Colonial Williamsburg in the Classroom

Do you ever wonder how our country got its start? Where its inhabitants came
from? Or why they came here? Have you ever wondered about where we got our roots? If
we as adults ask or have asked ourselves these questions it can only be imagined that
students are asking themselves these same questions. From a young age kids want to
know where they came from, and they dont always mean where do babies come from?
Sometimes these kids are asking the very questions posed at the beginning of this
paragraph, but often times it goes unnoticed by adults. In the following brief you will
read about how incorporating the topic of Colonial Williamsburg into our curriculum will
help answer these questions.

Williamsburg was the precinct of scholars and scoundrels, of gentlewomen and

slaves, of indentured servants working off the price of their passage to the New
World through years of service to masters who had bought their certificates of
indenture. There were gentlemen more daring than capital; Capital clerks and
officials who saw their public duty as a means of private gain; gainsayers
unwilling to let Britain call every shot who resisted such measures as the ban on
farmers raising sheep for local wool; sheepish debtors whose kin brought them
delicacies and firewood to wile away their prison terms; wily innkeepers who
accommodated guests three to a bed; lawyers who had trained at Londons Inn of
Court; courtly thespians theater of Palace Green and then at the Play House near
the Capital; a church musician who became the jailer at 40 pounds a year to
augment his organists income of 25 pounds; printers who served as postmasters,

assuring their publications a wider circulation; a black preacher with the engaging
name of Gowan Pamphlet. Severally and separately, they made a town (Kopper,
Clay, & The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1986, p. 101).

The questions students will be asked to consider and investigate will help them to
uncover the complex lives that made up the town described above. The following
questions will be asked. What did people wear? What did they eat? Where did they live
(including different classes and races)? What was the government like? Where they
religious, and how did that affect their lives? What did the town look like? Are there any
similarities to the way we live in the 21st century as compared to the 18th?
The most basic question is what did these people look like? The answer to this
varies. From the time a child is born until about the age of four, they wear a long
gown/dress or a nightgown-like garment also known as a shift, or a shirt. Children are
also put in a stays, which is a cloth like brace that has been stiffened with whalebone.
This is worn in order to train the child to have perfect posture (Brenner & Williams,
2000).
At the age of four boys and girls start to dress differently. Boys start to wear pants
that come down to just bellow their knees, which are known as beeches. They wore a
shirt, a waistcoat/vest, a coat and a three-cornered hat, stockings and shoes. Most men
and boys did not wear underpants (Brenner & Williams, 2000).
Young girls and women wore a lot more clothing compared to men. When
sleeping women wore a shift and a night-cap. When they woke up they changed their
night-cap to a day-cap and added layers onto your shit. These layers consisted of long

stockings, which were held up by a ribbon tied around the leg called a garter. A stays,
petticoat, or skirt, were added on top of the shift. A pouch was then tied around your
waist, this was known as a pocket. An outer petticoat and gown/frock were the final
layers added and they usually rested at the ankles. Sometimes you wore an apron to
protect your clothes while working, if you went out then you put on a hat and sometimes
wore a kerchief around your neck (Brenner & Williams, 2000).
If you were someone of a lower status or enslaved, you wore completely different
clothing then the rest of the town. Women wore cool shifts with loose-fitting skirts that
were easy to move in and added kerchiefs or head wraps in the summer for protection.
Men wore trousers, makeshift shirts and brad-brimmed hats for working in the fields
(Brenner & Williams, 2000).
What did people eat is always a big question kids have. There are similarities
between the diet of todays society and the diet of colonists. Baked ham, potted beef, beef
stew, roast turkey, fried chicken and fish were the main sources of protein for most
people. Peas, beans, turnips, lettuce, onions, carrots, sweet and white potatoes, and
squash were all commonly grown in gardens (Brenner & Williams, 2000). These gardens
were often known as kitchen gardens were not only vegetables were grown but also
herbs used for seasoning and medicinal plants (Brenner &Williams, 2000).
Because there was no refrigeration in the 18th century, you often ate the foods
wither pickled, potted, sugared, salted, smoked or dried. These were all ways of
preserving food for it to stay fresh longer (Brenner & Williams, 2000).
Slaves were allotted food rations each week. One adult got 8 quarts of corn meal,
a pound of salted beef or pork, salted fish and molasses each week. Because this was not

enough to sustain a person slaves often hunted around their quarters for wild animals to
substitute more protein in their diets, this meant that fish was a staple in their diets
(Unearthing Secret America, 2002). Breakfast was served about two hours after people
started working and the main meal dinner was served around 2 oclock. Supper was
comprised of leftovers from dinner and served later in the day (Brenner & Williams,
2000).
Food was a big part of celebrations. They often lasted several days where big
meals were served for breakfast, dinner and supper. Five or six different kinds of meats,
fish and fowl at these events along with an assortment of desserts like pies, cakes and
candies (Brenner & Williams, 2000). Tea was the most popular drink of choice but they
also served milk, coffee, wine, apple cider, homemade beer, and on occasionally spirits
made from fruits (Brenner & Williams, 2000).
Those who did entertain at home did so in lavishly adorned residences. Fine
porcelains, tall clocks, mirrors and rich fabrics all came from England; so did the styles
of furniture, clothing and manners, which were copied almost slavishly (Kopper, Clay, &
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1986).
Where did people live? The upper class lived in mansions that were in and around
the town of Williamsburg. Tradesman and merchants lived close to the main part of ton
and often had their shops attached to their homes. The miller often had a windmill on his
property and if you were a farmer you lived on the outskirts of town so that you had more
land for livestock to graze. Most families lived in wooden houses on the backstreets;
some houses were built of bricks (Brenner & Williams, 2000). Plantations were also
located on the outskirts of town for the additional land for them to grow tobacco.

People who were enslaved and worked in town lived close to their masters shops
while others lived on their masters property in an out building. Of they lived on a
plantation they often had a one-room hut in a separate area of the property (Brenner &
Williams, 2000).
Life for the enslaved was not easy. They lived in fear of being punished or
possibly sold to another master. There were cases where wives and husbands lived and
worked on different plantations and times when children were separated from their
parents and sent to work elsewhere. If they acted up they could be punished by being
beaten or even killed. In an account published in the Virginia Gazette on January 25,
1770, an altercation between the slaves and the Stewards deputy took place. According
the Gazette, the slaves had been treated with too much leniency and because of this they
acted up and defended themselves against the Stewards deputy almost killing him
(Virginia Gazette, 1770). It was a big fear of plantation owners that their slaves would
revolt against them. The account ends with an unclear outcome of what happened, but it
is known that some slaves did indeed die during this altercation.
What was the government like? Was religion a part of their lives? There were
about three hundred families who ran Virginias society economy and politics and all of
them knew of Williamsburg, but lived on their far-flung estates for most of the year
(Kopper et al., 1986). This meant that only the families who lived close enough to
Williamsburg really had an influence on the day-to-day governance. The government
strictly regulated the activity of citizens yet swine and fowl roamed free in the streets of
the market place (Kopper et al., 1986). Unlike in todays society, church and state were
closely joined. It was law that every free man attended church; any man who had a

political ambition began hi career within the church conducting the business of the parish
(Kopper et al., 1986).
The nuclear family unit was run in a similar way to the government, based off a
patriarchal ideal. This meant that the father was the head of the household who ruled over
his wife, children relatives, dependents, tenants, hired help, apprentices, servants, and
slaves (The European Family). That being said the reality was this wasnt always the
case. There are accounts of spinsters running their own businesses, and widows taking
over businesses from their deceased husbands (The European Family).
The students will investigate the layout of the town of Williamsburg by doing an
interactive online tour of the town. The students will be able to learn not only where
things were located in the town, but they will also learn a few facts about it as well. For
example the students will get information on the different trades of the town including
apothecary, basket maker, blacksmith, brick maker, cabinetmaker, carpenters, barrel
makers (cooper), foodways, gunsmith, the tailor (milliner), a printer & bookbinder, a
weaver, shoemaker, silversmith, wheelwright, and wigmaker. Students will also be able to
look at historic places of interest (Colonial Williamsburg website).
And finally the students will look into whether or not more research is being done
on the people of Colonial Williamsburg. They will look at this using the Colonial
Williamsburg website looking at the current research being done on site.

Reference
Brenner, B., & Williams, J. (2000). If you lived in Williamsburg in colonial days. New
York: Scholastic Inc.
Colonial Williamsburg; that the future may learn from the past. (n.d.). The European
Family. Retrieved from Colonial Williamsburg Website:
http://history.org/Almanack/life/family/european.cfm
Colonial Williamsburg; that the future may learn from the past. (n.d.). The Fear of Slave
Revolt. Retrieved from Colonial Williamsburg Website:
http://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume2/february04/primsour
ce.cfm
Colonial Williamsburg; that the future may learn from the past. (n.d.). Tour the Town.
Retrieved from Colonial Williamsburg Website:
http://www.history.org/almanack/tourTheTown/index.cfm
Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm), Films Media Group., & Public Broadcasting
Service (U.S.). (2002). Unearthing Secret America. New York, N.Y: Films Media
Group. Retrieved from:
http://fod.infobase.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=44065
Kopper, P., Clay, L., & Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. (1986). Colonial
Williamsburg. New York: Abrams, in association with the Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation.