Colonial Williamsburg - Part 2

Our second day in Colonial Williamsburg started with about a half hour private audience with Patrick Henry himself! They had arranged these "private audiences" with different founding fathers all week long as part of home educator's week, so a group of about 40 homeschoolers gathered in the backyard of a home to hear Mr. Henry's thoughts. I was absolutely riveted throughout his entire talk. The man portraying Patrick Henry was totally in character, his speech was very 18th century, and his perspective on events happening in 1774 was fascinating! It was a highlight for both my husband and myself and really made history come alive for us.

On our walk to the main street we happened upon this pair of oxen pulling a cart. The driver told us that ox would have been seen more frequently in Williamsburg than horses. Of course the horse population would have increased greatly any time the House of Burgesses met because so many Burgesses would have come in from the surrounding countryside.

Next we visited the foundry. The founder was working with liquid pewter when we arrived, in this picture he is stirring it in a pot buried in hot coals. The liquid pewter was about 700 degrees! He made several pewter spoons while we watched, pouring the liquid pewter into a mold and then cooling it (which happened very quickly) before taking it out of the mold.

Each of our children took turns pulling on the bellows cord. They would pull on this cord which was attached to a wooden arm that went to the large bellows located up by the ceiling and attached to the chimney above the fire. It was hard to pull!

Our daughter G took this picture of a British flag against the white backdrop of a building. Isn't it nice? She takes some very creative pictures! I think photography is becoming a hobby of hers.

Another one of the tasks that our militia recruits had been given on our first day in Colonial Williamsburg was to go to the post office and collect a letter from Boston. They were to deliver this letter to the printer because it contained information that may be printed in the Virginia Gazette. Here is the printer at work:


Later in the day our family split up. My husband took 4 of the children to one end of town to hear a drama on the courthouse steps while I took our 5 year old son C for a carriage ride. This was the one thing he really wanted to do. Going in and out of historical buildings is not really that interesting to a 5 year old! Again we had to make a choice based on finances, the carriage rides were $10 per person. So we chose the child who wanted it the most and off we went! We had a wonderful ride around town in this 18th century carriage with a nice couple from California.

There were so many lovely houses and gardens in Colonial Williamsburg! Here is just one of them. Doesn't this make you want to sit a spell?

On our way out of town we stopped to tour the jail. The two cells pictured here are the only two original cells to have survived since the 1700's and they once housed Blackbeard's pirates while they waited for their execution! Since the jailers young daughters were helping to care for the prisoners, they did have food slots in the cell doors to slide the food through, and they had toilets in each cell so the prisoners would not need to come outside for any reason. I believe this is where the word "throne" came to be used for toilet. They really did look like thrones, with a couple steps up to a seat that was about the same height as my chest. So that was some trivia we learned on this trip!