June 18 thru 20, 2007
Monday
We are in Williamsburg, VA where there is a great deal of history about Colonial America and the people who helped shape early America’s dreams and the promises of the Declaration of Independence. Today a big portion of the original Williamsburg has been restored. It is called Colonial Williamsburg and is a fantastic place to go to learn about the life, various customs and different ways of doing things in the 1700’s by interpreters of all ages. Restoration of Williamsburg began in 1928. During the restoration process, nearly 600 nonperiod buildings were razed or removed from the Historic Area; 88 original 18th-century buildings were restored or repaired; and almost 500 structures (including outbuildings) were reconstructed according to the specifications of colonial-period documents and archaeological. As you can see it was and still is a huge project. The cost to do this was all paid for by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. More information about this can be found at: http://www.americanparknetwork.com/parkinfo/cw/history/restore.html. There are two museums, one an American Folk Art museum with artwork by self-taught artists dating back as far as the 1720’s; the other is a collection of British and American antiques for the 17th , 18th and 19th centuries. There are 36 exhibition sites where one can learn about colonial Williamsburg from the many interpreters of all ages, dressed in period costumes, and portraying characters from the 1700’s. Williamsburg became a self-sustaining community and all of the various businesses necessary for that are on display. We started our day at the Court House discovering what it was like to be accused of a crime and prosecuted in these early times. If convicted of a crime people were not sent to prison. Prisons were only for holding people until their time for court. If you were found guilty of a misdemeanor, say for stealing something from a store, you were branded on your hand with a “T” for thief. That would go with you for the rest of your life and probably people would not trust you very much. If you were charged with a felony you were hanged and the sentence was carried out quickly and publicly.