Page 71 - August Sun Rays_Text_01-57_proof_FinalTrim

History comes alive at Colonial
Williamsburg. Artisans, craftspeople
and reenactors illustrate what life was
like for our 18th-century forebearers.

vating a most desirous tobacco was the to model. It is detailed in every respect in the woods and climb trees on what
quintessential economic commodity that so one gets the feeling that he’s actually would be named “Small Mountain” or
WXUQHG-DPHVWRZQLQWRWKHÀUVWFDSLWDO standing right there. Monticello. “One day,” he often mused,
of Virginia. “I will build my home on the top of this
,DVNHGWKHGRFHQWKRZRXUÀUVWSUHVLGHQW mountain.” At age 21, Jefferson’s father
WILLIAMSBURG learned the art of war. “On the job, the died and left the entire estate to his son.
way he learned everything else.” During This is when he began a 40-year building
Visiting Williamsburg is the best way to the French and Indian War, Washington project to create Monticello. He leveled
gain appreciation for life in the 1600s Vir- rose in the ranks of the Virginia Militia by the top of the mountain in order to build
ginia. The drive from Jamestown over to virtue of his bravery. Not infrequently, he his masterpiece.
:LOOLDPVEXUJLVRQO\ÀYHPLOHV:HVWD\HG would stand on a hilltop during a battle,
directly across the street from the College almost posing as the enemy took aim. As Jefferson divided his plantation into sepa-
of William and Mary and less than one the bullets whizzed past his head, Colo- rate farms run by resident overseers who
mile from the entrance to Historic Wil- nel Washington was quoted as saying, directed the labor of enslaved people. Most
liamsburg. “Ah, how exhilarating!” His tunic was of Jefferson’s slaves came by inheritance.
frequently torn where gunshots snatched He was the owner of about 200 enslaved
We toured the Sir Christopher Wren swaths of material. The enemy thus di- people, two-thirds of them at Monticello
Building, the oldest college building still vulged their location and allowed Wash- and one-third at Poplar Forest. Tobacco
standing in the United States and oldest ington to pinpoint his cannons and win was his main crop, but he switched to
restored public building in Williamsburg. the battle. wheat in the late 1790s. During the Na-
It was constructed between 1695 and 1700 poleonic Wars, France stopped exporting
before Williamsburg was founded. It is MONTICELLO wheat, which gave American wheat farm-
so amazing to actually sit in the same ers opportunity.
classroom where Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) grew up
George Washington once took instruction. on his father’s vast plantation which Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration
sprawled from Shadwell, Charlottesville of Independence. His words “all men are
Our excitement about our next destina- and extended for miles through valleys
tion, Monticello, had reached a crescendo and mountains. As a boy, he would run Continued on the next page
by the time we left William and Mary
and Williamsburg. Should you visit Vir-
ginia by car, I urge you to do so in the
ÀUVWZHHNVRI$SULO(YHU\WKLQJEORRPLQJ
reveals its many-colored palette: red bud
trees, rhododendron, crabapple trees and
dogwoods, a variegated kaleidoscope.

RICHMOND

We made a spur-of-the-moment deci-
sion to stop at the capitol building in
Richmond. The staff conducts free guid-
ed tours. The docent was a man who
sounded more like an announcer than
the typical guide. His melodious voice
held us captive as we moved from one
chamber to another, reliving American
and Virginian history in exhilarating re-
alism. There is a life-size marble statue of
George Washington which stands in the
rotunda. What struck us immediately is
that George Washington was 6’3” tall.
The statue is an exact rendition and is
the only statue for which he ever agreed

ONLINE: SCTEXAS.ORG AUGUST 2017 SUNRAYS | 69