Day 78 N 37° 14.071’ W 76° 30.067’ Yorktown, VA

We spent the last two days taking advantage of a free bus service from Yorktown to Jamestown and Williamsburg, the two other cities from Colonial times that make up the “historical triangle” in this area.

60 ft. square-rigger "Susan Constant"

Jamestown was the site of an English colony established in 1607. You can visit replicas of the 3 ships that brought the original 100 colonist and their supplies.  They were square-riggers and the largest was only 60 feet long.  You can also visit a recreation of the fort and a typical village of the Powhatan people that lived in that area. Lyn had visited the settlement as a child with her family, and she found it was a much more “hands on” place now than what she remembered.  At the fort, people could put on the soldiers’ helmets and torso armor.  The Powhatan village had thatched-roofed cabins with beds covered with furs and hanging tools we could examine.  People in costume were making a dugout canoe by using fire to burn out the large log and scraping the ash away using oyster shells. Visitors were encouraged to try scraping.

Burning to make a dugout canoe

Inside a Powhatan lodge

In just the last decade, archeologists have uncovered the site of the actual Jamestown settlement, and you can now visit this area.  Archeologists used all the latest forensic anthropology techniques to uncover the story of two human remains that were found. The display was like an episode of the TV series “Bones” that included facial reconstructions so you could see what the person looked like, and x-rays and DNA analysis to determine how they lived and how they died.

When we returned to Yorktown that evening, we were treated to a view of the Yorktown Fife and Drum Corps as they marched through the town.  We had to get a photo for the benefit of many of Peter’s relatives who participated in Fife and Drum Corps in Connecticut and New Hampshire for many years.

The next day we were off to Williamsburg and happy to have the bus take us right to it since it was a rainy day. Williamsburg was the capitol of the Colony of Virginia and the place where much of the formative ideas for independence began.  There are many buildings to visit where you are treated to authentic craftsmen at work in costume and in character.  In one of the buildings, a coffee house of the period, we were treated to the performance of “Edith” who came in complaining of her money troubles to the woman serving coffee.  Then she noticed us and introduced herself as a free woman (she was black) who had a business cleaning linens for tavern owners and she was owed money.  She went on to disparage the rules that would not let a Negro take a case to court against a white person, and to talk about how men only get us into trouble and only want to marry you if you are wealthy.  She was a great character and the serving woman played right along.

Edith speaking her mind

Another building we particularly enjoyed was the cabinet makers where Lyn was encouraged to try playing a harpsichord, and Peter enjoyed watching a man using a series of planes to shape a board into a piece of moulding. It was not possible to see everything in a day, and we had to catch the bus back to Yorktown, but despite the rain it was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Harpsichord

 

Cabinetmaker