Today I bit off a bit more than I could chew! I usually cram a lot into one day but today was almost too much for even myself and I still don’t feel like I really got to see everything.

I debated where to start this morning and figured Jamestown would be first since it was the first settlement back in 1607. I found out there were two “Jamestowns” to visit. One was the National Park which was the original site of Jamestown and they are still conducting archaelogy digs on the site. The other is called Jamestown Settlement which is a re-enactment rebuilt version of the original right next door. I went to see both. Unfortunately the Jamestown Settlement had a million school children on field trips so it was not that enjoyable for me. But Historic Jamestown on the National Park Grounds was more my style. Quite, relaxing, historical, and informative!

As a child I grew up always thinking that America was founded by the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock in 1620. I asked the historian at the park why Jamestown is so often forgotten about since it technically is older and the first. The explanation he gave was two fold. One, when school books were written in the 1800’s they were written with a “Northerners” slant. Two, American psyche prefers to hear the Pilgrims came to escape religious persecution and founded a new colony for their religious freedom as opposed to England wanted to expand it’s empire and formed a colony in Jamestown in 1607 where you had to be Anglican. Very interesting!

It is still quite wilderness around there and I went for a hike trying to imagine how it must have been back in 1607 and how terrifying it must have been. I learned about Capt John Smith and Pocahantas and the harsh first few years of the settlement and how it began to grow and expand. I visited the museum and watched the film they had.

After visiting the two Jamestown sites I got back on Colonial Parkway and headed to Yorktown. Here again there were two sites to visit…the Yorktown Victory Center which had a museum, movie and re-enactments and the National Park Yorktown Battlefield. I went to both and got “re-educated” on my American History. I kept hearing that Yorktown was the end of the war but it was in 1781 and I knew the war didn’t end until 1783 so I didn’t understand.

After visiting the site I learned that Yorktown was a catastrophic blow to the English and while they did not surrender the tide turned and the people of England began to urge the King to withdraw out of America. It took two more years of squirmishes and negotiations for the Treaty of Paris and full independence but the battle of Yorktown was the last major battle.

The museum was fasinating showing the events that led to the revolution and what life was like during the revolution….the Brits, the Yankees, the Torries, the French, the Slaves, the native Americans, The Quakers, all who had different view points and vested interest in the war. They also had a display on sunken Naval Ships in the harbor and some of the harbor is still and archaelogical site!

Most fascinating to me was the presentation on Thomas Payne’s Common Sense which fueled the war. It was explained that the pamphlets were the first mass produced pamphlet so that everyone had access to read it cheaply and be informed which fueled peoples passion about indepence and revolution. Ah..the power of the press!

I then proceeded to the National Park battleground which is my first trip to a revolutionary War battlefield. Some of the redoubts and trenches they built are still there! Washingtons headquarters was there as well as the spot where the british surrendered. It was hard to imagine how these people fought so close to each other…with bayonettes and guns all in a line led to a slaughter on both sides.

Time was ticking so I rushed to Williamsburg…on the way I got stopped by the Virigina State Police for speeding but they let me go with a warning.

Williamsburg was almost to big and to much for me to encompass. I wandered the streets while life was re-enacted and carried out as it was in the early 1700’s Williamsburg which was then the Capitol of Virginia. I saw the Tavern where Patrick Henry proclaimed “Give me liberty or give me death”. I saw the Governors Palace and the old capitol building. The people were dressed in colonial garb as horses, oxen, chickens, and farm life roamed free.

I had ran so much today and was going at such a break neck pace I didn’t even stop to eat lunch so I was pretty tired by closing and went to a buffet and now unwinding. I feel a bit tired tonight and also sad..sad that my trip is almost over and I must return to the mundane reality of my life.

Tomorrow I make a long 200 mile trek from Williamsburg back to Roanoke for my final Civil War adventures……