WILLIAMSBURG, COLONIAL

WILLIAMSBURG, COLONIAL. Originally known as the Middle Plantation, the city of Williamsburg was a planned community from its origin. In October 1693, the Virginia General Assembly designated the Middle Plantation as the site for the "free school and college" of William and Mary, and after the state house in Jamestown burned to the ground in October 1698, the Middle Plantation became the seat of government. Named Williamsburg, in honor of King William III, the city included many new innovations. A 1699 act of the Virginia General Assembly divided the city into half-acre lots, with a directive that no house could be built within six feet of the main street, known as Duke of Gloucester Street. This act called for the creation of a brick capitol building, the first in the American colonies, so that the governor and General Assembly could be housed in Williamsburg, as well as the construction of a brick prison. The city progressed quickly in the early years of the governorship of Alexander Spotswood, and in May 1722, the city of Williamsburg incorporated. As a result, the mayor, recorder, and aldermen were designated as justices of peace within the city limits and were empowered to hold a monthly hustings court. In addition, one delegate could be sent to the House of Burgesses, provided his estate was worth two hundred pounds sterling if he were a Williamsburg resident, or five hundred pounds sterling if he were not. The original Williamsburg charter vested power in the hands of each corporation, such as the mayor or aldermen, yet the charter called for a division of powers between each group.

During the eighteenth century, Williamsburg became a major capital city, and played a role in the events leading to the American Revolution. On 30 May 1765, Patrick Henry spoke his famous words, "if this be treason, make the most of it" in denouncing the Stamp Act. Although the British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766, Virginia led the way in uniting the colonies in resisting British encroachments on the rights of person and property. Williamsburg also was at the forefront of industrialization, creating a factory for making woolen and linen cloth, as well as a tannery, carriage factory, wig factory, and snuff mill. In addition to the College of William and Mary, various schools, including schools exclusively for young women and African Americans, were established, and these continued in some form even during the Revolutionary War. In 1780, the state capital moved to Richmond, and Williamsburg once again became a rural county seat; the population dropped by about one-third to about 1,300.

Restoration in the Twentieth Century

The idea of re-creating the town of Williamsburg originated with W. A. R. Goodwin, a local minister, who requested assistance from Henry Ford, boldly asking Ford to underwrite the cost of restoring the town where George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry had lived and worked. When Ford did not respond, Goodwin approached John D. Rockefeller, who authorized Goodwin to purchase property in the town anonymously. Using 1790 as a cut-off date, Rockefeller had 720 buildings constructed after 1790 demolished and had eighty-two eighteenth-century buildings restored. The Rockefeller crew also rebuilt 341 buildings whose foundations remained. Completed in the mid-1930s, the Williamsburg reconstruction cost approximately $79 million.

Ignoring and Restoring History

The town only restored the society of the planter elite—no reference was made to the black half of the city's eighteenth-century population, the half that had been slaves. Rockefeller appeared to have chosen to ignore that portion of American colonial history.

In 1939, Rockefeller became the chairman of the board of Colonial Williamsburg and called for an aggressive public relations campaign. He brought troops to Williamsburg during World War II as inspiration to the city's residents. In the 1950s, Williamsburg expanded its public relations campaign in an attempt to attract visitors; the city brought foreign students and held workshops on democracy. During the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower (1953–1961) in particular, Williamsburg became the customary arrival point for heads of state on their way to Washington, D.C. However, a tour through Colonial Williamsburg remained a tour through the history of white America, and the sight of a "slave" was rare. During the 1950s, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation restricted the jobs available to African Americans and allowed blacks to visit as paying customers on only one day a week. Three decades later, Colonial Williamsburg was ridiculed for having ignored history while concentrating on the resort quality of the town. In 1982, the city responded to criticism of its focus on elites and the "stopped in-time" quality of the town by adding slavery to the portrayal of colonial life. Colonial Williamsburg stopped short, however, of tackling the relationship between blacks and whites. Very little attention was paid to the institution of slavery until, on 10 October 1994, a slave auction was re-enacted as a part of the celebrations of the accession of George III to the throne. The 1994 summer programs had also included slave marriage re-enactments. The 1994 "slave auction" drew an initial crowd of two thousand to Duke of Gloucester Street for the re-enactment of the sale of four slaves during an estate auction. The NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference protested this auction and attempted to cancel the re-enactment. However, once the controversy had somewhat died down, it became clear that programming like this was needed. In March 1999, programming entitled "Enslaving Virginia" began, with African Americans making up nearly 10 percent of the almost six hundred living history reenactors in Colonial Williamsburg.

By the turn of the twenty-first century, the city of Williamsburg covered nine square miles, and was a thriving business and cultural center. With both the College of William and Mary and Colonial Williamsburg, the city attracts over one million visitors each year.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cutler, William W. "Cultural Literacy, Historic Preservation, and Commemoration: Some Thoughts for Educational Historians." History of Education Quarterly 4 (2000): 477–482.

Hood, Graham. The Governor's Palace in Williamsburg: A Cultural Study. Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1991.

Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. Williamsburg: The Old Colonial Capital. Richmond, Va.: Whittet and Shepperson, 1907.

Wallace, Mike. Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory. Philadephia: Temple University Press, 1996.

JenniferHarrison

See alsoSlave Trade ; Slavery ; William and Mary, College of .