History Professor Jim Walsh took NEC students from his Revolutionary America class to Virginia to visit Colonial Williamsburg during the fall 2025 semester.
NewEnglander reporter Tess Anderson traveled with the class and documented the experience.
Patrick Henry is attributed to saying the famous quote “Give me liberty or give me death” at the Second Virginia Convention in March of 1775.
Henry was essential in the founding of America; he served as a Burgess, a member of congress, and the Commander-in-Chief for the Virginia Army, and he became the first governor of Virginia and served a total of 5 terms.
Patrick Henry is also attributed to saying, “Distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders, are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American,” at the First Continental Congress.
Carpentry was a fundamental trade in colonial Williamsburg. According to the Colonial Williamsburg website, a house carpenter was responsible for “the construction and repair of buildings, bridges, fences, and gates.” Carpenters at Colonial Williamsburg use historic tools, building manuals, and techniques when constructing historic buildings.
The monument commemorates the 300th anniversary of the Jamestown Colony and was placed in 1907. The monument is made of granite from New Hampshire.
Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in North America on May 13-14 in 1607.
The Public Hospital was used as a mental hospital from October 1773 to around 1967-1968, as patients moved to a different facility. The Public Hospital was the first of its kind in British North America and was established for “persons of insane and disordered minds.”
The Art Museum of Colonial Williamsburg is made up of two collections called the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum.
The Capitol building was constructed in 1705 and burned down in 1747. The Capitol was notorious for burning down; previously, the Capitol building was located in Jamestown but moved to Williamsburg after the building had burned down four times. The building was then reconstructed and used until 1779, when the capital moved to Richmond. The Capitol building later burned down in 1832 and was rebuilt by Colonial Williamsburg in 1934 using the original Capitol building design.
As the Colonial Williamsburg website states, the Capitol was “the center of British authority in Virginia for most of the 18th century.”
The program “To Hang a Pirate” is a recreation of a real trial of Israel Hands that occurred at the capitol building in 1719. Israel Hands was brought to Williamsburg after Blackbeard, or Edward Teach, was killed by the Royal Navy. Hands was among the fifteen crew members of Blackbeard that were taken to Williamsburg to stand trial for piracy. The audience of the program/play listens in on the court proceedings, asks for certain evidence, and decides whether Israel Hands should be found guilty and sentenced to hang.
In the real trial, Hands was found guilty of piracy but was not sentenced to hang as he agreed to testify against the other crew members.
NEC students chose to hang Israel Hands.
The Governor’s Palace was opened as a residence in 1722 and was used until 1780. Hugh Drysdale, the lieutenant governor, was the first man to live in the Palace until 1726, upon his death. The last governor to reside in the palace was Thomas Jefferson, who lived there from 1779 to 1780. Jefferson served as governor until 1781 but moved out of the Palace in 1780 as the capital of Virginia moved from Williamsburg to Richmond.
The main building of the Palace burned down in 1781, and reconstruction began in 1931. The Palace was briefly used as a hospital during the Revolutionary War before it burned down.
In the 18th century these carriages were usually driven by men, and also usually enslaved coachmen. Some drivers were not enslaved; some were indentured, free, or were actually women. The carriage pictured is called a sociable, which was typically reserved for wealthy members of society and can be used as symbols of wealth.
