Vacation / Travel Supplement

Visit Virginia: Colonial sites preserve artifacts from nation’s early years

Costumed interpreters dressed in Revolutionary War uniforms play fifes and drums during a historical re-enactment program in Colonial Williamsburg, where guests experience the challenges of creating a new, self-governing society. (Photos courtesy Colonial Williamsburg Foundation©) Click for a larger version.

By Fr. Louis Manna (Special to The Criterion)

As much as I like traveling to Western Europe, there is also something to be said for going on a shorter trip to nearby places where I can easily drive.

For a recent vacation, I decided to see some of Virginia, the first British colony in North America, dating back to about a dozen years before the pilgrims founded the settlement in Plymouth, Mass.

So I traveled to Charlottesville, Va., for a couple of days to see a number of historical places of interest.

Ash Lawn-Highland is the home of James Monroe, one of our early presidents. We tend to only associate him with the Monroe Doctrine, but there is much more to learn about his life.

I toured his home and found out much about the many failures in Monroe’s life, although he still had his share of successes.

He was asked by then-Gov. Thomas Jefferson to move the Virginia capital from Williamsburg to Richmond. To accomplish this huge task, he spent many hours on horseback and read law books during his travels.

One of the most famous and interesting places to visit is Jefferson’s Monticello. A tour of the home reveals a most interesting and fascinating man. Examples of his genius are still present in his home.

There were more historic places near Charlottesville—such as Montpelier, James and Dolley Madison’s home—and I wished that I had stayed there longer. Maybe on a future trip!

About two hours away is Williamsburg. This became a handy base for the Hampton Roads area as well as other closer historic sites, such as Jamestown and Yorktown.

In the Hampton Roads area, I went to the Mariners’ Museum, where there is a display about the Monitor, the first ironclad ship to sail for the Union in the Civil War.

Most of us remember the story of the Civil War battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac from American history lessons during grade school. That navy battle was fought in the Hampton Roads area. The Monitor sank during a storm. Recently, the ship’s turret was recovered, and there is a display about the recovery effort as well as the turret at the Mariners’ Museum.

Another museum in Norfolk is the Nauticus, which displays the battleship Wisconsin. Many people are aware of its sister ship, the U.S.S. Missouri, where U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Japanese leaders signed a peace treaty to end World War II on Sept. 2, 1945, in Toyko Bay.

Visitors can tour the inside of the ship, but I chose to just explore its exterior. It is on loan from the U.S. Navy, and can be made ready for active duty if needed.

A while back, I was researching information about religious shrines to visit on my vacation. I noticed that many of the features I saw—historical incident, education, bookstores for more information and religious articles—can also apply to Williamsburg, especially the area known as Colonial Williamsburg.

This famous site is not a religious shrine. It is a historical shrine to the beginning of our country.

The main claim to fame there is that the Virginia legislature, located at Williamsburg at the time, sent the proposition to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia about separating from Great Britain as “a free and independent” country. This action led members of the Continental Congress to write our Declaration of Independence.

Focusing on that time period and recreating it required a lot of study to complete the work. There are DVDs and books on how things were done in the 18th century.

We are so used to having easy access to 24-hour media on television and the Internet. How did they have newspapers 235 years ago? They had to make the paper and print it with different types of inks then sell it for enough money to make a living. The same production process was required for books. There were no bookstores filled with thousands of titles waiting to be sold.

Colonial Williamsburg shows us how labor intensive daily life was for our ancestors, and how they lived close to the earth.

One interesting event there was a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence.

“This just came from the Continental Congress in Philadelphia!” a costumed interpreter exclaimed, excitement apparent in his voice.

Then several other actors read different sections during the interpretative performance.

An actor portraying a black slave read the part about how “all men are created equal.”

Later, as the crowd broke up, he said, “That means I’ll be free!”

An actress portraying a young woman passed by him and replied, “It said ‘all men.’ You’re property.”

She had described the slavery problem in a nutshell.

On my last visit to Colonial Williamsburg, there was a new historical presentation dealing with the American Indians. The Indians were discussing whom they should support in the coming conflict—the British or Virginians. They wondered how their lives would be changed.

I had not considered the ramifications of the conflict from their side.

In Williamsburg, there are other

presentations given by interpreters portraying Gen. George Washington, Jefferson, Patrick Henry, the Marquis de Lafayette and others.

During an earlier visit, I attended a presentation about Washington. At the end was a question and answer period.

One lady asked about help from our navy.

Washington responded, “Which of our two ships are you referring to, Madam?”

His question was a powerful reminder of how Americans forget much of the facts about our early beginnings as a country.

Near Williamsburg are two other important historical sites—Jamestown and Yorktown.

Jamestown is our first settlement from England, and was founded in 1607.

Yorktown is the site of the famous battle where a British general, Lord Charles Cornwallis, formally surrendered more than 8,000 British soldiers to Washington—after a hard-fought conflict against the colonial and French armies—on Oct. 19, 1781, effectively ending the Revolutionary War.

(Father Louis Manna is pastor of American Martyrs Parish in Scottsburg and St. Patrick Parish in Salem.) †