Yesterday was a cozy rain day, accumulating 1″, culminating in nearly 7″ past midnight!  Is there a tropical depression?  I keep checking the local weather station but San Antonio weathermen spoiled me. They actually informed their viewers as to the origin of weather whereas Washington DC weathermen prefer to keep their viewers in the dark.

Fortunately we got home from Colonial Williamsburg Sunday night before the deluge of rain.  Drummer’s Call Weekend has become a favorite annual must attend event.  This year was even more exciting than ever. Stay tuned for many blog posts with many pictures.

I had a severely pulled muscle in my right shoulder so I paced myself by not hauling my tote bag this time, nor did I attend every wonderful activity. =( Lots of standing intensified the pain, despite pain medication. Instead I found a quiet bench here and there, where I could hear (somewhat) the clip clop of horses hooves and watch the scampering of squirrels while I read a terrific book that I am using for preparation for  upcoming history lessons.  We arrived Friday afternoon in regular clothes and the kids got some teasing from the interpreters on that!  My son teased back, answering that we had journeyed from afar and the proper attire was in the baggage.  He assured all that proper attire would be worn the following day.  While I read my book, the family attended Revolutionary City where my husband got to antagonize the turncoat, Benedict Arnold.  I think this is my husband’s favorite activity, to boo and hiss him.  The kids and I tend to separate ourselves from my husband when he irritates General Arnold, who is angry enough without further provoking.

On a happier note, Lafayette came to the rescue.  General Washington sent him to Virginia to capture Benedict Arnold, but by the time Lafayette arrived, Arnold had returned to New York to wreck havoc elsewhere. Instead of capturing Arnold, he cornered Cornwallis at Yorktown, which ultimately resulted in Cornwallis’ surrender after the successful seige on Yorktown, effectively ending the American Revolution.

Friday night we attended the Drummer’s Call opening event, “Successful Campaign” in the Kimball Theater.  Before the program began, the Colonial Williamsburg Alumni Fife and Drum Corps performed brilliantly outside the theater in Merchant Square.  “Successful Campaign” showcased three fife and drum corps from three different eras:  Colonial Williamsburg’s Senior Fife and Drum Corps represented the American Revolution, the 40th Regiment of Foot Fifes and Drums from Fort George, Canada represented the War of 1812, and the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment Field Music represented the Civil War.  Concluding the program they performed a piece from the French Revolution in unison! Stay tuned for pictures and perhaps a video of the alumni…if I can figure that out.

Saturday morning I insisted on visiting the Playbooth Theater because I had to ask an important history question of one of the actors.  It was great! Stay tuned!

Then we watched the Drummer’s Call, Grand March followed by the Grand Review.  By now my back was killing me from all the standing, so I stayed long enough to watch The Old Guard, passed my camera off to my son who was delighted to get a chance to play with my camera (his camera is technically broken but mine yields multiple features).  Thus there are many pictures I must agonizingly choose from for a post. Stay tuned. Meanwhile I sat under a nearby shady spot and read my book and thoroughly enjoyed all the wonderful music.  One of the interpreters stopped me to ask where my missing family was, then I asked him about his unique regimental.  I thought he was part of one of the fife and drum corps groups but no, he works at CW. He told me he helped me as a tailor a few years ago, answering many of my questions about cloaks. Oh!  Well, I made the cloaks!  He was wearing a regimental as one of the Queen’s Rangers.

Before the Grand Review was over, I tore myself away to find a seat behind the Governor’s Palace so that we could watch their latest webcast of Revolutionary City, about the Declaration of Independence.  My family eventually joined me.  We were told before the program to call our friends and family to have them watch the webcast live and see us in the audience. I had no idea who to call so I didn’t. To my surprise, that night I found an e-mail from a friend who had sent me live screen shots as she watched the program from California!  Thank you!

Were you able to find us? I’ll do a separate blog post on this program and will post the archived webcast when it’s up. My husband loved this program because of all the obvious technology. I’d rather be far into the past without the technology, yet this is great once in a while, especially when archived, and the program was lots of fun and quite unique, despite all of our visits to Revolutionary City, one of our favorite programs. Stay tuned!

That night we watched Salute to the Nation, watched terrific fireworks and joined the Military Tattoo for the jam session in front of Raleigh Tavern. Stay tuned!

Sunday we “had” to visit Lafayette and again my husband set us in the center front row. While awaiting his grand arrival, I read some of my book and to my surprise the next page I turned was about the man in search of a pedestal himself!  This book breaks down the French Revolution in vignettes and this little chapter was about Lafayette while he was stationed at Metz, where he first learned of the “grand cause in America, deciding to put forth his colors to the cause of American Independence.” (quoted/paraphrased)  When I finished the chapter, I looked up and there was Lafayette, making his grand entrance!  Talk about a person from history stepping out of the pages of a book and making history come to life!  During his program, Lafayette paused to recall my dance with that gentleman in the French court who doesn’t dance very well. He remembered! I caught a new element in his speech which answered a question I had never asked.  Afterwards we were honored to talk to the great man to ask many questions and learn many new things. We thoroughly enjoyed our talk afterwards! I was absolutely thrilled to listen to my son ask many great questions about things we’ve learned from the Spartans to the Romans to Frederick the Great and more! I always feel inspired after a talk with Lafayette!

A couple of weeks ago I made a new friend, whom I wanted to oh so quietly visit on this trip. What a delight to see that Mrs. Robin now has 4 babies (one is hidden behind the others.)

Awwww…..

An obligatory hat picture…couldn’t resist the pretty ribbons while we were at the auction. Before the auction the kids played trap ball with other colonial folks and guests.  Pictures forthcoming…

We attended the Revolutionary City, even me.  My back was in quite a bit of pain because I did lots more standing but this was the last day.  I dared to stand next to my husband for the Benedict Arnold scene, and so did my kids. I think my kids stepped away from my husband the more he booed General Arnold.  Arnold’s aide, Col. Dundis, approached my husband specifically, while on his horse, and angrily informed my husband as to his proper duty while the British were occupying the town.  Most certainly I stepped away from my husband at this point!  I had never seen a guest so specifically addressed in this scene.  My kids were laughing and asked me if Col. Dundis scared me. Oh yes! I think my husband enjoyed every minute.

After Rev City, we visited with the tailor and got to see some braiding for a man’s coat. I forget if it’s for a regimental or a hunting coat.  We discussed breeches that had buttons all along each side and much more! The tailor always leaves me with plenty to ponder.

When we left, my son found a Drummer’s Call 2012 tshirt at the Visitor Center gift shop. He approached me and asked, “Oh Mom, can I have that?” It had all the specially invited groups that were in attendance listed on the back.  He happily wore it yesterday.

Meanwhile I am deep in lesson planning for the French and Indian War. It’s exciting to be returning to late 18th century in our history studies, our favorite era.

Disclaimer: My apologies for the ads which HSB put on my blog. I don’t  mind the ones for Williamsburg though.

Presenting 17th Century History!

We represented various historical people within the 17th century, focusing on governments, the Age of Reason, and mercantilism. Then we stepped into the first half of the 18th century to extend our presentation on mercantilism. Our history, literature and government studies included these books.

My son portrayed Captain John Woodlief who had survived the starving time of Jamestown.  In 1619 he was commissioned to board passengers from Berkely, England en route to colonize near Jamestown, Virginia. Remembering the starving time, he insisted on only taking laborers and not gentlemen. On December 4, 1619 they landed at a site near Jamestown. This site would be called Berkeley. The men gave thanks…the first British colonial Thanksgiving in America, before the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts.

I portrayed a French lady in the court of King Louis XIV, attending the queen. The focus of my presentation was in the development of the French absolute monarchy (which I blogged about here). It was a good thing when King Henry IV tightened up control in the late 16th century after the religious wars. The country had been decimated and excellent leadership was paramount to France’s survival. Henry IV provided that through strict governmental control, while considering the needs of the people.  Cardinal Richelieu followed this pattern as did Cardinal Mazarin after him. Then King Louis IV took to the throne, who continued absolute control, but without once considering the needs of the people.  Hence, the people started pulling away their support of the king. If  his successors choose to follow this pattern, they should watch their neck!  I shared how to “this day” the people of France greatly esteem King Henry IV for all that he did to strengthen the country and consider the needs of the people.  I also sneaked into the first half of the 18th century to tell about the writings of Voltaire and Montisquieu. I even showed renderings of the many palaces of France, including the most recent one, Versailles.

My daughter portrayed a young Anglican lady from England, whose father supported Cromwell and the beheading of King Charles. She went into great detail about the Long Parliament and the Rump Parliament both of which her father was involved. She had many disagreements with him.  I tried to talk her into moving to Viginia, since I’d hate to live in a country where kings were beheaded.

I even invited Johann Sebastian Bach to regale us with his Brandenburg Concerto during dinner.

For dinner, the theme was dishes inspired by the flavors imported from afar, through mercantilism of course! All the recipes came from one of the Colonial Williamsburg cookbooks. During the 17th century England enacted the Navigation Acts which said products from other lands had to be shipped to England first before going to the colonies. This included the exotic spices from the Far East used in cooking.

We had East India Company Fried Chicken, seasoned with cinnamon and white pepper, which my husband finished cooking while we got dressed.

Carrots glazed in two ways with ginger…

Rice pilaf with saffron…

…and Salamugundi, a British salad with protein. The dressing had a touch of cayenne pepper.

I collected my other spices from afar and neatly arranged them on a plate for a guessing game during dinner. Could anyone guess which spice was which and from where it came?

Then for dessert, chocolate! I found a history of chocolate article written by the Mars chocolate company (the Mars family is a major donor to Colonial Williamsburg and support the Heritage Chocolate products) From that I learned that chocolate was mainly drunk and not eaten in the colonial era. Yet I portrayed a lady from Paris during the time of King Louis XIV. During this time France came onto the world stage as the ultimate in fashion, cuisine, and all things elegant and fashionable, so I pretended we had the best chocolatier who made chocolate toasting cups for us. The blue vase was purchased a few years ago at the Jamestown Glasshouse. It was actually handblown there by glassblowers who reenact the 17th century glasshouse of Britain’s first successful colony of Jamestown.

I toasted King Louis XIV, the English lady (my daughter) who was frustrated that King Charles I was beheaded remembered King Charles, and the captain of a new settlement in Virginia (my son) toasted to the success of the Berkely Hundred!

Then we discussed some of the books I found at the Colonial Williamsburg post office (print shop). A book on manners for children published in London in 1701. We had fun reading some of the rules.

And a Virginia almanack published in Williamsburg in 1749. We had fun comparing the current weather with that listed in the book and they matched!

We did a great deal of research on mercantilism so that we could create an interactive opportunity to experience mercantilism. All products used were purchased at Colonial Williamsburg. All specific details were obtained by extensive interviewing of the interpreters. Patrick Henry suggested reading the Navigation Acts, so of course they are duly referenced.

The setting for our activity is various spots around the world in 1750.

My daughter portrayed the proprietess of the Prentis Store in Williamsburg. (I’d have chosen Tarpleys since most of our items came from there but my research said it wasn’t a store yet.)  Here she is doing inventory with a period accurate colonial blank book (a gift) and a colonial pencil from CW.

Into her “purchase order” she adds her tobacco notes, obtained as payment from her customers or from the sale of her own harvested crop of tobacco.

My husband portrayed a British sailor who followed our orders.  I told him that he had to follow certain rules as a sailor, all of which could be found in the Navigation Acts, which I gave to him to read.  He winced at the many pages of legaleze so I gave him a verbal synopsis.  All goods leaving the colonies must be shipped and could only be shipped to Britain.  Any goods arriving in the colonies from lands not owned by Britain, had to be shipped to Britain first.  There were a few exceptions.  The colonies and West Indies could trade directly.

The proprietress gave her “purchase orders” to the sailor, since a fully loaded cargo ship was also the postal system between the colonies and Europe. There are two “purchase orders,” one for London and one for Jamaica.  Following the trade winds and prevailing currents, the British sailor headed to London first, where he delivered the ”purchase order.” (Of course this could be quite complicated, with the shipping of goods for several colonists to London, but we simplified matters to one plot line.)

When the British sailor arrived in London, the “purchase order” was sent to the proper London merchant,  who added the listed items to his “purchase order.”  (This scenario was the only way I could figure out to get the sailor to the Far East.)

When the sailor received his orders from the London merchants he set sail to the Far East.  When he arrived in China, he collected tea.

Then he sailed to India for spices like cinnamon and ginger…

Next he stopped at Madagascar for vanilla beans.

When he arrived in England, he unloaded his cargo into the warehouse for the proper British merchants.

Duties were placed on the items in the warehouse (my kids played multiple roles.)

Then the sailor collected the items from the Far East that were to be delivered to the colonies. On board his ship was also licorice root that is harvested in England.

Before he stopped at the colonies, he went to Jamaica where he delivered the other purchase order from the Prentis Store merchant, and collected sugar and chocolate.  (I read in the Mars article that chocolate could come from Jamaica or Britain.)

With a fully loaded ship, the British sailor sailed to Yorktown, a deep sea port.

There he unloaded his goods.

An apprentice to the Prentis Store merchant loaded merchandise onto the wagon to be transported to the Prentis Store in Williamsburg.

The apprentice puts everything on the shelves while the proprietess accounts for everything.

Enter a Virginia planter (me) who brings her harvest of tobacco in hogshead barrels to Yorktown. Before they can be shipped, she has her agent, John Norton and Sons, inspect the tobacco. (Patrick Henry told me that many agents were scrupulous sorts who cheated planters by giving them less than their tobacco was worth. However he used   John Norton and Sons in Yorktown and was pleased with their work.  I further researched them to get more information and decided I’d invite them to the history presentation, since that was one name I knew. Their firm was established in the 1740′s so they fit our timeframe.  My son portrayed the firm and had a grand time doing so.)

The agent asked the planter several questions as he completed the appropriate paperwork (the tailor had shown us an example of a tobacco note a few weeks ago.  After we came home I tried to design our own, then got this idea that the post office (print shop) might possibly sell some. Well, there just happened to be a special talk on Jamestown last Friday night that gave me an excuse to pop down to CW for a few hours.  First stop was the post office where I looked around and saw many treasures with new eyes!  I finally asked the clerk (who was in full costume) if he had tobacco notes and just waited for the teasing.  He didn’t miss a beat and said, “Yes, Madame, they are in one of those labeled drawers down there.” Wow, more treasures!  Oh, they looked a bit different than the tailor showed us, more forms and several to a sheet.  I dared to ask questions, um, how much interpreting and knowledge base do the store clerks have? I’m not trying to trip them up, just asking honest questions.  He started explaining everything when I pulled my son over to listen carefully and ask any questions now because he was going to be the agent and have to fill them out.  As I purchased them the clerk asked me how my tobacco crops were doing so I told him we expected a bumper crop this year!)  So this is the agent filling out those very forms!

So period accurate! (We made up numbers and knew they needed to be prodigious because Virginia plantations are grand! Patrick Henry told us so.  He’s met a planter from Connecticut who boasted of us few acres.  Virginians have at least a few hundred times more than that. What a pity we didn’t write those numbers down.

He had to fill double copies of this, one for his records and one for mine.

When I received my tobacco notes, I got into my carriage and traveled to Williamsburg to the Prentis Store.  When I arrived I handed the proprietess one of my tobacco notes to pay off the debt I had accumulated in the past year.

While there I decided to do a bit of shopping of items from afar. Just imagine the journey the chocolate, tea, vanilla, ginger and sugar made!

The proprietess had her ledger ready to add the items to my account.  Such is business in a mercantile society.

Now that we were in 1750 and were proud British citizens, we sang “Hail Britannia” which had been written a few years before. That completed our presentation of history from 1600-1750.

Disclaimer: My apologies for the ads which HSB put on my blog. I don’t mind the ones for Williamsburg though.

While planning our next history presentation about the era of 1600-1750, I decided to focus on a major economic theory held in various forms of practice throughout Europe, called mercantilism.  Most applicable to us is Britain’s mercantile system because it drove American colonialism and only came to an end when we broke away from Britain in 1776. (Britain was established in the early 18th century. Since our unit ended in 1750, I decided to make references to Britain, since that name is most often used in CW.)

The details of British mercantilism can get complicated but basically it was an economic theory that in practice controlled trade.  Britain had factories in her homeland and used her colonies to harvest the raw materials.  The upper class in both Britain and her colonies enjoyed the luxuries of the Far East. British ships carried Far Eastern goods to Britain before any were transported to the colonies. Anything the colonies needed, exotic foods, fabrics, tools, ledger books, dishes, furniture, etc, came from Britain.

Whenever we go to Colonial Williamsburg to visit, I always hear interpreters talking about the effects of mercantilism.  My kids however hadn’t quite made that connection.   Although we had read extensively (in college level books) about 17th century mercantilist theory and practice, we didn’t have access to many first person accounts. Where better to extend our understanding than to interview the first and third person interpreters of Colonial Williamsburg?

A few weeks ago, the day before the Civil War anniversary of the Battle of Williamsburg, we donned 18th century clothing, walked through the time machine tunnel, and entered into British mercantilist society.

British flags abound in homage to the mother country. The very essence of being in Virginia, the largest, oldest, wealthiest, and most populous colony,  is wrapped up in being part of Great Britain. We were soon to learn not only exactly how that worked but also we got an earful of personal opposing opinions on the concept because it personally affected every single person we could hope to meet, from planters to tradespeople, to merchants, to African Americans to Native Americans. (This only made the research all the more fun, realistic and come to life!)

As we walked past Great Hopes Plantation, we passed fields of tobacco, the 13 month crop upon which Virginia’s livelihood existed.  The entire Virginian economy revolved around tobacco.  Virginia was first founded in 1607 as a financial venture, with the goal of finding gold.

Despite starvation, disease, death and lack of finding ore, the colony persevered until 1613 when John Rolfe succeeded with a goldmine crop of high quality tobacco that he shipped to England.  Delighted London merchants ordered more of the addictive consumable weed.  Because tobacco could not be grown in England,  it was sent in abundance from Virginia and Maryland, both colonies with the type of agriculture and climate conducive to its harvest.

I’ll never forget my first ever visit to CW.  Our very first interpreter to meet was a colonist at the Greenhow Store talking about tobacco!  While standing in front of a hogshead full of tobacco, he layed a few leaves on top of the barrels as he explained a million details about tobacco. He talked about the growing process, how they are layed in the barrels, how they would be shipped at one of the nearby rivers (Yorktown on the York River or Jamestown on the James River), etc, etc, etc.

On this trip the first person we met was a planter. Many Virginians were planters, like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Mann Page, George Mason, Robert Carter Nicholas, etc, etc, etc.  This planter is famed far and wide for his oratorical skills. Though he was licensed to practice law, he owned a plantation named Scotchtown where tobacco was grown.  How wonderful to begin our day of research with the famed and noteworthy Patrick Henry who is reknown for holding an opinion on everything under the sun!

In fact, during his presentation he reminded us, again, that Virginia is the oldest, largest, wealthiest and most populous colony of Britain. After the program we were delighted to have a private audience with the illustrious speaker who very kindly and thoroughly answered our queries. When my son asked him about mercantilism, he gave us a gold mine of information that set the pace for our research.  We learned that after harvesting the crop, it goes to an agent.  Mr. Henry’s agent was John Norton and Son in Yorktown.  Oh how he warned us to be wary of those agents, who can cheat a planter of his earnings out of mere spite or greed if not both!  The key to success as  a planter it seems is to be on friendly relations with the agent to hopefully sway him to not misjudge the crop. Hopefully he would not declare it useless or undervaluing it.  Mr. Henry assured us he was on excellent terms with John Norton and Sons.  (With that endorsement I decided to invite these agents to our upcoming history presentation. Stay tuned!)   We also learned a lot about a relationship between mercantilism and the American Revolution, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Our next stop was the weaver who was busy sharing so much information, we never had a chance to ask any questions. The exciting part though is that we didn’t have to ask questions.  In her natural everyday discourse of explaining the weaving trade, she started talking about mercantilism.  Mercantilism is so intricately weaved into the fabric of 18th century life, that one cannot properly interpret the era without speaking of it in some part of conversation.  Mercantilism bascially becomes a “Where’s Waldo?” hunt.  The trick is to recognize the signs of mercantilism in the speech.

The weaver said they really aren’t supposed to trade with other colonies, but only with the motherland of Britain. However, if they need indigo, and if they know someone in South Carolina who has indigo, a little smuggling might be going on.  (We did read about that!)  The weaver also reminded us that Virginia is the oldest, the largest, the wealthiest and most populous British colony.  All goods were supplied via Britain, because goods from any other sources were considered inferior.  Indeed goods from Britain were cheaper than from elsewhere, because the factories were in England where supply can meet demand quicker than hand made items in the colonies.  The Little House on the Prairie style of self-sufficiency on the frontier is a midwestern pioneer concept, not a British colonial concept.  Britain sufficiently supplied her colonies with all their products who wanted her colonies to remain sufficient on Britain.  The weaver said only about 23% of Virginians actually did any spinning.  I think she even said that the best quality wool came from Britain.  However all of this changes by the American Revolution…stay tuned for that!

Next we went to the woodwright. Although his lumber comes from relatively nearby (England had so little lumber that New England supplied Britain with lumber under the mercantile system.)  all the tools and ledger books came from England.

Our next stop was one of the cooks at the Armoury bread oven.  She sometimes works for the British appointed governor, Lord Dunmore, at the Governor’s Palace.  We learned that even Lord Dunmore had a tobacco plantation not far from Williamsburg.  Although he received a salary of 2000 pounds from Britain, his additional income from the tobacco supplied the Palace with all needs from clothing to household goods to kitchen equipment to exotic Far Eastern spices. The headcook was responsible for ordering all kitchen needs.

Then we went to the Silversmith. Again, she was so busy talking to the guests, we didn’t get to ask our questions.  Again, to my delight, we didn’t have to because she fell into natural discourse on mercantilism.  She said that of course the silversmith transacted all necessary goods with Britain because their goods were cheaper, better quality and the latest style.  Virginia citizens wanted British items because they were British.  When our history books first mention the rumblings of American revolution, the colonists who were at odds with Britain were not trying to separate from the mother country.  Our Founding Fathers were British through and through. It was their heritage, their history, their culture, their ancestry.  The initial goal was to come to agreement with the king, or to get the king to agree with them.  More on that later, but for now, remember that pre-Revolutionary Virginians were British through and through.  Mercantilism had been around for decades and was an accepted way of life for all.

Our next stop was to the apothecary, where shelves and drawers were laden with exotic items from the Far East to cure various ailments.  She told us that everything in her shop was shipped over from Britain, from the drugs to the planning books to the beautiful jars on the shelves.  Because it could take 3 months for a ship to take her order to the London merchants, and another 3 months for the ship to arrive with supplies, she had to carefully plan accordingly to keep her shop supplied with the most up to date drugs to ease the ailments of her customers.

Our final stop was the tailor.  He was the perfect ending to our research trip. Whereas Patrick Henry perfectly opened our tour of mercantilism, the tailor perfectly wrapped up the package of various details we got on our research journey.  First and most importantly, he attemped to clarify our concept of mercantilism.  From the best of what I recall, I think he said that the mercantile idea was one facet of the British empire which lasted until American independence.  The mercantile method allowed Britain to purchase items at the greatest quality in the greatest quantity at the least expense.  Although our reading may lead us to believe that mercantilism only benefited Britain, in truth, it benefitted the colonies on the western side of the Atlantic as well as it benefited Britain on the eastern side of the Atlantic. (After all, Virginia is the oldest, largest, wealthiest, and most populous British colony.)  The tailor explained that the colonies are the nation of Great Britain. (The Founding Fathers, being British, wanted to keep their British rights when they were taken away after the French and Indian War.  In short the govenor disbanded the House of Burgesses twice and they had no say in the taxation issues after the French and Indian War. Did I get those details right?)

The tailor reminded us that British global trade exploded in the 17th century.  By the later part of the century the Navigation Acts were enacted which detailed which products could be shipped where. Most definitely tobacco had to be shipped directly to Great Britain. However sugar could be shipped directly from the British West Indies to the colonies.  There were few exceptions though of what didn’t have to go through Britain first.

I asked the tailor how he would pay for his fabrics which would ship from Britain and he showed us some tobacco notes.  Everyone paid for everything with tobacco notes. Most often trades kept account books, tracking customer purchases.  At harvest time, when the planters received their tobacco notes from their (hopefully trustful) agents, they could then be used to pay off debts accumulated in various ledgers at local trades, merchants and even in London.  Any tradesperson could purchase items they needed from other trades or from Britain through the tobacco notes recieved from their customers.  The entire Virginian economy was wrapped up in those tobacco notes. (In my mind I started scheming how I could incorporate tobacco notes into our history presentation. Stay tuned!)

We also met African Americans, some slave…

some free…

all remembering how they and their people arrived in the New World. Why were they brought over? To futher mercantilism.  Tobacco is a 13 month labor intensive crop.  With prodigious amounts of acreage available to planters, they needed labor, lots of labor, that was cheap.  Thus slave ships anchored at colonial ports.  The Navigation Acts allowed these ships to directly make passage from Africa to America.  Slavery became most firmly entrenched in the south, where the economy was mostly agrarian based.  The stranglehold tightened in the early 19th century with the invention of the cotton gin.

Sometimes we even meet Native Americans at CW, whose relations with the colonists are often tenuous because both groups want the land.  The history of Native Americans being pushed west so that the Americans can gain more land began in the colonial era.

No colonial era history presentation is complete, especially one that will focus on mercantilism, without some authentic products from far away lands that entered the colonies in various ways as per the Navigation Acts.  We went to Tarpleys where the proprietresses helped us purchase the most applicable items for a unique dinner and global mercantilism activity.

A sugar cone from the West Indies, chocolate from Mexico, ginger from India, cinnamon sticks from India, Lapsang Souchong tea from China and licorice root from England.  Mr. Greenhow supplied us with a vanilla bean from Madagascar.  AND we got tobacco notes from the post office (print shop store)!

As much as I enjoy reading books, as much as I heavily employ them in teaching my students, there is nothing like time machine travel to meet people who have personal opinions and experiences that bring the pages of history to life.  It will be out turn to do the same tomorrow night. Stay tuned!

Pop quiz: Which 18th century British colony was the oldest, largest, wealthiest and most populous?

Disclaimer: My apologies for the ads which HSB put on my blog. I don’t mind the ones for Williamsburg though.

Having grown up in an Air Force family, having married an Air Force guy, having lived on or near Air Force bases most of my life (until I moved to Virginia) I have attended many military air shows. So have Curt and the kids.

Our next door neighbor is a retired USAF pilot who used to fly fighter jets. He found out that my son is fascinated by corsairs (so much so that he portrayed a WWII corsair pilot in one of our history presentations a few years ago.)  Our neighbor still flies and has a plane at the local municipal airport and reported to us that there is a corsair that parks next to his plane. He said he would try to arrange an opportunity for my son (and hopefully me!) to go out to see the corsair up close and perhaps even see it fly. However he rarely sees the pilot. One day he took a picture with his cell phone to show my son.

Thursday I found out that there would be a first ever air show at the municipal airport, featuring many planes that we’d see fly at the military shows like the US Army’s Golden Knights, a wing walker and oracle.  I didn’t see a corsair listed, but the ad promised 70 aircraft on display.  Would that include a corsair?  We decided to go to the air show and hope to see that incredible vintage plane.

Our favorite displays were all the vintage aircraft…

We’ve seen this plane flying sometimes when we drive towards Colonial Williamsburg. I loved the bomber jacket.

Another vintage plane…

It didn’t take long for my son to find a corsair (one that flew in)…

While I was taking pictures of the Golden Knights’ plane, I noticed that some of the guests were gifted pins.

Wow! I knew they might not give me one, so I ran to my son to tell him and he went over to hang out and listen. I did too and soon the rest of the family joined us. Eventually the crew member saw us and gave the last 3 pins to my kids and husband. I got the stickers. How do you like that? I find the air show. I got everyone there on time. I told them about the pins. I’m the one who didn’t get one. Aren’t they gorgeous?

We were told this is a Chinese plane that was designed to look like a Russian plane.

I think this is a spitfire…

I think this is the Chinese plane…

The wing walker…

The Golden Knights…

The corsair indeed took off into the sky…

paired with this more modern Navy jet.

I’m having trouble uploading more photos. There are about a million including videos! My son took my camera to shoot video. When it landed he followed the plane to its resting spot which happened to be next to the boundary of the guest viewing area. The pilot took my camera to take video of the cockpit for my son! The pilot told my son that he’d be flying back home at 3pm. When we got home, the kids sat on the back deck  and sure enough, the corsair (and other planes) flew nearby. My son most definitely took more pictures.

Someone tried to explain details and history about the corsair to my son, but my son kept interjecting the rest of the story with each comment. He knows everything about corsairs! Watching the corsair fly was definitely the highlight of the day!

Disclaimer: My apologies for the ads which HSB put on my blog. I don’t mind the ones for Williamsburg though.

Today I broke a record for the quickest trip ever to Colonial Williamsburg.  I stumbled upon a special program at the last minute so we left the house at 1pm, arrived at 4pm, left at 7pm and arrived home at 930pm. Whew!  My coach turned into a pumpkin, as always.  Usually 7pm is my fatigue point but I must have been running on adrenaline but by 9pm I was telling myself I had to conquer getting home and I did!

The special program at the Hennage Auditorium, “From Jamestown to Williamsburg: The Evolution of a Revolution 1607-1776″ commemorated the 405th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, which we have recently studied. Four subject matter experts took to the stage to discuss this topic and address our questions.  To me this seemed to be more of a meeting of minds for phDs, but the kids and I hung in there and understood most of what they said, though some ideas went right over our heads. Although we understood most of what they said about Jamestown, I have no idea what any of the discussion had to do with the evolution of revolution…so I guess this talk was for deeper minds than mine! The talk actually seemed to focus on British colonial relations with the Native Americans and African Americans, which I wanted the kids to hear because they hadn’t read up on this aspect of Jamestown yet (they were busy reading hundred’s of other pages), though I have.  I purposely sat nearly front and center because they always want questions and I had one which I thought was pivotal and foundational to everything they were discussing, but I guess they never saw my hand up. I didn’t want to be rude by keeping it up, so I gave up on asking a question and listened. The kids and I furiously took notes.

A lot of what the kids and I wrote down was review, but it would be crazy for us to dig up the details from our millions of books we’ve read, so now we have a quick timeline of events at our fingertips in our colonial daybooks.

The one thing we learned, was about specific Native American words that were introduced into the English vocabulary at Jamestown via the Algonquin tribe, such as “racoon,” “moccasin,” “opossum,” and “tomahawk.”  To my surprise, “wow,” and “koochee koochee koo” (as said to cute babies) were introduced also.

The program went a bit over, past 6:30pm and I had to get on the road soon because I had a 2.5 hour drive to make and my coach quickly turns into a pumpkin.  I was pushing it leaving this late.  We left as quietly as we could and when we got to the car, we carried on our own discussion of the program by my asking my kids the question I had wanted to ask the historians. We’ve studied mercantilism and last weekend we went around the historic area asking merchants, tradespeople and planters (like Patrick Henry) how they were affected by mercantilism. It was a fascinated study, with different perspectives from all.  I asked the kids how they thought mercantilism affected the Native Americans and African Americans.  I read up on this and wanted to hear what details the historians would supply, but that didn’t work out but I *think* I’m on the right track.  In short, mercantilism caused the colonists to want more land so they could send more raw products to England…so Native Americans kept getting pushed west.  Because cheap labor was needed to work all this land, to supply the economy of English mercantilism, the slave trade developed.  Instead of telling my kids straight out, I held a true Socratic Discussion in the van as I drove, by asking leading questions to help them make these connections and draw these conclusions from the facts they had previously learned about colonization and mercantilism. ”How” the Native Amerians and African Americans were treated was fully addressed but they “why” was never mentioned (that I could pick up) so I wanted to make sure my kids made those connections.  Many thanks to the program for spurring this discussion to give us a more rounded perspective of the colonial era! We are having a history presentation soon and all of these details will most certainly be part of the program. Stay tuned!

Apart from that, we made a stop at the CW Post Office (at the print shop) where I thought we might find a gold mine of tangibles for our upcoming history presentation covering 1600-1750 and mercantilism and I did!  The proprietor was even teasing me about it which was fun!

Then we took a quick walk through the historic area in the time remaining before the Hennage program and even received a few waves from friends.

Tomorrow is a special 405th anniversary program at Jamestown but I got outvoted.  I’m going to miss seeing one of the Jamestown ships sailing out! Boo hoo!  Oh well, tomorrow is another day, another historical era…stay tuned!

Disclaimer: My apologies for the ads which HSB put on my blog. I don’t mind the ones for Williamsburg though!