Another GOD-BLESS-AMERICA-MONDAY

Willamsburg-THE COLONIAL VILLAGE

(I'm dedicating the next six weeks' posts to various sites in and around Williamsburg, starting with the historical colonial village itself.)

Let me begin by saying that the best way to approach any visit to an historical site is by preparing to have an "experience"--plan to leave your world and your ecpectations behind and immerse yourself in the one you are visiting. It's easy to do in Williamburg.

The colonial setting, with historical reproductions and restorations of original buildings, will take your breath away. You'll easily imagine, (or at least ask yourself) what was it like to live here . . . in this time and in this place? Now you're on your way. . .

Tour every magnificent architectural specimen--the Governor's Palace, the Court House, the homes, the gardens, shops--you'll think you remember all that great colonial history you learned in Social Studies, but you have no idea how much the guides will teach you about this cradle of America. You'll marvel over the beauty and ingenuity apparent, and the blending of elegant British architecture and English garden mazes interspersed with the rudimentary thatched colonial abodes with their functional vegetable patches.

Some of the park's employees have spent years learning about their characters, understanding their role in history, and perfecting their presentation. Walk up to a colonially-garbed actor and they will respond in character--speaking to you in the dialect of the day and about the issues of "their day". Go to the Revolutionary City portion of the town and hear spirited debate about the British and the burden of taxation. Visit the courthouse and join the debate occurring on the steps as justice is meted out and colonists voice the first cries for rebellion. Imagine Jefferson, Madison and Washington, all Virginians and contemporaries, strolling the streets and popping into Christiana Campbell's place to dine.

You must eat at Christiana Campbell's Tavern! It was George Washington's favorite eatery in Williamsburg, and a place of great historical significance. This respite served as a gathering point where some of the first discussions over a split with England occurred, while Christiana served the organizers seafood delicacies, pot pie and pots of tea. This is a true "experience" you won't want to miss! You'll stroll through the garden, passing under arbors of wisteria boughs while listening to the baas of sheep in the pen to the right. Even the wait is worthwhile, sitting on her front porch, watching the goings on at the Capitol or at the Presbyterian Meeting House. Some will say the food is pricey, but you receive so much more than a good meal. Your servers are in character in dress, manner and dialogue. They'll tell you tales of "the general's" most recent visit, a strolling musician will play and sing for you and you'll be spellbound as you gaze around at the ambiance, knowing who sat here and what was discussed. This tavern also is the setting of many several scenes in "John Adam's" and "A More Perfect Union". Gotta eat here!


Visit the artisans shops, (be amazed at the ingenuity of the craftsman), and the gift stores, (let your children see the few simple toys the colonial children enjoyed). Grab a tri-corner hat and join in the political rhetoric going on in the Revolutionary City. Two-hour interactive programs involve you and your family in great American events like the debate over the signing of the Declaration of Independence. You're not just studying history--you're living it! Can you think of a better way to get your children to love their country, its past and its future?

There are skits and re-enactments going on all along the streets, and treats that take you back to the basics of life.

Summer is the best time for the full program, but December in Williamsburg is spectacular as well. On the Sunday of the first full weekend in December, the city hosts the Grand Illumination, the official start of the holiday season. Based loosely on the old British tradition of placing candles in windows to welcome the arrival of special guests or to herald an occasion of note, the simple candle-lighting has now grown to a full lighting extravaganza, drawing an average of 25,000 people. Click on the photo to the right to see a beautiful photo-essay by Dr. Ellen K. Rudolph. What a great way to begin the Christmas season.

So plan a trip to Williamsburg. Next week we'll tour another spot on Virginia's historic triangle!

GOD-BLESS-AMERICA-MONDAY

MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG


Of all the places I've visited, none are more dear to me than Williamsburg, Virginia. Some whine that it's too commercialized now, but all I know is all that beautiful history was nearly lost, and now it's restored thanks to the vision of a single Episcopalian priest named Dr. Goodwin, and the philanthropy of the Rockefeller family.

We travel to Europe to visit old castles. Well, here is our American equivalent--the birthplace of a nation, the place where men so revered they seem almost fictional met, ate, argued, lived, danced, fell in love and yes . . . slept.

From the rudimentary, woodsy looking cross-fences to the elegance of the Governor's Palace, the city was and is a place of extreme contrasts. Nobles and slaves, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, bonded and free. . . Elegant homes grace side streets mere steps from the stockade, the garden, the smithy's shop and court house with its stocks. It's a step back in time--a humbling, exciting, reverent big step. . .

I love this place, from the palace, to Christianna Campbell's restaurant to the Court House steps. Like Old Philadelphia, every view is familiar, immortalized in films such as the recent John Adams series and the BYU masterpiece, "A More Perfect Union."

On a personal note, this is the place where my Free Men and Dreamers series was born. We had come to the area years earlier, when the children were young and bored by our vacation choice, wanting only to hurry over to the waterpark and on to Busch Gardens. A decade later, we took two of our sons to William and Mary College to attend a religious youth retreat called "EFY". Tom and I spent a lazy week visiting the sites in this area known as "The Historic Triangle"--Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. I fell in love with the city and the industry of its people, I was swept away to another life and time as I visited the surrounding plantations, and heard the stories of sacrifice made by colonists, soldiers and frontiersmen as the new lands was settled. I knew then that I wanted to write a historic series.

We'll spend a few weeks here, (what I mean to say is I'll spend the next six God-Bless-America-Mondays to writing about this area) visiting six different sites. In the meantime, check out this Williamsburg site, and click on the link for an interactive map of Colonial Williamsburg. Enjoy the links above as well. We'll explore them in greater depth a week at a time!

GOD-BLESS-AMERICA-MONDAYS

HISTORIC PHILADELPHIA

There's a powerful spirit in the cities and buildings where this nation was born, and in no place is that more true than in Philadelphia.

Just think of the places--Independence Hall, Christ's Church, the Liberty Bell, The President's House. . . Can't you feel your arms prickle? Now say the names of the men who made these places sacred--Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison--and you can't help but feel your heart pound. Once you step beyond the doorway--even before in fact, because from the vantage point of the street, you'll find yourself entranced and spellbound, in reverent awe, thinking, "They were here. . . they were here. . ."


I remember the first time I visited the sites. I was shocked by how familiar they were, and then I realized I had seen them countless times before in historic movies. But no familiarity could dim the feelings I felt as I drew in the scent of that old wood that surrounded the Founding Fathers.

Independence Hall was my favorite stop. I confess to feeling those aforementioned chills as I gazed around the room, imagining men dressed in heavy garb, cooped up inside that stifling room, behind closed doors and windows during the blazing summer heat because the conversations they were having were too dangerous to be allowed to float outside to the citizenry. My eyes burned too. I'll admit it. It's a wonderful place.


In my opinion, every American family needs a copy of two award-winning films--"A More Perfect Union" , the history of the sacrifices made to bring forth the Constitution, produced by BYU; and HBO's mini-series, "John Adams", available anywhere DVDs are sold.


Make sure to visit Christ's Church. The spirit there is indescribable. Washington's, Franklin's, Hopkinson's names are still on their family pews. I sat in them and ran my fingers over the nameplates and my eyes moistened as they are right now as I remember the moment. I faced forward and wondered what filled their minds as they heard scriptures proclaiming freedom and God's love for all mankind being spoken from the pulpit, even as they prepared to rebel against Britain. Go there. Feel it too.

Click on the historic map, (above) of Philadelphia as it appeared in 1776. It becomes an interactive children's tour of the city, transporting you to a treasury of historic information about each building and its place in history. An even better tour, called AMERICA'S MOST HISTORIC MILE is a great start to planning a trip to Philadelphia, but if that's not possible, then sit down and take a virtual tour. There's enough information there to fill several hours. Yes, they still tell the Betsy Ross story, but you may by surprised that no historian will support it. Here are two views, (one) (two), of how and why we still revere her, at the very least as a representative of the women of Revolutionary America.

Visit Carpenters' Hall and the President's House. I shared a two-year correspondence with the curator of the historic city, Mr. Ed Lawler. I asked him innumerable questions and he supplied me with long, beautiful answers I needed to assure the historic accuracy of my Free Men and Dreamers books. Ed was working on a project of great historic import--the restoration of the President's House, the Philadelphia home provided for President George Washington when Philadelphia was the nation's capital. While excavating to uncover the original foundation, Ed and his team discovered the foundation of another building. Exhaustive research provided the the details about that second building which has, in turn, provided groundbreaking historical insight into George Washington and his family's relationship with a slave named Oney Judge. History is still being uncovered.

Click on the photo of Independence Hall. This link will take you to another virtual tour of Philadelphia that includes not only Early American history like the Liberty Bell and Christ's Church, but such fascinating historical topics as the Underground Railroad and Memorial Hall, location of the world famous, "Please Touch" Children's Museum.

Make personal history while enjoying a unique taste of the past by dining on board a clipper ship anchored in the Delaware by Penn's landing. The Moshulu, the largest four-masted sailing ship in the world still afloat, is a unique restaurant with a grand menu and unique ambiance. This was our table, and I can't tell you how wondrous it was to gaze around that magnificent interior and look out over the water while it gently rocked beneath us.

Grab a real Philly cheese steak, walk around the harbor, and make sure to see it all at night as well as by day. If you love Americana, you'll find it in Philadelphia's shops, and make a stop at the Penn Market.

So many adventures here. It's one of my pick American cities. You could spend a week here an never see it all. Let me prove it to you. Click here, then click on each pull down menu and watch the flags appear. Hundreds of things to do and see, and most of them will exhilarate the patriot in you!

GOD-BLESS-AMERICA-MONDAYS

FORT McHENRY and the STAR SPANGLED BANNER

The truth behind much of our American history, like many of our current events, is slowly being changed. The threads of truth were spun and converted, then passed round and round by travellers who paid for the suppers by aggrandizing the simple beauty of the stories in order to provide good entertainment at their hosts' dinner tables.

George Washington and the cherry tree? Delightful tale that it is, a fellow named Mason Locke Weems made that all up.

The Betsy Ross story and the first American flag? Sorry. While conducting research for my books, the curator of Philadelphia's historic district told me no self-respecting historian will touch it. Yes, you'll find Betsy's house on the city's walking tour of the city because this piece of Americana is still a tourist-favorite, but it it didn't happen. More on that in an upcoming post.

The point is, we don't need to fabricate beautiful tales about this nation and it's beginning. There are so many wonderful, poignant, and even painful true stories that need, absolutely NEED to be shared, passed on and, most of all, remembered.

If you want a beautiful flag story, study the history surrounding the Star Spangled Banner that flew over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. This was the flag that made the stars and stripes synonymous with America, and the banner that rallied a splintered nation. Learn about the Pickersgill women who stitched the flag on the floor of an old malt house, (brewery) because it was the only structure large enough to spread the fabric fully out.

Learn more about the humanitarian mission, the rescue of a friend, Dr. Beanes, that placed Francis Scott Key on the British Admiral's flagship the night before the battle.

He was in the company of a prisoner exchange agent, and the pair were treated like honored guests as they sat down. But as the meal progressed, the menacing conversation chilled them to the bones as plans for the destruction of Baltimore were openly detailed. The Navy would assail the fort by sea, keeping them occupied, while the army landed and marched into the city on foot.

We can only imagine the fear that gripped Key as he sat there. He had family in the city and a brother-in-law who was an officer in Fort McHenry. And recent events would have given him more cause for alarm. Key had already been a witness to the charred remains of the Patuxent River towns, set ablaze by British torches. Likewise, he had been behind the battle lines, in the company of President Madison and the Cabinet, at the bloody Battle of Bladensburg, when the unstoppable British war machine routed the American forces before burning Washington D.C., the Capitol and the White House.

Perhaps more terrifying of all, he would have known about the atrocities committed against a small Virginia town called Hampton where rapes and brutality of all manner occured. These are the fears that had to have torn at his heart as he heard what was planned for Baltimore.

When the meal was finished, Key and his friend were told they would have to remain with their hosts until after the bombardment. Preferring to be together, away from the British during the assault, they were lowered into their skiff along with Dr. Beanes to wait out the battle.

This was the vantage point and the mindset of Key as he watched the terrifyingly brilliant light of Congreve rockets bursting over the Patapsco River towards Fort McHenry that long, stormy night of September 13-14, 1814.

The rest of the story was magnificently expressed by Dr. Isaac Asimov in a speech I posted yesterday.

And as for the Star Spangled Banner itself? Well, not everything you learned as a child is quite true. I spent a morning with Scott Sheads, the curator of Fort McHenry, who is also the curator of the Star Spangled Banner exhibit at the Smithsonian. He explained that soldiers' letters and scientific studies at the Smithsonian Institute, the flag's protector, tell a slightly different tale than you and I may have learned.

It was a stormy night, and Fort McHenry's Major Armistead called for the massive garrison flag to be lowered to prevent it's heavy wool from breaking the pole during the storm. The mighty flag that flew at the beginning of the battle was replaced by a smaller storm flag. This was the red-white-and-blue beacon that was assailed during the height of the firefight.

Two hours after the battle and the rain ended, Armistead called for the storm flag to be lowered and for the large garrison flag to be hoisted atop the pole, signalling to everyone that the fort had withstood the assault, and that the Americans still controlled the city. And so, it was the glorious, garrison flag that Francis Scott Key did see on the morning of September 14, 1814, when he pulled a letter from his pocket and began to write the poem we now know as our National Anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner."

And the tatters on the Star Spangled Banner? They weren't from bullets and bombs but from scissors, as the Armistead family answsered requests from patriots who desired to own a piece of the brave banner that symbolized a new dawn for America.

Do the differences the truth brings to the story detract from its beauty? Not for me.

There are so many other wonderful truths that few people know about this magnificent story. Freed slaves and runaways fought for America's cause in Fort McHenry, even though the British were freeing slaves and organizing them into battle units, or recolonizing them as freemen. Most of the soldiers serving in the fort at that time were not born on American soil. They came here, to partake of the great American dream of liberty and possibility.

I love all these truths, but the truth I love best is that sworn enemies became loyal allies.

Now there's an American history lesson we can learn from.

(The War of 1812, the Star Spangled Banner and the Burning of Washington are the subjects of FREE MEN and DREAMERS, my historical fiction series--book one, Dark Sky at Dawn, book two, Twilight's Last Gleaming, book three, Dawn's Early Light, and book four, Oh Say Can You See? debuting August 2010). All are available at This is the Place Books, your local LDS book store, Seagull Book or Deseret Book stores.