Well, here we are at Colonial Williamsburg. The settlement probably most responsible for the formation of our nation, more than any other aside from Philadelphia. This is where the American Revolution came to fruition. It was not the only place the revolution was enacted but it was the political power center of the colonies. The town was populated by people such as Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Harrison and many others.

 Here is Myron walking from a Presbyterian "Meetinghouse" located at one end of the town. The horse is being rode about a block up from the Meetinghouse. Note that the rider is in period garb. There were many walking around and populating the buildings to give you a personal tour of not only the history of Williamsburg but the personal history of the building that you are in.

 This is the seat of our government in those days. It is the capitol building that housed the House of Burgess's (upper right side), and the Kings side (upper left side). King William III was the reigning monarch in England at this time. This building is not the original building. In fact this building has burnt down twice by accidental burnings. This building was reconstructed using the exact 1776 plans.

 This room is the house of Burgess's. These people were the peoples representatives to the government run by the Kings personal representatives to include the Governor. People like Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson served in this Chamber.

 This chair is the original chair of the leader of the House Of Burgess's. Patrick Henry actually sat in this chair and chaired the assembly. This is the only piece of furniture that survived the fires. In fact when you look at it up close you can see charring on the bottom of the chair. You can just feel the history in this building. It was in this building that our revolution got it's political start and energy to continue.

 As you can see this room is more opulent. It is the Kings side where the kings representatives met. It's obvious opulence was done to intimidate the average population to demonstrate the Kings power in comparison to the Burgess side that is rather plain by comparison.

 On the first floor is the first court house. The big chair is the judge appointed by the governor and the jury of 12 who were all the Kings appointees, the same guys who populated the room above it. All crimes from thievery to murder, if found guilty, had a punishment of hanging until dead, except for thievery, you could get on your knees, plead guilty and ask for forgiveness.  If the head Judge gave you mercy, they would brand the palm of your hand right then and there with a "T" branding iron and let you go.  I'm sure their life was not easy after that, walking around with a brand!.  You can also imagine that there were few repeat offenders as you would already know your sentence before the trial began.

 Here is the gang in the back of the courtroom waiting for the verdict, fortunately it was not one of us.

 This is looking down main street from the capitol building. We were there pretty early and no one was out but it got crowded pretty quick.

 This is the coffee house near the capitol building. In colonial days this was a very important spot as this is the place where men met to discuss and debate the issues of the day. Women were not invited. In front of the coffee house in the late spring of 1775 Patrick Henry made his famous speech "Give me liberty or give me death", calling upon Virginians to establish a  "well regulated militia for the protection and defense of the country". We went in and had a taste of coffee and hot chocolate made of the recipe of the day. Coffee was strong and the chocolate was real bitter. An interesting side note to this was the young woman you see here in front. She is a naturalized citizen from Portugal and her citizenship is just four years old. We sat and listened to her discuss with us the current immigration situation and she is in absolute dismay. She is frustrated by natural born citizens whom she sees as totally apathetic concerning their freedoms and privileges. She says they have no idea what they are jeopardizing by allowing immigrants to enter this country illegally. What a breath of fresh air she was.

 The next two pictures are in a working blacksmith shop. Marion is always interested in this stuff. Sometimes I think she missed her calling. She should have been a smitty or mechanic. She can't let a hardware store go by without browsing through it.

 Leave it to the gals to find a gift shop in one of the old buildings. We each got a cookie out of it.

 Myron and Karen decided to rest a bit as we made it all the way through town. We were waiting for our name to be called to go eat lunch in Chowning's Tavern.  Don't know if it was operating in colonial times but it is a good representation.

 Some colonial musicians came in while we were eating lunch at Chowning's Tavern. Everything was great except the chairs. If the colonists had to sit in these chairs I can understand why they revolted. They hurt like the dickens to sit in.

 They served us with period china. They are obviously replicas and not the real deal as nut bag tourists like us would break them. LOL

 Marion and Karen strolling to the little tent market that was selling period stuff.

 Myron and I trying on those three point colonists hats. They wanted 60 bucks for these. Shirts were being sold for 50 bucks. I can't afford to be a colonist. It would cost well over 400 dollars to get one set of cloths, hat, wig, and accouterments.

 This is the Palace of the Governor and the park leading to it.

 Here is the Bruton Parish church that was attended by not only the population but many of the founding fathers as well. George Washington attended church here while in town as well as Patrick Henry, Benjamin Harrison and so on.

 Marion is sitting in the seat that George Washington sat in. This made the whole trip worth while for her. She was elated as we toured this church when we were here in the late seventies but couldn't remember where it was located. She was overjoyed to visit the church once again that George Washington attended.

 This is a close up of the front gate of the Governors Palace. This house looks huge but once inside you realize this is not that big.

As you enter the main door you come into a foyer designed to do one thing and that is to impress and intimidate anyone who enters. It is lined with swords and muskets and implements of war. It was important to the English at this time as it represented their power over the people, The floor was marble and it is credited with being the first marble floor in America. It was imported from Italy.

 The muskets on display are actual period muskets and some may have been used in the revolution

 I left this as the final thing on this page. It was a reading of the Declaration of Independence in front of that main street you seen in the beginning of this post. It is now crowded with people and the reading was electric. The crowd was moved to participate by the very reading of the words of this document. This was inspiring. It also listed the colonists grievance's against the King. You could almost apply those to today's grievance's of our current government. What a parallel. Sometimes you got to think that it is coming around again. I recorded the entire speech but it is too big to add to this file. There are also many more pictures that couldn't be included as the file space will eat up my entire allocation. We will be making a CD later with all the pictures and videos we took.

These men pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.  None of the 56 signers defected.  Their honor, like their nation, remained intact.  What courage they had!  We should all be indebted to them for the freedoms we have enjoyed.  Today, we are losing our freedoms and need to revisit what our founding fathers committed to.

Also, the citizens gathered at the Capital to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 25, 1776.  We were here exactly 238 years later on July 25, 2014 to hear the reading of the same.