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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.
The Civil War, music by Frank Wildhorn, book and lyrics by Frank Wildhorn,
Gregory Boyd, and Jack Murphy, at Ford’s Theater, Washington DC, blogger.
Shenandoah (1975), music by Gary Geld,
lyrics by Pete Udell, book by Udell,
Philip Rose and James Lee Barrett. A Virginia
farmer’s son is taken prisoner by union soldiers. I saw this in Dallas
in 1975.
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