The Boston Tea Party, along with other protests in the American Colonies, led to Britain’s demanding the right to tax, and this increased the Colonists’ stubborn resistance and defiance to pay any levy. Many posters and newspapers printed in England mocked, commented, and pictured (much like our editorial cartoons we have today) the events that led to the American Revolution.

A mezzotint (a print, etched on copper or steel) that represented events in Williamsburg is believed to depict an article that was printed in the London Chronicle, January 26th, 1775, referring to the signing of nonimportation (from England) agreements supporting American self-sufficiency. The paper noted “Many Virginians being reluctant to sign, a gibbet, inscribed ‘A Cure for the Refractory’ was erected in the capital, Williamsburg, from which were hung a barrel of tar and sack of feathers, which proved very effective in securing signatures.” (Read more, Williamsburg Before and After: The Rebirth of Virginia’s Colonial Capital by George Humphrey Yetter.) In the foreground, two wigged Tories, or Loyalists (colonists who sided with Great Britain against the Revolutionaries), are being intimidated and obligated to sign their names on the agreement by a group of patriots led by a cook holding a butcher’s knife and wearing a cockade in his chef’s hat. The statue of Lord Botetourt watches over the scene. (Pictured right)

So, if you had ever wondered what the Cure for Refractory was, it was a scare tactic for stubborn and disobedient colonists. If you decided to disobey (Refractory), you would get tarred and feathered (Cure). Sometimes this was a fatal cure for colonists, for some had even drown from the tar. Talk about cruel and unusual! What could have been a more civil way to scare these American Colonists? Would you have obeyed to pay the British more money that wasn’t rightfully theirs to take? Or defy them?

Take a moment to think about what time period this was. There were no air planes or air-tight caskets. His body was shipped on a boat from London to Virginia – but how was his body preserved? Take a guess! The results are surprising.

Answer: He was pickled in rum! And what do you think they did with the rum when they took the body out? I would assume it didn’t go to waste…!

Eco Discovery Park is Williamsburg’s first Eco-tourism destination. Their mission is to inspire people, organizations, businesses, and government to make the health of our environment a priority in our actions. Opening this weekend, April 21, the Eco-Discovery Park is hosting the first James Riverfest, honoring Earth Day. This all-day fest is sponsored by the James River Association.

“More than 50 river-related arts & craft, food, kids’ activities and environmental vendors and organizations will be there. The stage will feature live music all day.” says the Virginia Gazette.

Activities start at 9am beginning with The James River Paddle Challenge for kayaks, canoes, and stand-up paddle boards. Earth Day tree planting will be held in the afternoon. The band, English Channel, will be playing at 7pm, covering British 60′s and 70′s hits. Free for kids 16 and under, anyone older than 16 will pay $5 for the concert.

The land of the Jamestown Yacht basin was taken over by Steve Rose and his non-profit organization in early January of this year. Upon completion of this project, the park will feature exhibits promoting adventure and recreation, and an environmental learning center. The Eco-Discovery has 24 bicycles, 18 kayaks, 2 canoes, two stand-up paddle boards and a fishing kayak for rent. A store will be stocked with refreshments, bait and tackle, and other boating and outdoor needs. Slips in the marina are also available for rent through Hampton Marine Services.

James Riverfest runs 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, April 21, at Eco-Discovery Park, 2054 Jamestown Rd., near the Jamestown Yacht Basin. For more information and concert tickets, visit www.jrava.org/james-riverfest.

For more about the Eco-Discovery Park, visit: ecodiscoverypark.org.

Have you seen the oxen in Colonial Williamsburg? Together, 2 (or more) cattle used to muscle a heavy workload, are called “oxen”. Separately, they are not considered oxen. Oxen can pull heavier loads for longer amounts of time than horses. Horses were usually used just for transportation purposes – single travelers, or horses could carry more of a load of people with carriages.

In colonial times, a doctor was known as an apothecary. Yet these apothecaries were more than just doctors. They prescribed medical treatment and medicine, trained apprentices, performed surgery, and served as man-midwives.

Apothecaries made house calls to treat patients. Apothecaries also used to MAKE medicine for patients – just think, they didn’t have to wait at a drug store for their prescription to be filled! How convenient.

Colonial Williamsburg holds The Pasteur & Galt Apothecary Shop located on the Duke of Gloucester Street where two apothecary-surgeons practiced. The Shop features copies of Dr. Galt’s certificates in surgery, medical theory, and midwifery for completed training at Saint Thomas’s Hospital in London.

The Shop has wall displays of the British drug jars that stored medicine, and antique implements for compounding and dispensing drugs. Some items are original to the site. (See picture to the right)

Recipes for medications made in the 18th-century pharmacy books are also shown in The Pasteur & Galt Apothecary Shop.

Some old remedies are still used today in treatments – such as chalk for heartburn, cinchona bark for fevers, and calamine for skin irritation.

In these times, it was very expensive to see a doctor/apothecary. Individuals usually diagnosed their own problems and tried mixing and making their own medicines guided by tradition, folklore, or domestic medical books.

“Williamsburg apothecaries also sold cooking spices, candles, salad oil, anchovies, toothbrushes, and tobacco, making them true precursors of today’s drugstores.” (Read More)

How well do you think you would do if you still had to mix and make your own medicine? Or even diagnosing yourself? Waiting an hour for your prescription to be filled doesn’t sound so bad now, does it?

Just about every local person around Williamsburg has visited the Williamsburg Pottery. But what most remember are dusty, sweltering surroundings, and digging through old bins for merchandise. The Pottery came to its lowest point in 2008, and the buildings and 1,200 acres were on the real estate market for $25 million. When that didn’t work out, “Kim Maloney and Peter Kao had a vision to re-create the Pottery in a new way.” says spokesman Linda Stanier.

As dramatic as the Williamsburg Pottery’s reinvention is on the outside, wait until you see the inside.

The out-dated buildings have been replaced with a Dutch Colonial themed, highly organized, 160,000 square feet of retail space. Three new buildings constructed by Henderson Inc. are split into kitchen and wine, housewares, and outdoor living. Laid end to end, the shelf space spans more than 9 miles. “Dramatic outdoor lighting reinforces that sense of place as a tourist destination. The Pottery will now be open until 9 p.m. instead of closing at sundown.” (Read more)

The Grand Opening will be Thursday, April 5 – the 100th birthday of the Pottery’s founder, Jimmy Maloney, and a portrait of Jimmy hangs in the building.

Governor Bob McDonnell and Lt. Governor Bill Bolling are both invited to the Grand Opening.

“We needed to build a place for our locals and visitors to come and sit down in the evening and have entertainment,” Kao said. In addition to entertainment, the Pottery is greatly expanding its demonstrations.

Click for First Rhode Island Regiment Video

The First Rhode Island Regiment, a Continental Army regiment, was well known as the “Black Regiment”, because for some time, it allowed several companies of African American soldiers. They served in their own segregated companies within the larger integrated unit.

The First Rhode Island Regiment, in 1778, was made up mostly of recently freed black slaves. These men that fought in the American Revolutionary War not only fought for political liberty, but for personal liberty as well.

 (Click the picture for First Rhode Island Regiment Video)

In the south, as many as 10,000 black soldiers were enlisted by the British army, with promise of freedom for service, and at least 5,000 blacks served the Americans. On the American side, they served anywhere from being infantrymen to cooks, and some used their Navy experience as seamen and pilots. On the British side, they were rarely given any combat duty. They were mostly used as they had been their whole lives, for meaningless manual labor. They dug most of the trenches and fortifications.

In January of 1778, Rhode Island was having trouble filling the troops quota, so General James Vernum had the idea to allow current slaves be enlisted in the Army as well. George Washington took this idea to Rhode Island’s Governor, Nicholas Cooke. “On February 14, 1778, the Rhode Island Assembly voted to allow ‘every able-bodied negro, mulatto, or Indian man slave in this state to enlist into either of the Continental Battalions being raised. The assembly further stipulated that ‘every slave so enlisting shall, upon his passing muster before Colonel Christopher Greene, be immediately discharged from the service of his master or mistress, and be absolutely free.’” (click here to learn more) Many slave owners loathed this idea, concerned of arm-bearing ex-slaves. They argued that enlistment would lead to rebellion and unrest among those still in bondage lead by slaves armed for the war. Four months later, the law was appealed by the Rhode Island Assembly – but within that four month period, 100 free and formerly slaved African American enlisted, and after the appeal, 44 more more enlisted in Rhode Island as well.

The First Rhode Island Regiment ended up totaling 140 blacks out of the 225 men – the largest percent of blacks in an integrated unit during the American Revolution. The African Americans, at first, were in separate companies from whites in the regiment, but slowly the regiment became completely integrated.

Colonel Greene commanded the unit from its formation in 1778 until his death at Points Bridge. “In 1781, Colonel Greene and a many of his black soldiers were killed in a skirmish with American loyalists; Greene’s body was reported mutilated likely as punishment for having led black soldiers.” (click here to learn more) The command was then taken over by Lt. Colonel Jeremiah Olney. In August 1778, the regiment experienced its first battle. The unit saw 5 years of battle all together. They fought in Fort Oswego and Saratoga, NY; Red Bank, NJ; and Yorktown, VA.

As troop strength in General Washington’s Continental Army diminished, the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island Regiments were joined to form The Rhode Island Regiment which participated at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, the engagement which led to the British surrender and the end of the war.

At 10 o’clock on the morning of October 17, 1781, a British drummer beating a “parley,” and a British officer with a flag of truce, mounted a parapet south of Yorktown. The allies saw the signal, and soon the incessant, devastating artillery fire ceased. A hushed stillness fell over the field. Lord Cornwallis, realizing the defeat of his army was inevitable, sent a handwritten note to Washington:

“Sir, I propose a cessation of hostilities for twenty-four hours, and that two officers may be appointed by each side, to meet at Mr. Moore’s house, to settle terms for the surrender of the posts of York and Gloucester.”
 

The Moore House, located on the Yorktown Battlefield, was not always a museum, though it is for good reason. There is so much history in the two-story Colonial style home, from the 50 owners to some of the Revolutionary War and Civil War battles that basically took place in the back yard!

In 1730, a man by the name of Lawrence Smith II owned a 500 acre plantation, which he called “Temple Run”, and built a large, family home. Smith passed in 1954, and his son Robert inherited the plantation – because of financial difficulty in 1760, he was soon forced to sell the 500 acre property to his brother-in-law Augustine Moore. Moore was a successful merchant, married, with one son, Augustine Moore Jr. Though the plantation was not in any of the direct battles, Augustine Moore Jr. was shot and killed by a stray bullet while working in the family fields (he was also technically the last person killed during the American Revolutionary War).

The Moore House became a point of significance on October 18, 1781, Washington and Cornwallis focused on the surrender negotiations taking place at this house. The Moore House was a meeting place for commissioners assigned to draft the Articles of Capitulation which were accepted and signed by Cornwallis on the following day. “The ‘Articles of Capitulation’ was completed with 14 provisions, including two conditions that denied the British the ‘full honors of war’. These two articles required that at the surrender ceremony, the British army would case their regimental flags, and their military band would play British music instead of professionally saluting the victor with American and French songs.” (For more info, click here!) Cornwallis and Washington sent their second-in-commands on the actual day of the surrender, instead of personally attending. This surrender ended the Siege of Yorktown in an American victory – the last major military engagement of the American Revolutionary War. After losing his only son, Augustine Moore did get to witness the British signing the surrender conditions at his home.

“A local merchant by the name of John Turner, came to watch the shelling of the British Army in Yorktown just days before they surrendered. He was wounded as a result of the shelling and died in his wife’s arms. There was nothing she could do to save him. John Turner’s remains are buried in the Moore House family graveyard” (For more info, click here!)

Following the death of Moore’s son and wife (Lucy, in 1797), he ended up selling the house, and from there, the house was passed into the hands of many other owners. In the result of other wars fought around the house, many families fled for safety.

The house went through many structural changes during its 50-some owners since 1730. The worst damage came from not-so-accurate shell fires from Union forces on Wormley Creek, and the Confederate front lines located in Yorktown, during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign of the Civil War. The soldiers also took what they could carry from the house – like siding and useable wood – to build fires, rendering the Moore House unlivable.

By the 150th anniversary of the surrender, the house was completely dilapidated. In 1931, the National Park Service renovated and restored the Moore House to it’s original 1781 condition, taking a staggering three years to complete.

It is said that appearances of the entities of Augustine Moore Jr., John Turner, and his grief-stricken wife have haunted the Moore House since the National Park Service restored the house. Their presence has been noted as friendly, and like a good host, oversee the tours of the house. Sheets on the bed of the master bedrooms of the master bedroom and the bedrooms on the second floor look like they have been slept in. In the parlor is a red velvet chair, which had a depression on the seat, looking as though someone was sitting in the chair, enjoying the atmosphere.

Peyton was born ca. 1721.  He was the cousin of Thomas Jefferson, attended the College of William and Mary and was the attorney general of Virginia Colony.   Peyton Randolph was elected in 1766 as the Speaker of the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg and, before he died in 1775, he was the president of the first and second Continental Congress.  Some say that, had Peyton not died before the end of the American Revolutionary War, he,  not George Washington, might have been elected as our first President of the United States.  He married Betty Harrison in 1746 and they had no children.

The British were not happy after he presided over the Continental Congress in 1775, and made plans to arrest and hang him.  October 23, 1775, Peyton died of an “apoplectic stroke” and was first buried at Christ’s Church in Philadelphia. His nephew, Edmund Randolph, brought his remains to Williamsburg Virginia in 1776, and he was interred in the family crypt in the Chapel at the College of William and Mary where his remains rest today.  Peyton Randolph was the first to be called “Father of Our Country”, chaired the first meeting of the delegates of 13 colonies at Philadelphia in 1774, and chaired the second in 1775. His home is one of the original 88 buildings still standing today and open daily for tours in Colonial Williamsburg. 

In 1607 the first permanent English settlement was started in Jamestown Virginia with 104 men and boys sponsored by the Virginia Company.  Today at  Jamestown Island the story is told of the hardships that the early settlers endured.  Disease, starvation, harsh winters and Indians all played a part in our history.  Excavations began in 1994 with the hopes of finding some evidence of the original 1607 James Fort, for over two centuries thought lost to river shoreline erosion. Today, archaeologists have rediscovered much of the fortification and have recovered over a million artifacts – many that can be seen in the museum that tell the true story of Jamestown. 

Next door to Jamestown Island is the Jamestown Settlement that tells the story of the people who founded Jamestown  and of the Virginia Indians they encountered, told through film, gallery exhibits, and living history. 

Williamsburg was the Capital of Virginia from 1699 until 1780 when then Governor Thomas Jefferson moved the capital of Virginia to Richmond.  In the history of Virginia, Virginians have had three Capital cities, Jamestown, Williamsburg and Richmond.  During the Colonial period of Williamsburg people like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Patrick Henry, George Wythe and Peyton Randolph walked the streets, made the laws and spoke of revolution.  Today Colonial Williamsburg is a living history adventure.

Just down the Colonial Parkway is Yorktown where the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War was fought and ended with Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781.  Immerse yourself in 300 years of Yorktown history.  Here you can experience 18th century homes, revolutionary battlefields, and museums offering hands-on history programs and exhibits.

Ghosts, we have them, too, and we love to tell the stories – but don’t forget your camera, at night things do go bump in the dark and amazing images can be captured on your camera.