Houses/Palaces

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Colonial Williamsburg, Part Seven: The Wig Maker, Armory, Blacksmith, Magazine, Shoemaker, Nursery, and Weaver

It was getting close to quitting time as I left the Capitol and meandered my day down the other side of the main street to catch a few more exhibits before heading to the museums. The light was already starting to fade and it was getting quite (and surprisingly) cold out.

I still had lots to see, though, and I didn’t hurry my way through the next exhibits, taking the time to ask questions and look at demonstrations. None of these were tours, hence why it was possible to get in and out fairly quickly and see so much in a short amount of time.

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Colonial Williamsburg, Part Five: First Impressions of Downtown, the Milliner, and the Coffeehouse

After the Peyton Randolph house, I headed to the main street of Colonial Williamsburg and started to visit the buildings with little flags in front of them. I was feeling pretty peckish by this point, but there were long lines to get into the taverns for lunch, service was apparently slow, and meals were expensive. I decided to pop into the bakery for snacks instead of wasting precious time getting lunch since we were already well into the afternoon.

It was during this stretch of the day that I had my second favourite moment, a visit of the Charlton coffeehouse. Coffeehouses were where men of all but the lowest social classes gathered to chat about manly topics, drink hot beverages, and even rent out dining rooms for dinner parties.

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Colonial Williamsburg, Part Four: The Peyton Randolph House

From the Wythe home, I headed across the palace green to check out a few more outlying buildings before moving to the main street. I came across the Peyton Randolph home, a prominent Virginian politician at the time.

This tour ended up being my least favourite moment of the day. The focus of the tour was about slavery in 18th century Virginia, a time when all but the poorest whites had a few slaves. We didn’t learn that much about the house or Peyton Randolph, and we were expressly forbidden from asking questions about those topics!

Moreover, our guide was a little too deep in character and almost utterly unintelligible. He spoke very quickly in a very heavy accent laced with period words and euphemisms. Most people spent the tour with a ‘HUH?!’ expression on their face and the children were terrified of him.

Finally, I did not like the atmosphere of the house. The Wythe home felt very bright and cheerful. I could imagine children laughing in that home, people relaxing and playing games, and slaves being well treated. The Peyton Randolphe home felt very severe. I never did find out if Randolphe treated his slaves as badly as we were told many slaves were treated, but the impression that he did definitely coloured the tour.

What I took away from this tour is just how uncertain life was for the slaves. After Randophe died, his wife got to keep her slaves, but after she passed, the slaves would be sold. We were also taught about the punishment for disobedience (going as far to cutting off limbs or tongues!).

After all of this education, we were asked to debate whether, as slaves, we would have chosen to run away, accept our fates as slaves, or be conflicted. I think that was a nearly impossible debate to have with your 21st century point of views colouring our judgment. I said that I would run away “because nothing could be worse than this.” The next person said, “I’m staying because if I do as I’m told, I have food and clothing.” The kids chimed in also, with one making us all laugh when he said, “I don’t like being bossed around, so I’m leaving!”

All in all, this was a worthwhile tour and I do not begrudge the half hour or so I spent on it, but I think it could be refined.

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Colonial Williamsburg, Part Three: The Wythe House

After the governor’s palace, I wandered over to the first house that had a flag. There was a waiting period for the tour and the lady out front told me that I was much better off getting in line to view the Wythe house across the street as it closes at 1:00 and there were only a couple of tours left.

This is because the house is one of the few period buildings remaining and it even still has all the original 18th century woodwork, including the floors. Of greatest importance to most guests is this is the house where Thomas Jefferson studied law, so you can actually walk on the same floor and through the same doors as he did.

George Wythe was the first American law professor and a prominent opponent of slavery. The Wythe house was a wedding gift from his second wife’s father. They had no children, but they did received nieces and nephews regularly, as well as the Jeffersons.

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Colonial Williamsburg, Part Two: The Governor’s Palace and Patrick Henry

First stop in Colonial Williamsburg is the governor’s palace. A popular activity there is to listen to a speech by one of the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson or Patrick Henry. The fellow who plays Jefferson apparently looks like him… because he is a direct descendent of him!

On the crisp morning of my visit, the talk was by Patrick Henry. Other than his “give me liberty or give me death” speech, I didn’t know much about him. With the talk being 45 minutes, I didn’t expect to stay through the whole thing. The reenactor was so good, that I hung onto every word! I really would suggest not missing this if you go to Williamsburg.

(As point of reference, by this point, it was 11:30 and I had already been in Colonial Williamsburg two and a half hours!)

All the open buildings in Colonial Williamsburg have an English flag outside the entrance. The governor’s palace did not. It was just open for private school tours. But we could wander around the grounds.