Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot stars Jack Lord as John Fry, a fictitious Virginia planter elected to the House of Burgesses in the pre-dawn of the American Revolution. This post contains affiliate links.  For more information, click here. The 37-minute orientation film at Colonial Williamsburg traces Fry’s growth from Tory to Patriot through his associations… Read More Colonial Williamsburg — part 8 of the great American road trip

There’s no place in the world quite like Colonial Williamsburg.  The living history museum recreates Virginia’s second capital city during the time of the American Revolution.  Visitors can see the 18th-century buildings, feel the brick pathways underfoot, smell the fires burning in the hearths, taste the hearty food in the taverns, and hear from “interpreters”… Read More 5 Ways to Beat the Crowds at Colonial Williamsburg

Patrick Henry stood in front of Virginia’s capitol building and read aloud the Declaration of Independence, reminding the gathered crowd of the litany of abuses committed by George III as catalogued by fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent… Read More Two Days in Williamsburg (and a Night in Jamestown)

The polished wood gleams in the glow of flickering candles. It’s nighttime, and little moonlight breaks through the circular window panes in their cream-colored frames. Several dozen visitors have gathered in the courtroom of Colonial Williamsburg‘s dull-red brick Capitol building to serve as the jury in a recreated trial of Grace Sherwood, the “Virginia witch”.… Read More Cry Witch!

America is a nation built on the foundation of great ideas.  But great ideas can be difficult to live out.  This is true today, as we move further and further from the time when ideas like individual liberty and limited government were debated and developed from Congresses to coffeehouses.  But it was also true then. … Read More War in the West

As General George Washington fought through the darkest hours of the War for American Independence, his wife was often by his side. A woman of great courage and character, Martha Washington followed her husband from army camp to camp, bringing with her as much food, cloth, and other provisions as her carriages could hold. At… Read More Martha Washington Visits the Capital

After the reading of the Declaration of Independence, residents of colonial Williamsburg wonder what it means for them, in the Revolutionary City skit “That Freedom Ain’t for Me”. One such resident was Lydia Broadnax, a literate slave in the home of George Wythe, whose name appears first among Virginians to sign the document. Working in… Read More “That Freedom Ain’t for Me”