History Lessons in Virginia

I never cared for the career that I ended up in.  As my family knows, for years I would say "When I grow up I want to be a Park Ranger." Well the other career that I would have liked to have was a history teacher.  However, those that know me also know that I have no patience for that. But to this day I still love to learn more about United States history and there is no better place to do that then on the East coast.

We had a picture perfect day for travelling from the Outer Banks NC to Williamsburg VA.  Along the way we stopped at the Great Dismal Swamp. (For those of you who have read the Diana Galbadon's Outlander series, William gets lost in this swamp!)

George Washington was the surveyor, who surveyed this area so that the canal could be dug for the inland waterway.

We stopped at the Great Dismal Swamp State Park and had a nice lunch in the RV and then took a short walk on the nature trail. There is one advantage of visiting this area early in May..no mosquitoes yet.



The good weather only lasted long enough for us to arrive at the campground and then the heavens opened up on us. But we have gotten really good at setting up the RV, so it wasn't too bad. We again stayed at a Thousand Trails campground. It was a muddy mess when we arrived, but quickly drained and dried up once it quit raining.

Our first history lesson was Jamestown. The first colony settled in the United States in 1607. We thought we'd stay a few hours here, but it was so fascinating that we spent the whole day.  There is actually two sections to seeing Jamestown. The first is a recreation of the original colony, it is a short distance away from where the original colony was located.

 The village has been recreated to look like it did back in 1607.  It was nice, but if you've seen other recreated towns, it doesn't look that different.







 The real interesting part was the archaeology site. This is located where the original colony was located. We went on a very interesting talk that lasted about an hour. The young man leading the tour was excellent. He did a great job of explaining why they picked the site that they did.  How they interacted with the Native Americans. And what went wrong. Or at least what they think went wrong. Through the archaeology research they are still learning what happened back then.

Just last week, it was confirmed that the colonists had to resort to cannibalism in order to survive. We were able to see the ongoing dig where they found the remains of "Jane" the young girl who was eaten.

They also had several "tall" ships that were reproductions of the types of ships that would have been in use during the early 1600's. When you actually see how small those ships were, it's a wonder anyone made it safely across the ocean.

We also learned that not everything you see in a movie these days is accurate. If you've ever watched the Disney movie Pocahontas, you would know that she married John Smith. Wrong. She actually married a colonists named John Rolfe. She went back to England with him and died within two years. Not the  feel good story that Disney portrays.




The second history lesson that we had was at Colonial Williamsburg. This is another town that has been recreated.

The Royal Governor's Palace

There are over 100 buildings in the town that are either the original buildings or have been reproduced to look like the original buildings that stood there during the American Revolution. There are people portraying characters that would have lived in the village during this period.

A local merchant

Depending on who is being portrayed, they tell you their story either from a Loyalist or a Patriots point of view. Walking in the village, you may encounter the Royal Governor, Patrick Henry, the local blacksmith or the owner of the local tavern.

 The most interesting person that we encountered was a man portraying a slave on a nearby plantation. He explained that he didn't want to give you the impression of a typical slave, but wanted us to realize that the majority of the people standing in the slave cabin with him probably were not descendants of upper class people. Most of the early settlers that came to America came here to find a better life for themselves and for their families. This meant that most of our ancestors struggled to survive. They experienced more hardship in one a day, a week, a month  than most of us will experience in our life time. And that most of them started out as farmers, laborers or poor tradesmen living in a dirt floor shack just like the one that a typical slave lived in.

It was an interesting analogy that neither Fred nor I had ever considered. It gave me a lot more respect for my  great great great (etc) grandfather who I have traced back to what is now Maine back in 1680.

I have to admit that Colonial Williamsburg was not quite what I expected it to be. I thought that there would have been more interaction with colonists in the streets. More merchants and town folks walking around, or maybe a group of soldiers drilling in the parade grounds in front of the Governor's Mansion.  But this could have been that we were there the second week of May and the real season does not start until Memorial Day. But overall, it was an interesting place to visit. We also did some interesting virtual geocaches in the town.

The last historical site that we went to was Yorktown. It was the least impressive of the sites that we've seen, but historically it was the most important place. This was the site of the determining battle during the American Revolutionary War. It was here that George Washington, Lafayette and thousands of soldiers eventually defeated Cornwallis forcing him to surrender. This was the turning point in the war that culminated in the formation of the United States of America!!

Fred trying out a musket, it is long and heavy

Re-Enactors shooting off the cannon

Victory Memorial

We listened to another wonderful talk by a National Park Service Ranger. There isn't much to see at Yorktown, except for the field where the battle took place. But the talk was so good, that if you closed your eyes, you could envision that battle that took place, smell the gunpowder in the air, feel the ground tremble with each cannon blast. It was very moving.



The old village of Yorktown is now filled with shops and restaurants and a very nice river walk. We had a quiet lunch on the shores of the York River, and of course, found a few geocaches in the area as well.