiness of her friends; for the ornament of her country. Alas Reader! We can detail nothing, however valued, from unrelenting death. Beauty, fortune, or valued honour! So here a proof! And be reminded by thos awful tomb that every worldly comfort fleets away. Excepting only, what arises from imitating the virtues of our friends and the contemplation of their happiness. To which, God was pleased to call this Lady on the 13th day of November, 1737, in the 29th year of her age"
Left: The Westover Parish Church; Right: The cemetery next to the church From there, we made a quick stop to the Westover Parish Church, which was built in 1724 to serve Charles City County. In 1803, the church had stopped being used, but services started back up again in 1833. The original Westover Church was on the grounds of Westover Plantation. Finally, we stopped by the Westover courthouse, where we observed some interesting architectural changes from the original building
From Left: Door at the courthouse, around the outside, there is a difference in brick shape and texture; Where a door was previously, again, you can see the difference in brick, forming a 'ghost' door; A drainage ditch by which water seeps through the pebbles and is filtered away from the building; More stupid human tricks. The trip this weekend served to illustrate the class differences between the rich and the poor, between those with large plantations and those without. The rich had money to spend and legitimacy to gain. They attempted to do this a number of ways, most particularly through their possessions and their houses. The lifestyle was completely different from anything that a poor farm worker could dream of. Yet, for the most part, the system of deference worked, with the rich being given respect, and in return they watched over those they considered less than themselves. This system produced some of the nations most important and recognizable leaders, Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jefferson being just two of many.
Visit Westover Plantation
Pay a Visit to Shirley Plantation
Get More Information About the Westover Parish Church
10.18.03 The Wren Building and the John Page House, Williamsburg Week's Reading: John Reps, "Tidewater Towns: City Planning in Colonial Virginia and Maryland;"
Carol Shamas, "English-Born and Creole Elites in Turn-of-the-Century Virginia," in Thad W. Tate & David L. Ammerman, eds., The Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century: Essays on Anglo-American Society;"
Jennifer Agee Jones, " 'The Very Heart and Centre of the Country': From Middle Plantation to Williamsburg," in Robert P. Maccubbin & Martha Hamilton-Phillips, eds., Williamsburg, Virginia, A City before the State: An Illustrated History.Today's trip promised to be a short one, just a quick jaunt down the campus to the Wren Building, and then a quick stop at the John Page house across CW. One of the readings for the week focused on the rise of a native-born elite in the colonies. That is citizens born here, who through inheritance or hard work, managed to find themselves well off. This emergence occurred because of a general stabilization of society; families began to grow, fewer children died in infancy, and the government was in control of things. It was during this time period that some of the most well-known families, the ones who built elaborate plantation houses, began to appear on the landscape. Social elites born in England frowned down on these new upstarts. They generally distained and did not respect those born in Virginia, and this opinion drew a line between the elites. Those who had money in England saw no reason at all to risk their lives and fortunes by moving to Virginia, or anywhere else for that matter. This meant they looked down on those who did live in the colonies as not as superior.
The process by which the population in Virginia began to rise is known as creolization. This process didn't begin till about the beginning of the 1700's. An increasing number of people were being born and living in the colonies, which meant the colonies no longer had to rely solely on immigration for a population. Those upper-class families who established themselves did not like the idea of being looked down on, so many tried to imitate the English elite. William Byrd II even went so far as to look for an English wife. As stated before, they spent vast amounts of money importing English goods to decorate their houses with. In this new society, 'old money' is not as important as it was in England, where wealthy men distained work. At the end of the 17th century, first generation wealth and power was being passed down from fathers who had earned it, to their sons who stood to inherit the fortune. At the same time in the colonies, the self-made man was not thought highly of.
We got to the Wren Building, where we began a tour of the building and the grounds. Before Williamsburg was established, the area had basically nothing important besides the Bruton Parish Church. In 1619, Henrico College was established during a push for education, but the college did not last long. Later in t
he 17th century, the Church of England wanted a seminary somewhere in the colonies. The Reverend James Blair (portrait on the right) was their man on the ground when almost no representatives from the church were there. In 1693, a charter was issued for the formation of a seminary, to be named after the Kind and Queen of England at the time, King William and Queen Mary. From 1695 to 1699 the Wren Building was built as the home of the school. Around the same time, due in large part to the persuasiveness of students at the college, the capitol of Virginia moved to Williamsburg. The two other readings for the trip dealt mostly with how Williamsburg was settled. After the capitol moved, the town experienced a great boom, drawing wealthy plantation owners and merchants to set up shop. As the town expanded, more streets were added off the main Duke of Gloucester Street. One article pondered the question of the streets. At first it seemed to be fairly frivolous, but by the end it turned out to be fairly interesting. Apparently the street layout was different then from what it is now. Currently, the main streets are straight and meet at 90 degree angles. Back when the town was being settled however, one report states that the roads were arranged so that the letters W+M were formed. Apparently there was more than one arrangement in Williamsburg. The article attempted to find out where and how these designs were constructed, with the end result that the authors admitted that they really didn't know how the streets were built, or where they were. The only thing that was certain was that the Capitol was on the other end of DoG street, with the governors palace off the main road. The original Wren building, the centerpiece of the town, had three floors, but after fire destroyed it in 1705, it was rebuilt with 2 floors and an attic, making it the way it is now. Much later in 1859, 2 towers were added, one on each side. During the 1862 Battle of Williamsburg, Pennsylvania cavalry torched and vandalized the building. Fortunately for the college, John D. Rockefeller Jr. decided to pay for restoration of the building in the 1920's, saving it from drifting into oblivion.
One of the major structures around the Wren Building is on the left in the picture below. The Brafferton was built in 1723 and was supposed to serve as an Indian school. It was an attempt to Anglicize and Christianize the local Indian population. This was suppossed to be accomplished by taking Indian boys away from their villages and housing them in the Brafferton. The imprisonment of the Indians was never really effective however, and very little was accomplished. On the other side of the yard, across from the Brafferton is the President's House. Besides housing every president of the college since it began, the house was also used as a hospital by the French after the battle of Yorktown. The British occupied Williamsburg in 1781 and General Cornwallis made the house his headquarters.
Besides the Indian school, William and Mary had three other schools. The grammar school was the largest of them, housing maybe 40 student of varying ages and academic abilities. The philosophy school was a step higher than the grammar school. The last school at the college was the divinity school, designed to educate young adults and make them productive members of the religious community. A major problem of the school was the fact that there were no bishops in Virginia, which meant students had to travel to England to be ordained as priests.
View from the steps of the Wren Building facing Colonial Williamsburg Many famous names from prominent Virginia families attended W&M during the 1700's, most of the students came from the upper 2% of the population. Thomas Jefferson studied here from 1760-1762, and would later make changes to the college, including getting rid of the grammar school and making W&M more university-like. Future president James Monroe would attend in the 1770's. Both Peyton and Edmund Randolph also were here. George Washington got his surveying education here. None of these figures have degrees however, because the college didn't start awarding them until 1780.
The Wren building is truly misnamed. It was named in 1724 by Hugh Jones, a mathematics professor, after the famous architect Christopher Wren, whose most famous work is St. Paul's Cathedral in London. There is however, no evidence at all that Wren should be given credit for designing the building. The name stuck though, and it has been the Wren Building ever since. In addition to the three different fires in 1705, 1859, and 1862 that destroyed the building, constant additions were being added. In 1732, the chapel wing was built. Jefferson wanted a forth wing built, which would have created an enclosed courtyard, and it may have been started, but never completed. Another testament to the change in building is the ghosts of windows in the walls, where one can see that the type or style of brick is different.
From Left: One of the wings, ghosts of windows underneath where the windows are now; A view of the building approaching from the college side; View of the chapel wing. After getting a tour of the Wren Building outside, we climbed up the step, onto a porch, or arcade that runs
the length of the building and then entered the chapel, which, as stated before was built in 1732. Two rows of pews flank each
side of the center aisle, facing each other. The room itself is very impressive, with plenty of light streaming in through the windows, and a large chandelier hanging from the middle of the ceiling. There is a crypt under the chapel, but entrance is heavily regulated to only a few. The chapel is still in use today, and sometimes serves as an auditorium for concerts by the a cappella groups of the college. From the chapel, we went across the hall and entered the Great Hall, or the refectory. Just a side note, the passage through the middle of the
From there, we made a quick dash over to the John Page house in the van. The house is located just outside Colonial Williamsburg, next to their research facility. Expecting to actually see a house, I was vaguely surprised to see nothing but stones. Not even stones, pebbles in the shape of a cross. John Page can to Virginia at the age of 23 in 1650. This was still before the creole period, so most people in Virginia were still immigrants. He entered the field of land speculation and did very well for himself. He became the sheriff and a member of the House of Burgess at points of his life. His brick house was completed in 1662 in the shape of a cross. He later added two towers onto the sides of his house. These may have contained closets, not for clothes, but small rooms where he could retire and be left in peace and quiet. Perhaps his most well known contribution to society is the Bruton Parish Church, which he helped to construct. Although we don't have a very good idea of what his house looks like, the foundation does provide important archeological evidence of building styles and practices of the time.
From Left: One end of the Great Hall with a compass window and a bust of Thomas Jefferson over the door; The other end of the hall, with a picture of Queen Mary staring down on the class; The outline of the Page house The trip this week was interesting not only because there was plenty of history about early Virginia, but because I was able to learn a little more about my home for the next four years. There was plenty of stuff that I didn't know about the Wren Building, and CW in general. Overall, the day was a success; I even had time to go see the W&M football team lose spectacularly to JMU. What a surprise.
Learn more about the Wren Building
Visit the John Page House
10.25/26.03 Christ Church and Rosewell Cookout, Lancaster/Gloucester County, Virginia Week's Readings: Rhys Isaac, “Evangelical Revolt: The Nature of the Baptists' Challenge to the Traditional Order in Virginia, 1765 to 1775,”
Del Upton, "Holy Things and Profane: Parish Churches in Colonial Virginia"The day started out early. We had a class discussion in the classroom before setting out for Christ Church. We had our introduction to the Great Awakening today. It was a movement that started in the early 18th century in Germany and the British Isles with a revival in British Protestantism, and spread to the colonies in the 1730's. Many different religions were affected by the sudden change in worshiping style, which took on more of an evangelical, savior feel. Preachers would travel from town to town, make religion a personal and emotional experience in the hope of winning converts. Ministers would draw such huge crowds that it became customary to have prayer meetings outside in large fields to as to accommodate more people. This is reason that no Baptist meeting houses from the early colonial period remain; they didn't exist. Besides the Baptists, the movement could be seen in the Scots-Irish Presbyterian and Congregationalists around 1740. New Jersey and Pennsylvania were two colonies that saw a large revival movement. One of the most famous preachers of the Great Awakening was Jonathon Edwards, who delivered his well-known 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' sermon in 1734. Another was George Whitefield, who made a tour around the country, drawing huge crowds at outdoor meetings. Institutions for the training of salvationist ministers were established in this time by different religious factions, most notable Princeton in 1730. The spread of the revival happened in many ways, from preachers bringing their message directly to the people to immigrants moving around the country and bringing new ideas to otherwise secluded communities. The movement came to Virginia later than it did in most colonies, and therefore had less of an effect.
The Great Awakening posed a bit of a interesting problem for the elites of the land. Religion allowed all types of people to bond together and interact in a way that they would not normally have. The poorer levels of society were often the most attracted to the movement. The message of salvation appealed to those who perhaps weren't so well off. Appealing to the fears and emotions of the masses, people from all walks of life were drawn together. The class of people who were least likely to convert were the landed gentry, who had no problem with their church, and thought that the religious fervor of the uneducated masses could be a dangerous thing. A different sort of religion could tear the ordinary people away from a system of control that the gentry relied on. One of the victims of the Awakening was religious cohesiveness. Many different branches of the church were split between New Lights (the revivalists) and Old Lights (those who would rather stick to the old ways). These factions would move apart from each other and form new congregations. The New Lights believed that everyone was equal in the eyes of God, an idea that the Anglicans did not support. They thought that the gentry life was evil, and wanted society to be washed of bonds of society, though they didn't not support the overthrow of the gentry. Neither did they want to free slaves, even though they allowed blacks into their congregation. It was in this time period when Christ Church was built.
The approach to Christ Church Before leaving, we had two more reports. The first was on Rhys Isaac, who wrote one of the writing for class today, and who won a Pulitzer Prize for The Transformation of Virginia 1740-1790, in 1983. He is currently on vacation from La Trobe University in Australia and is teaching at William and Mary. During his time here, he has formed strong bonds with Colonial Williamsburg, and has encouraged the college to create new ties with the museum. His style of writing is perhaps why he is most well known. He doesn't have a Phd, and he studied anthropology, and he likes to bring that same method to his historical writings.. His style is knows as dramaturgy, which holds that life is a drama, and can be seen through the detailed eyes of different characters in the act. Following a video clip from the 1985 movie Witness with Harrison Ford, which dealt with community relationships in an Amish community, which would represent the same type of interaction in some Virginia communities, we learned more about the Northern Neck. The Neck is an area in northeast Virginia between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rives. It was the center of all the elite majors planters in the 18th century. Lord Fairfax acquired the land from the Lord Culpepper. Fairfax moved there in 1749 and became a prominent landowner. George Washington was a surveyor for Lord Fairfax around this time. The entire area was very prosperous, with excellent soil ideal for tobacco production. This area, not Jamestown or Williamsburg, was the center of politics in the colony, as anyone who had a say in the government live in that area. Their society was compared to the ethnocentricity of the Chinese. There was no middle class in the Neck, everyone was spectacularly rich, or dirt poor.
Into the scene enters Robert 'King' Carter, maybe the wealthiest and most important planters in colonial Virginia. He was born in 1663 to wealthy family. His parents died early however, and his older brother shipped
him off to England for an education. In 1678 he returned to the colonies, and by 1688 had everything his family owned. He marries, has 14 children, and is appointed to the House of Burgesses. In 1699, he became the naval officer of the Rappahannock. During his career, he also served as the commander of the militia, the treasurer of Virginia, and was a member of the Council of Virginia. He then managed to get himself elected temporary governor of the colony. In 1720, he began to build his grand house at Corotoman to govern over his 300,000 acres and over 1000 slaves. The house had an enormous great hall, totally devoid of furniture. If you weren't on Carter's level, you knew it when you stepped into the hall and were made to wait. If you were his friend, you'd immediately been invited into one of the side rooms. This hall had a triage effect, putting those of different social standings in their place. This helped the system of deference, adopted by the First Families of Virginia to control everyone else, to work. The house was finished 5 years later, but it burned to the ground in 1729. No attempt was made to rebuild the house, and only part of the foundation remains. He died of the gout soon after the house was destroyed. Before he died, he left money for the reconstruction of Christ Church.
From Left: Robert Carter's bible; The location of the foundation of Corotoman; Drawing of what Corotoman may have looked like The first Christ Church (Anglican) was built in Lancaster County in 1640 by John Carter who believed that God gave rich men wealth to use their talents. By 1720, the church was thriving, and attendance once a month was required.
Sunday's not only provided a time for worship, but also time to socialize with the neighbors, catching up on the latest community news. Services never started until the Carter's made a spectacular entrance and entered the church first. Each prominent family had their own privates box pews to sit in (see right). Lesser families would sit further away from the pulpit, which wasn't located at a particular end, but more like in the middle of the cruciform shaped building. If the church was very crowded, overflow attendees could fill the balcony. The English church wouldn't send a bishop to the colonies, so the Virginias had to make due with whoever they could get their hands on, sometimes attracting prospective preachers with the promise of a 'glebe' they could farm on. Christ Church Version 2 was completed in 1735 with money from King Carter. It's in the Georgian style, with great brickwork everywhere. It isn't known who designed the church, due to the fact that not many records were kept. By 1852, the church was abandoned as a place of worship, and plunder and looting follow. Fortunately, a rebuilding and preservation effort took place in 1950 to restore the church.
From Left: A model of the church; Artifacts recovered from the church; Outside the church; the 10 Commandments inside. Even though I know nothing about the finer points of architecture, I can appreciate just what a cool building Christ
Church is. There is incredible brickwork throughout the building, especially around the doorways, where special brick had to be made. Everything in the church now is more or less original, except for the slate roof. The roof is designed to kick water away from the building, as is the watertable three feet above the ground (see left) Different types of bricklaying are also used. With the Flemish style (above the watertable) header (short) and stretcher (long) alternate, while in the English style (below the watertable) has a row of one type of brick. The compass windows above the entrances, as well as the arched symmetrical ceiling added to the impressiveness of the building. The main road to the church went from the church, straight to Corotoman, and was lined with 4 miles of cedar trees. The paths surrounding the church were most likely made of oyster shells. There are several odd features of the church. Right in the middle lies a marker indicating a David Miles lies below. The grave of John Carter is also in a corner of the church. The pulpit is unique, having three tiers. The first would be used for community announcements, the second for the Bible reading, and the highest for the sermon. After the American Revolution, the colonies took control of English churches to get money back from the war effort and welfare programs. Christ Church was spared this fate because it was privately owned and built with private money.
From Left: View of the ceiling, with a compass window; Grave of John Carter; Baptismal font; The pulpit. On the outside of the church lie the graves of Robert and his two wives. Judith, his first wife bore him 5 children, while Betty had the rest of his children. The tombs were made in New England and reflect the ideas that Puritans had about death; being that death is death and is final. These ideas were slowly changing though, as ideas of salvation lead people to believe that there may be something more promising after death. The overall themes of the day were what changes the population underwent as the Great Awakening occurred, the changes it had on the elite, and how many people of the day worshipped.
From Left: Robert Carter; Skull and crossbones, but also a cherubic figure on the left; All three graves; A scary mutant bug that haunted us in the churchyard. The next day, we were offered the chance to go to a free barbecue and concert at the ruins of Rosewell Plantation, the house of the Page family. It was a very impressive building until 1916 when it burned to the ground. What follows is a photo essay, as no notes were taken that day.
Left: At Abington Episcopal Church, getting a report about the Page family. Right: The church and the graveyard. The church looks very much like Christ Church, so much so I thought that was where we were at first.
The many faces of the Plantation house.
Ruins of the House.
The band that serenaded us during the event. They were surprisingly catchy, we even tried to line dance. Unfortunately they have not yet cut their first album. All of us will be waiting. I think they could be a big hit with lyrics like: "Tripped over the cat and spilled my beer," "Drive a spindle through your brain," "Some drive drunk, and some drive stoned," and especially, "Jezebel walks like a steamboat, smells like gumbo."
Everyone enjoyed the tasty food that was provided. The veggie soup was surprisingly good. The potato salad, barbecue on rolls, corn muffins, drinks, and coleslaw, along with some excellent peanuts all went over well.
From Left: Woods around the house. In the heyday of the house, there would have been no trees obstructing the view anywhere around; A strange niche in the wall of the cellar; A view of the ceiling of the cellar; A very deep ice storage pit hidden away in the woods.
Don't even try to explain. I know I can't.
11.8.03 Yorktown Victory Center, Yorktown Battlefield, Virginia Week's Readings: Michael A. McDonnell, "Popular Mobilization and Political Culture in Revolutionary Virginia: The Failure of the Minutemen and the Revolution from Below,"
Woody Holton, " 'Rebel Against Rebel': Enslaved Virginians and the Coming of the Revolution."After a generous and much welcomed break for Homecoming last week, we've back on the grind this week, making the hop over to the Yorktown Victory Center. Before we went, it was important for us to know why the war spread to Virginia, when it started in the Northeast. The governor of the colony when tensions broke out was Lord Dunmore, a Scottish Loyalist who had the title of lord, but no land or real wealth to back up his title. He came to the colonies as a second-class lord, but looking to rise quickly in the British government. Before coming to the colonies, he was elected to the House of Commons in 1761, when he was just in his 20's. He was appointed to the governorship of New York in 1770, and was than transferred to Virginia. Although the pay was better in Virginia, it was also far more rural and removed from the hustle and bustle of the city. Nevertheless, he was originally well-received by the colonists. They recognized that Dunmore was a fairly competent, plus the fact that he, unlike many other royal governors, lived in the colony instead of appointing and paying a lieutenant governor who would stay. His support quickly faded though, especially after the Boston Tea Party and other British transgressions. He didn't help his opinion polls when he disbanded the House of Burgesses for pro-colonist remarks. There were other troubles in the colony besides the British threat. Indian threats and a land-grab attempt by Pennsylvania put everyone on guard. Perhaps as an attempt to regain some public support, the governor launched Lord Dunmore's War against the local Indians. Leading local VA militia, Dunmore crushes Indians at the Battle of Point Pleasant and gains more land for the colony.
A patched together view of the Continental Army Encampment at the Victory Center Dunmore's support soon took another nose dive soon enough. Worried about the possible threat of insurrection by the colonists or the slaves, he has British troops seize 15 half barrel of gunpowder from the magazine at the capitol in Williamsburg and removed to the safety of the army in April 1775. The colonists do not like this at all and threaten to take violent actions. The very next day, Dunmore threatened to free all the slaves of the colony if any harm came to a British official. This scared the colonists to no end. To the planters, it meant economic ruin if their entire work force left. Besides that, the threat of a slave army free to march around the country scared every colonist. Instead of pacifying the populous, Dunmore's threat enraged them to take more action. In early June, Dunmore fled the capitol to the British warship HMS Fowey anchored in the river near Yorktown. After declaring a state of martial law, Dunmore finally acts on his threat in November of 1775 and issues a proclamation declaring freedom to any slaves willing to join in the service to the British army. Only 1% of slaves in the colony actually left their servitude, but this was still a significant number. Unfortunately for the British, may of the slaves who left were women and children who couldn't really help in the war effort. These slaves usually weren't treated any better than they were on their plantations. This conundrum, as well as the fear of slave independence was dealt with in the Rebel v. Rebel article. It illustrated just what a folly Dunmore's decision was. One would think that he would realize that his threat would be treated like a colonial nuclear weapon. He must have seen some negative response coming. Dunmore sailed back to London, and the House of Burgesses assumes control of the government. Dunmore would later become the governor of Bermuda in 1790. Despite this, Bermuda became and still remains a lovely vacation spot.
From Left: A small tent used to keep muskets dry when it rains; A soldier rams bullet and cartridge down the barrel in preparation to fire; The same soldier after firing, dressed in full military uniform. The other article in preparation for class today dealt with the government's attempt to create a military unit for the civil defense of the colony. Before any real trouble, militia unit consisted solely of the upper class elite. It cost
money for uniforms and supplies and equipment. It also was a type of gentleman's club where everyone was on equal footing. There were no clear cut leaders, elections were held for his purpose, but they could change at any time. The units adopted a system of self-governance, which really wouldn't work had they actually faced combat. Still, the units existed and serve only to promote their members in society. When trouble actually came however, it was apparent that a more substantial force was needed for protection. The government, both colonial and local, attempted to re-create a sort of minute-man system on a voluntary basis. This was a badly calculated attempt. To begin with, service demanded that the volunteer (usually a middle-class planter) give up a considerable amount of their time to train and drill with their units. This took away valuable weeks when the planter needed to be home working the farm. The elites wanted a piece of this action. Unfortunately, they weren't willing to be on equal level with the common folk. They demanded that they command the units, or they wouldn't participate. The middle-class planters resented this show of power, particularly when the officer proved inept. Another problem with this regimented system was the pay scale. The officers gave them selves salaries that were sometimes 15 times higher than that of the normal footsoldier. They resisted all attempts to lower this number. The volunteers weren't used to being told what to do, but with a system with elites in charge; they had no say in what was to happen. This disagreed with their idea of how things should be run. The gentry were also eager to exert their control over their subjects, wanting to leave no doubt as to who was in charge. Obviously, this chafed the planters to no end, and led to the downfall of the system.
Before leaving for the day, we stood outside of Blair Hall and near that statue of James Blair to get a report about his life and accomplishments. He was a Scottish minister, ordained by the Church of Scotland who appeared in Virginia in 1680 in an attempt to revive the church. He returned to the area in 1691 and was granted a charter to start a college in 1693 from England. He became President of the college for life. During his life, he also served as a member of the Virginia council. Unfortunately, he died childless and without much of a paper trail in 1743 at the age of 88. While walking to the museum, one notices a hand-railesque timeline along the path. The timeline details the events leading up to the British defeat at the battle of Yorktown. It contained no staggeringly important information that i hadn't known before, and I suspect it's meant to orientate random tourists who don't know what they're stumbled upon. Inside the Victory Center, stories of the revolution are highlighted by life-size talking dioramas. Further on is a room of impressive artifacts left over from the time period. Such mundane items to them seem fascinating to us, which got me wondering what sort of artifacts museums in 200 years will have about our culture. In front of her exhibit, we got a presentation about Sarah Osborne Benjamin, who is one of the women we know of that disguised themselves as a man and fought in the Revolution. She was born in New York and followed her husband when he reenlisted into the army. She stayed at West Point for a time, but was back in the army by the time Yorktown came around. They actually had a picture of her in her 80's or 90's. It was pretty incredible to see a person who had seen the defeat of the British army, a victory that virtually secured the independence of the colonies. Women would fight for a variety of reasons; they could not be able to run the farm anymore, they might be too poor to do so, or they might just miss their husbands. In the basement of the Center was a rather poor replication of the British brig Betsy, a vessel the British leased to carry coal and supplies for the war effort. The exhibit takes visitors how they found the ship, and displays some interesting artifacts found in the wreck. An interesting thing about the ship is that it sunk on because it was scuttled; a rather large square was found to have been cut in the hull. The British probably did this to prevent it from falling into enemy hands, and to block passage on the river by raising the risk that other ships might be sunken after running over the sunken Betsy.
From Left: An interesting addition to the Victory Center; The House at the farm; The Kitchen; The local turkey. Another feature of the Victory was the Continental Encampment, featuring a spattering of tents, several reinactors, a surgeon's tent, as well as an artillery piece and a commanding officer's tent. From what I was told, the entire spread of tents represented about half of a brigade. Six men would sleep in each one of the small tents, leaving virtually no room to spare. All the cooking would be done outside. The camp was set up so that the common soldiers camped in tight rows, while as the rank of soldier progressed upwards, there was more room between tents, and fewer people occupying each tent. The brigade captain's tent was set slightly apart from all the other tents. Also in the camp was a surgeon's tent where clumsy and painfully medical care would be administered. Moving up from the camp was the period farm, which seems sort of out of place at a Victory Center, but whatever. It was meant to represent the average farmers' land at the time of the revolution. The house itself is only slightly larger than the privy at Westover, which certainly speaks to the wealth of some families. The museum erred in place the kitchen outside the house. While cooking would have been done outside, there is very little chance the kitchen would have been a separate building, more likely to have been a fire pit in the ground. The house was a clapboard house, while the kitchen resembled a log cabin, but an average planter would not have had the funds to have a separate kitchen. Further up the hill was the kitchen garden and the tobacco barn. The barn resembled the other tobacco barns we saw and the other plantations, basically a drying place for the years' crop.
From Left: The kitchen staff looks on bemusedly while we measure the house; One corner of the inside of the house; Another corner, notice the lack of decoration except for the large serving platter standing on its end in the corner.
From Left: Dried fruit and herbs hanging in the kitchen; A fish and a ham being smoked; The cooking fire, the pot in front has corn bread in it; More dried food, along with some spiffy gourds.
From Left: Tobacco hanging from the rafters; More of the same; A hogshead, used to ship tobacco. The entire crop for this planter may have fit into one of those barrels. From the Victory Center, we made our way to Pizza Hut, and from there to the actually battlefield. There was another museum there, providing much of the same information as we had seen before. For some reason, they also had a mock-up of a British ship that you could enter and play around in. Apart from authentic details like having the silverware nailed to the table, the ship also had many mirrors, which served the dual purpose of making the space look much bigger and disorienting me for a while. Upstairs they had a narrated tale from the battlefield with different miniature sets to illustrate the actions. On the roof we discussed the readings and then stepped out onto the roof to overlook the field. It's still clear of development and authentically mowed to preserve the clean image. Off in the distance was the Victory Monument which appeared to be a figure with its hands extended. We worked our way down and took the unavoidable class picture next to an artillery piece. The last stop of the day was at a cave in a cliff right by the river that Cornwallis was said to have hidden in, but this is totally unsubstantiated. The trip this week illustrated the final event that would eventually lead to the formal independence of the United States, recognized by the Treaty of Paris 2 years later. It also highlighted the changing relationship between the elite gentry and the rest of the population. Slowly, the average farmer was demanding more control of his own destiny, not liking the fact that the gentry lorded over him in every aspect of his life. This shifting relationship would play a pivotal role in the formation of a new government and country.
From Left: Women love a man in uniform; Andrew confronts technology during the narrated audio tour; Andrew meets Mr. Washington; Tori and Amy find a place of their own on the ship.
From Left: View from the battlefield to the river; The Monument in the distance; The battlefield, in the center are two British fortifications that proved key when the Continentals took them over, getting one step closer to the city. Visit the Yorktown Victory Center
Visit the Yorktown Battlefield
11.15.03 Yorktown, The George Wythe House, The Peyton Randolph House Week's Readings: Catherine Kerrison, "By the Book: Eliza Ambler Brent Carrington and Conduct Literature in Late Eighteenth-Century Virginia,"
Mark R. Wenger, "The Central Passage in Virginia: The Evolution of an Eighteenth-Century Living Space,"Today marked the triumphant return of the class to Yorktown, this time to the actual town, around which the battle was fought. We first stopped by the Yorktown victory monument. It was commissioned by Congress soon after the battle, but, typical of our government, it wasn't completed until 100 years later. It's an impressive monument, with inscriptions on all sides, and flanked by plaques commending both the American and French soldiers who were killed in the battle.
View from the Monument looking over the river At the time of the Battle, Yorktown was a very prosperous merchant town. Since it was on the river,
all of the tobacco being exported from the York River Valley had to pass through Yorktown so it could be taxed by the government and then loaded onto English ships. Merchants had the opportunity here to make a great deal of money, and as result, they were able to build impressive houses all throughout the area. Walking into the town from the monument, we first passed the Dudley Digges house (on left), built around 1760. The Digges family was heavily involved in colonial politics and Dudley himself was involved in state and colony government. Further on down the street was the Customhouse where taxes on
exports were assessed and collected (on right) The centerpiece of the town is the Nelson house, built around 1730 by Thomas Nelson. Not so affectionatly known as Scotch Tom, Nelson was a Scottish immigrant who arrived in Yorktown in 1705 and built himself a successful merchant empire. Everything about the Nelson house screams wealth. Even though Scotch Tom was very wealthy, he never achieved the level of respected among his peers that he would have liked. The Scottish were generally viewed as untrustworthy and stingy, and the fact the Nelson was not a gentleman, but had to work for his wealth, set him back in his struggle for social standing. The battle for the Nelson family would eventually be won however, as Scotch Tom's grandson, Thomas Nelson Jr., served in the Virginia legislature, the Continental Congress, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, as Virginia's governor, and fought in the battle of Yorktown. In fact, he directed the siege, and fired on the town and on his own house because he thought Cornwallis was hiding in the area. Remnants of the attack are still visible in the town. Cannonballs, though fake, have been replaced in holes left by the siege cannons. A wall panel in the Nelson house shows what kind of damage a cannon did.
From Left: The front of the Nelson House; Expensive corner stones; Extravagant window frame; Evidence from the siege The house is designed in the style of Georgian architecture, it is simple and symmetrical. Though it is box-shaped, there is stone everywhere, including the foundation, on every corner of the house and above every window. A set of stone stairs leads up to the door. Stone was an indication of wealth because stone couldn't be mined in the colonies, it had to be imported on England. It was just as much of a luxury as Arthur Allen's English dirt. Between the first and second floors is an odd row of bricks that are redder and more defined than the rest of the house bricks. This apparently served no purpose whatsoever and was there merely to show off. While still examining the outside of the house, some of us began to search for red paint in the mortar between the bricks. There is a belief that red paint was used on some houses to make it appear as if the entire house was one giant brick. Why they would want to do this remains a mystery to me, and we only found minute traces of what may have been red paint. Stepping inside the door, we found ourselves in the great hall. A grand staircase greets a visitor to the house. We measured the width of the entrance hall, and it turns out to be about as big as most Virginian's homes. This would enforce the practice of deference; it would impress anyone without as much wealth, and would make a lesser visitor worry. The central passage was the style of the time, with all rooms branching off to the side. The article we read on the central passage covered how the central passage progressed through time. Originally, it was a living area, with tables, chairs, even beds. It was fully functional room. Over time, it began to become more important in social structure. It became more empty, and therefore less familiar and more foreboding. For social events, the hall was large enough for dancing or mingling. The house actually has 2 staircases; the main one, and a second 'hidden,' narrow staircase in the back for servants to remain unseen. A kitchen and a sitting room were off the main hall, and decorated with period furniture. The Nelson house gave me some idea of how wealthy city-dwellers lived.
From Left: The first floor sitting room; The grand staircase; Andrew hangs out with a colonial figure From the Nelson house, we moved on to Grace Church, which was in existence before the actual town. This is evident from the fact that the sides of the building are nor parallel or perpendicular to the roads. If the church was built after the road, it would have directly faced the street. The church is slightly bizarre because it's made of marl which is a sedimentary rock made of crushed shells and other garbage and harvested from the nearby river. The outside was then done in stucco so as to give it the look of being one large rock, much the same effect that was sought after by using red paint. Buried in the churchyard are several members of the Nelson family, including Scotch Tom, William Nelson, and Thomas Nelson Jr.
From Left: Grace Church; The inside of the church wall; Angelic figures on the tombstones, a far cry from the depressing stones at Christ Church; Two Nelson graves. Our last stop in Yorktown was the Poor Potter's House, which is undergoing some renovations. (see right) Historians have learned that the Poor Potter was named William Rogers and was in Yorktown in 1710. He operated a pottery kiln at a time when the British crown was discouraging colonial production. Governors were warned to not allow such activities in their districts. The governor at the time, Governor Gooch, allowed the
pottery manufacture in Yorktown because he was benefiting from the trade. He protected the business from the administration by just describing Rogers as simply a 'poor potter,' and thus the name. His pottery was competitive with British pottery, and 23 different types made from red Virginia clay with red and brown glazes, have been found. Rogers was a venture capitalist, making money in one business and then moving his money on to another project. It is believed that apart from owning the largest independent enterprise in the colonies, he also owned a brewery, a shipping business, and a tannery. At lunch, we discussed the other article for the day, one that told the story of 3 girlfriends who lived at Yorktown during the Revolution, and the literature they read. At the time, popular literature was shifting towards romance novels, which some girls took to illustrate how they should act towards men. Females of the time didn't have much experience with the other sex by the time they became adults, having been separated from men in the educational process since they were very young. These romance novels attempted to educate women about how to handle men, always with a cautious message about being too forward or risqué with men. One of Eliza Ambler's friends didn't take that message to heart, and ended up with a French baby after the battle of Yorktown.
From Yorktown, we headed back to Colonial Williamsburg to see two other fine examples of how thegentry lived in towns by visiting the Peyton Randolph house and the George Wythe house. The Wythe house may not look like much from the road, but the ground behind the house is extensive, with stables, a garden, a dovecote, and a kitchen. At first glance, the inside of the Wythe house looks very gaudy. Every room has a different, vibrant colored wallpaper. Not merely used to light up a room, the wallpaper was just another way to convey a message of wealth and superiority. It was in this house that Thomas Jefferson was tutored in law in. To repay Wythe for his teachings, Jefferson made Wythe the first professor of law at William and Mary. Wythe was quite a famous lawyer; his signature can be seen on the Declaration of Independence, and his house and furnishings back this up. Wythe met his untimely end after being poisoned by a jealous relative, who wasn't
convicted because of a lack of white witness, though a black slave was willing to testify. At the time, the courts didn't take the word of blacks. The Wythe house isn't structured from the Nelson house; it has the same impressive staircase when you walk in the front door. The Peyton Randolph house further down the road defies all description. It is sprawling, with numerous additions and extra wings. It is almost difficult to find the entrance to the main building. Randolph was an incredibly wealthy man. He headed the Committees of Correspondence, and was the President of the First and Second Continental Congresses. He was in line to become the first President of the US, but he died while in Philadelphia. His faithful black servant Johnny escorted t
he body back to Williamsburg, before running off after being found out his was being given to George Washington. The front door to the house is by itself impressive, and at eight feet tall, anyone would feel small walking through it. The stairs curve upstairs and overlooking the landing is a large compass window. At the time, about the only buildings that had compass windows were churches, so Randolph was certainly making a statement here. His dining room has three large glass windows on either side. This was amazing at the time, as each pane of glass had to be custom made in England and shipped over. Again, by spending vast amounts of money, Randolph was cementing his place in society. So great was his wealth that Randolph had a separate house for his twenty slaves in the back of the house, complete with a covered walkway to the main part of the house. Spending was the key to respect and deference, and deference was what these gentlemen got. The trip was excellent in teaching how rich men in cities lived, since we had already visited numerous plantations. At the time of the Revolution, those in cities lived just as well as those out in the country.
The Palace Green Games. Thank you Amy and Tori Visit the Nelson House
Information about the George Wythe House
Visit the Peyton Randolph House
11.22.03 Colonial Williamsburg, DeWitt Wallace Gallery Week's Readings: T. H. Breen, " 'Baubles of Britain': The American and Consumer Revolutions of the Eighteenth Century,"
Mark R. Wenger, "The Dining Room in Early Virginia,"
Tanya Wilson, “Food for Fashionable Families: Fresh or Faux,”
Lorena S. Walsh, "Feeding the Eighteenth-Century Townfolk, or, 'Where's the Beef?"After a brief scuffle with an invading Security Council from the visiting United Nations conference, the class settled in the graduate student lounge on the forth floor of Blair Hall for our last assignments. We were each given a character to portray; some of us had things to buy, others had items to sell. We were to go into Colonial Williamsburg to visit the different shops around town and interview the interpreters about what people in a
certain social class would do. One of our goals was to find some place were we could buy food. We were waylaid by a peddler giving out coupons for free donuts. Following our colonial stomachs, we found ourselves at a craft show at the Matthew Whaley School. While there were no good there that our colonial personas would buy, there was a tent outside occupied by a colonial resident. Our first educational stop was the kitchen of the Governor's palace as Steph tried to find out where she could sell the eggs she had for market. We learned that the Governor would get his food directly from his plantations out in the country, or fresh from Market Square. In the way of meat, the Governor would buy impressive amounts of meat from butchers in the town. Along those lines, we learned in the Walsh article that beef was the primary meat everywhere in Virginia at the time. By analyzing faunal evidence, she finds out that pork's importance in the colonial diet has been overstressed. In the kitchen, the staff went through what would go into preparing a meal for the palace; from cooking in local dishes that were cheap to replace, to serving the food on only the finest silverware. On the table of the kitchen was many of the same foods that were mentioned in Wilson's article about making fake food for CW.
From Left: The craft show; Breakfast; Said tent; Garden behind the kitchen at the governor's palace Much of our day was centered on and around Market Square which, before the Revolution, would have been a hub of commercial activity. People would come from surrounding farms to sell their produce or to buy items they couldn't produce at their own homes. There is considerable debate among the interpreters about when the market would have been open, I must have received 4 different answers, none of them the same. It might be that the market was opened different days during different times of the year, but that has yet to be confirmed. Regardless, when it was open, the market would have been the center of the town. One of the buildings around the square was the Greenhow house, which served as an import house where fine goods from England would arrive, and the wealthier men of Williamsburg would come to buy. There, we interviewed Mr. Greenhow, and Mr. Wythe who happened to be passing by. They told us about the economic system in Williamsburg. Plantation farmers would ship their tobacco to England, where their representative, or factor, would sell their goods. A tobacco note would then be sent back to the colonies as a credit note. English law prohibited actual specie from being sent to the colonies, and as a result, not many had any hard money. Some of the poorer people might have more specie than the rich, since they had no credit with any merchants in the town. With their credit, the wealthy could buy pottery, cloth, or furniture from Mr. Greenhow. In his article, Breen argues that the merchant house did alot to bring people of the colonies together by offering everyone the chance to buy the same things. This shared consumerism linked a good deal of the population together as they all bought the same type of items from Britain. Consumers could also place custom orders which would be relayed back to England. Across from the Greenhow house was the Courthouse, where we asked what
would happen if a fight broke out on DoG street. The consensus was that the sheriff would appear if he got word of it, and the fighters might spend a night or two in jail. Other than the sheriff, there didn't seem to be an organized peacekeeping force. Next up was the print shop where we learned about the basics of colonial typesetting. The only paper in the colonies at the time was The Virginia Gazette, but it was printed by three different shops and therefore contained different articles and ads. A subscription to the paper would cost about 12 shillings a years, equivalent to about 2 weeks of average work. Because of this, not too many people got the paper regularly. An average 2 page spread would take about eleven hours to set, mostly because 18,000 characters had to be set. Most of the paper they printed on was imported, though some was made out of recycled rags. A print shop the size of the one we went to would have employed about 14 workers, and printed pamphlets as well as newspapers, but not books due to the time constraints and lack of demand. We also learned that Governor Dunmore stole a printing press from the town when he fled and printed pamphlets on board his ship, the first time that had ever been done. Next to the printers was the bookbinder. He specialized in binding ledgers for merchants with leather, and anything else that they wanted specially made. Decorative paper could be added to any sort of pamphlet or book. The bookbinder didn't actually stitch together books, since the printer didn't print books.
From Left: Imported teas for sale, as they would have been in 1774; An outdoor market selling fresh produce; English items for sale at the Greenhow House Standing outside the Prentis Shop, I gave a brief report of the non-importation and non-consumption agreements that were sweeping the colonies before the revolution. A type of grass-roots movement, people would
band together and sign a sort of contract vowing not to buy or use any goods from England. In 1774, the First Continental Congress backed this protest up by passing the Non-Importation Act, which took effect in December of that year. Violators were to be noted by Committees of Safety in each town and basically ostracized from the rest of the community by printing their name in the paper and cease business dealings with the offender. William Prentis was one merchant who ran afoul of the Act, and some of his imported teas mysteriously found its' way into the York River. We then dropped by Christina Campbell's Tavern, which served the elite of Williamsburg, for a tasty lunch before heading off to the DeWitt Wallace Museum.
Some of the fine eating establishments around Colonial Williamsburg The DeWitt building used to serve as a treatment center/prison for the mentally disturbed, starting in 1770 when the Public Hospital was built. A small exhibit on the first floors shows the progression of the hospital,
both in treatment, and living conditions. When the hospital was first built, it was believed the mental illness couldn't be cured, and therefore those affected were ignored or not helped. Cells were dank and barren, with only a pile of blankets on the ground, and maybe a chair attached to the wall. Over time, it was believed that illness could be cured, so accommodations became homier, and some of the patients were released and believed to be cured. The final progression happened in the mid-1850's, when it was thought that while mental illness couldn't be cured, it could be treated with some medication. The implements displayed on the walls seem torturous and it's sad to think that they were once actually used on people. In the rest of the building is an art museum holding artifacts from the 17th and 18th centuries, including furniture, clothing, paintings, ceramics, and firearms. It helped give the overall picture; what people wore and used during the time. An extensive collection of dresses shows just how much money was spent on fabric and labor to put such an elaborate garment together. The pottery exhibit showed how ceramics progressed throughout the colonies. Overall, it was a satisfying conclusion to the class
From Left: An original cell; An improved and more comfortable cell; A chair used to restrain patients; A restraining jacket Overall, this Freshman Seminar was really an excellent experience, even though it was every Saturday. I love history, and this class has just made me more interested in continuing to study colonial history
Visit Colonial Williamsburg
Visit the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum
