Colonial and Revolutionary Tidewater
by Melinda Snow
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At 9 am this Saturday
morning , while the rest of my hall was asleep, I was outside Blair Hall
with ten other bleary-eyed freshmen, waiting for class to start.
Yes, class. The eleven of us are part of a special freshman seminar
on Colonial and Revolutionary Tidewater at the College of William &
Mary, whereby we give up our Saturdays for a chance to travel to historical
sights and study the region's history. But at that moment, tired
and hungry (the dining halls weren't open yet), it was hard for some people
to remember why they had signed up for this class. "Remind me, why
are we doing this again?," someone asked.
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After a brief description
of the course by our professor James Whittenburg, we all went to the basement
of Tyler Hall to learn how to build a web site, which will be our journal.
I am totally inept with computers, but I think I'm beginning to get the
hang of it.
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We had a short lunch and
then piled into the van, which Professor Whittenburg described as "a white
beached whale." In less than half an hour we were in Newport News
at the Mariners' Museum, ready for our first adventure.
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Click here to go the Mariners' Museum Web site.
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The Mariner's Museum covers
nautical history from it earliest origins up to the present day.
We saw two exhibits, The Age of Exploration and the Chesapeake Bay Gallery.
Our focus was on the great clash of cultures occurred when the North American
Indians, Europeans, and the Africans met.
The origins of this culture clash took place more than a century earlier, when Columbus "discovered" the New World and claimed it for Spain, thus beginning the age of exploration. Other countries, England especially, became increasingly jealous of the riches and land the Spanish were acquiring, not to mention the native population they had forced to do their labor. The English were sure such things could be in Virginia. But if the English expected to find riches and willing natives, they were mistaken. They found no gold, but did encounter a complex society of natives, ones who were not likely to work for them for free. |
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The Powhatan were definitely
not people to be trifled with. Their empire stretched from the Potomac
to the Great Dismal Swamp, and was controlled by the powerful werowance
(chief) Powhatan, from whom the people derive their name. Powhatan
knew about the disease and destruction Europeans could cause (the Spanish
had tried unsuccessfully to establish a mission there some years earlier),
but his desire for trade goods and his wish to keep the English from allying
with his enemies kept him from destroying the colony at its weakest time.
For years he alternated between attacking the colony and an uneasy peace,
during which he traded food with the inept settlers for copper and glass
beads. Eventually, though, the power of European diseases, firearms,
and increasing man-power won out, and within half a century of the English
arrival, the Powhatan Indians had virtually been annihilated.
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 Powhatan Indian |
 English ships |
The clash of cultures
that occurred between the Powhatans and the English had a lot to do with
prejudices and get-rich-quick mentality of the English. The colony
was run by the Virginia Company, a joint stock company whose sole purpose
was to turn a profit as quickly as possible, regardless of the damage it
caused to the land or its native inhabitants. So the colonists searched
for gold instead of planting crops, and traded or stole food from the indians
to survive. Later, when tobacco became the main cash crop, they took
native lands, further enhancing the competition for resources. They
viewed the Powhatans as less worthy than themselves, and although some
well-meaning individuals tried to "civilize" and Christianize them, they
never showed them any respect. The lack of respect for each other
was the main breakdown in English-Indian relations.
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Once the English had finally
learned that they could not use the indians as a labor source, they turned
to another group of people viewed as sub-human - the Africans. The
colonists did not initially intend to import enslaved Africans. However,
tobacco required a lot of manual labor, and the most profitable way to
grow it was to use slaves. In 1619 the first slaves arrived in Virginia.
The English justified slavery by saying that the Africans, like the Indians,
were unChristian and uncivilized. However, according to historian
John Thornton, the first Africans who came over were probably city dwellers
who had been captured in war and exposed to Christianity by the Portuguese.
They were then packed into slave ships like sardines in a can and shipped
across the Atlantic, beginning a tragic history of enslavement that would
last nearly two and a half centuries.
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 Inside a slave ship |
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The Rise and Fall of The Powhatan Empire, by James Axtell
The African Experience of the "20 & Odd Negroes" Arriving in Virginia in 1619, by John Thorton
A Note on the readings:
The readings listed under each entry are
the reading that were assigned that week.
I may post information from the readings
on different entries than the one assigned.
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This morning we had to
be at Blair Hall at 8:15. But getting there so early wasn't too bad
since there were donuts for us. We watched an introductory video
about Jamestown while we ate, then we got into the van and made the short
trip over to the Jamestown Settlement. I've finally figured out how
the digital camera works, so I actually have pictures to show for today.
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Click here to go to the Jamestown Settlement Web site
The Indian Village
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Our first stop at the
Jamestown Settlement was the reconstructed Powhatan Indian Village.
A few things were not authentic about the village (like the fact that is
is right next to the Jamestown settlement, the plastic underneath the mats
on the houses, and the pale and blue-eyed indians), but overall it looked
very much like a Powhatan Indian Village would. Walking around the
indian village, we observed the interpreters going about the same daily
activities that the Powhatans would have. Dressed in animal skins,
some carefully tended a fire, while two others sat patiently making rope
and a bone needle. Gathered in a clearing the woods were several
buildings called yahakens, dome shaped houses made of cattails and filled
with animal furs inside. Nearby was a garden where the indians grew
crops such as corn. A child could sit on a small platform in the
corner of the garden and scare away any animals that tried to nibble on
the food. In the Powhatan society, women and children were mainly
responsible for agriculture, while the men went off and hunted. This
was very different from the English society, in which men were out in the
fields and women stayed at home. Although Powhatan women lacked leadership
positions, they had a much more substantial role in the community than
their English counterparts. Aside from their prominent role in agriculture,
they were also influential in government. Pocahontas, Powhatan's
favorite daughter, was one of her father's advisors. She is credited
with bringing peace between her people and the settlers several times,
and saved Captain John Smith's life on more than one occasion.
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 The Susan Constant under full sail |
After we had seen the
Indian village we walked over to the river, where two sailing ships were
tied to the dock. These were The Susan Constant and The
Discovery, reproductions of two of the three ships that brought the
first settlers to Virginia in 1607. (The third ship, The Godspeed,
has also been reproduced, but it was out of town today.) At 120 tons,
The Susan Constant was the largest of the ships, capable of carrying
seventy-one people, but even so, she was not very big. The Discovery
was the smallest of the ships, specifically designed to navigate and explore
the rivers of the Chesapeake region. The journey from England to
Virginia took over three months to complete, and it wasn't until mid May
that a final spot for the settlement was selected and construction began
on the fort. After the colonists were settled, Captain Christopher
Newport returned to England with the The Susan Constant and The
Godspeed, leaving The Discovery with the colonists.
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Life aboard the ships
was cramped and uncomfortable. As we walked around The Susan Constant,
several of my taller classmates couldn't help hitting their heads on the
low ceilings. The nicer accommodations on board were little berths
in the side of the wall, just big enough to lie down in. Of these,
the largest belonged to Captain Newport, and even it was hardly bigger
than a closet. The passengers slept below deck with the cargo, trying
to find a place to sleep between large barrels and other goods. They
would, in fact, spend most of their time down there, because as one interpreter
said, "If you're not crew, you're cargo."
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 Here's me trying out the sleeping quarters on The Susan Constant |
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 An interpreter firing a rifle |
After visiting the ships
we walked up the path to the fort, which looked like a very tall picket
fence from the distance. (In reality, the walls were probably not
as perfectly formed as they appear, and the fort was larger as well.)
The fort was built by the Virginia Company, a joint stock company that
set out to form a profitable colony in the new world. Jamestown was
its center of operation in the New World (although the colony was still
mainly directed from England). Inside the fort were several waddle
and daub houses centered around a church. The style of the structures
was actually from a century or so earlier, and many of the settlers had
probably built them before as temporary housing in the army. The
buildings were actually much nicer than I would have imagined. Some
had tile floors and furniture and stairs, although the houses themselves
were not holding up very well. We also watched a rifle being fired,
and although it made a loud noise and a lot of smoke, it took a really
long time to load. It was obviously effective, however.
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Another thing I noticed
was the number of women interpreters at the settlement. Most of the
first Jamestown settlers were men in their teens and twenties, and non
of the first settlers were women. When women finally did come to
Virginia, they only made up about 25% of the population. That was
good if you were a women looking for a husband, but not so good if you
were a man looking for a wife. Women also had a lower life expectancy
than men in Virginia, mainly due to death in childbirth. Few lived
passed forty. So I found it odd that most of the people in costume
were women. I guess modern women like to play dress up more than
men.
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 A woman interpreter at Jamestown |
click here to go to the Colonial National Park web site
click here to go to the Jamestown Rediscovery PRoject web site
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After a delicious pizza
lunch, we went to the Colonial National Park on Jamestown Island (which
isn't really an island), site of the original Jamestown Settlement.
For centuries the exact location of the fort was forgotten, and the only
hints that anything had ever been there were the ruins of the 1639 church
tower and the random artifacts uncovered here and there. It wasn't
until 1994, when the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities
did extensive excavation on the site, that the fort was uncovered.
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 Reconstructed 1639 Church |
 An APVA person describes how archaeologists
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We wandered past the ugly
1960s architecture and Victorian monuments to the partially reconstructed
rustic fort wall, which stands in the same place as the original.
We also saw the restored church tower and reconstructed church. Buried
at the church is the College's first president, James Blair. The
most interesting part of the trip was when we got to see the archaeology
still occurring on the site. At first glance there appears to be
nothing left of the 1607 fort. But under the layers of dirt are signs
of the past, the most important of which are the markings left by the wooden
posts. It is these markings that help archaeologists determine where
the wall and some building structures were. Through excavating inside
the boundary of the wall, archaeologists discovered something else key
to the history of Jamestown: the graves of the people who lived there.
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The presence of so many
graves at Jamestown begs an interesting question: Why did so many
people die there? Some scholars, like historian Carville Earle, believe
that the cause of such a high mortality rate (28.3% between 1618 and 1624)
was the bad water. The brackish and stagnant water around Jamestown
Island, combined with a poor sanitation system, led to outbreaks of typhoid
fever, dysentery, and salt poisoning. These diseases were particularly
common in the summer months, when there was less fresh water to flush away
the salt and parasites. Captain John Smith observed that the indians
migrated away from the area in the summer months, and following their example,
he sent people away from Jamestown during the summer. Because people
were less concentrated and away from the bad water, much fewer people were
sick. Unfortunately, when Smith returned to England in 1609, the
practice of sending people away for the summer did not continue, and the
illnesses ensued again.
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Can you believe the Jamestown settlers drank this water? |
Captain John Smith |
Captain John Smith also
solved the labor problem problem at Jamestown. According to historian
Edmund Morgan, the early settlers were not used to hard work. Many
of the them were gentry and not use to getting their hands dirty, and others
were tradesmen who specialized in only one skill. In England, the
work was spread out thinly and people were not expected to work as much.
The colonists came looking for an easier life, not a harder one.
Many were also weakened by disease or were lethargic due to salt poisoning.
The fact that Jamestown was set up as a communal society where everyone
was treated the same by the company, regardless of the amount of
work they did, left the settlers without any motivation to work.
Smith changed that by instituting a work-or-you-don't-eat policy.
He had a storehouse built, trained soldiers to fight like the indians,
and made the fort habitable, and for a time the colony prospered.
But after he returned to England things went back to the way they were
before.
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Jamestown wasn't a nice
place in the early 1600s. It was swampy, there was a high mortality
rate, and people either couldn't or wouldn't work. Why did the Virginia
Company send the wrong people and why did those people chose such a bad
location? The main reason is because their expectations of the New
World turned out to be different from the reality. They sent skilled
workers like glass makers and metal smiths in hopes of being able to produce
items for export. Glass proved to be a failure, though, and there
turned out to be no precious metals in Virginia for the metal smiths to
work with. They sent the gentry because gave prestige to the Company
and, more importantly, they provided capital. While Jamestown proved
to be a horrible place health wise, it was a good defensive position.
What the colonists most feared was an attack from the Spanish, so from
that perspective it wasn't a bad location. However, the Spanish never
did come near Jamestown. So why wasn't the colony a complete fiasco?
The tobacco boom of 1619 saved the colony. By that time free enterprise
had come to Jamestown, and the possibility of becoming extremely rich quickly
got people to work. In an effort to grow as much tobacco as possible,
colonists who could afford it imported indentured servants and African
slaves. Although the English did not plan to enslave Africans, by
the eighteenth century they would become the principle labor source in
the Tidewater region.
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Tobacco saved the colony, but it lead to slavery |
Blowing glass at Jamestown |
Before we left we went
to the Jamestown Glass Blowing Shop, where we saw people blow glass just
as they did in the 17th century. It was quite interesting to watch
the way they heated in the ovens and then blew through a tube to make it
bubble out. They could make the glass different colors by adding
certain chemicals. I thought the blue glass was especially pretty.
Glass was never a successful business in Jamestown, though. Only
one shipment was ever sent to England. I would have bought some if
it weren't so expensive.
We had a great trip today and I can't wait for St. Mary's next week! |
"Environment, Disease, and Mortality in Early Virginia," by Carville V. Earle
“The Labor Problem at Jamestown, 1607-18,” by Edmund S. Morgan
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We began the long trip
to St. Mary's City, Maryland this morning. The majority of the class
spent the three hour drive sleeping. Finally we drove past St. Mary's
College and the beautiful St. Mary's River and knew we had arrived.
We pulled into the visitor's center where we began our visit to the first
settlement in Maryland.
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Click here to go to the Historic St. Mary's City Web page
The Visitor's Center
 Cecil Calvert,
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At the Visitor's Center
we got a brief introduction to the history of Maryland and specifically
St. Mary's City. Maryland was started in 1632 when Cecil Calvert,
the Second Lord Baltimore, was granted land by King Charles I to start
a proprietary colony in the New World. Lord Baltimore, a devout Roman
Catholic, intended to make it a safe haven for Catholics, who were persecuted
in England. Maryland became the first colony to practice religious
toleration, and was open to all Christians. (However, Protestants
were always the majority.) The other purpose Lord Baltimore formed
the colony was, of course, for profit. Following Virginia's example,
tobacco quickly became the basis of the economy. Although hundreds
of people came into the colony in the hopes of making fortunes off this
get-rich-quick plant, they were so spread out on plantations that there
wasn't even a real town until Lord Baltimore established St. Mary's City
in 1668. It was the seat of government until 1695, when the capital
moved to Annapolis. Like Jamestown, the city was then abandoned and
the land reverted to farmland. The remains of the city were left
undisturbed until they were uncovered by 20th century archeologists.
Their discoveries have made it possible to reconstruct the city, so that
modern visitors like ourselves can discover Maryland's 17th century past.
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Excavations and reconstructions
are ongoing at St. Mary's City. At the Visitor's Center we saw many
of the artifacts that had been uncovered there, like glass and pottery
and even shackles that might have held slaves. We also learned about
the current reconstruction of the Catholic church that once stood in the
city. The original appearance of the church is unknown, but from
the foundations architectural historians have been able to determine that
it was probably about 23 feet tall and was in the shape of a cross.
Using other churches of the period as examples, they were able to come
up with the conceptual drawing at right. In a time when most people
in Maryland lived in wooden houses with dirt floors, a tall brick chapel
must have been an impressive sight. The fact that it was made out
of brick marks it as one of the more important buildings, showing the importance
of the church in 17th century Maryland.
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 conceptual drawing of the chapel |
 uncovering the lead coffins |
While doing excavations
on the brick chapel, archeologists uncovered dozens of graves. Three
of these were highly unusual in that the deceased were buried in lead coffins,
indicating that the people inside were very wealthy and prominent citizens.
It was determined that the largest coffin contained the remains of Philip
Calvert, son of Lord Baltimore. By association, the woman one of
the other coffins must have been his wife, Anne. In the third coffin
was an unidentified small child, possibly a child from Calvert's second
marriage. Anne's skull was so well preserved that a complete facial
reconstruction was possible, allowing us to see into the face of a seventeenth
century woman. Her reconstructed head, along with the lead coffins,
are now on display at the Visitor's Center.
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After we had finished
our lunch of Cheese Shop Sandwiches (Yum!), we drove about a mile down
the road to the Godiah Spray Tobacco Plantation, a re-created 1661 tobacco
plantation based on the records left by Robert Cole. Cole arrived
in Maryland with his family and two indentured servants in the early 1650s
and quickly established himself as a tobacco planter. His plantation
of 300 acres was slightly larger than most, however Cole was not much better
off than his neighbors and never achieved gentry status. Most of
his profits were reinvested into the land. He returned to England
in 1662 and died the following year, but unlike most people during this
period, he (and his successor) left
detailed records that have been invaluable
to historians.
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 A field on the plantation |
 A 17th Century tobacco planter |
As we walked down the
path to the plantation we were greeted by an interpreter who was portraying
the owner. He happily showed us around his farm and seemed eager
to tell us about how prosperous he had become. He had four times
the amount of land in Maryland as he had had in England, as well as servants
and a wife, all highly valuable commodities. His tenant, however,
had none of these things. He took us over to his tenant's house and
told us how rustically his tenant lived compared to himself, although I
have to say that the tenant's house was much larger than I expected.
Then he took us over to his tobacco barn to show us all the tobacco leaves
drying. He explained that the purpose of growing tobacco was to make
money so that one could grow more tobacco, and get richer and richer.
He seemed thoroughly obsessed with the plant.
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The planter's obsession
with tobacco was not at all uncommon. Money has never grown on trees,
but in the colonial Tidewater it did grow out of the ground in the form
of tobacco. Not only was it the cash crop of the region, it was also
used as legal tender. Grow enough, and one could become extremely
wealthy. The tobacco boom of the 1620s fueled the new immigrants'
aspirations of wealth, but in the 1630s the price fell from three shillings
to a penny a pound - more than a 97% drop in value. Although the
price recovered somewhat, from that point on the price of tobacco was continually
going down. Consequently, everyone tried to produce more and more
tobacco to make up for their loss in profits. In order to do that
they needed more land and more labor. That led to problems with the
indians over land and created a higher demand for indentured servants and
slaves. However, their efforts to grow wealthier by producing more
tobacco led to overproduction, which only drove the price down further.
But still the cycle continued.
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 drying tobacco |
 An indentured servant |
Out in the tobacco field
one of the planter's indentured servants told us about the process of growing
tobacco: how it is planted in early spring and picked in the late summer,
then dried and shipped over in hogheads (a type of barrel) to England.
He showed us one of the tobacco planter's worst enemies, the horn worms
that eat the leaves, and said that the worms can get to be as big as his
finger. He also talked about himself and his hope of becoming a landed
planter one day like his master. In 1661, this was not an impossible
dream even for a man of African decent. One such man, named Mathias
de Sousa, not only achieved this goal, but also became the first person
of African decent to participate in the Maryland government in the 1670s.
By the end of the century, though, the switch from indentured servitude
to racial slavery would make social mobility for people of African decent
impossible.
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The indentured servant
walked us over to house, a two-story clapboard building. The house
was much larger than I'd have expected a seventeenth century planter to
live in. Several features of the house suggested the planter's wealth
compared to his tenant, such as glass in the windows and a wooden floor
as opposed to dirt. We first entered into the pantry area, where
all the planter's wife's beautiful crockery was displayed. In the
main room there was a large hearth and several chairs, and we were invited
by the planter's wife to sit down. The planter's wife told us that
even though there was an abundance of wood in the New World, all of their
furniture had been imported from England. So had their dishes and
the cloth to make their clothes and just about everything else in the house.
This shows how heavily Maryland depended on England for most of their supplies
at that time.
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 The planter's house |
 The planter's wife |
Like in Virginia, women
were a rarity in Maryland. Most of the women who did come to the
colony came as indentured servants and faced several years of hard labor
and often abuse. If they survived their indenture, though, they had
a chance of securing a good marriage because so many men were looking for
wives. Even the planter's family was marrying off their fifteen year
old daughter because they were able to find her a good marriage match.
However, marriage was not the only path women could take. Many started
taverns, and some even entered business and government, such as attorney
Margaret Brent. Although early Maryland was by no means a democracy,
it seems to have been more liberal in its approach to women and Africans
than I expected.
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After our visit to the
plantation we visited the town itself. It wasn't very big, just a
scattering of a few wooden building here and there. Because St. Mary's
City was a port and really the only town around, it had several taverns
and ordinaries. At these places sailors could get a drink and politicians
could discuss government business and planters could gamble away their
tobacco. We went into a reconstructed tavern and saw the way these
17th century social centers were set up, with long tables and benches holding
all manner of games and mugs. The tavern also had an unusual hearth
room where the cooking was done in the middle of the room.
Once we had seen the tavern, we went over to the store house where one man kept goods to sell to the towns people all year long. An interpreter there showed us how to do seventeenth century mathematics with a board and markers. It was interesting, but I prefer calculators. |
 Men drinking in a tavern |
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I've been put in the stocks! |
Our next stop was the
State house, the seat of Maryland's government for nearly thirty years.
Like the church, the building was made of brick, signifying its importance.
The inside was set up rather like a church as well. The presiding
government officials sat in nice chairs behind a rail with a table in front
of them, while everybody else had to sit on hard wooden benches.
The space was also used as the court house. Even though St. Mary's
was the capital of the colony, government officials did not live there
all year long. The population of the town was only about two hundred
people at any given time.
Before we left the State house we had to try out the stocks. Take a look at my picture on the left! |
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Our last stop before we
left was the Yaocomaco Indian Village. The Yaocomaco were peaceful
people who lived along the Chesapeake, and the layout of their village
seemed similar to the Powhatans. Unlike at Jamestown, there was never
any conflict between the Yaocomaco and the Maryland settlers. When
the settlers arrived, the Yaocomoco were abandoning their homes, probably
fleeing from another tribe. The settlers used the abandoned huts
as homes before they built their own.
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 A Yaocomaco home |
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The First American Boom: Virginia 1618 to 1630, by Edmund S. Morgan
A Small Planter's Profits: The Cole Estate and the Growth of the Early Chesapeake Economy, by Russell R. Menard; Lois Green Carr; Lorena S. Walsh
Special Thanks
To Amie, Tyler, Will, and Professor Whittenburg
for lending me pictures, since my camera died on me.
Due to Hurricane Isabel, our classes for the next two weekends were canceled.
Damage to campus
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 Here I am on the ferry |
Today we went to Bacon's
Castle, the only surviving 17th Century home in Virginia. To get
there we had to take a ferry called the Pocahontas across the James
River, affording us a good view of Jamestown island. We had fun feeding
seagulls off the back of the boat. After that it wasn't a very far
drive to Bacon's Castle. We pulled up the drive and saw not the house,
but a large tree that had fallen during the hurricane and was blocking
it. So much for pictures of the front of the house. Fortunately,
the house itself sustained little damage during the storm. Professor
Whittenburg seemed somewhat pleased that the tree came down, though, stating
that the house is more authentic that way because tall trees would not
have been in front of the house in the 17th century.
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Click Here to Go to the APVA Bacon's Castle Web site
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Bacon's Castle was built
around 1665 by Arthur Allen, a prosperous planter. During a time
when even many of the wealthiest planters lived in wooden houses, Allen
decided to build his home out of brick, demonstrating his enormous wealth.
The original house is in a cruciform shape, consisting of a front entrance
tower, a back stair tower, a great hall, and a smaller parlor, with the
floor plan pretty much the same on all levels. This was characteristic
of the Jacobean Style of architecture popular in England at the time.
Over the years many renovations have occurred in the house and an addition
was added in the 19th century, but through restoration much of the house
looks as it did when the Allens lived there.
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 Jacobean Architecture of Bacon's Castle |
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 The Staircase |
Inside the house, several
of the rooms were restored to their 17th century appearance, including
a bedchamber and the servants quarters upstairs. This is what the
house may have looked like when Major Allen, the son of Arthur Allen, lived
there. Major Allen was part of a generation refered to as the "creole
elite," who were the sons of wealthy immigrants. Although Major Allen
was born in Virginia, he was educated in England from an early age, where
many people looked down on him because of his colonial birth. Consequently
he resented his colonial connections, and focused all his energy into appearing
as English as his peers in England. He tried to make Bacon's Castle
a grand English home, even importing English soil for his garden.
Like many of the wealthy second generation colonists, he wanted not only
to be recognized as wealthy, but wanted to separate himself from the commoners
and be respected as an English Gentleman.
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Over the years many changes
were made to Bacon's Castle, particularly while Elizabeth Allen was mistress
there during the eighteenth century. Elizabeth Bray Allen was the
wife of Arthur Allen III and one of the house's longest residents, living
there from the time of her marriage in 1711 until her death in 1774.
During that time she brought the 17th century house into the eighteenth
century by creating a fashionable central passage and altering windows,
among others things. After the death of Arthur Allen III she retained
control of the estate, and even went so far as to make her subsequent husband
sign a statement that she was richer than he, to protect the interest of
her descendants in the property. She appears to have been a very
capable and determined woman during a time when many women were afraid
to use the legal system. Not much else is know about her. In
this male dominated society, little was recorded about women, even one
as prominent as Elizabeth Allen.
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 A room the way Elizabeth Allen
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 Nathaniel Bacon |
The house was originally
called simply Arthur Allen's brick house, but the events of 1676 gave it
a place in history that would change its name to Bacon's Castle.
(Although it wasn't called that until the late 18th century.) That
year, a recently arrived English immigrant and member of the Governor's
Council named Nathaniel Bacon petitioned Governor William Berkeley to let
him lead an expedition to kill all indians. When Berkeley refused
to give his consent, Bacon proceeded anyway, and gathered a large group
of supporters. The conflict that ensued became a power struggle between
the will of the people led by Bacon and established government of Berkeley.
Major Allen was a supporter of Governor Berkeley during Bacon's Rebellion,
and at one point Bacon's forces took over the house for four months.
The conflict ended with Bacon's death due to illness not long after he
had burned Jamestown. Without a leader, the rebellion could not continue,
and Governor Berkeley quickly regained control and hanged many of the remaining
rebels. The house, however, retains the name of the conflict that
occurred there.
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Some scholars, most notably
Edmund Morgan, believe that the root cause of Bacon's Rebellion was the
newly freed indentured servants. Servants who became free competed
for resources with their former masters and drove the price of tabacco
down because more people were producing it. Consequently, the people
in power (who were rich planters with indentured servants) made every effort
to extend the period of servitude as long as possible by giving out extra
service as punishment, during which time servants would be making money
for their masters, not competing with them. The wealthy planters
bought out all the good land, forcing newly freed servants to move west
to poor farmland in hostile indian territory or work for their former masters
indefinitely. The government dealt the newly freed servants another
blow in 1670 by curtailing the voting rights of all landless men.
Understandably, the former servants were upset by this situation, and when
Bacon decided to go fight against the indians and later the government,
they rallied behind him. One of the government's worst fears was
a mass insurrection of armed freedman, and after the rebellion had been
crushed, there was a shift from indentured servitude to slavery as a result.
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Click here to go to the St. Luke's Church web site
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After lunch at the Surrey
House, we went to St. Luke's Church, originally called the Newport Parish
Church. Tradition has it that it was built in 1632, but most architectural
historians believe that it was built in the 1680s. It shares many
of the same characteristics as the church in Jamestown, such as a tall
entrance tower and buttresses. It was also constructed of brick at
a time when many churches were still wooden, which shows both the importance
of the church and the wealth of the parish. Unfortunately, like many
churches it has not survived the years intact. Much of the interior
was destroyed during the Civil War and then later due to neglect.
The building has been restored, but little in it is original.
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 St. Luke's Church in Isle of Wight County |
 St. Luke's interior |
St. Luke's interior has
been reconstructed to look like a typical seventeenth century church.
Inside the church are rows of hard wooden pews where the congregation would
have sat. A rail divided the congregation from the alter area, a
feature in seventeenth century churches that went out of style in the eighteenth
century. There was also a large set of windows at the east end, also
characteristic of this period. The readings and sermon would have
been given from the three tier pulpit, with the sound bouncing off the
original sounding board overhead. I thought that the coolest part
was the door-within-a door at the main entrance, which may have been used
for defense or to keep out drafts.
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Click here to go to the APVA's web site on this courthouse
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Our last stop before we
left was the Isle of Wight Courthouse in Smithfield, seat of the county
government for fifty years. The building, built in 1750, had a portico
with arches in front, typical of courthouses of this period. One
end of the building was rounded, which created better acoustics.
Around this curved wall sat the justices. From there they decided
all of the county's business, from settling disputes to deciding taxes.
Unlike today, being a judge was not a full time occupation, and the qualification
for the job was usually high birth. All the judges might convene
together only once a year. Like many buildings of the period, the
courthouse fell into disrepair after the court moved in 1800. Thanks
to the APVA, it has been restored and is now maintained as a small museum.
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 Courthouse Interior |
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It was a very interesting day. I really enjoyed the house and I feel like I learned a lot about Bacon's Rebellion.
Readings
Edmund S. Morgan, "The Volatile Society,"
from his book, American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial
Virginia (1975), pp. 213-291.
James P. Whittenburg, "After the Fort: Jamestown,
circa. 1620-1699," Virtual Jamestown, Interpretive Essays, pp. 1-7.
"The Early Architecture of Tidewater Virginia,"
Twenty-third Annual Vernacular Architecture Forum Conference, Williamsburg,
Virginia
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This weekend we visited
the James River plantations, homes of the Virginia elite. Driving
down the Route 5 we passed signs for at least a dozen plantations.
I was really surprised at how many are still around. We drove for
about an hour before we arrived at our first stop, Shirley Plantation,
a beautiful Georgian home right on the river.
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Click here to go to the Shirley Plantation web site
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 John Carter |
Shirley Plantation was
the home of John Carter, son of Robert "King" Carter, the wealthiest man
in Virginia. John Carter acquired the land through his marriage with
Elizabeth Hill, and the house was financed by his father as a wedding present
for the couple. Construction began in 1723, the year they were married,
and the house was completed in 1738. Unlike so many buildings of
the period, Shirley has sustained little damaged from fire, war, or neglect.
It appears much as it did when it was constructed, with the only significant
change being the addition of the 1770s porch (remodeled during the 19th
century). The estate has remained in the Carter family for centuries,
and the tenth and eleventh generations of the Carter family continue to
live there today.
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When we arrived at Shirley,
one of the first things Professor Whittenburg made us do was walk from
the river bank up the hill to the house, so that we would see the house
the way most of its eighteenth century visitors would have seen it.
In the eighteenth century, the river was the highway of the rich.
The gentry would travel in their slave-powered boats along the James, and
Shirley was well positioned on a hill by the bank to impress the Carter
peers passing by. Eighteenth century Virginia was all about presentation.
People thought of those who exuded wealth and gentility as their betters,
and so they respected them and let them assume positions of power in the
colony. By building a beautiful Georgian home in the same style as
the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg, John Carter was demonstrating to
all the world, most particularly his peers, that he was a leading man in
society and on the same social level as the Royal Governor.
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 Shirley from above |
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The interior of the house
was just as impressive as the exterior. A beautiful, seemingly unsupported
staircase led to the upper floors, and the whole house was decorated with
fine family antiques. One of these was a silver punch bowl trophy,
brought out when one of the Carter's horses won a race. Quarter horse
racing was a popular diversion among the Virginia gentry. Men would
gamble huge sums of money on it - hundreds of pounds in tobacco or sterling.
This was much more than the common man made in a year, thus restricting
the sport to the wealthy. Gambling was a way for the gentry to show
off their wealth and demonstrate their personal honor. It was a symbol
of one's class. Virginians would gamble on anything, whether it be
cards or backgammon, but horses were their favorite. It was said
that a man would chase a horse five miles to ride it a mile, but a man
arriving on horseback appeared more dominating than a man arriving on foot.
In this way, horses and gambling preserved and reinforced the class system.
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 Aunt Pratt |
The interiors of many
Southern homes were destroyed by the Union army during the Civil War, but
fortunately Shirley escaped that fate. During the war there was a
battle near Shirley, and the Carter women took in the wounded Union soldiers,
even though they supported the Confederacy. To show his gratitude,
General McClellan issued a federal safeguard over Shirley, so that no harm
could come to the property or its inhabitants. Consequently, many
of the original family furnishings are still in the home. The house
even has some of the original windows, and in the dining room one can see
the names of generations of the Carter women etched into the glass panes,
a tradition dating back to the 18th century. There is also a nice
collection of family portraits, one of which is said to be haunted.
The portrait of "Aunt Pratt," the sister of Elizabeth Hill, likes to move
around on the wall.
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Because the Carters were
such a large and prosperous family, they married into virtually all of
the Virginia gentry families. Many of Robert "King" Carter's descendants
used their family fortune and connections to be influential in politics.
One descendant, Robert E. Lee, became the great General of the Confederacy.
Other than the Lee family, the Carters also married into the Randolf, Burwell,
Page, Harrison, Corbin, and Byrd families, to name a few. Elizabeth
Hill Carter married William Byrd III, who would build the magnificent mansion
at Westover Plantation, the next stop on our trip.
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 Robert E. Lee |
Click here to go to a web site on Westover
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 Westover |
When we arrived at Westover,
Professor Whittenburg would not let us see the house right away.
Instead he made us go down to the river bank and walk up the hill like
at Shirley. It was an impressive sight to see this grand house looming
before me, which is of course what the Byrd family intended. Like
at Shirley, the house was built on the river both for convenience to the
waterway and to make a statement about the wealth and power of the family.
It too was built in the Georgian style of architecture, which is characterized
by symmetry. The two buildings on the side were connected to the
house at a later date. We couldn't go inside Westover because it
is still a private residence, but we were able to walk all over the grounds.
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Out buildings were an
important part of any estate. Most large homes like Westover and
Shirley had a separate kitchen, a smokehouse, an icehouse, slave quarters,
and a necessary. The necessary was the toilet, and in the case of
Westover, the necessary was as big as a small home, and probably better
constructed. (In some places, London particularly, there was actually
a flourishing trade in emptying out the necessaries, and the waste would
be sold as fertilizer or for use in tanning or dyeing.) Some houses
also had laundries, dove cotes, livestock facilities, and other buildings.
One building at Westover is very interesting because its use is unknown.
It covers the entrance to a what was once small tunnel leading to the bank.
The tunnel may have been used as protection from indian attacks, or perhaps
for storage. We got to climb down in it, which was cool.
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 Here I am climbing out of the mysterious pit |
 The Grave of William Byrd II |
William Byrd II is probably
the best known person in the Byrd family. Like Arthur Allen II of
Bacon's Castle, he was born in Virginia but was educated in England and
considered himself an Englishman. He returned from England in 1705
in collect his inheritance and married Lucy Parke, the daughter of a prosperous
planter, the following year. Byrd recorded his tempestuous relationship
with his wife in his diary. During the eighteenth century, men and
women were supposed to have control over different aspects of the household,
but Byrd wanted to have control over everything, and conflicts ensued when
he stepped into his wife's sphere. Having watched her own mother
suffer under her father's abuse and womanizing, Lucy Parke was not about
to let herself be dominated or diminished. She was very determined,
outspoken and emotional, traits which Byrd did not think should be manifested
in a wife. In spite of all their problems, though, the couple had
an affectionate relationship. After Lucy's death from smallpox in
1716, Byrd married a wealthy Englishwoman who was a very traditional wife,
but he missed spirited Lucy. William Byrd later went on to found
the city of Richmond and amassed one of the largest collections of books
in the colonies, but he is still best know for the diaries he kept.
He died in 1744 and is buried in the formal garden at Westover.
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William Byrd III was a
different sort of man than his father had been. While Byrd II had
been well respected and influential in politics, Byrd III was notorious
gambler. Gambling was an acceptable social pastime so long as one
never risked more than he could afford to pay, and it appears that Byrd
III gambled in excess. He was forced to break his father's entail,
long presumed for the purpose of paying his debts. Politically, he
chose the wrong side during the Revolution, and was a firm supported of
the crown. He eventually changed sides and expected a position in
the Continental Army, but was refused. His honor was crushed by this
rejection, and in a society where reputation was everything, he saw no
way out except suicide. However, perhaps William Byrd III was not
as bad as he would appear. For years it was assumed that William
Byrd II built the magnificent home at Westover sometime in the 1730s, but
recent dendrochonolgy shows that the wood used to construct the house was
not cut before 1750. This could only mean that Byrd III built the
house, and he probably broke the entail to complete it. Although
William Byrd III's memory has been degraded by history, this new scientific
evidence does restore some of his dignity. Sadly, because he killed
himself he could not be buried on consecrated ground, and the whereabouts
of his grave are unknown (although he is presumed to be buried on the property).
Most of his family is buried in a small cemetery not far from the house.
Among these graves is Byrd III's sister Evelyn, whose ghost is said to
haunt Westover.
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 The home that Byrd III built
Graves of the Byrd Family |
Click here to go to the Westover Church web site
 Westover Church |
After we left Westover
Plantation, we traveled to a small church nearby called Westover Parish
Church. It was built around 1731 and was financed primarily by the
Byrd family. Architecturally it was different from St. Luke's Church.
The tall front tower and buttresses characteristic of seventeenth century
churches were not present in eighteenth century churches. Instead,
churches of this period were simple and often rectangular in shape.
Unfortunately, like St. Luke's Church, the inside of Westover Church fell
into disrepair after the disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Virginia
after the Revolution, and later it was destroyed by Union troops during
the Civil War. The building was renovated after the Civil War and
is still used for church services today.
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Our last stop before we
left was the Charles City County Courthouse. It was built sometime
in the late 1740s or 1750s, and originally looked similar to the Isle of
Wight County Courthouse. Over the years many renovations have been
made to the building, such as the addition of a clerk's office and interior
rearrangements. One can still see the architectural ghosts where
the arched piazza in front was bricked up to create more space. The
building is a testament to the fact that structures are altered to fit
changing needs over time.
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 Charles City Courthouse |
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Then we all piled in the
van and made the trip back to the College. Today we saw the remaining
structures of some of the most important entities in Virginia: the gentry,
the church, and the courts. Next week we will visit the most important
city in Virginia during this period: our own Williamsburg.
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"If you break this van, you buy it." Professor Whittenburg (talking to Amie and Tori)
"That's a fertility symbol. Stay away
from it!" Professor Whittenburg (on a statue at Westover)
"Eek!" Said by an old lady when she
saw us coming.
Readings
Paula Treckel, "'The Empire of My Heart':
The Marriage of William Byrd II and Lucy Parke Byrd," Virginia Magazine
of History & Biography, 105, no. 2 (1997),
pp. 125-156.
T. H. Breen, "Horses and Gentlemen: The Cultural
Significance of Gambling among the Gentry of Virginia," William and Mary
Quarterly, 3rd. Ser., Vol. 34, No. 2
(Apr., 1977), pp. 239-257.
Michael Olmert, "Necessary and Sufficient,"
Colonial Williamsburg: The Journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation,
XXIV (Autumn 2002), 33-36.
Our trip today didn't take us far from school.
In fact, we spent a good part of the day on campus. We started on
trip at the Wren building, the original college building, and the main
reason that the colonial capital moved to Williamsburg.
The College of William & Mary
Click here
to go to The College of William & Mary's web site
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with the Brafferton on the left, the College (Wren Building) at center, and the President's house on the the right |
Click here to go to Colonial Williamsburg's web site on the Wren Building
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Built in 1695, the Wren
Building is the oldest academic building in the country, and is still in
use today. It was the main building at the college up until the early
20th century, and for hundreds of years students and staff studied, slept,
ate, and worshiped within its walls. It has survived three fires,
two wars, numerous renovations, and several periods of neglect due to lack
of funding, but the exterior and the first floor were restored to their
18th century appearance in the 1930s with a generous donation from the
Rockefeller family. Around that time it was also named the Wren Building,
after its supposed architect, Sir Christopher Wren. (Although it
was likely designed by one of his students.) Today the building still
houses classrooms and offices, and the chapel and Great Hall are used for
special events.
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 The Wren Building |
 The Professors lectured from
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The College was made up
of several schools, the largest of which was the Grammar School, which
had between forty and eighty students at any given time. The Grammar
School was for boys ages twelve to sixteen, most of whom were second tier
gentry. (The wealthiest people went to England to be educated.)
The boys studied mathematics, writing, Latin, and the classics all together
in a large room. They would sit on hard wooden benches while the
professors lectured to them from one of three podiums around the room.
Unlike today, students did not attend school for a set period of time,
nor were degrees given until the 1770s. One of the College's most
famous alumni, Thomas Jefferson, attended the College for only two years,
after which time he studied law under George Wythe. Other schools
at the College were the Philosophy School, the Divinity School, and the
Brafferton Indian School.
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After seeing the school
room we entered into the Great Hall, where students and staff ate.
Now the walls of that room contain the portraits of some of the same students
that dined there: Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler.
Also present are portraits of the British monarchs who granted the royal
charter to start the College, King William III and Queen Mary II, after
whom the school is named. Queen Anne was also a supporter of the
College, and her portrait hangs in the room as well. However, undoubtedly
the most important portrait in the room is of the Rev. James Blair, because
of the significant role he played in the establishment of the College and
the City of Williamsburg. Blair was responsible for securing the
royal charter for the College in 1693 and became the College's first president.
He was very influential, and convinced the House of Burgesses to relocate
the capital of Virginia to Middle Plantation, which then became Williamsburg.
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Because the College was
sponsored by the Crown, students and staff were required to attend services
of the Church of England. For this reason there is an Anglican Chapel
in the Wren Building. Members of the College worshiped at Bruton
Parish Church in Williamsburg as well. Underneath the Wren Chapel
is a crypt where many prominent people are buried, including Lord Botetourt,
who was Royal Governor of Virginia from 1768 until 1770. Lord Botetourt
was well liked among Virginians and was a huge supporter of the College
of William & Mary. He served as Rector of the William and Mary
Board of Visitors and distributed the first medals for academic excellence
to the top students each year. He is commemorated with a statue in
the Wren yard.
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 Wren Chapel |
 back of the Wren building |
Although the Wren building
is over 300 years old, it has never been "completed." It was originally
three stories tall with an attic, but after it burned down a few years
after it was built, there was only enough money to rebuild two stories
with an attic. The building was also supposed to have an enclosed
courtyard like the Colleges in Britain, but money was tight and so the
fourth side was never was built. This just goes to show that
funding for colleges was a problem then just as it is today.
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Click here to go to Colonial Williamsburg's web page on the Brafferton
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To the side of the Wren
Building is a house called the Brafferton, where one of the most tragic
parts of the College's history occurred. This is where the Brafferton
Indian School was held, which was an attempt to educate young indian boys
in the English ways. Discrimination against the Indians was deeply
rooted in the culture, and the purpose in educating them was not to bring
them up to the same social level as the colonists, but presumably rather
to "civilize" them and thereby make them respect the colonists and defer
to them. Few, if any, of the boys came to the school willingly, and
once there they were subjected to strict rules and isolated from their
families. Until 1723 when the Brafferton building was constructed,
the boys lived among the towns people, many of whom mistreated them.
After that year they lived in the Brafferton until the school was disbanded
in 1779.
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 Site of the Brafferton Indian School |
Click here to go to Colonial Williamsburg's web site on the Page House
 What's left of the John Page House |
Once we had finished our
tour of the College, we got in the van and drove to the John Page House
right outside of Colonial Williamsburg. Well, we saw what's left
of it, that is. All that remains of the house is the foundation,
which was discovered in 20th while doing nearby construction. The
17th century house likely had a similar layout to Bacon's Castle, with
a hall and a small parlor. It was also constructed of brick, pointing
to the wealth and prominence of its owner. However, its real significance
lies in its location, the area that was once called Middle Plantation.
It is in part because the wealthy and influential John Page built his house
there that Williamsburg came to be.
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John Page arrived in Virginia
in 1650 and shortly thereafter acquired a large amount of land and established
himself at Middle Plantation, a small genteel settlement a few miles away
from the capital of Jamestown. Within a few years he entered into
government and held several prominent positions during his lifetime, including
a member of the House of Burgesses, a vestryman of Bruton Parish, and a
member of the Council of State. After Nathaniel Bacon burned Jamestown
to the ground in 1676, Page actively tried to get the capital relocated
to Middle Plantation. Such a move would of course have been very
beneficial to Page, because it would bring the seat of wealth and power
right to his door. Unfortunately, Page passed away before the capital
came to Middle Plantation, however he certainly laid the groundwork that
made the transition possible.
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 John Page |
 The Wren Building at the College of William
& Mary.
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James Blair built upon
Page's work, and when Jamestown burned again in the late 1690s, he seized
the chance to get the capital relocated to Middle Plantation. He
had several good reasons why the capital should move to Middle Plantation.
The ground was higher, which was supposedly healthier, and it had the remnants
of a palisade. Also, many wealthy people lived there who would help
the city grow because it would help them financially and politically.
His main incentive, of course, was to build a town around the College of
William & Mary. Having the school in the capital would lend it
prestige and wealth, much more than if it remained in a small town.
Blair used several student speakers to get his message across to the Burgesses,
and the Burgesses ultimately decided in favor of moving the capital mainly
because it was the site of the College.
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Before Williamsburg was
built, Jamestown was the only real town in the colony. According
to Professor Whittenburg, Jamestown was at times a thriving port community,
similar to towns in England, and it experienced several periods of intense
construction. However, its primary purpose was as a capitol, and
when the capitol moved, it sank into oblivion. Although nothing in
comparison to New York, Boston, or Philadelphia, Williamsburg became the
grandest city in Virginia. The College was there, the wealthy built
homes in the city where they would live when the government was in session,
and merchants and tradesmen came to serve the growing community.
The Governor even built his palace there, establishing the city not only
as the seat of government, but as a social center as well.
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 The Governor's Palace |
 The Capitol Building |
Governor Nicholson was
largely responsible for the design of Williamsburg. He had recently
designed the City of Annapolis as Governor of Maryland, and now as Virginia's
new governor he was determined to leave his mark on the colonial capitol.
Taking the locations of the College and Bruton Parish into account, he
planned a city centered along Duke of Gloucester street, with the College
at one end and a grand new state house called the Capitol Building at the
other end. He incorporated the letters "W" and "M" into the street
layout to honor the monarchs, and even named a street after himself.
His plans were never followed exactly, and over the years Williamsburg
changed and expanded. In 1780, though, Governor Thomas Jefferson
moved the capitol to Richmond, and Williamsburg, like Jamestown before
it, was forgotten.
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John Reps, Tidewater Towns: City Planning in Colonial Virginia and Maryland, (1972), pp.141-170.
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 (Chapel Hill, 1979), pp. 274-296.
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 (Williamsburg, 2000), pp. 15-24.
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Today we traveled up to
the beautiful Northern Neck of Virginia. In 1649, Charles II granted
this region between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers to his supporters,
one of whom was Lord Culpeper. Culpeper eventually bought out the
others, and began selling off tracts of the fertile land to wealthy and
influential men such as Richard Lee and John Washington. The land
eventually passed to his grandson, the sixth Lord Fairfax. Fairfax
came to Virginia in 1736 to defend his claim to 5,282,000 acres, and ended
up liking the country so much that he built his home Greenway Court there.
He remained in Virginia the rest of his life. The landed gentry flocked
around him and built magnificent homes in the area. The Northern
Neck had become the land of the rich.
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Click here to go to Christ Church's web site on Corotoman
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Our first stop today was
the site of Corotoman Plantation, once the home of Robert "King" Carter.
Carter was born into a prominent family in 1663 at Corotoman Plantation
and was educated in England, but he returned to Virginia before inheriting
the 6,160 acre estate. He eventually acquired more than 300,000 acres
and became the wealthiest man in Virginia, earning him the nickname "King."
He held a number of positions in government, including serving as the acting
governor for a year. He was also the agent of Lord Fairfax, colonel
of the area militia, on the Board of Visitors at the College of William
and Mary, and Church Warden of Christ Church. He died in 1732 and
is buried at Christ Church. His decedents continued to dominate political
and social life in Virginia throughout the 18th century.
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 Robert "King" Carter |
Excavation at Corotoman |
Like Westover and Shirley
(home of his son John), Robert "King" Carter built himself a grand Georgian
mansion house along the river to demonstrate his elite position in society.
Construction on the house began between 1715 and 1720, and was completed
in 1725. It was characterized by two large room and their closets,
centered around a central passage, and graced with an elegant porch facing
the river. Sadly, the house burned down only four years after its
completion, and was never rebuilt. Nothing remains of the great Carter
Plantation today except the building foundations.
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Click here to go to Christ Church's web site
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The next place we visited
was historic Christ Church, built in 1735. The Anglican Church was
a central part of life in colonial Virginia, and was considered essential
in any civilized community. Church and state were linked, even more
so than in England, and church tithes were not optional. Churches
were run by vestries, usually made up of the wealthiest members of the
parish, who would decide business matters, such as whether to construct
a new church. On average, a new church was built by every generation.
If the vestry did decide to rebuild, it would hire out an undertaker (contractor/architect).
Once satisfied with his work, they would except the church and pay the
man. The money, of course, came out of the tithes of the parishioners.
Fortunately for those who attended Christ Church, Robert "King" Carter
paid for the church himself. In exchange, he asked that the church
be used as a burial place for his family. The church remains today
both as a stunning piece of architecture and as a monument to the Carter
family.
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 Flemish bonded bricks form the walls of
the church,
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 The pulpit in Christ Church |
When I entered Christ
Church, I was struck by how open it felt in comparison to the 17th century
St. Luke's Church. The dark interior, colored glass, and small size
of St. Luke's give it very enclosed feeling. Christ Church has high
arched ceilings and whitewashed walls that brighten the room, along with
large uncolored windows that let in natural light. The Carters spared
no expense in building it, even importing stone from England for the floor.
The fine construction of the church was a statement about the wealth of
the parish, and more specifically, the Carter family. Because the
church was considered the private property of the Carter's, it was able
to escape much damage in later years. It is beautifully preserved,
and even contains the original high back pews and triple deck pulpit.
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The church was not just
a religious gathering place, but a social gathering place as well.
Before and after the service, people would gather outside the church and
exchange the latest gossip and news. The service would not start
until the Carter family arrived along the tree lined path that lead from
Corotoman Plantation. Even in the church, where all men were supposed
to be equal in the sight of God, a great deal of deference was shone to
the wealthy such as the Carter family.
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The tree lined path from Corotoman to the church |
 George Whitefield |
However, the 18th century
hierarchical society received a blow from the Great Awakening in the 1740s
and then again from the "New Light" Separatists that appeared after 1765.
These evangelical religious revivals began in the Middle colonies and were
spread south by such inspirational speakers as George Whitefield.
They appealed mainly to the lower classes, arguing that if man was equal
in the site of God, man should be equal in the site of man. They
criticized gambling and ostentatious displays of wealth - the very things
the landed gentry used to define their position in society. The gentry
felt threatened by these new ideas, and many of the religious converts
were persecuted. However, the evangelicals didn't set out to destroy
the social system; they were more concerned with saving their souls.
Their ideas of equality and clear-cut distinctions between good and bad
did help to convince many people to support the Revolution in the 1770s.
While the Revolution didn't destroy deference, in the words of professor
Whittenburg, "it gave it a big punch in the nose."
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Sadly, Robert Carter never
saw Christ Church completed. He passed away two years after authorizing
the funds to build the church. His sons completed the building.
He is buried in a beautiful tomb by the church, next to other members of
his family.
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 Tomb of Robert "King" Carter |
Rhys Isaac, “Evangelical Revolt: The Nature of the Baptists' Challenge to the Traditional Order in Virginia, 1765 to 1775,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd. Ser.,
Vol. 31, No. 3 (Jul., 1974), pp. 345-368.
Del Upton, Holy Things and Profane: Parish
Churches in Colonial Virginia (1997), pp. 3-46.
Special Thanks
To Sara, Jacob, and Professor Whittenburg
for lending me pictures
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To we traveled to the
remains of Rosewell Plantation for their annual BBQ. Rosewell was
built in 1725 and was the home of the Page family throughout the 18th century
and the early 19th century. It stood three stories tall and rivaled
the Governor's Palace in magnificence. Unfortunately, it burned down
in 1916, and all that remains today are a few of the remaining brick walls.
We had a fun time climbing over the ruins and examining the bricks.
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Today we visited Yorktown,
site of the last major battle of the Revolutionary War. We started
our trip at the Yorktown Victory Center, which depicts both military and
everyday life in 1781 through exhibits and living history.
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Click here to go to the Yorktown Victory Center web site
The Continental Army Encampment
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One of the living history
exhibits we saw was a recreated military encampment. The rows of
tents contained a few battered personal possessions of the soldiers, as
well as a tattered blanket or two. (With the exception of the officers'
quarters. Even that tent wasn't that nice, though.) A Continental
soldier at the encampment told us about the ways of war, citing most the
bayonet as the weapon of choice because of all the damage it could cause.
He explained that a bayonet charge was actually a march, not people running
with their weapons. It must have been quite impressive to see hundreds
of American troops (or British for that matter) marching in their matching
uniforms, bayonets raised.
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 An interpreter talks about life in the Continental Army |
 The encampment at Yorktown |
It was fitting that the
deciding battle of the Revolution occurred in Virginia, as it had been
one of the most patriot states throughout the war. What could make
a society that wanted more than anything to be British to turn against
its mother country? The colonies had for several years endured a
series of revenue taxes that were regarded as unjust. Most of these
taxes affected luxury items purchased by the upper and middle classes,
such as tea and paper products. Angered, many of the gentry spoke
out against the actions of the crown. Tensions increased, and independent
companies of Gentlemen began to form for the purpose of defense.
Still, the colony remained divided between loyalty to Britain and the desire
for rights.
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If there was one thing
that could unify all Virginians under the Patriot cause, it was a direct
threat to their way of life. Such an event happened on April 21,
1775. That night, Virginia Governor Lord Dunmore, who feared the
colonial militarization, had his men raid the powder magazine in Williamsburg.
The next day, he threatened to free the slaves if the insurrections continued.
He eventually carried through on his threat, offering freedom to the males
slaves of rebels on November 7 of the same year. More than a thousand
slaves, many of them women and children, fled to the British.
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 The powder magazine in Williamsburg |
 Eighteenth Century Slaves |
Dunmore had hoped that
his proclamation would discourage would-be rebels, but it had entirely
the opposite effect. Freeing the slaves was an attack on the very
lives and social structure of Virginians. Although a large scale
slave uprising had not happened yet in Virginia, the colonists feared what
would happen if the 180,000 slaves in the colony revolted at once.
Philip Fithian, tutor to the Carter family, captured some the fear felt
by Virginians in his diary, as can be seen in the following passage from
September 8, 1774:
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Something alarming happened
a few nights ago in the Neighborhood at Mr Sorrels a House in sight - It
is supposed that his Negres had appointed to murder him...Presumption is
so strong together with a small confession of the Fellows, that three are
now in Prison - The ill Treatment which this unhappy part of mankind receives
here, would almost justify them in any desperate attempt for gaining that
Civility, & Plenty which tho' denied them, is here, commonly bestowed
on Horses! - Now,...I sleep in fear too, though my Doors & Windows
are all secured!-
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Lord Dunmore raided the
powder magazine right at the time that more and more small slave insurrections
were occurring. The colonists were outraged that the Governor had
not only deprived them of weapons to defend themselves with, but was actually
encouraging the slaves to rise up against their masters. The colonists
felt their very lives were at stake. It was enough to convince even
fervent loyalists, such as William Byrd III, to change sides and support
the Revolution.
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The threat to slavery got many to support the war |
 Woman camp follower |
Soldiers were not the
only people at the Continental Army encampment. Many women were also
camped near the the tents, although they were not permitted to stay in
the actual encampment. These women performed many of the same domestic
activities for the soldiers that they would do at home, such as sewing,
cooking and washing. They also nursed the sick and wounded.
One of these women who was at Yorktown was named Sarah Osborn. She
wrote later wrote a memoir about following Washington's army, leaving us
a firsthand account of the battle of Yorktown from a woman's perspective.
She even lived long enough to be photographed, and it was really cool to
be able to look into the face of an actual person who was there.
In spite of all their service, women were not always welcomed by the army.
The only woman George Washington wanted in his camp was his own wife Martha.
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After seeing the encampment,
we went to a recreated middle class farm of the period. The farm
was actually nicer than I expected, but there didn't seem to be a whole
lot of difference in the way people lived in the 1780s than the way they
lived in the 1660s in St. Mary's. The house was was made of clapboards
and had a brick chimney, and was actually a bit smaller than the one at
St. Mary's. Inside there were a few furnishings and selected luxury
items such as nice china plates. A separate kitchen stood nearby
the house, and there was also a tobacco barn where the main cash crop,
tobacco, was packed into hogsheads to be shipped to England. The
farm gave the impression that most people of the period lead principally
agrarian life styles, and although they had a few luxury items, overall
they lived very simply.
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 A middle class farmhouse from the 1780s |
 tobacco farmer |
Most of the people in
eighteenth century Virginia did not own slaves and they would not have
had most of the luxury items that were taxed. (Or if they did have
any of those things, they wouldn't have them in large quantities.)
Why then did so many of the lower and middle class whites support the Revolution?
Even poor whites feared slave rebellions, particularly an African-Indian
alliance, and the Governor had deprived them of defense. Religion
may have also motivated some, since many of the Evangelicals had been convinced
that the king was the Devil. Perhaps the reason they went against
the crown is deference to the landed gentry. The gentry supported
the Revolution, and because they were so well-respected, people were influenced
by their opinions. Whatever the reason, even the lower and middling
sort were outraged by Lord Dunmore's actions, and after the raid on the
magazine they joined the independent volunteer companies in scores.
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Some of the independent
companies were quite radical. They adopted with-us-or-against us
policies, and used intimidation tactics to keep people from siding with
the British. The gentry were losing control of the independent companies.
They still hoped that they conflict might be solved through diplomacy,
and they feared that the companies were pushing them closer to all-out
war with England. In response, they formed the minute men.
These groups of men would be required to train for a given amount of time,
and a hierarchy would be reintroduced, with the gentry at the top.
This plan was not accepted well by the common man. Training took
them away from their farms for an extended period of time, meaning a loss
in profits and possibly even the starvation of their families. Previously,
the companies had had elected leaders, and they were not keen to hand over
power to the gentry just because they were rich. Deference only extended
so far. They were also angered that the wealthy and foreigners could
be exempt from service. The ordinary men were willing to fight along
side the gentry, but not for them, and few men voluntarily joined the minute
men. The minute men were so unpopular that at the Convention of 1775
the plan was abandoned in favor of regular troops.
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Many ordinary men joined independent companies |
Click Here to go to the Park Service Web site on the Yorktown Battlefield
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 General Lord Cornwallis |
After we visited the Yorktown
Victory Center we went to the location of the actual battlefield.
There was a small museum there, and we enjoyed wandering around a recreated
ship, seeing the kind of tent Washington used, and watching a movie about
the battle.
At the time of the battle of Yorktown, the Revolution had been going on for six years. British General Lord Cornwallis had already taken control of the major Southern cities, and in 1781 he was ordered by commander General Clinton to find a port on the Chesapeake to stay at for the winter. Cornwallis selected Yorktown. At the time, Clinton was in New York City, and American General George Washington was stationed near him. Everyone expected Washington to attack New York, but when he heard that a French fleet was sailing for the Chesapeake, he changed strategies and went to attack Cornwallis in Virginia, in what would be the deciding battle of the Revolution. |
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The French helped significantly
at the battle of Yorktown. In early September, the French fleet arrived
and damaged the British ships. The British ships returned to New
York for repairs, and the French ships blocked the Chesapeake. Soon
Washington and the French commander the Comte de Rochambeau arrived with
17,600 French and American troops and laid a siege on the British troops.
On the night of October 14, they successfully captured redoubts 9 and 10.
Cornwallis sent for reinforcements, but they were delayed. Cornwallis
only had 8,300 men and knew he was badly outnumbered. On October
19, he surrendered to the American and French forces.
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 surrender of Cornwallis |
George Washington |
The war did not end immediately
after the Battle of Yorktown. However, the British had lost all motivation
to continue fighting. The war was very expensive to keep the battle
going, particularly when the Americans were winning. Nearly two years
after Yorktown, the Treaty of Paris was signed, effectively ending the
war. Six years later, Washington was elected the first president
of the United States. The United States had finally established itself
as a free and independent country.
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"Yorktown actually dates back to an earlier time called Middle Earth. Corwallis's Cave was inhabited by hobbits."
-Professor Whittenburg
Readings
Michael A. McDonnell, "Popular Mobilization
and Political Culture in Revolutionary Virginia: The Failure of the Minutemen
and the Revolution from Below," Journal of American History, Vol. 85, No.
3. (Dec., 1998), pp. 946-981.
Woody Holton, " 'Rebel Against Rebel': Enslaved
Virginians and the Coming of the Revolution," Virginia Magazine of History
& Biography, 105 (Spring 1997), pp. 157-192.
Special Thanks
To Sara and Jacob for lending me photos.
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Today we traveled back
to Yorktown, this time to the actual town. Yorktown today is a quite,
quaint little town full of historic buildings, but in the eighteenth century
it was a wealthy tobacco port. We spent the day examining the lives
of its residents, most specifically, the Amblers and the Nelsons, as well
as the upper-class Wythe and Randolf families in Williamsburg.
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On the outskirts of town
was a very tall monument commemorating the battle of Yorktown and honoring
the American and French troops that died there. Although the statue
does not say it, Yorktown was really a French victory. The
numbers on the statue show that there were many more Frenchmen than Americans
at Yorktown. Professor Whittenburg also noted that the statue also
stands as a testament to the efficiency of the federal government, having
been authorized shortly after the battle and constructed a century later.
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 Yorktown monument |
 The Customs House |
One of the first places
we passed in Yorktown was the Customs House, which was owed by the Ambler
Family. The Amblers were a prosperous merchant family in town whose
daughter Eliza was a teenager at the time of the Battle of Yorktown.
Eliza whitnessed first hand the double standard in social conduct that
existed for men and women. One of her dear friends, Rachel Warrington,
fell in love with one of the French officers staying in Yorktown at the
time, and bore his illegitimate child. Warrington was blamed for
her sexual misconduct, however the officer wasn't. He returned to
France and never returned for her or acknowledged their child. Warrington's
problem concerned Eliza, and she felt that if only her friend had been
properly educated about how to deal with men, the situation could have
been avoided. Later in life she decided to help other girls from
becoming victims like Rachel Warrington through a new form of literature:
the novel.
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In the late eighteenth
century the novel emerged as the dominant form of advice literature for
young women. Previously, most books for women were written by men
and advised them to be quiet and obedient wives, and to only look at their
husbands' merits and not their faults. Women had little say as to
whom they would marry, however, by the time of Eliza Ambler it was becoming
more common for women to chose their husbands. With this ability
to choose came a new dilemma: How were women supposed to attract a husband
and still remain virtuous? Novels addressed this problem by creating
female characters that used their own heads to protect their reputations,
rather than relying on men. Those characters who heeded this advice
ended well, setting an example of behavior for women of the day.
Of course, the biggest influence on women continued to be their own families.
Eliza Ambler seemed to think that her friend's conduct had to do with faults
in the way she was brought up, having been raised by her aunt and not educated
properly. The society had changed from one where education for women
was considered unnecessary to one where it was considered essential for
them to maintain their virtue.
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Young women looked to novels for advice on how to behave |
 The Nelson House |
After a good lunch at
the Carrot Tree Restaurant, we visited the Nelson house. The Nelson
House was built in 1729 by Thomas Nelson, often called "Scotch Tom," who
was a Scottish merchant. The merchant class were not gentry, however
they were quite powerful in that they controlled the economy, specifically
the price of imported goods, as well as took the tobacco to England.
In building such a grand house, Nelson was showing off his wealth and power
and was trying to rise to the level of a gentleman.
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One of the defining features
of the Nelson House is the central passage. During the eighteenth
century, it became fashionable to have visitors arrive into a narrow hallway
rather than into a large all-purpose hall as was popular in the 17th century.
These halls served as a way of preserving class distinction by isolating
visitors off from the more private areas of the house where only important
people were allowed to enter. Over the course of the century, however,
the hall became more of a living space because it was the coolest place
to be in the summer because it was well ventilated. Eventually it
matched the halls of the 1600s in size, decoration, and importance, as
can be seen in the Nelson House. It would have been furnished and
entertaining such as dancing would have taken place there. It became
the living space of the house.
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 The Central Passage |
Click here to go to a web site on the poor potter
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Our last stop in Yorktown
was the site of the poor potter's pottery factory. The poor potter
was actually not a potter but a profitable businessman named William Rodgers.
Although it was against the law to establish industries in the colonies
to give British manufacturers a monopoly, Rodgers employed German potters
to create pottery for export. It is clear that the government knew
what he was doing, but Governor Gooch downplayed it when he wrote about
it to the British government, calling him the "poor potter," from which
he gets his nickname. Why did Gooch do this? The answer is
unclear, but money was probably involved.
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Click here to go to Colonial Williamsburg's web site
The George Wythe House
Click
here to go to Colonial Williamsburg's web page on the Wythe House
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After we had seen Yorktown
we came back to our own dear Williamsburg. One of the places we visited
was the Wythe House, home of George Wythe, signer of the Declaration of
Indepedence and First Professor of Law in America. The large brick
home was built in the 1750s and is similar in structure to the Nelson House.
It too is centered around a large central passage, which in this case is
decorated with fashionable flamboyant wallpaper. The downstairs rooms
are decorated similarly. The upstairs hall is actually set up as
a living space, containing several pieces of large furniture. The
house was very nice inside, and left me feeling very impressed with Wythe's
wealth, which of course was the idea.
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 back of the Wythe House |
Click here to go to Colonial Williamsburg's site on the Randolf House
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We also visited the Peyton
Randolf House. Peyton Randolf was the President of the First and
Second Continental Congresses, and might have become president had he not
died first. Unlike the Wythe House, the Randolf house is wooden,
but it is no less impressive. The house was built in 1715 and was
enlarged significantly over the years. The interior is decorated
richly with expensive wallpaper, fine furnishings, and lots of little luxury
items that convey the status of the Randolfs.
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Although the Randolf house
lacks a large central passage like the Nelson and Wythe houses (probably
because it is an older structure), it does have a very elegant dining room.
Like the central passage, the dining room emerged out of the great halls
of the 17th century and was a means of preserving class distinction.
It was a formal room used solely for the purposes of display and food,
as opposed to the informal and multipurpose great hall. Presentation
took on its highest form here, right down to the very dishes themselves.
Such an elegant room singular purpose clearly shows the wealth and power
of the Randolfs.
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Catherine Kerrison, "By the Book: Eliza Ambler Brent Carrington and Conduct Literature in Late Eighteenth-Century Virginia," Virginia Magazine of History &
Biography, 105 (Winter 1997), pp. 27-52.
Mark R. Wenger, "The Central Passage in Virginia:
Evolution of an Eighteenth-Century Living Space," in Camille Wells, ed.,
Perspectives in Vernacular
Architecture, II (1986), pp. 137-149.
Mark R. Wenger, "The Dining Room in Early
Virginia," in Thomas Carter & Bernard L. Herman, eds., Perspectives
in Vernacular Architecture, III (1989), pp.
149-159.
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Sadly, today was our last
class this semester. At the beginning of class we were each assigned
a persona, and our goal for the morning was to find what that person would
buy if he or she were visiting Williamsburg. I was Eliza Ambler,
and I had fun pretending to be a merchant's daughter on a shopping spree
in CW.
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Click here to get to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's web site
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 So many pretty hats... |
One of the first stores
that Sara and I visited was the Mary Dickinson shop, where we searched
for hats. As a rich girl, I would have the latest style flat topped
hat, decked out in ribbons. Sara, on the other hand, who was a yeoman's
daughter, would have a very simply straw hat, perhaps with some inexpensive
ribbon. Similar experiences happened at the other stores we visited.
We would get similar things, but I would get to buy the more expensive
items, whereas Sara was more limited in what she could purchase.
In the eighteenth century, everyone was participating in the consumer revolution,
but social status was defined by the quality and price of the items purchased.
A poor girl and a rich girl might both wear hats and petticoats and carry
fans, but it would be easy to tell who was better off just judging by the
decorativeness of their garments.
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My favorite store that
we went into was the millinery. The eighteenth century obsession
with presentation extended to dress, and millineries furnished people with
the latest fashions from London so that they could look their best.
Virtually everything in the millinery, as in all stores in Williamsburg,
was imported from England. As the century progressed, there was a
standardization of products throughout the colonies and a larger variety
of choice. The colonists bought everything England would send.
They were outraged, though, when England imposed taxes on many popular
consumer goods strictly for the purpose of raising revenue. The taxes
were a problem for all consumers, and the colonists united together to
boycott British imports. The boycotts were not very effective, however
they did help define political values that were essential to the success
of the Revolution.
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In the eighteenth century, clothing made the man (or woman) (That is a fabulous gown and I want it!) |
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Around noon we all went
to Christiana Cambell's Tavern for lunch. In the eighteenth century,
women would rarely go to taverns, but today we made an exception.
We had a menu to select from, but colonial taverns would have just had
one meal for the day. I had some sort of vegetarian casserole, but
in colonial times one of the most popular foods was beef. Most of
the gentry supplied their own beef from their farms, however the middle
class people had to purchased it. People also purchased food from
the Market or grocers in town, including many expensive imported goods.
Displaying one's wealth was important even when it came to food.
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Click here to go to Colonial Williamsburg's site on the museum
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After we had finished
our meal we visited The DeWitt Walace Decorative Arts Museum, housed in
the former public hospital. Before we went into gallery, we viewed
an upstairs exhibit on life in the public hospital. Mental illness
was not well understood in the eighteenth century. The physicians
of the time thought that patients purposely were difficult, and they locked
them up and gave them "treatments" that included laudanum and other potentially
dangerous medicines. Fortunately, by the 19th century percents were
treated more humanely, and eventually the public hospital was closed altogether.
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 Public Hospital Quarters |
Another gown I want... |
The gallery paid homage
to all the decorative items that defined social station in the eighteenth
century. There were portraits, furniture, silver, musical instruments,
textiles, and a whole array of other items that were mostly imported from
England. My favorite exhibit by far was the clothing exhibit, which
displayed clothing worn by people of every social level. Interestingly,
it is more rare to find clothing belonging to the commoners than the wealthy,
simply because it was worn out and thrown away. Although the colonists
enjoyed spending money for appearance sake, they weren't about to throw
away a perfectly good piece of clothing just because it was out of style,
particularly if they had spent a lot on material. Most of the clothing,
including the prettiest gowns, were remade later to keep up with the latest
fashions. (Such as the gown at left, which was made in the early
part of the century and remade in the 1770s.) We also looked at an
exhibit on china. The colonists loved asian china, and later England
began producing its own pottery that resembled china for export.
It didn't matter so much what things were, but what they appeared to be,
revealing a very appearance conscience society.
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I can't wait to take the course on the Revolution through the Civil War next semester!
Readings
T. H. Breen, " 'Baubles of Britain': The
American and Consumer Revolutions of the Eighteenth Century," Past and
Present, No. 119 (May, 1988), pp. 73-104.
Tanya Wilson, “Food for Fashionable Families:
Fresh or Faux,” The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter, Vol. 20, No. 3,
1999 Special Edition focused on the
Peyton Randolph Project, pp. 43-47.
Lorena S. Walsh, "Feeding the Eighteenth-Century
Townfolk, or, 'Where's the Beef?", Agricultural History, 73 (Summer 1999),
pp. 267-280.
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Here I am with Patience, a heritage breed Hog Island Sheep |
The Claude Moore Colonial Farm at Turkey
Run
Click here
to go to the Farm's web page
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Gadsby's Tavern Museum
Click
here to go to the museum's web site
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