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Review: On March 20, 2006, Colonial Williamsburg
started a two day, 135 minute per day presentation at 2:30 PM in the afternoon each day, alternating two
parts, which are “Collapse of Royal Government” 1774-1776 and “Citizens at
War” 1776-1781. Each day starts with a presentation outside the Capitol
building and moves onto the area near Raleigh Tavern on the East end of the
old Duke of Gloucester Street in the restored area. The first half has the
Governor arriving at the Capitol in a stage, where Governor Dunmore dissolves
the Assembly. There follows a number of outdoor skits that tend to emphasize
what were controversial issues of their day, and particularly problems that
would test the loyalty of family members to each others as well as to their
political causes. For example, a girl laments that her father’s loyalty to
the Crown will force the entire family to move to England.
The tobacco economy of Virginia
is taken for granted at the time, but already there a
murmurings that the tea party in Boston
may have not have the clear liberty oriented motive as stated, as British
soldiers claim they pay more duties for tea than the colonists. Freedom meant
respect for property rights, and at the time property included slaves, or
chattel. Dunmore promises “good news” to the slave that they would be freed
if they rise up against their masters. What would happen to them if the Brisith lose? The
most emotional vignette is probably that of a thirty-yea old carpenter who
considers joining the Revolutionary Army, but his wife begs him to stay home
and support his family, as he is too old. He begs for work at the Raleigh
Tavern, and is told he might get work in another month. He cries that he
could work making soldiers’ coffins. This certainly plays on the modern fear
that military service falls upon the poor, but that was by no means always
true then. We wind up with a
double-edged view of the Revolution.
That continues into the second day, when the Declaration of Independence
is read with great passion on the steps of the Capitol. But then the
townspeople talk of the high prices, shortages, and sacrifices of war, and the demands of military service upon the soldiers
are reiterated. In those days, every able bodied male 16-60 was required to
own and maintain a weapon at his residence. The British occupy Williamsburg
under Benefict Arnold, but then great hope for an
idealistic future with freedom from a state church is discussed, although
real religious freedom at a personal level would come to be understood only
gradually.
High school students often learn history as a body of facts and events to
retain, but this demonstration shows how to map history to social and
political controversies in our own time.
Jefferson & Adams: A Stage Play, by
Howard Greenberg, 1989; performed 2004, DVD
by Colonial Willamsburg; directed by Douglas
Anderson; with Bill Barker, Sam Goodyear, Abigail Schumann. Blogger
review.
Our Common Passage, by Abigail Schumann,
2002. DVD by Colonial Williamsburg.
Blogger
review.
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