Trend & Tradition Autum 2024

BRAY SCHOOL

That

Amazing Stories. Beautifully Told.

Behind every collection in the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg is an amazing story, beautifully told. Dating to the first quarter of the 18th century, this piece is fully embroidered in yellow silk with a popular vermicelli pattern (like the pasta) for the ground. Early waistcoats tended to be long with ball-like buttons from neck to hem. Step into history as you discover the evolution and significance of these garments. Explore our collections, visit the Museum Store for unique treasures, and unwind at the Café, open daily to enhance your journey into the past.

OPEN DAILY

About Town

The making and remaking of The Story of a Patriot

Paul Aron

Staging the stories

Mapping the mind of John Custis

Structures

Corey Stewart

COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION TRUSTEES

Carly Fiorina, Chair, Mason Neck, Va.

Cliff Fleet, President and CEO, Williamsburg, Va.

Kendrick F. Ashton Jr., Arlington, Va.

Frank Batten Jr., Norfolk, Va.

Geoff Bennett, Fairfax, Va.

Catharine Broderick, Lake Wales, Fla.

William Casperson, Bronxville, N.Y.

Mark A. Coblitz, Wayne, Pa.

Walter B. Edgar, Columbia, S.C.

Neil M. Gorsuch, Washington, D.C.

Conrad Mercer Hall, Norfolk, Va.

Antonia Hernandez, Pasadena, Calif.

John A. Luke Jr., Richmond, Va.

Walfrido J. Martinez, New York, N.Y.

Leslie A. Miller, Philadelphia, Pa.

Steven L. Miller, Houston, Texas

Joseph W. Montgomery, Williamsburg, Va.

Steve Netzley, Carlsbad, Calif.

Walter S. Robertson III, Richmond, Va.

Gerald L. Shaheen, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Larry W. Sonsini, Palo Alto, Calif.

Sheldon M. Stone, Los Angeles, Calif.

Y. Ping Sun, Houston, Texas

Hon. John Charles Thomas, Richmond, Va.

Jeffrey B. Trammell, Washington, D.C.

Alex Wallace, New York, N.Y.

CHAIRS EMERITI

Charles R. Longsworth, Royalston, Mass.

Thurston R. Moore, Richmond, Va.

Richard G. Tilghman, Richmond, Va.

Henry C. Wolf, Williamsburg, Va.

TREND & TRADITION

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Catherine Whittenburg

ART DIRECTOR Katie Roy

DESIGNERS

Katherine Jordan

Lauren Metzger

John Marshall

RESEARCH Erin Lopater, Marianne Martin, Douglas Mayo Live & Learn

PHOTOGRAPHER

Brian Newson

MANAGING EDITOR Jody Macenka

EDITOR/WRITER Corey Stewart

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul Aron, Ronald L. Hurst, Eve Otmar, Rachel West

COPY EDITORS

Patricia Carroll, Amy Watson

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Angela C. Taormina

PUBLICATIONS

COORDINATOR

Grenda Greene

MEDIA COLLECTIONS Tracey Gulden, Jenna Simpson, Brendan Sostak

DONORS Please address all donor correspondence, address changes and requests for our current financial statement to: Signe Foerster, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, P.O. Box 1776, Williamsburg, VA 23187-1776 or email sfoerster@cwf.org, telephone 888-293-1776.

Donations support the programs and preservation efforts of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a not-for-profit, tax-exempt corporation organized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, with principal offices in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Address changes & subscription questions: gifts@cwf.org or 888-293-1776

Editorial inquiries: editor@cwf.org Advertising: nfrey@cwf.org or 757-259-5907

Trend & Tradition: The Magazine of Colonial Williamsburg (ISSN 2470-198X) is published quarterly in winter, spring, summer and autumn by the not-for-profit Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 301 First Street, Williamsburg, VA 23185. A one-year subscription is available to Foundation donors of $50 a year or more, of which $14 is reserved for a subscription. Periodical postage paid at Williamsburg, VA, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Trend & Tradition: The Magazine of Colonial Williamsburg, Attn: Signe Foerster, P.O. Box 1776, Williamsburg, VA 23187-1776. © 2024 The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. All rights reserved.

NOTE Advertising in Trend & Tradition does not imply endorsement of products or services by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Bridging Divides

History reminds us that persistent political disagreements and incivility have long been part of the American experiment

“Men who have been intimate all their lives, cross the street to avoid meeting, and turn their heads another way, lest they should be obliged to touch their hat.”

THOMAS

JEFFERSON, JUNE 24, 1797

The author of the Declaration of Independence wrote these words to its youngest signatory, Edward Rutledge, while serving as vice president under John Adams. In his letter, Jefferson observed the loss of civil discourse between “gentlemen of different politics,” lamenting “passions are too high at present to be cooled in our day.”

Passions are likewise running high today. In this modern era of deep political divisions, civil discourse is growing harder to come by. People who could once talk together, work together, break bread together find it hard to discuss differences of opinion. It’s disheartening and can even be dangerous.

As Election Day draws nearer, I find myself thinking more often of Jefferson’s words. Perhaps surprisingly, I am reassured by them. For they are a potent reminder that discord has always been part of America’s intricate fabric that we have been a raucous nation since its beginning. Despite this, and also because of it, we have thrived for nearly 250 years.

So many of our disagreements have persisted through the ages. Globalism versus isolationism; rural interests versus urban interests; individual wealth versus common wealth; states’ rights and power; the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches versus federal rights and power these are but a few of the issues that we have always debated and still do so today. Yet even in the unlikeliest moments, compromise and consensus-building can prevail. As you will read in the pages of this magazine, historian Lindsay Chervinsky offers the diplomatic example of John Marshall as a reminder that productive give-and-take has been possible, even in fraught political moments.

What truly sets America apart is its founding on a set of Enlightenment principles which galvanized truly disparate people into forming a new nation. Nearly 250 years ago, Americans of many cultures, geographic origins, religions, experiences and ethnic backgrounds united around the principles of liberty, freedom and due process of law. Above all, it is our shared love of freedom that binds us together. We may disagree fiercely at times about what that means and how we work toward creating a more perfect union. But it remains an indelible part of the American spirit. Our desire to live and self-govern in a free nation gave rise to the Declaration, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights our most cherished founding documents, that were themselves hard-won results of of fierce and contentious political arguments that rival those we see today. In so many ways, our fierce historic debates have been essential to the advancement and strengthening of our remarkable nation.

As the world’s largest history museum, Colonial Williamsburg provides the historical facts and context to better understand what freedom means, what has been necessary to win it and what it requires of us to keep it. Research we conducted several years ago bears out the premise that people want objective, fact-based history, told in an unvarnished way one that does not shy away from exploring the deep challenges of our nation’s past, while also examining the enormous contributions we have made in advancing freedom in our own country and around the globe. This guiding light informs the way we present history here every day.

It also informs how we support history and civics educa-

tors across our nation. The Founders recognized education as essential to uniting its fractious, fiercely independent citizens; some even expressed a desire to create a national university. As James Madison wrote in 1810, such a “wellconstituted Seminary in the center of the nation.... would contribute not less to strengthen the foundations than to adorn the structure of our free and happy system of Government.” Though the national university never happened, its spirit lives on in our schools and educational institutions that teach people of diverse ages and backgrounds about our democratic system and strengthen the institutions that are its bedrock.

We know that presenting objective, fact-based history can help bring our nation together. For several years each spring we have hosted A Common Cause to All national 2026 planning meetings where hundreds of state planners, museum professional and educators convene to discuss and coordinate their work as we advance toward our nation’s 250th anniversary. 2026 will be a moment of national unity to remind all Americans of our shared heritage, common values and continued work toward creating a more perfect union.

Building on a Foundation

educate many more Americans about Lafayette’s pivotal role in the Revolutionary War and his unwavering belief in the principles on which the nation was built.

Our commitment to education is further exemplified by the pioneering work of the Bob and Marion Wilson Teacher Institute. Thanks to decades of support from the Wilson family and other donors, this best-in-class program has equipped educators for 35 years with innovative classroom strategies, lessons and resources to engage students in America’s history. Nearly 32,000 teachers have participated in the Wilson Teacher Institute, to date and through them, we have reached an estimated 10 million students. Just this year, more than 700 social studies teachers from across the country have taken part in the program, with more than 500 traveling for weeklong summer sessions in Williamsburg and others participating virtually.

We are also taking a chapter of America’s story on the road. As you can read about on page 37, we are sharing the legacy of the Marquis de Lafayette by re-creating his 1824 Farewell Tour of the United States. Mark Schneider, who brilliantly portrays the Marquis at the Foundation, arrived in New York to great fanfare in August to launch this multistate initiative. A partnership venture with the American Friends of Lafayette, the tour is an historic opportunity to

As Lafayette heads to his next port of call, we are preparing here to open the Williamsburg Bray School, the oldest surviving structure in the nation dedicated to the education of enslaved and free Black children. Since confirming the identity of this historic structure in early 2021, our preservation and operations teams have worked to restore and permanently relocate it to the Historic Area. Our researchers have partnered with William & Mary to learn about the building’s original scholars and their teacher, Ann Wager, along with numerous details about the uses, furnishing and design of the structure. This vital research forms the basis of our interpretation of the building, through which we will educate the world about this important, but hitherto littleknown, part of America’s story. Bringing together the museum field and 2026 state planners; educating teachers; re-creating Lafayette’s tour; opening the Bray School. Varied as these initiatives are, they illustrate the breadth of our efforts to expand Americans’ collective understanding of their nation’s origin story. The work is complicated and sometimes challenging. But it is essential to the health of our nation, and to bridging its divisions. It was for this reason that American Founders like James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington advocated for history and civics education and it is in their spirit that we do our work. For only by understanding where we have been, can we hope to better understand ourselves and one another as Colonial Williamsburg’s own founder, John D. Rockefeller Jr., said nearly a century ago: so “that the future may learn from the past.”

Sincerely,

Cliff Fleet President & CEO

Colin G. and Nancy N. Campbell Distinguished Presidential Chair

Cliff Fleet

Make a holiday keepsake colonialwilliamsburg.org/ downloads/make-a-holidayornament/

Meet the people who do the work colonialwilliamsburg.org/cwtoday

Discover Williamsburg’s role in its 80 years as a seat of government colonialwilliamsburg.org/bfwcapitol

IN REMEMBRANCE

Colin G. Campbell

Colin G. Campbell, whose unwavering belief in Colonial Williamsburg’s historical, educational and civic importance helped define a mission that continues today, died on June 21. The former president and CEO of the Foundation was 88.

“Colin’s steady hand made an indelible imprint on Colonial Williamsburg, ensuring its survival as a national treasure and charting a course focused on preservation, education and civic engagement that the institution is following today,” said Cliff Fleet, Colonial Williamsburg’s president and CEO.

Campbell joined the Foundation’s Board of Trustees in 1989 and for a period, served simultaneously as the organization’s leader as well as its board chairman. It was not long after he took over the helm as president in 2000 that the nation was rocked by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that ushered in a period of prolonged economic instability, worsened by the Great Recession of 2008. Despite the challenging economic landscape, Camp -

bell worked to strengthen relationships with donors and partners alike. From 2000 through the end of 2013, the Foundation raised a total of $687 million from 1.7 million individual donors.

Under Campbell’s leadership, the Foundation benefited from a spate of important capital projects. Among them were the reconstruction of Charlton’s Coffeehouse, construction of Anderson’s Blacksmith Shop and Public Armoury, and construction of the Market House, all of which were funded by noted philanthropist Forrest E. Mars Jr., who also provided the lead gift for the Colin G. and Nancy N. Campbell Archaeology Center in the couple’s honor; currently under construction, the facility is slated to open in 2026.

“From the coffeehouse to the Art Museums, the Armoury to the new archaeology center all of these buildings are testament to Colin’s commitment to this institution, and generations upon generations of visitors will reap the benefits of

projects that owe their origin stories to him,” said Carly Fiorina, chair of the Foundation’s board of trustees.

Campbell’s tenure was marked by his passion for teaching not only history but also citizenship as part of the Foundation’s mission. To that end, Campbell suggested that the past could be used as a platform to teach civics, focusing on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship a premise that became integrated into the Foundation’s programming.

Campbell’s tenure also saw an increased focus on programming that featured interpreters reenacting scenes of the Revolution. The programs highlighted the diverse population and perspectives of Williamsburg residents during the Revolution, including enslaved and free Blacks, women and people of different classes. It also introduced Nation Builders, interpreters who portrayed historical figures associated with 18th-century Williamsburg.

Campbell fostered a network of partnerships with organizations throughout the region and nation to advance shared goals. Working with the Washington, D.C.–based Center for Strategic and International Studies and William & Mary’s Reves Center for International Studies, the Foundation launched the Williamsburg-CSIS Global Forum in 2012. Campbell said the forum sought to “engage difficult

governing issues using America’s own revolutionary history as a frame of reference.”

A relationship with the Chautauqua Institution began after Campbell delivered remarks on citizenship at the western New York State educational resort. Both institutions sponsored conferences that explored the role of citizens in 21st-century democracies.

In his retirement, Campbell worked to fund the 65,000-square-foot expansion of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, which broke ground in 2017 and was unveiled in 2020.

Before coming to Williamsburg, Campbell was president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund from 1988-2000 and president of Wesleyan University from 1970 to 1988. He went to Wesleyan in 1967 after being vice president of the American Stock Exchange.

In addition to the Churchill Bell, Colonial Williamsburg’s highest honor, which he received with his wife in 2014, Campbell was recognized with awards from the New-York Historical Society, WHRO (Public Broadcasting), the Chautauqua Institution and Preservation Virginia.

Campbell was a graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University School of Law, class of 1960. He is survived by his wife, Nancy, and four children.

TOM GREEN

(Above, left): Colin Campbell formally opened the Public Armoury in 2012. (Above, right): In 2003, Campbell and Laurance Rockefeller toured the ceramic storage area at the DeWitt Wallace Collections and Conservation Building at the Bruton Heights School Education Center.

Where historical meets digital.

Uncovering Loyalties with Colonial Williamsburg is an educational game created in partnership with iCivics and Colonial Williamsburg. It places players at the heart of the ac pre-revolutionary Virginia, where tensions in the British American Colonies are on the rise. Through engaging gameplay, students interact with young people across the city to determine if the spirit of independence is in the air—or not. Designed for Upper Elementary and Middle school-aged students, the game offers hands-on practice in asking questions, listening to responses, and applying critical-thinking skills to uncover where loyalties truly lie.

LEARN MORE AT COLONIALWILLIAMSBURG.ORG/LOYALTIES

UPCOMING FALL ONLINE COURSES

AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH LINDSAY CHERVINSKY

October 8, 2024 | 7 p.m. EDT

Join us for a lively discussion with Lindsay Chervinsky, author of The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution and Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library, as she reveals how Washington developed the powerful presidential cabinet and its lasting impact on the federal government. Discover how her research connects to the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.

DEBUNKING MYTHS AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS THROUGH MAPS

November 5, 2024 | 7 p.m. EDT

Experience our new “Well, Actually...” series to explore how historic maps reveal biases and worldviews of the colonial era. Learn tips for using maps as primary sources in your classroom, and earn 1.5 professional development hours.

SCAN HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BOB AND MARION WILSON TEACHER INSTITUTE.

Mary Ashby

Robert Mursh

Lord Dunmore

About Town About Town

EXPLORE COLONIAL SITES AND HISTORY . PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES . PURSUE AND PLAN

p. 26

The Story of a Patriot

Journeyman Joiner Ayinde Martin works on a blanket chest for the Bray School.

Getting Ready for School Furnishing the Bray School involved a lot of research — and some educated guesses

By Paul Aron

Katie McKinney, Colonial Williamsburg’s Margaret Beck Pritchard Curator of Maps and Prints, knew what books students used at Williamsburg’s Bray School.

Finding the most popular text used at the school, though, proved to be a challenge. And as the Nov. 1 opening of the school site nears, such work has become more critical.

McKinney’s examination of historical documents told her which books had been procured for the school, where enslaved and free Black children were educated between 1760 and 1774. She knew that the students likely progressed from a basic primer, The Child’s First Book, to a book titled The English Instructor and then on to a book of psalms, the New Testament, and The Book of Common Prayer Between 1760 and 1763, at least 140

copies of The Child’s First Book more copies than of any other book were shipped from England to the school. As the title suggested, the book was used by students just learning to read. Curators were eager to see the book to understand more about the students’ education.

The problem was, no one could locate a copy. As part of the team tasked with furnishing the school, McKinney spent a year searching, to no avail.

“Finding this book seemed to be an important part of understanding how and what the children at the school would have learned at a basic level, regardless of how long they were able to stay at the school,” McKinney said. “I had nearly given up hope.”

Then, while conducting research in Cambridge, England, McKinney came

Using the scanned copy as a model, Colonial Williamsburg’s printers produced 1,000 copies of the book on an 18th-century press. Peter Stinely, supervisor of the Print Shop, noted that the reproductions even included flaws found in the original, such as a letter that dropped down slightly below the rest of the line. Visitors to the Bray School will be able to see and even hold the reproduced copies of books the students used.

Researching the Furnishings

McKinney is just one of the curators whose research offered guidance in furnishing the school. McKinney and Tara Chicirda, Colonial Williamsburg’s senior curator of furniture, have studied descriptions and images of schoolrooms from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

(Clockwise from top): To furnish the school, Colonial Williamsburg’s printer reproduced a book used there. Apprentice Weaver Pamela Russo fashions curtain material and Master Tinsmith Steve Delisle takes measurements in order to reproduce a lantern in the Foundation’s collection.

across a reference to the book’s publisher, John and William Oliver of England. She was able to distinguish the book from others with the same title. That ultimately led her to the Library of the Francke Foundation in Halle, Germany, which had a single copy of the book, first published in 1760. Librarians at the Francke Foundation scanned the copy and sent highresolution images to Williamsburg. In the book’s 32 pages, which were made from a single sheet, folded and then stitched together, children were introduced to the alphabet. It also contained lessons using religious passages.

The schoolroom, Chicirda concluded, should have a variety of benches for students, and a table and chair for the teacher. The students likely would not have had a table or chairs of their own. The building that housed the school also served as the living quarters of its teacher, Ann Wager. There’s no inventory of Wager’s possessions, so Chicirda examined those of 27 other women in York County who, like Wager, were widows who died between 1770 and 1780 and whose economic situation was likely similar to the teacher’s.

“While Ann was an educated woman, the fact that she worked after the death of her husband when she was in poor health suggests an economic need,” Chicirda said. “Her salary as the Bray School teacher was the equivalent of a journeyman’s salary in Williamsburg for the period. So, while she could have afforded furnishings, they likely would not have been terribly fashionable or new.”

“Finding this book seemed to be an important part of understanding how and what the children at the school would have learned at a basic level.”

—Katie McKinney

Among the furnishings Chicirda chose were a bed with curtains; a table that could have been used for dressing, bathing, reading, writing and eating; a small looking glass to go on a wall; a leatherbottomed chair; two yellow-pine storage chests; ladder-back chairs; a dining table; a tea table and a desk.

Angelika Kuettner, Colonial Williamsburg’s curator of ceramics and glass, took advantage of archaeological discoveries at the building’s original site near the corner of present-day Prince George and Boundary streets, where William & Mary’s Brown Hall now stands. Fragments of ceramics and glassware, including a teapot and mugs, helped inform her decisions as to what would go in the building.

All the curators working on the project had to deal with gaps in the historical record. “We have nothing in Ann Wager’s words,” said Amanda Keller, the Foundation’s curator of historic interiors and household accessories. “We had to ask ourselves: How would Ann Wager have used this space?”

“There can always be new discoveries, new technologies that will allow curators in the future to figure out something we couldn’t,” she said. “Our work is never done.”

Reproducing the Furnishings

While curators are purchasing some of the furnishings for the building, much is being produced by Colonial Williamsburg’s tradespeople. The blacksmiths, bookbinders, brickmakers, cabinetmakers, carpenters, joiners and weavers have all contributed in addition to the printers.

At Hay’s Cabinetmaking Shop, Master Cabinetmaker Bill Pavlak built a desk and Journeyman Cabinetmaker John Peeler built two tables. All three pieces were based on originals in the Foundation’s collection that Chicirda deemed appro -

(Above): A tin-glazed earthenware salt cellar was among the archaeological finds at the original Bray School site. It appears here next to an intact example on loan from a private collection. (Below): Master Joiner Brian Weldy assembles a chair for the school.

About Town BRAY SCHOOL

(Above, left): The school’s teacher may have acquired older, previously owned benches at sales of household goods or she may have bought inexpensive new ones. Colonial Williamsburg’s joiners built several styles of benches, such as this one. (Above, right): The benches were based on pieces in the Foundation’s collection, such as this mid-to-late-17th century English example.

priate. Pavlak noted that the 18th-century master of the shop, Anthony Hay, sent some of the children he enslaved to the Bray School.

Joiners built the benches for the schoolroom, as well as chairs and chests like those Wager used. Journeyman Joiner Peter Hudson said that tracking down wood was challenging. Most wood available today is dried but for the chairs he wanted fresh wood. Hudson scouted trees in the Historic Area but ultimately found what he needed across the York River in Gloucester.

Master Joiner Brian Weldy said the 17 pieces joiners made offered them a chance to practice a range of skills. The benches are not all alike, since the school most likely obtained used benches from different places.

“Our emphasis was on function, not

fashion,” Weldy said. “The students needed a place to sit.”

Brickmakers made several thousand bricks for the project, including some for a second chimney that had to be reconstructed. Master Brickmaker Josh Graml noted that the majority of the bricks made in Williamsburg during the colonial era were made by workers who, like the majority of the children who attended the Bray School, were enslaved.

“This is the first time many of the newer tradespeople have had a chance to contribute to a large-scale project in the Historic Area,” Pavlak said. “It’s an exciting process.”

On Nov. 1, a ceremony is planned to officially open the Williamsburg Bray School site. Please visit colonialwilliamsburg. org for details.

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Nation Builders Martha and George Washington portrayed by Katharine Pittman and Daniel Cross.

SHARING TRADE SECRETS

The language and legacy of blacksmithing that often are hidden in plain sight

By Corey Stewart

A shared connection to New Orleans and to the blacksmith trade brought Master Blacksmith Ken Schwarz (from far right), Karina Roca and Darryl Reeves together.

At first glance, Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area and New Orleans might not have much in common, but Ken Schwarz, Colonial Williamsburg’s master blacksmith, says there is a very important trait the two places share.

“Just like in New Orleans, the built landscape of Colonial Williamsburg is largely the product of enslaved and free Black hands,” he said. “And in both communities, the people who provided the skilled labor to bring the city’s architectural visions to life have not received the recognition they deserve.”

Schwarz’s own interest in blacksmithing began in New Orleans when, as a teenager, he saw a demonstration at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Schwarz learned the trade as a volunteer at a historical site in Maryland and joined Colonial Williamsburg in 1982. Decades later, an article titled “Artistry in Iron: Blacksmiths of New Orleans,” introduced Schwarz to the work of Darryl Reeves, who is considered one of the South’s most skilled architectural restoration blacksmiths.

“ WHEN I RESTORE SOMETHING HISTORICAL, I’M IN CONVERSATION WITH THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE WHO MADE IT."

− DARRYL REEVES

While in New Orleans for a family function, Schwarz sought out Reeves.

During the five hours he spent at Reeves’ shop, Schwarz also met several of the master blacksmith’s employees, including apprentice Karina Roca. The group bonded over their shared interests and their common mission to draw attention to the original blacksmiths whose work and heritage can be seen in both Williamsburg and New Orleans, and to encourage a new generation of young people to see the opportunities available to them in the blacksmithing trade.

Reeves has restored the ironwork of some of New Orleans’ most recognizable locations, including Jackson Square, where he rehabilitated ironwork at the Cabildo, which served as a town hall, and repaired a nearly 300-year-old chimney bracket at the Old Ursuline Convent in the French Quarter. His restoration work

was particularly valuable after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, said Jonn Hankins, co-founder of New Orleans Master Crafts Guild, an organization dedicated to advancing and creating apprenticeships in historic trades.

“After the storm, we got a renewed interest in the historic trades,” Hankins said, “but the need was always there. As long as there are old buildings, there will be a need for people who know how to repair and restore them. We have to create a 21st-century infrastructure that encourages young people to learn these trades.”

Like Hankins, Schwarz and Reeves are also committed to bringing young people into blacksmithing, as well as encouraging the public to recognize how both Williamsburg and New Orleans benefited from the knowledge, skill and traditions of enslaved and free Black tradespeople, whose cultural heritage, Schwarz said,

(Opposite, top): Darryl Reeves, Jonn Hankins, Karina Roca and plasterer Jeff Poree evaluate the restoration needs of tombs in New Orleans’ St. Louis Cemetery. (Opposite, bottom): Ken Schwarz found displays of architectural ironwork at the Hermann-Grima House in New Orleans’ French Quarter.

is encoded in their work and “hiding in plain sight.”

The majority of enslaved people in Williamsburg and New Orleans, as well as Charleston and Savannah, came from West Africa, where iron was more than a valuable resource. Ironworkers were thought to possess spiritual gifts that, using the knowledge handed down from generation to generation, allowed them to forge tools that carry the life force of the ancestors.

“For more than two millennia, African blacksmiths have transformed one of Earth’s most basic natural resources into objects of life-changing utility, empowerment, prestige, spiritual potency and astonishing artistry,” according to Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths Enslaved and free blacksmiths not only made the decorative gates, hinges, weather vanes and lightning rods that are prized as collectors’ items today, they also made the horseshoes, tools and weapons that allowed colonists to sustain themselves.

Embedded in much of this ironwork are spiritual symbols that would have been recognized by other West Africans, offering encouragement to people who had otherwise been completely severed from their homeland. The symbols are “the culture the people brought with them, a connection they maintained when everything else was taken away,” Reeves said.

Many of these symbols are Adinkra shapes and designs that represent tenets of faith, connections to the earth, and desirable traits such as strength and resilience. Once you know the symbols are there, you will find them “replicated all around the country,” Roca said. Encouraging people to ask questions about the symbols and why they exist is a fulfilling part of the work, she said.

For the past two years, Schwarz, Reeves and members of their teams have met in

Symbolism

The meaning behind the artistic Adinkra shapes

West African designs known as Adinkra convey through tribal symbols a variety of messages knowledge, hope, understanding, love and leadership among them. The symbols are believed to have been designed in the early 1800s by the Akan people who lived in Ghana and adjacent parts of the Ivory Coast. The transatlantic slave trade included this region, known as the Gold Coast.

These symbols began to appear in the ironwork created by enslaved blacksmiths in New Orleans and other American cities. One of the most recognizable designs is Sankofa, which is generally understood to mean that looking to the past is necessary to understand the present. Sankofa, loosely translated to mean “go back and get it,” is represented in two forms: a bird retrieving an egg from its back and a stylized heart with spirals that convey a return to the source.

Familiar Adinkra symbols include:

Asase Ye Duru (The Earth Has Weight)

Dwennimmen (Ram’s Horns)

Nsoromma (Children of the Heavens)

Akoma Ntoso (Linked Hearts)

Sankofa (Go Back and Get It)

“THE WORK IS WHAT MATTERS. THE WORK IS OUR COMMON LANGUAGE.”

− AISLINN HARRIS

New Orleans and at Colonial Williamsburg’s Juneteenth celebrations to explore the commonalities of their craft. “The research done at Colonial Williamsburg by the craftsmen is mind-blowing,” Roca said. “It humanizes history and honors the collective memory of the original craftsmen in such an important way.”

For Aislinn Harris, a Colonial Williamsburg journeyman blacksmith, working with Reeves and Roca is a powerful reminder of the possibilities available to everyone in the historic trades. “Your gender and your background don’t matter,” Harris said. “The work is what matters. The work is our common language.”

In Williamsburg and New Orleans there is an awareness of the need to encourage interest in blacksmithing by showing the trade as a viable pathway for young people. “When children watch us,” Reeves said, “that’s what’s important.” Schwarz, Roca and Harris were intro -

duced to blacksmithing through public demonstrations, and agree that fostering a new generation of blacksmiths is imperative for the future. “All of this knowledge will disappear in a fraction of a generation unless young people join the historic trades,” Schwarz said. “I want people to know there are opportunities to make a solid living and build a legacy in blacksmithing.”

Historical blacksmithing, which marries skill with research, artistry and respect for the original craftsmen, is a vital bridge between the past and present. “We have a mission to preserve these skills and train a new generation to carry them forward,” Schwarz said.

“When I’m taking something apart, it’s like I’m talking to the person who put it together,” Reeves said. “When I restore something historical, I’m in conversation with the original people who made it. That conversation needs to continue.”

Master Blacksmith Darryl Reeves and his apprentice, Karina Roca, visited the James Anderson Blacksmith Shop and Public Armoury during the recent Juneteenth celebration to demonstrate the traditions of New Orleans’ 18th- and 19th-century African American ironworkers. Pictured left to right are Ken Schwarz, Broadus Thompson, Alexander Hiånman, Roca, Reeves, Aislinn Harris and Jonn Ethan Hankins, founding director of the New Orleans Master Crafts Guild.

A World of Goods

Archaeological finds show a global influence on early Williamsburg

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JASON COPES

(Clockwise from top): An English-made decanter held Madeira wine served at Wetherburn’s Tavern. Whole Spanish coins could be cut to create change. A 1700s porcelain bowl made in China is an adaptation of the Japanese “Imari” style. A 17th-century watering can is a rare intact example of this metalwork.

Worlds Collide: Archaeology and Global Trade in Williamsburg

DeWitt

Wallace Decorative Arts Museum

Visitors to the Art Museums have seen the progress of construction on the Campbell Archaeology Center being built across the street. When it is completed in 2026, this building will store and display the millions of artifacts uncovered in Colonial Williamsburg’s almost 100 years of archaeological study.

So we have archaeology on our minds and we are excited to have recently opened the exhibition Worlds Collide: Archaeology and Global Trade in Williamsburg in the Margaret Moore Hall Gallery.

Worlds Collide, the first exhibition of its kind at the museum, features more than 200 artifacts recovered from sites in and around Williamsburg. These artifacts tell the story of a colonial city with global connections that are reflected in Virginians’ diets, dining ware, furnishings, landscapes and more.

It is not surprising to find in a British colony a variety of goods made in England. Other items such as tea wares came from as far away as China. Germany provided storage and drinking vessels and pots for gardens. Even many of the animals that helped shape the landscape and provide food were immigrants.

These imports mingled and merged with local goods. Foods eaten by Indigenous people for centuries might be used in the same pots as spices from Asia and Africa. Despite British laws restricting colonial manufacturing, William Rogers Pottery in Yorktown flourished. Colonoware made locally provided alternatives to English cookware.

Every piece in the exhibition, whether a tiny fragment of a cup from Turkey or an intact 17th-century copper watering can, reveals a piece of the story of Williamsburg and its residents.

Worlds Collide: Archaeology and Global Trade in Williamsburg was made possible through the generosity of Jacomien Mars.

Just Arrived

In 1783, shortly after the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution, Charleston, South Carolina, enacted rules regulating its free Black residents. Among other things, the law required that “...every free negro...above the age of fifteen years, shall...obtain a badge from...the City, for...the sum of Five Shillings, and shall wear it suspended by a string or ribband, and exposed to view on his breast.” Freemen who failed to comply could be fined £3. Those who did not pay the

fine could be sent to the workhouse for up to 30 days.

Colonial Williamsburg recently acquired one of the few surviving free badges. Made of copper in the late 1780s, it is slightly over 2 inches in height. The iconography is misleadingly uplifting, featuring the liberty cap and pole and the word “FREE.” Since the badges were intended as instruments of control and sources of city revenue, each carries a unique sequential designator. This one is “No. U”; badge

“No. X” survives in another collection, and several others bear Arabic numbers. The badge law was repealed in 1789.

This free badge is currently on view in the exhibition A Rich and Varied Culture: The Material World of the Early South at the Art Museums.

The acquisition of this free badge was made possible by the Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections and a partial gift of John Kraljevich.

For more than 300 years, historic Williamsburg has been home to extraordinary artisans and craftsmen. At The Precious Gem, you’ll find master goldsmith and jewelry designer Reggie Akdogan, creating his one-of-akind handcrafted treasures since 1980. Dreams are made here.

Thinking of giving a custom design jewel this holiday season? Let’s talk. Call 800-644-8077 or email info@thepreciousgems.com. Private appointments are available.

Merchants Square, Williamsburg • 757-220-1115 • Mon - Sat 10am - 5:30pm, Sun by appointment. thepreciousgems.com • Like us on Facebook

Anna Lind Photography

The Backstory

THE MAKING AND REMAKING OF THE STORY OF A PATRIOT

BY PAUL ARON

The movie that introduced tens of millions of visitors to the town was Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot, which opened in 1957. At the time, a slide show was the closest most museums came to an orientation film. Patriot, though it ran just over 30 minutes, was a Hollywood-type production. It was produced by Paramount Pictures and directed by George Seaton, who had won an Academy Award for the Miracle on 34th Street screenplay. It was written by Emmet Lavery, whose previous work had been nominated for an Oscar. Its music was by Bernard Herrmann, who had composed the score for Citizen Kane. Its star was Jack Lord, who went on to portray Steve McGarrett in the longrunning television series Hawaii Five-O

Though unlike an ordinary orientation film, Patriot was very much a

part of a visitor’s introduction to Colonial Williamsburg, which began with a stop at a new Visitor Center or as it was originally called, Information Center that opened the same year as the movie. The two theaters in the Visitor Center were designed specifically to enhance viewers’ sense that they were a part of the film’s action. The screens’ shapes and sizes let the film’s images blend into the surrounding area, and the movie was shot so that the images would gradually soften around the edges, as they would if someone was watching the action in person. The theater’s acoustics were specially designed to absorb sound and reflect virtually nothing, and hip-height barriers separated the rows of seats so viewers would not be distracted by other audience members.

“The theater design was intended to optimize

the audience experience,” said Richard McCluney, Colonial Williamsburg’s retired vice president for Productions, Publications and Learning Ventures. “They wanted to immerse the viewer in another place and, more importantly, another time.”

The script took advantage of the technology. Rather than a traditional narrator, whose words might have spoiled the

The movie cast as members of the House of Burgesses both experienced actors and, as extras, local residents.

“you-are-there” effect, the main character is seen writing a letter home and the audience hears his thoughts.

A Search for a Writer

The original treatment for the movie was not the source of the final script. That original treatment came from the journalist, novelist, critic and scriptwriter James Agee,

who was best known for writing Let Us All Praise Famous Men, a book about impoverished sharecropper families in the South during the Depression. John Goodbody, who was in charge of conceiving an orientation film for Colonial Williamsburg, didn’t want someone who had written educational films. He wanted a Hollywood scriptwriter and several Hollywood contacts sug-

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Independence or Declaration of Rights. His characters, had the Agee film been made, would have debated whether independence and revolution were called for, but they would not have reached any resolution.

Though he initially had reservations, Agee came to be clearly excited by the possibilities, writing to his friend: “Out of these rough ingredients it should be possible to make a kind of Virginian poem, or a prenatal nation. And if I am right that this is possible, I would love to do it.”

gested Agee, who had been nominated for an Academy Award for cowriting The African Queen.

In keeping with his interest in ordinary people, Agee’s script dealt with ordinary Virginians of the 18th century rather than the leaders of the Revolution. No George Washington. No Patrick Henry. No Thomas Jefferson. Agee also avoided extraordinary events. No Declaration of

Less than four months later, in May 1955, Agee died of a heart attack. When Goodbody went to Agee’s apartment in New York, he found about 50 typed pages, one still in the typewriter. “Even in its rough, tentative form,” wrote historian Thad Tate, those pages “possessed the imagination and poetry of language of which Agee was always capable.”

A Patriot Classic

Goodbody next turned to Lavery, who created the script that was eventually produced. Some scenes were shot at a nearby plantation, but in keeping with the movie’s role as an orientation film, much of it was shot in Williamsburg. Lavery’s script incorporated such famous

Founders as Washington, Henry and Jefferson, but he also created a sort of ordinary man as the movie’s main character, albeit an ordinary man who was a wealthy planter and burgess. The character, named John Fry, was played by Lord.

Fry is loyal to the Crown at the beginning of the movie, only gradually being won over to the patriot side, partly through his encounters with famous patriots. In one memorable scene, the loyalist John Randolph speaks with Fry:

randolph: “Now each man must make his decision.”

fry: “Have you made yours, John?”

randolph: “I’m leaving for England by the first packet. Yes, I’m going home. And you?”

fry: “I am home.”

Making Changes

By the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement had spurred increased sensitivity about portrayals of slavery that were inaccurate, including scenes showing enslaved people happily living and working on a plantation.

Colonial Williamsburg officials contacted Alma Macrorie, the movie’s original editor. Though the movie couldn’t be entirely

Fortunately, by 2004, digital film restoration was an emerging technology, and that year it was possible to restore painstakingly much of Patriot ’s original splendor.

re-edited, some cuts could be made to address insensitive and incorrect material.

In the 1990s, a new problem surfaced. The movie’s once-vibrant colors had faded. Conventional film restoration technology allowed Colonial Williamsburg to make a duplicate negative, but only one, and its life span was limited.

Fortunately, by 2004, digital film restoration was an emerging technology, and that year it was possible to restore painstakingly much of Patriot ’s original splendor. The restoration of the movie allowed a

A

smoother edit to the cuts made in 1968, and the techniques used to restore Patriot would help save other old films, too.

“Colonial Williamsburg is all about historic preservation, restoration, and education,” wrote McCluney in a 2004 article in The Journal of Colonial Williamsburg. “Now and forever, audiences will be able to revel in the color and sounds of 18th-century Williamsburg.”

The 70 mm film can be seen Friday-Tuesday at the Visitor Center at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

(Top):

Paramount crew prepared to film a scene in which Lord North, the British prime minister, was hanged in effigy. (Right): In this scene, British officers stealthily removed gunpowder from the Magazine.

Street theater explores moments of profound change by Corey Stewart

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STAGING the STORIES

As the world’s largest American history museum, Colonial Williamsburg offers guests a unique opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the 18th century. Street theater is an important component of this effort, allowing guests to hear from and interact with costumed interpreters who tell the stories of

the city’s history.

The entire Historic Area is, in effect, a stage that offers both opportunities and challenges, said Robert Currie, executive director of Performing Arts and Signature Events. “We want to make the streets of the Historic Area come alive for our guests during the day and into the evening. With such a

The outdoor theater experience in the Historic Area includes the Charlton Stage (shown above) and the Play House Stage, both of which underwent refurbishment this year. Actor-interpreter Willie Wright (opposite page) takes advantage of this open-air venue to connect directly with the audience.

large footprint, we must be creative and strategic in planning and presenting theatrical programming. Museum theater can profoundly impact our guests by bringing history to life like nowhere else in the world.”

As research uncovers more information about the marginalized and silenced voices of Wil-

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liamsburg’s past, there are even more stories to tell stories that paint a far more nuanced and complete picture of life in the crucible of America’s formation. The abundance of material is a gift, but the challenge of presenting it to visitors in an efficient and impactful way requires creative thinking and logistical planning.

“Our goal is to help our guests understand why Williamsburg matters, and what can be learned from the lives that were lived here,” said Corinne Dame, artistic director in Colonial Williamsburg’s Department of Performing

Two Steps Forward is a new outdoor production that emphasizes stories that depict a moment of change in early America. Hope Wright tells such a story in this scene.

Arts. “We want to incorporate diverse voices and a variety of stories that will engage viewers and encourage them to think about how the events that happened here have ongoing resonance in our lives.”

To that end, Colonial Williamsburg presents the new theatrical performance Two Steps Forward . On the outdoor Charlton Stage seven days a week year-round, the half-hour production features the stories of three residents of Williamsburg at moments of change. A narrator helps bridge the gap between the past and the present.

“Whether it was a change of their own design or one that was thrust upon them, the characters will share how their lives were impacted by societal changes,” Dame said. “Each story is an opportunity to explore how an individual’s actions and personal choices affect change and how those changes impacted the development of our nation.”

The people who share stories change from day to day, so guests can attend multiple performances and hear from different voices each time, experiencing a diversity of perspectives from a cross section of society. The format also gives the performers some schedule flexibility, which is critical for sustaining a show that runs every day of the week.

The three 18th-century residents are not limited to high-profile names. While notable names like George Wythe and Martha Washington share their stories, so do enslaved people known to us only as Peter and Jemmy, as well as Elizabeth DeRosario, a free Black woman, and J.S. Watson, a 19th-century William & Mary student studying aeronautics at the dawn of the 19th century. The diversity of voices

offers guests a wide array of experiences and interests to connect with as well as a more complete picture of the role Williamsburg has played in history.

The narrator is someone with a strong connection to Williamsburg from any point in the city’s history, including the modern day. As the narrator, he or she encourages guests to see the continuum of history over time and become more aware of how the past informs the present.

As with every aspect of Historic Area theater productions, research is a critical component. Historians routinely collaborate with scriptwriters to create narratives that are

accurate, informative and easily understood within the broader context of America’s story.

“Theater is one of the most engaging and dynamic means we have for helping our guests understand how the challenges and successes of our modern nation are rooted here in Williamsburg,” said Beth Kelly, vice president for Research, Training and Program Design. “The ideals that are foundational to our nation developed and were codified here. We are committed to being excellent stewards of our programming, which means engaging in extensive research and education behind the scenes.”

How You Can Help

Museum theater is critical to Colonial Williamsburg’s mission to tell the stories of America’s origins. Accurately portraying life in the 18th century requires recruiting and retaining artists from diverse backgrounds who share a love of history, performance and education. Developing programming that engages and inspires visitors and utilizes the Historic Area landscape

requires extensive planning, scheduling and equipment.

The Power of Place Campaign supports museum theater as a key component of Colonial Williamsburg’s efforts to bring the stories of America’s beginnings to life. For more information on how you can contribute to the Campaign or museum theater, please email campaign@cwf.org

The Play House Stage is a perfect setting for puppet shows, such as Beyond the Walls, which tells stories of the Williamsburg Bray School. The stage stands on the site of the first purpose-built theater in the American colonies.

Theater programming in the Historic Area offers several additional options for guests, including the experience of Black students at the Bray School in Beyond the Walls at the Play House Stage and the pros and cons of a new form of government in The Alternative of Williamsburg in front of the Raleigh Tavern.

“Through museum theater, we aim to inspire our audiences and spark their curiosity. We want our guests to understand why Colonial Williamsburg matters,” Currie said. “Here in Williamsburg, we have a unique opportunity to tell powerful stories about our nation’s past in the exact place where they unfolded.”

The Atlas of John Custis

MAKER Philip Lea

DATE 1698

PLACE London, England

MEDIUM Letterpress; engraving and etching with hand color; leather; laid paper

DIMENSIONS 94 pages; 21 ₁ ⁄₄ inches by 13 ³ ⁄₄ inches

NOTE This atlas was rebound in the 20th century but still has the original goat-hide spine label.

About Town CHRONICLES OF THE COLLECTION

Mapping the Mind of John Custis

AN ATLAS REVEALS MUCH ABOUT HOW VIRGINIA GENTRY VIEWED THE WORLD

BY PAUL ARON

John Custis IV was not very well liked in Williamsburg. He ignored his wife’s desire to move to Williamsburg and did so only after she died in 1715. Once there, he quarreled with Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood over Spotswood’s desire to cut down some trees on Custis’ property in order to open the view from the Governor’s Palace.

Students of history traditionally have known Custis primarily as the father of Daniel Parke Custis, the first husband of Martha Washington. More recently, the focus on Custis has shifted to his Williamsburg gardens, which once rivaled those of the Palace and which Foundation archaeologists are excavating as part of a five-year project. Custis’ interest in gardens is evident from his extensive correspondence with Peter Collinson, a London botanist. But Custis’ interest in the world extended well beyond his gardens.

“Like other prominent Virginians, Custis regarded himself as a cultural peer of the English gentry and amassed an impressive library reflective of his worldly interests,” wrote Henry G. Taliaferro and Margaret Beck Pritchard, who was then Colonial Williamsburg’s curator of maps and prints, in their book, Degrees of Latitude: Mapping Colonial Virginia. “He exhibited discriminating taste in books, maps, paintings, and prints.”

Among the books in Custis’ library was The English Atlas an “atlas factice.” Unlike a normal atlas, an “atlas factice” or composite atlas contains maps selected and bound at the request of a particular customer. This atlas was put together for Custis by the London map publisher Philip Lea.

On the front flyleaf of the book Custis wrote the price he’d paid for it: 6 pounds and 15 shillings. It was an expensive acquisition; Pritchard and Taliaferro noted it was the equivalent of a fine bedstead complete with hangings or a set of 20 mahogany chairs. The significance of the atlas also was clear from a 1759 inventory of Custis’ library, which housed one of the largest collections in Virginia. The English Atlas was the second title listed. Pritchard and Taliaferro devoted 80 pages of their 2002 book to the atlas.

Some of the 103 maps that were originally included in the atlas are missing. The volume currently contains 94 maps that span large parts of the globe.

About the Maker

Philip Lea , who assembled the atlas for John Custis, was a London map publisher. Lea was also the cartographer and publisher of many of the maps bound in the volume. In 1675, Lea was apprenticed to Robert Morden, a leading map and globe publisher in London. By 1683, he was publishing under his own name. Pritchard and Taliaferro described Lea as a better coordinator and promoter than creator of original maps. “Nevertheless,” they wrote, “his role in the development of the English map trade during the late seventeenth century should not be underestimated. He was perhaps the most financially successful of the London publishers of the period, acquiring and preserving many of the old plates of his less successful rivals.”

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CHRONICLES OF THE COLLECTION

Eighteen maps about one-fifth of the volume are of England’s North American colonies. As “a Virginia gentleman of intelligence and means,” Pritchard and Taliaferro wrote, Custis “elected to include the most up-to-date maps of America.”

“As a young man studying trade in London in 1698, Custis likely visited Philip Lea’s shop where he would have personally selected maps he believed would serve him well for his future as a planter in Virginia,” said Katie McKinney, Colonial Williamsburg’s Margaret Beck Pritchard Curator of Maps and Prints. “Custis may have stayed in Williamsburg for most of the remainder of his life, but this atlas and his selections offer insight into how he viewed and understood the world.”

Besides offering a window into Custis’ world, the atlas had an eventful history of its own. After Custis died in 1749, it went to Daniel Parke Custis and Martha Dandridge. When Martha married George Washington, it went with her to Mount Vernon. After she died in 1802, it went to her grandson, George Washington Parke Custis and to his library at Arlington House. And when his daughter Mary Anna Randolph Custis married Robert E. Lee, the atlas became part of his library. Colonial Williamsburg purchased the atlas in 1986.

(Above): John Custis’ bound atlas includes “A New Mapp of the World” by Philip Lea (London, ca. 1686) and “A New Map of New England New York New Iarsey Pensilvania Maryland and Virginia,” possibly by John Thornton (London, 1685).

Modern History Modern History

NEWS AND EVENTS of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Celebration of Lafayette’s 1824 U.S. Visit Begins

In August 1824, at the invitation of President James Monroe, the Marquis de Lafayette returned to America and triumphantly toured its then-24 states, starting with New York. In August 2024 on the 200th anniversary of that visit Lafayette, now portrayed by Colonial Williamsburg Nation Builder Mark Schneider, again landed in Manhattan, and again was greeted by celebrating crowds.

One of Schneider’s first stops was Evacuation Day Plaza, named for the day in 1783 when the Brit-

ish army departed New York at the end of the Revolutionary War. The modern commemoration included the raising of the American flag and the French flag, the singing of both nations’ anthems, and a message from New York Mayor Eric Adams, proclaiming Aug. 16, 2024, as General Lafayette Day.

“The only way we would have the enemy evacuate this place was by winning the war,” Schneider-asLafayette told the crowd at the Plaza. “On this occasion, let us remember all of those soldiers, sailors and

marines alike, both American and French, who gave their lives for American independence.”

The crowd cheered as Schneider concluded: “Long live France! Long live the United States! And long may that alliance be between these two great nations!”

Two hundred years ago, Monroe, who had spent a winter with Lafayette at Valley Forge, hoped the tour would instill patriotism among Americans, especially as the generation that had experienced the Revolution died out. Lafayette was in 1824 the last living general from the Revolution. He traveled by steamboat, barge, stagecoach and horseback, meeting well-wishers along the way. In 1824 New York, crowds numbered about 80,000.

Chuck Schwam, the executive director of The American Friends of Lafayette, an organization dedicated to celebrating and studying Lafayette, noted that Schneider’s arrival in New York was just the first of many stops commemorating the 1824 tour. The society organized this year’s tour in partnership with Colonial Williamsburg and other cultural institutions.

“Everyone has been so excited about the tour because of the similarities between our country now and in 1824,” Schwam said. “James Monroe invited Lafayette to America because our country was in the midst of a tough election and was very divided, and he hoped the visit would bring back patriotic feelings. We’re trying to do that 200 years later and we’re

Colonial Williamsburg’s Nation Builder Mark Schneider, who portrays the Marquis de Lafayette, arrives in New York.

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trying to make people understand history is important.”

Focusing on Lafayette as a champion of human rights has also resonated with many Americans, said Schwam.

Among those attending the New York events was Virginie Bureaux de Pusy-Dumottier de Lafayette, a direct descendant of the French general. “We are living in a world where peace is in danger,” she said.

“The only way to save humanity is to act on traditions of strong friendship.”

The 53rd Digital Liaison Detachment of the United States Army National Guard was also on hand for Schneider’s arrival in New York.

The New York events presented many photo opportunities, and more than one photographer could be heard directing their subjects to

“Say Fromage” a nod to the French word for “Cheese.” The tour has already generated media attention, including a front-page story in The New York Times and a photo of Schneider’s New York arrival decorated a billboard in Times Square.

Virginia stops on the 2024 tour will include a visit on Oct. 18-19 to Yorktown, where Lafayette commanded troops during the siege that effectively ended the Revolutionary War. The tour will also come on Oct. 20-21 to Williamsburg, where Schneider will appear with fellow Nation Builder Stephen Seals, who portrays James Armistead Lafayette. James Armistead was an enslaved Black man who spied for the Americans at Yorktown and reported his observations to Lafayette. Armistead took Lafayette’s name in tribute.

Florida: Registration #CH10673. A COPY OF THE FOUNDATION’S OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE 1-800-HELP-FLA WITHIN THE STATE. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE. Maryland: THE FOUNDATION’S CURRENT FINANCIAL STATEMENT IS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST AT THE ADDRESS LISTED ABOVE. FOR THE COST OF COPIES AND POSTAGE. DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATION SUBMITTED ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE, STATE HOUSE, ANNAPOLIS, MD 21401 New Jersey: INFORMATION FILED WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL CONCERNING THIS CHARITABLE SOLICITATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY BY CALLING (973) 504-6215. REGISTRATION WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT. Pennsylvania: THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION OF THE COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF STATE BY CALLING TOLL FREE WITHIN PENNSYLVANIA 1-800-732-0999. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT. Virginia: A FINANCIAL STATEMENT IS AVAILABLE FROM THE STATE DIVISION OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES UPON REQUEST. Washington: ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE CHARITIES DIVISION, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE, OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON, BY CALLING 1-800-332-4483. West Virginia: WEST VIRGINIA RESIDENTS MAY OBTAIN A SUMMARY OF THE REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL DOCUMENTS FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE, SOLICITATION LICENSING BRANCH, AT 1-800-830-4989, STATE CAPITOL, CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA 25305. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT.

California: Not yet able to issue charitable gift annuities.

New York: Upon request, a copy of the latest annual report may be obtained from the address listed above for the foundation or from the Charities Bureau, Department of Law, Attorney General of New York, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.

North Carolina: Financial information about the foundation and a copy of its license are available from the State

Solicitation Licensing Branch at (919) 807-2214. The license is not an endorsement by the state.

Oklahoma: A charitable gift annuity is not regulated by the Oklahoma Insurance Department and is not protected by a guaranty association affiliated with the Oklahoma Insurance Department. South Dakota: Charitable gift annuities are not regulated by and are not under the jurisdiction of the South Dakota Division of Insurance.

The Foundation does not issue charitable gift annuities in Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, and Washington. In California — we are not yet able to issue charitable gift annuities.

Accompanying Mark Schneider after he disembarked in Manhattan were Lafayette descendants (left to right) Adélaïde and Héloïse Barbier-Dumottier de Lafayette and Virginie Bureaux de Pusy-Dumottier de Lafayette.

Medallions honor descendant nations of Brafferton students

In the 18th century, silver medals often were presented to American Indian leaders as tokens of friendship. Some were given to chiefs of nations who sent children to the Brafferton Indian School at William & Mary. Colonial Williamsburg journeyman silversmith Bobbie Saye has made medallions that symbolize those 18th-century peace medals. They look like replicas of full-moon medallions or gorgets, which were popular items of trade silver worn by Indigenous peoples in the 18th century. The new ones were presented to tribes whose ancestors attended the school. Master engraver Lynn Zelesnikar added inscriptions. Nearly 40 current tribes had members who attended the Brafferton.

Many local American Indians were reluctant to send boys to the Brafferton, fearing enslavement or indentured servitude. The British hoped that these Indigenous children would be converted to Christianity

and, more generally, to English ways, but most of the students returned to their home communities and cultures. Some of the students managed to operate in and sometimes even create bridges between the two worlds.

The medallions are reminiscent not just of the 18th-century silver ones but of earlier trade items Native Americans made from shells.

While there were Native students as early as 1702, the building that housed the school was constructed in 1723 and restored in 1932.

For 2026 Conference

The third convening of For 2026: A Five-Year Conference Series will be held Oct. 24-26. Sponsored jointly by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, William & Mary and the Omohundro Institute for Early American History & Culture, this year’s conference explores Virginia’s role and influence during the Revolutionary period.

For 2026: Virginia’s Revolutionary Histories & Beyond includes a range of sessions, many of which are designed for researchers and educators.

Two evening plenaries are open to a wider audience. Beyond Words: Bringing History to Life Responsibly is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Oct. 25 at the Hennage Auditorium at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg. This panel discussion will be moderated by Katharine Pittman, a Nation Builder who portrays Martha Washington. On Oct. 26 at 5 p.m., historian Alan Shaw Taylor will discuss Tower Hill: A Plantation on the Edge . That session will be held at Phi Beta Kappa Hall on William & Mary’s campus.

Visit colonialwilliamsburg. org/for2026/ to learn more and to register.

Katharine Pittman

Where The Shoe Fits

Colonial Williamsburg announces opening of new golf course

Colonial Williamsburg Resorts will open a new nine-hole golf course called The Shoe in 2025. With the addition of The Shoe Colonial Williamsburg’s first new course in 33 years the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club will have a total of 45 championship-level holes.

The Shoe was designed by renowned golf course architect Rees Jones to fit within the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club, home to the award-winning Gold and Green courses. The Shoe is a par-3 course with holes ranging from 50 to 150 yards. It offers golfers a quicker game with the same design quality as the 18-hole courses.

The Shoe is a direct response to

golfers’ requests for a course that works within the time constraints of busy players and families. Nine-hole golf courses are increasingly popular among players seeking a more expedient experience than the traditional 18-hole game. They also offer greater accessibility for golfers who are new to the game and wish to test their skills without committing to a full course.

“We spent a lot of time over the past year listening to our members and the community. The Shoe reflects their call for a short, playerfriendly course that complements our existing golf offerings,” said Keith Jackson, Colonial Williamsburg’s vice president of Hospitality.

“The Shoe has a physically smaller footprint, making the course easier to maintain and more enjoyable for guests looking to play a quick round.”

The Gold Course was designed by legendary golf course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr., father of Rees Jones. It is routinely ranked as one of the Top 100 courses in the country. The longer but more forgiving Green Course, designed by Rees Jones, is challenging to golfers at all skill levels.

All three courses in the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club were designed to blend with the natural landscape, which features mature trees, rolling topography and a parkland terrain. The courses are open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

For more information about The Shoe, visit colonialwilliamsburg hotels.com/golf/theshoe

Taking part in the groundbreaking were (from left): John Kueser (Colonial Williamsburg’s executive director of hotels and recreation); Keith Jackson (Colonial Williamsburg’s vice president of Hospitality); Doug Pons (Williamsburg mayor); Cliff Fleet (Colonial Williamsburg president and CEO); Greg Muirhead (senior vice president of Rees Jones Inc.); Jim Thomas, (community leader); Rhonda Khabir (Colonial Williamsburg’s vice president, commercial; Erick Mellott (Colonial Williamsburg’s director of golf); and Jason Pierce (Colonial Williamsburg’s director, agronomy).

Clues Below the Surface

Holiday Planner

As the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays approach, Colonial Williamsburg’s Holiday Planner lists the season’s special offerings for dining, music and programming.

From Brunch with Santa to a Palace Concert to the Lighting of the Cressets, the planner offers an array of family activities.

Please visit colonialwilliamsburg. org/holidayplanner/ for more information.

Archaeology at the Bray School’s original site indicates the existence of a garden

AWilliam & Mary building now stands on the original site of the Williamsburg Bray School on Prince George Street. Adjacent to the building is a courtyard, which Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists have excavated to discover more about the experience of the Bray School’s enslaved and free Black students who attended between 1760 to 1765.

Excavations at the site have revealed rows of uniformly spaced stained soil where plants used to grow, indicating the presence of a vegetable garden.

“After the Bray School moved,”

said Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg’s executive director of archaeology, “the site was a private residence and then a women’s dorm. There are thousands of artifacts at the site, but not all of them belong to the Bray School. Based on analysis of the soil and the artifacts mixed in it, however, we can date the garden to the Bray School period.”

More Than Just a Building

The students likely tended the garden, which probably supplied food for them and their teacher, Ann Wager.

“The Bray School was more than just a building,” Gary said. “Much

of the learning likely happened outside the structure. Excavation allows us to re-create the landscape and develop a more nuanced and complete picture of the students’ experience.”

The information gleaned from the courtyard excavation will be used at the new Bray School location at South Nassau and Francis streets.

“When we ask ourselves what the experience of the Bray School students was, all of these discoveries help us answer that question in a more comprehensive way,” Gary said.

Williamsburg Barracks Found

DISCOVERY PROVIDES CHANCE TO STUDY STRUCTURES BUILT SPECIFICALLY FOR CONTINENTAL SOLDIERS

by COREY STEWART

Eighteenth-century documents suggest that a Continental army barracks were constructed in Williamsburg around 1776 and this spring, Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists announced they had found evidence of the shortlived structures.

The archaeologists found the evidence during the excavation of a site on the Visitor Center campus that is to house a regional indoor sports complex. Colonial Williamsburg’s archaeologists routinely do such work to ensure that

nothing of historical significance is destroyed during construction.

The barracks were referenced in 18th-century maps and documents. A brick chimney foundation unearthed at the site confirmed the archaeologists’ expectations, and efforts began to recover artifacts from the site.

The discovery presents a rare chance to study structures that were built specifically to house Revolutionary War soldiers in Williamsburg the remains of which are largely undisturbed. The sports complex is slated to be completed in 2026 and archaeological work will resume sometime after that.

Andrew O. Trivette, chair of the Historic Triangle Recreational Facilities Authority, said the authority, which is leasing the property from the Foundation, has agreed to move the project 300 feet because of the find.

The barracks were designed to house nearly

2,000 soldiers and more than 100 horses. The original 3- to 4-acre site was in operation until 1781, when British Gen. Charles Cornwallis ordered it burned as he and his troops made their way to Yorktown.

“Despite being burned, the site is surprisingly well preserved and the items we have recovered there tell us a great deal about the daily lives of the soldiers in the Revolutionary War,” said Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg’s executive director of archaeology.

A variety of artifacts have been recovered, including gunflints, a curry comb, buckles for military equipment and cufflinks, ceramics and musket balls. Some of the musket balls show tooth marks, and it is believed soldiers used to chew on the lead balls for their sweet taste. The presence of a glass button and decorative items suggest the barracks were occupied by officers as well as enlisted men.

(Top, left): The barracks (labeled 8) appear north of town on the Desandroüins Map. (Top, right and above): Colonial Williamsburg’s archaeologists uncovered artifacts from the site including a military buckle and a glass button.

Live &Learn Live &Learn

CHALLENGE YOUR PERCEPTIONS . DISCOVER FOOD FRESH FROM THE GARDEN . GET TO THE ART OF IT

Winter Squash

A Q&A WITH MARY BETH NORTON

The Pivotal Year of 1774

While 1776 is the center of the celebration of American independence, Mary Beth Norton suggests that 1774 is worth a closer look. Rumbles of discord with the constraints of British rule became louder in the colonies during that time, some 250 years ago.

THE TERM “LOYALIST” DID NOT ENTER THE VOCABULARY UNTIL 1774. WHAT TRIGGERED THE NEED TO MAKE THIS DISTINCTION?

The initial use of the designation “loyalist” that I uncovered during my research came in a December 1774 letter from Jonathan Sewall, the attorney general of Massachusetts, to his friend Thomas Hutchinson, the former governor of the colony, who was then living in exile in London. Sewall referred to himself and his allies as “American Loyalists.” His introduction of the term and its timing were both crucial to my understanding of the political dynamics of that year.

Why? The term would have been meaningless as a political signifier earlier in 1774. Even after the Stamp Act riots of 1765, the Boston Massacre of 1770, the Boston Tea Party of December 1773 and other similar incidents, colonial political leaders and the free populace in general still regarded themselves as loyal subjects of George III and the British empire. Everyone was, in effect, a loyalist until a turning point arrived, which for many occurred during the late summer and fall of 1774 in response to Parliament’s Coercive Acts. I concluded that the key was the negative reaction to the Administration of Justice Act, which Americans dubbed the “Murder Act.” It called for relocating to Great Britain any trials of British officials or soldiers accused of killing colonists, and even future loyalists believed it portended unjust verdicts.

By the time Sewall wrote his letter, some Americans had become so enraged by such acts and the king’s reactions to colonial resistance that they became openly disloyal. Sewall recognized that such men and women had begun to contemplate independence, at least implicitly.

THE VOICES OF PATRIOTS SEEM LOUDER IN PUBLICATIONS THAN THOSE OF LOYALISTS. WHY DID COMMUNICATION VEHICLES SUCH AS NEWSPAPERS AND PRINTED PAMPHLETS SEEM LESS ACCESSIBLE TO THOSE LOYAL TO THE CROWN?

We know from extensive scholarship on the history of printers and printing in the 18th-century colonies that the business was precarious. Printers cobbled together income by printing almanacs, legal forms, government documents, pamphlets and newspapers. They commonly printed everything submitted to them, for they could not afford to turn away or alienate any readers or customers.

As the political atmosphere grew more and more heated in 1774, though, supporters of resistance to Britain called

loyalist

1774: THE LONG YEAR OF REVOLUTION

Mary Beth Norton, the Mary Donlon Alger Professor Emeritus of American History at Cornell University, delves into the 16 months leading to the battles at Lexington and Concord a time, she argues, that is pivotal to America’s shift from colonies faithful to the Crown to rebels seeking a split from royal rule. Norton says the emergence of people who called themselves loyalists signaled an important change in the colonial political climate. “For revolution to occur,” Norton writes, “that identification as loyal Britons had to change.” In early 1774, that change began to take shape.

for boycotting publications that printed essays advocating the preservation of British authority. Many printers began favoring submissions from one side or the other, and most chose to publish condemnations of British policy, especially after the First Continental Congress adjourned in late October.

Conservative authors complained about losing their access to the press, but to little avail. One printer who continued to publish and advertise pamphlets on both sides was the New Yorker James Rivington, but even Rivington closed the pages of his newspaper to loyalist essayists.

IN VIRGINIA, LOCALITIES HAD A RANGE OF RESPONSES TO THE PUSHBACK AGAINST TAXES. ESSEX COUNTY WAS ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT THE BOSTON TEA PARTY PROTEST, WHILE MIDDLESEX WAS MUCH MORE CAUTIOUS. WAS THIS AN EXAMPLE OF THE GROWING DIVIDE?

Colonists everywhere were divided over the destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor (it was only called the “Boston Tea Party” much later). Initial divisions were as common in New England and the mid-Atlantic region as in the southern colonies. Although many colonists lauded the Bostonians for their defense of American rights, many also decried the means they had chosen for that defense. Both George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, for example, thought that the Bostonians had erred; indeed, Franklin contended for months that Boston should compensate the East India Company for the lost tea. Other cities to which tea ships had sailed managed to avoid violence and numerous colonists praised those peaceful outcomes as preferable to the destruction in Boston.

Because Virginia counties convened meetings to elect assembly members during the summer of 1774 and those meetings then published resolutions on public affairs, we fortunately have more systematic evidence of popular opinion in Virginia than in other colonies.

Twenty-nine resolutions were adopted in June and July. Most pledged loyalty to the king or the empire while lamenting the measures Parliament took to retaliate against Boston for the destructive act most notably, the law closing the port to traffic until the tea was paid for. But only Essex County praised the Bostonians’ actions and Middlesex, like George Washington, explicitly disapproved of them. Most counties maintained a resolute silence on the tea destruction, which may simply indicate an unwillingness to disclose a lack of consensus on the matter.

ENCHANTING STROLLS to EXTRAORDINARY FINDS

Merchants Square - Nestled Between Colonial Williamsburg and William & Mary

New stores and restaurants coming soon!

The Carousel Children’s

Aromas Coffeehouse,

Bakery & Café

Baskin-Robbins

Berret’s Seafood Restaurant

& Taphouse Grill

Blink

Blue Talon Bistro

Brick & Vine

Campus Shop

Colonial Williamsburg

Bookstore

Boutique T

The Cheese Shop

Chico’s

The Christmas Shop

Danforth Pewter

DoG Street Pub

Everything Williamsburg

Eleva Coffee Lounge

Fat Canary

FatFace

French Twist Boutique

illy Caffé

J Fenton Gallery

J.McLaughlin

Kimball Theatre

lululemon athletica

Mellow Mushroom

Pizza Bakers

Monkee of Williamsburg

The Peanut Shop

The Precious Gem

Penny and a Sixpence

Precarious Beer Project

R. Bryant Ltd.

R. P . Wallace & Sons

General Store

SaladWorks

Scotland House Ltd.

Secret Garden

Sole Provisions

The Shoe Attic

The Spice & Tea Exchange of

Williamsburg

Talbots

Three Cabanas: A Lilly

Pulitzer Signature Store

The Williamsburg Winery

Tasting Room & Wine Bar

Walkabout Outfitter

William & Harry

Wythe Candy & Gourmet

Shop

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From historic feats to historic trades, from art to archaeology, from scholarly books to kids’ titles, you can take the stories of America’s beginnings — and a bit of Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area — home with you.

Your Gift Keeps Us Moving Forward.

The stories of this historic place come alive — because of you

Through your generosity, we have made incredible progress on many of our priority projects, including the preservation and renovation of the Williamsburg Bray School, which will allow us to tell a more complete story of all who lived in Williamsburg. With your investment in our work, you join thousands of others in advancing our mission, That the future may learn from the past. To make an additional gift this year, please call 1.888.293.1776 or visit colonialwilliamsburg.org/give.

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Nation Builder Ann Wager, Williamsburg Bray School teacher, portrayed by Nicole Brown.

The Williamsburg Bray School was relocated to Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area.

Seven Fine Fellows from V The Old Dominion sent i to the First Continental Congress

ts A-Team Congress

by JON KUKLA

By 1774,

Americans from Maine to Georgia had been for a decade reading and endorsing Virginians’ bold words, but few knew the men who wrote them. The First Continental Congress, to be held

that

fall, would be their introduction, as few Virginia leaders were personally acquainted with their northern brethren.

The Old Dominion had not been able to send a delegation to the Stamp Act Congress in 1766, where many other colonial leaders had met in person for the first time. So the gathering of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, organized in response to Parliament’s passage of the Intolerable Acts, was an opportunity for those expressing the bold words to persuade delegates from their fellow colonies to initiate bold action.

had been schooled in the British Isles.

A few Virginians had made brief treks north. George Washington was a young and ambitious provincial militia officer when he ventured up the coast to Boston in 1756. Peyton Randolph briefly visited Philadelphia and New York when asked to help resolve a boundary dispute in 1769. Richard Bland, a planter and politician, and Patrick Henry spent a few nights in Manhattan to attend a meeting in 1770.

The price for loyalty to the Crown could be high, as Philip Dawe’s satirical print The Alternative of Williamsburg suggests. The “alternative” to not signing an endorsement of the Articles of Association, according to this depiction, was tar-and-feathering.

Eighteenth-century Virginia gentry like their counterparts in Maryland and South Carolina were more likely to have visited London or Edinburgh than Boston, New York or Philadelphia. Richard Henry Lee, like many sons of wealthy Southern plantation owners,

Few northern congressmen, on the other hand, had ever visited the Chesapeake or the Carolinas.

Talk of the Town

With the Congress slated to convene Sept. 5, delegates gathering in the City

of Friends expressed avid curiosity about the Virginians. Henry and Lee were described as the Demosthenes and Cicero of America, respectively. South Carolinian statesman Thomas Lynch circulated the story of Washington’s offer to raise an army and march for the relief of Boston. And John Adams described his encounter with Randolph, Bland, Lee and Benjamin Harrison the first Virginia delegates to arrive at a tavern on the Friday before Congress met.

“These Gentlemen from Virginia appear to be the most spirited and consistent of any,” Adams noted. “Harrison said he would have come on foot rather than not come. Bland said he would have gone, upon this Occasion, if it had been to Jericho.”

The rest of the Virginia delegation Washington, Henry and Edmund Pendleton rode together from Mount Vernon, reaching Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon.

The following morning, the delegates met at a tavern and made two decisions about housekeeping matters that signaled their views on more substantive issues. They snubbed the conservative speaker of the Pennsylvania legislature, Joseph Galloway, who offered the State House (now known as Independence Hall) as a meeting place choosing instead to meet in the nearby Carpenters’ Hall, a guildhall of the city’s artisans. It was there that the delegates elected Peyton Randolph as their presiding officer and gave him the title of “president.”

Their selection of a secretary sent a

Eighty-nine members of the House of Burgesses signed this statement that condemned the “heavy hand of power now lifted against North America.”

more pointed message. Charles Thomson was “highly agreeable to the Mechanics and Citizens in general,” Silas Deane wrote to his wife, “but mortifying to the last Degree to Mr. Galloway and his Party.” John Adams noted that the new secretary was “the Sam. Adams of Phyladelphia” and no friend of Galloway.

Down to Business

All 12 colonies that sent delegates to Philadelphia agreed that Parliament had no authority to tax or legislate for the American colonies a position Virginians had taken since the Stamp Act Crisis and which Georgia later endorsed, too. Opinions were divided over the constitutionality of the Navigation Acts (which dated to 1651 and 1660), but everyone could agree about demanding the reversal of British measures enacted since 1763.

The main thing Americans sought from the First Continental Congress was an effective intercolonial boycott to force Parliament to rescind its recent taxes and punitive measures. Economic sanctions had worked against the Stamp Act and, to a lesser degree, against the Townshend Acts of 1767 and 1768.

Virginians had learned some lessons from those earlier boycotts. At the First Virginia Convention convened in August, the House of Burgesses resolved to stop importing goods from England. This became the model for the Continental Association enacted by Congress on Oct. 20, 1774.

Important as this boycott was especially to Bostonians suffering from British closure of their port many Virginia delegates had more ambitious hopes for the Congress. Debates on major issues happened throughout the session as Congress juggled simultaneous deliberations about the various measures it eventually adopted or abandoned.

“There are some fine fellows come from Virginia.”

Joseph Reed, congressman from Pennsylvania

No Hope of Reconciliation

Only a few embraced Galloway’s plan for a union of the colonies as a means toward reconciliation with Great Britain a plan that historians recognize as America’s last and best chance for a negotiated settlement with Great Britain. Galloway’s proposal was discarded in October.

“All the men of property supported the motion,” Galloway later claimed, “while the republican party strenuously opposed it.”

In fact, although Virginians and their colleagues assuaged Galloway’s pride to help keep Pennsylvania in the fold, his dream of a colonial union under the umbrella of Parliament had no hope of success. It was expunged from the permanent journal of the congress and, within a year, Galloway emerged as one of America’s most prominent Tories.

Pennsylvania congressman Joseph Reed utterly refuted Galloway’s distinction between men of property and “republican” rabble. “There are some fine fellows come from Virginia,” Reed told his brother-in-law, a New Jersey colonial official. “The Bostonians are mere Milksops to them. They are the capital men of the colony both in fortune and understanding.”

Delaware congressman Caesar Rodney agreed: “More Sensible, fine fellows you’d Never Wish to See,” he reported to his brother. “The Bostonians who... have been Condemned by Many for their Violence, are Moderate men, When Compared to Virginia.”

Live & Learn

The Magnificent Seven

Virginia’s delegates to the First Continental Congress represented 130 years of legislative experience in the House of Burgesses, in addition to their service as county justices, vestrymen and militia officers.

Richard Bland, 64 years old in 1774, began representing Prince George County in the House of Burgesses in 1742. Educated at William & Mary, Bland authored several important essays and pamphlets defending Virginia’s constitutional liberties. He died in October 1776.

Benjamin Harrison , 48, represented Charles City County in the House of Burgesses beginning in 1766. Educated at William & Mary, Harrison would later sign the Declaration of Independence and serve as governor of the commonwealth in the 1780s. He died in April 1791.

Patrick Henry, 38, began representing Hanover County in the House of Burgesses in 1765. Educated by his father, a graduate of the University of Aberdeen, Henry would be elected as the first governor of the commonwealth in June 1776. He died in June 1799.

Richard Henry Lee, 42, represented Westmoreland County in the House of Burgesses beginning in 1758. Educated at Wakefield Academy in Yorkshire, Lee was elected as one of Virginia’s first senators in 1789. He died in 1794.

Edmund Pendleton, 53, began representing Caroline County in the House of Burgesses in 1752 after studying law with a local attorney. In 1779 he became the presiding justice of Virginia’s supreme court of appeals. He died in October 1803.

Peyton Randolph , 53, was educated at William & Mary and appointed king’s attorney for Virginia in 1748. Elected to the House of Burgesses that same year, he served as its speaker beginning in 1766. Randolph led the Virginia delegation to the Continental Congress and was elected its president but suffered a stroke while in Philadelphia and died Oct. 22, 1775.

George Washington , 42, began serving in the House of Burgesses in 1758. Educated in local schools and trained as a surveyor, Washington pursued a military career during the French and Indian War. He led the American forces to victory in the Revolution and in 1789 became the first president of the United States. He died in 1799.

A Fundamental Shift

Most of the delegates had come to agree with the vision of the imperial constitution that Richard Bland had articulated for Virginia a decade earlier: The king was the lynchpin of the empire. Parliament’s imperial authority extended only to the regulation of trade. In all other respects, Parliament and the colonial assemblies comprised separate legislatures on either side of the Atlantic. The attempts to impose taxes in the colonies that began with the Stamp Act were unconstitutional.

Congress blamed the unhappy situation of North America on the “ruinous system of colony administration” adopted by the British since 1763 a system seemingly calculated to impose tyranny throughout the entire British empire. Although willing to petition George III in the forlorn hope that he might reverse the policies of his ministers, most delegates quietly regarded this gesture as merely a show of moderation.

Far more important was the substantive contribution that Virginia’s delegation brought to Carpenters’ Hall its model for what became the Continental Association.

A month earlier in Williamsburg, the Virginia convention had adopted a comprehensive plan of economic sanctions. Unless Parliament repealed all of the oppressive measures it had imposed since 1763, Virginia would begin a ban on imports from Great Britain on Nov. 1, 1774, followed by a complete suspension of trade with Great Britain a year later. Congress made some minor adjustments to Virginia’s plan. Its Continental Association set the dates a month later than Virginia’s deadlines and the ban on the consumption of tea from supplies already on hand was slightly more generous than Virginia’s. And because imperial

regulations had always permitted the export of South Carolina rice directly to Europe, Congress made an exception for that commodity in the interest of intercolonial unity.

Revolutionary Consequences

The Congress of 1774 brought America’s provincial leaders together in farreaching conversations about the political and military future of the colonies. Together they sought the resolution of American grievances and a restoration of the pre­1763 imperial system, but the Virginians and their colleagues agreed with John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, who advised a friend after Congress adjourned that “War is unavoidable unless there be a quick Change of British Measures.”

Although the delegates hoped for peace while arming for war, several consequences of the First Continental Congress were revolutionary.

First, simply by meeting together, this Congress created an institutional alternative to the king and Parliament, unlike the Stamp Act Congress, which had met briefly in 1766 and then dispersed. Before they adjourned on Oct. 26, 1774, the delegates pledged to meet again in May 1775 if Parliament failed to redress American grievances.

Second, Virginia’s example made the Continental Association much more effective than the thwarted response to the Townshend Duties. The nonimportation program of 1769 ­1771 had relied upon enforcement by the merchants of Philadelphia, Boston and New York, whose rivalries and distrust thwarted the effort. Virginia’s plan created committees within every county to enforce the economic boycott by requiring oaths of compliance from all residents, including merchants. This policy illustrated in the satirical engraving titled “The

Alternative of Williamsburg” helped encourage and enforce Virginia’s remarkably unanimous popular resistance to British measures.

The partnership between local committees, the House of Burgesses, and the colony’s revolutionary conventions cemented Virginia’s political unity. In addition to their economic impact, the local committees and oaths of compliance formed in response to the Continental Association encouraged the remarkable shift in public allegiance from the king to Congress between 1774 and 1776.

Early in the 1760s, George III and his ministers had tacitly accepted the prospect of imposing Parliamentary taxation and legislation on America by military force and neither the king nor his chief ministers from George Grenville to Lord North wavered from that outlook. The king’s reaction to the news that the First Continental Congress was rallying to the support of the beleaguered Bostonians came as no surprise to his ministers the colonies were “in a State of Rebellion.” His majesty’s secretary of state for American affairs, Lord Dartmouth, was equally blunt. Upon reading the full text of the Continental Association, Dartmouth declared that “every one who had signed it was guilty of Treason.”

By 1774 the accusation of treason was something that all the fine fellows of the Virginia delegation had heard many times before. By the year’s end, however, the renewed partnership between America’s two oldest and most influential colonies was nudging all 13 toward the brink of revolution. Thanks in no small measure to the Virginians at the First Continental Congress, the British attempt to isolate New England had instead united the colonies in a broad plan of political resistance, economic boycott and military preparedness.

Jon Kukla , a historian who lives in Richmond, Virginia, is at work on a book about the Stamp Act. His most recent book is the prizewinning Patrick Henry: Champion of Liberty.

DESIGNS ON DEMOCRACY

JOHN MARSHALL’S DIPLOMACY AND POLITICAL SAVVY HELPED THWART EARLY THREATS TO THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT

by LINDSAY CHERVINSKY

John Marshall is often celebrated for his role in shaping American jurisprudence as the longest-tenured chief justice of the United States. His service in numerous roles, though, showed him to be a champion of democratic principles at a time when the future of the American republic hung in the balance.

In a short tenure less than four years serving as a diplomat, congressman and secretary of state, Marshall fostered American sovereignty, first with a call for a strong military posture and later by protecting the new nation from internal threats. As a Virginia member of the House of Representatives, for example, Marshall led the charge to defeat two threats to American democracy: the politicization of the army and a bill designed to undermine free and fair presidential elections.

Marshall had spent the fall of 1797 in Paris with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Elbridge Gerry, attempting to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Quasi-War as an undeclared naval war between France and the United States was known at the time. French privateers were seizing U.S. ships in the Caribbean Sea.

Before this conflict, the U.S. had signed the Jay Treaty with Great Britain, which established trade relations between the two countries and attempted to resolve issues left from the American Revolution. But that treaty left American relations with France very strained. Dispatches from Marshall, Pinckney and Gerry to President John Adams contained descriptions of insults and attacks upon the peace commission and even upon the president and American independence by the French diplomats. The events described in the dispatches, known as the XYZ Affair, were published by newspapers and the public outcry was swift and ferocious.

Angered by the tenor of the negotiations, Adams asked Congress in March

1798 to pass defense measures, including expanding the existing army and creating a navy department to protect American ships. The Federalist Party benefited from the war scare because of its stance on a strong army and navy.

Upon Marshall’s return to the United States in the summer of 1798, he counseled Adams and the Federalists to pursue war measures. He did not believe France sought war but felt a stronger defensive position would provide important leverage in future negotiations.

Marshall rode his increased popularity and the pervasive militant spirit into Congress in 1799. His 15-month tenure would be eventful.

A Pivot in the Plan

By early 1800, it was increasingly clear that the army would not be needed to defend against a French invasion. The arch-Federalists, the most extreme wing of the party, schemed to use the army for domestic purposes instead.

As part of the rash of legislation passed in the wake of the XYZ Affair, the Federalistdominated Congress had passed a Sedition Act that prohibited citizens from criticizing the government or organizing resistance to federal laws. Resistance to the Sedition Act was strong in the South, where the Democratic-Republican Party had its base of power. The arch-Federalists floated plans to send the army south to crush resistance to the bill and intimidate their political rivals into submission. In response, DemocraticRepublicans proposed legislation to disband the army entirely.

The threat of military force was especially pernicious in an election year when the army might be used to intimidate voters. But Marshall could not be accused of cowardice or weakness. He had served valiantly in the Continental army during the Revolution, and he refused to cower in the face of French insults in Paris. Therefore, his colleagues listened when Marshall opposed Federalist measures as dangerous and contrary to the principles of civilian control of the military embodied in the Constitution.

Yet Marshall also opposed the destruction of the army, which he believed dangerous for the long-term. He crafted a compromise plan that retained the existing army units, just in case negotiations with France faltered again. The compromise also canceled plans for additional recruiting and empowered the president to demobilize most of the army once the threat of war had passed.

Once Marshall had drafted the proposed legislation, he then had to build support for the compromise. Most Democratic-Republicans favored immediate demobilization, while Federalists preferred to retain the army at full strength and continue recruiting efforts. Over the next several weeks, Marshall slowly acquired the votes he needed. He

The XYZ Affair inspired this British satire of Franco-American relations. Five Frenchmen are depicted plundering Columbia, who represents America. The European world looks on from the outskirts and John Bull, the personification of Great Britain (much like America’s Uncle Sam), sits on a hilltop.

MARSHALL

went from boardinghouse to boardinghouse, offering toasts, sharing meals and building relationships with potential allies. Between sessions, he cornered members in the hallway and cloakrooms outside the House chambers. No social opportunity was left unexplored, or hand unshaken. Marshall convinced the Federalists that some army was better than nothing, while simultaneously persuading the Republicans that a reduction of military strength was preferable to demobilization.

On Jan. 24, 1800, Marshall’s compromise bill was passed. Later that spring, Adams issued the order to decommission the army, eliminating the risk that the arch-Federalists might deploy the army in service to their election goals that fall.

Election Challenges

Shortly before neutering the threat of military interference, Marshall encountered another threat to the electoral system, this time from inside Congress. On Jan. 23, 1800, Sen. James Ross of Pennsylvania proposed a bill that empowered the Senate to investigate irregularities in the coming presidential election.

Marshall rode his increased popularity and the pervasive militant spirit into Congress in 1799. His 15-month tenure would be eventful.

The committee would have the authority to determine what counted as an irregularity, to summon witnesses and hear evidence, and to decide which electoral votes to certify and which to discard. The committee would submit its report on March 1, 1801, three days before the next inauguration. The bill provided no method for Congress or candidates to appeal the decision.

The committee would consist of six members from the House, six from the Senate and the chief justice. Both chambers of Congress and the Supreme Court were dominated by Federalists, effectively giving the arch-Federalists the power to determine the outcome of the presidential election.

The Federalist majority in the Senate passed the bill over the ardent protests of their Democratic-Republican colleagues. Unable to stop the bill, Democratic-Republicans leaked the contents to the Aurora Daily Advertiser, a radical Democratic-Republican newspaper in Philadelphia. Once the newspaper published the bill, protests across the country immediately decried the Federalist attempts to undermine the Constitution and the right to vote.

When the House picked up the legislation in March, Marshall broke with the archFederalists once again and opposed the bill. He was joined by several moderate Federalists who were queasy about the constitutional implications of the committee. Marshall then faced off against Speaker of the House Theodore Sedgwick, a rabid archFederalist who fully supported any attempts to seize the upper hand in the coming election. Sedgwick proposed postponing the bill to December, when they had a better sense of who won the presidential election and, therefore, whether Federalists would want to investigate.

Sen. James Ross of Pennsylvania proposed a bill in 1800 that would have taken the Electoral College process behind closed doors.

SERVICE RECORD

April 1798

Marshall spent the next two weeks proposing amendments to the bill to prevent its passage. In mid-April, Sedgwick caved and referred the bill to a committee to draft a new version that resolved Marshall’s amendments. At the end of the month, Marshall unveiled the new legislation, which authorized the committee to announce the final votes but granted it no ability to investigate or discard electors.

In other words, Marshall had removed all significant power from the proposed committee.

The House passed this new version on May 2, 1800, but the Senate failed to pick it up before the end of the term. When the session concluded on May 14, the bill officially expired. Marshall and his allies had defeated the first threat to the electoral process. But Marshall would soon see a second.

Joining Adams’ Cabinet

On May 12, Adams nominated Marshall as secretary of state. Over the next 10 months, Marshall made two important contributions to the preservation of American democracy: he secured lasting peace with France and he refused to participate in extra- constitutional schemes to overthrow the results of the 1800 election.

That fall, a new set of American envoys, William Vans Murray, Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth and William Davie, signed the Treaty of Mortefontaine. The treaty ended the Quasi-War between the U.S. and France and established a peaceful trade relationship. In early December, a copy of the treaty arrived in Washington, D.C., and Adams submitted the text of the agreement to the Senate for ratification.

The president, the secretary of state and the envoys all supported the treaty, as did the Democratic-Republicans in the Senate. The arch-Federalists, however, resented the peace commission as an insult to national honor. They preferred the threat of war with France and were bitter that Adams’ diplomacy had worked. In a petulant fit, the Federalists rejected the treaty at the end of January 1801.

Stubbornly committed to diplomacy, Adams resubmitted the treaty to the Senate and urged the body to reconsider. Then Marshall went to work whipping votes. He met with each Federalist senator and reminded them that Thomas Jefferson, their Democratic-Republican enemy, would be president on March 4, 1801. The Federalists would also have fewer seats in the Senate. Did they really want to risk leaving foreign policy in Jefferson’s hands? Marshall asked.

March 4, 1799 – June 7, 1800

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

June 13, 1800 – March 4, 1801

U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE

Feb. 4, 1801 – July 6, 1835

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES

Marshall’s efforts benefited from an unlikely ally. Alexander Hamilton had initially opposed the peace commission and Adams’ presidency more broadly, but he believed the certainty of the treaty was better than the unpredictability of Jefferson’s foreign policy. Their combined efforts swung enough Federalist votes to secure ratification. On Feb. 3, 1801, the Senate ratified the treaty, 22-9. All nine “no” votes were recalcitrant arch-Federalists.

The Treaty of Mortefontaine was more than just a political win for the Adams administration. It secured peace with France at a time when war could have been fatal to the young nation’s future. Napoleon was on the march across Europe and no outcome can ever be guaranteed once war begins. Perhaps more importantly, the peace crafted in the treaty proved to be long-lasting. France and the United States remain allies, one of the most enduring alliances in the modern world.

Electoral College Drama

Toward the very end of Marshall’s tenure as secretary of state, the election of 1800 consumed public attention. On Feb. 11, 1801, Vice President Thomas Jefferson opened the Electoral College votes and certified that he and Aaron Burr had tied with 73 votes each. As the Constitution dictated, the election was sent to the House of Representatives. Federalists there preferred Burr because he would be amenable to a powersharing arrangement. Democratic-Republicans stood firm behind Jefferson, who was always their intended choice for president.

Marshall hated Jefferson and could not bring himself to campaign on Jefferson’s behalf. They were distant cousins, and their mutual dislike was long-standing. But when Hamilton wrote that Burr was untrustworthy and lacked a moral compass, Marshall heeded the warning. He refused to play any role in the election, leaving the voting to the House, as the Constitution intended.

Perhaps more importantly, Marshall gave no succor to the other arch-Federalist schemes. In December 1800, rumors of the Electoral College tie reached Washington. Some of the more radical Federalists toyed with the idea of stalling the resolution of the election in the House until March, when the current session of Congress would expire. Using their majority in Congress, they would appoint a temporary president and call for new elections in the fall, with the hope that the Federalist candidate might win. Marshall was the proposed candidate for this scheme.

Lindsay M. Chervinsky is a presidential historian and executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library. She is the author of the new book, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, and The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution.

Live & Learn

JOHN MARSHALL

In a letter to Thomas Jefferson dated March 2, 1801, John Marshall indicated that he “shall with much pleasure attend to administer the oath of office” and he promises to be on time.

Marshall left few records about his conversations in the winter of 1800-1801, but his actions spoke volumes. He shunned congressional activities and accepted the nomination of chief justice of the United States from President Adams. While taking the oath of office as chief justice and convening his first court session, he kept a careful eye on the State Department. On Feb. 17, 1801, the House finally elected Jefferson as the next president of the United States on the 36th ballot. Over the next two weeks, Marshall offered assistance to the new president to facilitate the transition. On March 4, the chief justice arrived promptly at the Capitol to swear in Jefferson as the third president. By the time Marshall died on July 6, 1835, after serving 34 years on the court, he had established the principle of judicial review, witnessed the rise and fall of political parties and outlived most of his contemporaries. In a review of Marshall’s life and accomplishments, it can be difficult to know which moments to highlight. On March 4, 1801, the nation completed the first transfer of power between political parties and Marshall played a significant role, offering a model of civic virtue.

NEWSON

What You Need

(A) Decorative paper

(B) 36-gauge aluminum tooling foil

(C) Felt

(D) Crepe paper

(E) Stylus/chopstick

(F) Double-sided mounting tape

(G) Needle

(H) Thick thread

(I) Twine

(J) Embroidery scissors

(K) Hole punch

German immigrants to the colonies often brought household objects with them, including iron stoves. The practical stove design made of five or six iron plates became popular, and colonial forges soon began making the plates. The back of the stove opened into the kitchen fireplace through an aperture in the wall, producing smokeless heat for nearby rooms.

The stove plates were often decorated with common Pennsylvania Dutch motifs: religious symbols, passages and scenes; flowers; and wheat. The name of the forge where the plates were made and their date of manufacture were often added, along with family names.

This plate features a radiant heart, a common symbol of both religious faith and the joy brought about by all forms of love. This ornament, adapted from a practical household item, adds shine to holiday decor.

Find the template at colonialwilliamsburg.org/downloads

The Process

STEP 1

Print the template and tape it to the tooling foil and place the foil on the felt. Using the stylus, trace all the shapes except the large heart into the foil. Remove the template and, using the stylus, go over the outlines in the foil, pressing firmly. Using the stylus, add decorative designs and inscribe the date on the large circle.

STEP 2

Cut out the foil pieces. To cut tooling foil, cut outside the traced lines; do not cut on the lines or they will disappear.

(6) Small foil heart 2 1 6 5 3 4

STEP 3

Punch a hole at the top of the undated circle. To make the hanger, thread a piece of twine through the hole and tie the ends in a knot.

STEP 4

Using the template, cut the larger heart from the decorative paper. The paper heart should fit within the foil circle.

STEP 5

Cut a 36 length of crepe paper. With the needle and doubled thread, sew a line of running stitches close to the edge of the crepe paper. On the first stitch, do not pull the thread all the way through; allow a few inches of a tail to remain. Once the entire edge is stitched, hold the thread, alternately at each end, and gather the crepe paper. Knot together the two ends of the thread to hold the gathered crepe paper. Flatten the crepe paper manually.

STEP 6

Layer all the pieces using the double-sided mounting tape between each layer. Order from bottom to top:

(1) Dated circle (The date should be visible on the back of the ornament.)

(2) Crepe paper ruffle

(3) Circle with twine

(4) Tulip

(5) Large paper heart

THE WITNESS

A BLACK SERVANT REPORTEDLY SAW WHAT CAUSED GEORGE WYTHE’S DEATH, BUT WAS BARRED FROM TESTIFYING

BY JORDAN TAYLOR

t was a sensational murder trial. The victim was George Wythe teacher of Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall and Henry Clay, a man so admired by his fellow Virginians that they left room for his signature on the Declaration of Independence above all of theirs, including Jefferson’s. Also dead was a young free man of color named Michael Brown, whom Wythe was tutoring in Latin, Greek and math.

The prime suspect was George Wythe Sweeney, Wythe’s grandnephew, who was living in Wythe’s house. Sweeney had a troubled history, having stolen some of Wythe’s possessions and forged Wythe’s

name on checks amid rumors of gambling debts. And Sweeney had a motive: He and Brown were the main beneficiaries of Wythe’s will.

Yet in 1806 a jury acquitted Sweeney, precluding a satisfying end to the mystery of Wythe’s death.

THE MISSING WITNESS

The main witness for the prosecution ought to have been Lydia Broadnax, Wythe’s Black servant. Broadnax was preparing breakfast on May 25, 1806. She saw Sweeney pour himself a cup of coffee from a kettle, then throw a small white piece of paper into the fire. Wythe, Brown and Broadnax drank coffee from that kettle and all became ill. Only Broadnax survived. Arsenic was later found in Sweeney’s room.

The jury never heard Broadnax’s testimony. The Richmond Enquirer explained why: “Some of the strongest testimony exhibited...was kept from the petit jury. The reason is, that it was gleaned from the evidence of negroes.” Virginia law did not allow Black people to testify against white people.

We can only guess at the details of her early years, but Broadnax was born into slavery, probably in Virginia, around the early 1740s. We don’t know how she came to live in George Wythe’s household, but it’s clear she was there by 1783.

By this time, Wythe was a law professor at William & Mary and one of the foremost lawyers in the nation. He had

A trial to determine responsibility in the death of George Wythe concluded without the testimony of a key witness.

burg to Richmond in 1791, Broadnax followed him. By 1797, she purchased a home for herself. In this regard, she was unusual. When she died, she was one of only 50 Black Americans in Richmond, out of almost 6,000, who owned property. She also seems to have owned and operated a boardinghouse on her property.

Unable to testify in court, Broadnax shared her account at some point with George Wythe Munford, named for the law professor by one of Wythe’s students. Broadnax and Munford seemed to have known each other well. He eventually would serve as a witness for her will. Decades after the fact, Munford published a detailed account of Broadnax’s version of the events surrounding Wythe’s and Brown’s deaths. Imperfect as it is, his account is the closest thing we have to how Broadnax would have testified at the trial.

According to Munford, the day before the poisoning, Broadnax saw Sweeney rummaging through Wythe’s desk and inspecting Wythe’s will, which named Sweeney as its major beneficiary, along with Broadnax and Brown.

Some of the strongest testimony, according to a Sept. 9, 1806, article in the Richmond Enquirer “was gleaned from the evidence of negroes, which is not permitted by our laws to go against a white man.”

enslaved many people throughout his life, but often expressed opposition to slavery. In 1782, emancipation laws were relaxed in Virginia and for the first time since 1723, enslavers could emancipate enslaved people without government approval. Wythe ultimately freed Broadnax.

Once emancipated, Broadnax continued to work in Wythe’s household for pay. By all accounts, she admired Wythe. When Wythe moved from Williams-

Sweeney left early the next morning, but not before Broadnax saw him handling the fatal coffee pot and throwing a “little white paper” into the kitchen fire. She thought nothing of his behavior at the time and served the coffee.

But in retrospect, she thought “it looks monstrous strange.”

THE MEDICAL EVIDENCE

Even without Broadnax’s testimony, prosecutors hoped forensic evidence would condemn Sweeney. But the testimony of doctors had the opposite effect.

Three doctors conducted autopsies on Wythe and Brown. The three James

George Wythe Sweeney left early the next morning, but not before Lydia Broadnax saw him handling the fatal coffee pot and throwing a “little white paper” into the kitchen fire.

McClurg, James McCaw and William Foushee were renowned not only in Virginia but in the United States.

McClurg was one of Virginia’s representatives to the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, as was Wythe.

Despite their sterling medical reputations, the doctors were not experts on poison. They did not conduct any of the tests that would have revealed the presence of arsenic.

McClurg testified that Wythe’s and Brown’s symptoms could have been produced by arsenic but could also be attributed to other causes, among them a buildup of black bile. Moreover, arsenic usually killed people within a few days. Brown lived for a week after the alleged poisoning and Wythe for two weeks. It is interesting to note that after Brown’s death, Wythe added a codicil to his will, removing Sweeney as a beneficiary.

What the doctors did not say at the trial presumably because they did not know it was that black bile was a common sign of arsenic poisoning. And while most people poisoned by arsenic did indeed die quickly, some lingered.

The defense attorneys were as renowned as the doctors. Edmund Randolph was the former attorney general of the United States and William Wirt would later become the attorney general. In contrast to the doctors, they performed their roles adroitly, using the doctors’ testimony to create reasonable doubt.

The white powder discovered in Sweeney’s room, for instance, was simply ratsbane, a common poison used to kill rats and which contained arsenic.

AFTER THE TRIAL

In his will, Wythe left his houses in Richmond and his stocks to his neighbor William DuVal. The will directed that during their lifetimes, the profits from these investments should be directed to Broadnax and a formerly enslaved man named Benjamin. This wasn’t enough for Broadnax to survive. In 1807, she corresponded with President Jefferson, asking for his financial assistance.

She told him that “my eyesight has almost failed me” because of the poison that killed Wythe. Though she had a home, her “old age and infirmness of health” made it “extremely difficult in procuring merely the daily necessaries of life.” Without his “charitable aid,” she said, “I am fearful I shall sink under the burden.” Jefferson sent her $50.

Though acquitted of murder in 1806, Sweeney was convicted in that proceeding on two of four counts of forgery. He was sentenced to spend an hour in the pillory and six months in jail. That sentence was never executed. Sweeney left Virginia after the trial and was later convicted of horse theft in Tennessee, where he served several years in prison. What became of him after that is another mystery.

Among the doctors testifying was James McClurg, a well-known physician and professor, who was one of three physicians who conducted autopsies on George Wythe.

If Virtue were a Place, it would be Williamsburg.

Your legacy speaks to your enduring virtue.

George Wythe was known for his lifelong pursuit of virtue, holding his government, particularly the legal system and those who worked within it, to a high moral standard. Your legacy — through a gift in your will or estate plan — supports our founding ideals by helping to preserve the very place where America’s story began and sharing our nation’s history with generations to come. To learn more about including a gift in your will to Colonial Williamsburg, contact the Gift Planning Office today at 1.888.293.1776 or legacy@cwf.org.

Nation Builder George Wythe portrayed by Robert Weathers

MODERN VARIETIES

Squash Blossoms

The fall and winter seasons feature a profusion of varieties

BY BARBARA RUST BROWN PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN NEWSON

NOTE

Heirloom winter squashes grown in the Historic Area include Long Island Cheese, Nanticoke and Cushaw. Butternut, Delicata, Acorn (Pictured from top left to bottom left)

hen European colonists came to America, they brought a variety of their favorite foods with them. But squash, believed to be one of the oldest cultivated crops in North America, was here for them to discover. Squash was a staple for Indigenous people. The Iroquois and the Cherokee called squash one of the three sisters, along with corn and beans. When planted together, they supported each other.

Pumpkins and squash were grown widely across the New World, said Master Farmer Ed Schultz and his colleague, Marshall Scheetz, a journeyman farmer. In Ewing Field just off Francis Street, the two replicate the farming methods familiar in the 18th century.

“Squash went in and out of favor as food for humans,” Scheetz said. “George Washington, Landon Carter and Thomas Jefferson raised squash as feed for livestock.” Carrots, potatoes and cabbage were also fed to animals. Pumpkins could be sliced in half and, after the seeds and pulp were removed, dried on a pole for a few days and then packed in hay for use as livestock feed throughout the winter.

And Carter, a Richmond County farmer, politician and prolific writer, saw another use. He might have related to modern beer drinkers who look forward to fall, when pumpkin beer becomes available, as he was known to make beer from pumpkins and squash.

For Washington, squash was part of a sustainable farming strategy. His diaries indicate that he built split-rail fences around his garden.

“Washington planted corn on the majority of the acreage, but in the angles of the fences, he planted flowers, pumpkins and carrots, thus using every available space of soil,” Scheetz said. Today, the Ewing farmers use the same split-rail fences and plant the corners just as Washington did.

Recipes for human consumption of squash were found in numerous 18thcentury cookbooks. Historic Foodways presents a recipe for forced pumpkin squash from Mary Randolph.

“Forcemeat in the 18th century is a dish known as stuffing today,” said Master of Historic Foodways Frank Clark. “Breadcrumbs and eggs form the backbone of all good forcemeat, but the choice of vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices is entirely up to the preference of the cook. Bacon, hardboiled eggs, country ham and other ingredients may be added or subtracted to make the dish one’s own.”

Forced Pumpkin Squash Historic Foodways

Adapted from The Virginia House-Wife by Mary Randolph (1824)

4– 6 SERVINGS

1 medium-sized delicata or sweet potato pumpkin squash

1 large onion

2 stalks celery

2 cloves garlic

2 carrots

1 green apple

2 cups breadcrumbs salt, pepper and herbs to taste

3 eggs

1. Use a knife to remove the squash’s skin. Cut off and save the top of the squash and scoop out seeds and strings.

2. Dice the onion, celery, garlic, carrots and apple.

3. Combine the diced fruit and vegetables with the breadcrumbs.

4. Add salt, pepper and herbs, if using.

5. Add three eggs to bind the stuffing together.

6. Fill the cavity of the prepared squash with stuffing and cover with the top of the pumpkin.

7. Bake on a cookie sheet or tray in a 350-degree oven until the flesh of the squash is soft and wrinkles have formed about 35 minutes. The squash should be soft to the touch but still hold its shape and structure.

Roasted Delicata Squash

Williamsburg Inn

6 SERVINGS

3 delicata squash, sliced ¾-inches thick vegetable oil for drizzling the slices salt and pepper to taste

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon minced shallot

1 pound crabmeat (any type)

½ cup golden raisins

½ cup white cooking wine

3 cups spinach

1 tablespoon chopped herbs (parsley, tarragon, chives)

¼ cup Maple Apple Gastrique (recipe below)

½ cup roasted pecans

½ cup goat cheese crumbles

1. Drizzle squash slices with vegetable oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.

2. Roast in 350-degree oven until tender, approximately 20 minutes.

3. While the squash is roasting, melt the butter and sauté the garlic and shallots. Before the garlic and shallots brown, add the crabmeat and golden raisins, and add white wine to bring up the bits of vegetables.

4. Cook crab mixture until all ingredients are heated through.

5. Wilt spinach into the mixture, season with salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle in chopped herbs.

6. When squash is tender, brush with the Maple Apple Gastrique.

7. To plate, top the squash with the crabmeat mixture, roasted pecans and goat cheese crumbles. Drizzle with the remaining gastrique to taste.

Maple Apple Gastrique

½ cup sugar

½ cup maple syrup

½ cup apple cider vinegar

Combine all ingredients and cook over medium heat. Allow to reduce until the gastrique reaches a syrupy or honey consistency.

Julianne Gutierrez, the Williamsburg Inn’s executive chef, grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Amish Country.

“Farms were all around us. My mother always had a vegetable garden,” Gutierrez said. “Among other things, she grew summer squash. We ate a lot of zucchini bread.”

Gutierrez’s favorite growing season is autumn. “I like the cozy flavors of fall, so squash fits right in.”

Delicata squash is part of the Cucurbita pepo family of squash which includes varieties of summer squash, such as zucchini and yellow squash, and winter varieties, such as acorn and spaghetti squash.

“Delicata showcases a different kind of squash it’s smaller and the skin is edible, unlike most fall squashes that have a thick, inedible rind,” she said. “While the recipe calls for delicata, if that is not available, acorn or spaghetti squash can be substituted.”

Gutierrez notes that squash is a versatile vegetable that can be roasted, pureed, sauteed, grilled, consumed alone or added to other vegetables.

Its naturally sweet flavor and texture can be enjoyed as is or enhanced with honey, brown sugar, cinnamon, nuts, onions, herbs, butter almost anything. Her recipe for roasted delicata squash features a sweet and sour sauce.

Barbara Rust Brown is a freelance writer living in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Title Page

How Virginia made America: The revolutionary roles of Virginia’s Founding Fathers

A Revolutionary Friendship: Washington, Jefferson, and the American Republic

BY FRANCIS D. COGLIANO

Harvard University Press

IT’S UNCLEAR EXACTLY when George Washington and Thomas Jefferson met. It might have been in Williamsburg in May 1768, when both went to the theater on the same day. Both mentioned the performance in their diaries, but neither mentioned the other. More likely is that they met in May 1769, when members of the House of Burgesses, including Washington and Jefferson, convened in Williamsburg. Whenever they met, it was the beginning of a long friendship. Historians have tended to focus on the rift that ended that friendship and that led Jefferson to resign as Washington’s secretary of state. The two men differed over, among other issues, how powerful the federal government should be and whether to support the French Revolution. Francis Cogliano

argues that their differences, though very real, have led historians to underestimate how close and productive their quartercentury friendship was. During Jefferson’s two terms as governor of Virginia, for example, he and Washington exchanged more than 70 letters, and they came to trust each other’s judgment. “We should trace the development of the relationship between Washington and Jefferson over three decades,” writes Cogliano, “without committing the error of anachronism, interpreting what happened in earlier years through the lens of what happened thereafter.” The two never reconciled, though in 1814, years after Washington died, Jefferson wrote that “it may truly be said that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great.”

BY JOHN B. BOLES

University of Virginia Press

BETWEEN 1725 AND 1758, seven men were born in Virginia who, as John Boles puts it, “would ultimately play a vastly disproportionate role in the founding of this nation.” They were, in order of their birth, George Mason, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Marshall and James Monroe. Boles is not the first historian to note the outsized roles of these Virginians, but he adeptly shows how their varying skills Washington’s “austere charisma,” Henry’s “remarkable oratory,” Jefferson’s “literary power and idealism,” Mason’s “thoughtful writing,” Madison’s “penetrating intelligence,” and Marshall’s “plain-written logical analysis” all contributed to creating a democratic system of government. Even Monroe, who Boles

concedes was the least skilled of the seven, gets credit for being earnest. Much of the focus on the achievements of famous Founders is familiar, but Boles does not ignore their flaws, especially when it came to slavery. “Democracy for whites and slavery for non-whites was,” he writes, “to our everlasting regret, part of our founding.” The failure of Virginia’s leaders to end slavery led to the state’s decline in the generation that followed the seven. But, Boles concludes, “the seeds of the ideals they planted would over time have impacts they could not have foreseen, leading to the eventual demise of slavery and the slow, halting advance toward that more perfect union, the ideal of which still motivates the nation when it adheres to its founding vision.”

7 Virginians: The Men Who Shaped Our Republic

Puzzles & Prize Puzzles & Prize

DOWN THE LADDER

Across

by Ben Swenson

1. *___ of Gloucester Street

5. "Yikes!" old-time style

ACROSS

10. "Sorta" suffix

1. * of Gloucester Street

13. ___ Claus

5. “Yikes!” old-time style

15. More mature

10. “Sorta” suffix

16. -cone

13. Claus

17. Udder features

15. More mature

16. -cone

18. Physicist Bohr

17. Udder features

19. Made a lap?

18. Physicist Bohr

19. Made a lap?

20. *Colonial garden staple, cutely

22. Born as

22. Born as

23. *What one hopes to find at the apothecary

48. *A common colonial commodity made from hemp

49. Scandinavian airline

51. Sue Grafton’s “ for Outlaw”

53. Joe- weed

54. Small world, such as Pluto

20. *Colonial garden staple, cutely

59. Two-time D.D.E. opponent

60. * Tri- hat

61. Major outdoor retailer

23. *What one hopes to find at the apothecary

24. Cry of dismay

24. Cry of dismay

26. "To summarize..."

26. “To summarize...”

29. San Francisco valley

30. “No way”

30. "No way"

31. Cotton gin inventor Whitney

62. *Like many colonial battle flags after combat

64. “I’ll take that as .”

65. Ignorant hater

29. San Francisco valley

67. Takes a horse

70. for tat

31. Cotton gin inventor Whitney

32. *What colonial fruit fans found at the center of a Pippin or Hewes Virginia

34. * The basis for a lot of colonial knowledge

71. Europe’s “boot”

72. Joplin’s “Me and Bobby ”

32. *What colonial fruit fans found at the center of a Pippin or Hewes Virginia

73. Cul-de-

74. Refute

34. *The basis for a lot of colonial knowledge

37. Welles of “War of the Worlds”

37. Welles of "War of the Worlds"

41. Obeys

41. Obeys

43. “Hamilton” creator -Manuel Miranda

43. "Hamilton" creator -Manuel Miranda

44. “Jack Sprat could fat...”

45. Do- situation

46. *John Murray, Dunmore

Wordplay: From the 18th century to today

75. *Rifleman’s powder container and the end of the word ladder found in the starred clues

60. *Tri-___ hat

Down the Ladder by Ben Swenson

7. “So long”

8. Erase

61. Major outdoor retailer

9. Top H.S. class

DOWN

27. Coral island

4. "___, Brute?"

28. gin fizz

5. Very long time

33. Light bulb inventor

52. Tempest

39. How pastrami is often served

54. Future drs. exams

55. Ancient Greek colony

10. Magazine edition

11. Tangle

62. *Like many colonial battle flags after combat

64. "I'll take that as ___."

1. Spring forward hrs.

2. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, etc.

44. "Jack Sprat could ___ fat..."

3. Worn out: British slang

45. Do-___ situation

Our Prize Enigma

14. Invite to stay

65. Ignorant hater

4. “ , Brute?”

70. ___ for tat

5. Very long time

46. *John Murray, ___ Dunmore

48. *A common colonial commodity made from hemp

49. Scandanavian airline

51. Sue Grafton's "___ for Outlaw"

53. Joe-___ weed

54. Small world, such as Pluto

Each line of this 18th-century wordplay puzzle offers a clue to a single answer of up to three words. Can you solve it? Email your answer to puzzles@cwf.org for a chance to win a Colonial Williamsburg Vintage Map Ornament.

59. Two-time D.D.E. opponent

6. First American in orbit

35. Spanish river

7. "So long"

12. “ California”

8. Erase

21. Chemical suffix

67. Takes a horse

40. Lymph ___

36. Big 2001 bankruptcy

38. Like heavy traffic

9. Top H.S. class

23. Former French

71. Europe's "boot"

6. First American in orbit

42. Burn slightly

56. Future ensign’s univ. org.

57. Aboveboard

47. It often starts tomorrow

39. How pastrami is often served

58. Garlicky mayo

63. Loaded

50. Mythical fairy

40. Lymph

10. Magazine edition

President Jacques

11. Tangle

24. Dried chili pepper

25. Pigeon, at times

72. Joplin's "Me and Bobby ___"

73. Cul-de-

74. Refute

42. Burn slightly

52. Tempest

65. Baby’s meal accessory

54. Future drs. exams

47. It often starts tomorrow

12. "___ California"

50. Mythical fairy

14. Invite to stay

21. Chemical suffix

66. Nautical rope

68. Auction ending?

55. Ancient Greek colony

69. One of 100: abbr.

56. Future ensign's univ. org.

57. Aboveboard

23. Former French President Jacques

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller’s zeal for art ordained

75. *Rifleman's powder container and the end of the word ladder found in the starred clues Down

1. Spring forward hrs.

2. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, etc.

24. Dried chili pepper

25. Pigeon, at times 27. Coral island 28. ___ gin fizz 33. Light bulb inventor

Spanish river

Big 2001 bankruptcy

58. Garlicky mayo

A gallery of works made by the gifted but untrained. Among her first procurements was a portrait, plain and sweet: A comely, smiling cherub — rosy-cheeked, at rest, petite. Unknown are the artist and the subject; nonetheless, Throngs adore the child in the ochre-colored dress. Both this painting and its influence invite reflection — A gem and keystone of a notable folk-art collection.

3. Worn out: British slang

Like heavy traffic

63. Loaded

ANSWERS

65. Baby's meal accessory

66. Nautical rope

68. Auction ending?

Check our Winter issue for the answers to these puzzles.

69. One of 100: abbr.

PUZZLE ANSWERS

PRIZE ENIGMA

Gowan Pamphlet

Congratulations to Mary Booth of Thomson, Georgia, whose entry was chosen from a pool of correct answers to the puzzle in the Summer issue. She received a counted cross-stitch kit.

Want to play, too? Here are the rules: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. Sweepstakes ends 11/15/24

For entry and official rules with complete eligibility, prize description, odds disclosure and other details, visit www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/trend-and-tradition-prizerules. Sponsored by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Void where prohibited.

Parting Shot

Taking Aim

Lisa Seaborn of Bristol, Virginia, is an amateur photographer who visited Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area last October on a quest to find a history theme that would be suitable to photograph for a local contest. It seems she found a winner!