Colonial Williamsburg, the capital of British Virginia, is preserved as an extensive museum. Its mission is: “The future may learn from the past.”
Williamsburg, Virginia’s crown jewel is an interpreter who speaks to contemporary audiences within the context of the world as they would have known it at the time.
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As an example, Thomas Jefferson welcomes visitors. “Hello, friends. How are you doing? Do you have any complaints? You must not be a Virginian! If you’re not from Virginia, where are you from? Religious anarchy of Pennsylvania? Welcome! Ohio Territory Are you from? Welcome to Upper Canada! Are you trying to encourage immigration? Here.
Indeed, immigration was highly controversial in Jefferson’s time, but his perspective was fundamentally different from ours. I raised this issue with Curt Smith (who personifies Thomas Jefferson) and Katherine Pittman (who plays a very feisty Martha Washington).
“It was in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. You know that part in the middle that everyone skips over? In a long line of 27 abuses, Jefferson says, “He[the King]I stopped it.” That is one of the reasons we declare independence. ”
Pittman asked, “How can we improve if we don’t welcome new things at all?”
“We’re not talking about ‘never’ welcoming anything new,” Koppel said. “We need to know who is coming. We need to know whether they are of good character. Isn’t that what the discussion is about?”
“That’s the debate of your time,” Pittman said. “We can speak to our times.”
“Oh, stop it!”
“You started it!” Pitman laughed.
“I’m having a mad fight with Mrs. Washington, my God!” said Mr. Koppel.
“I think we can win!” she laughed.
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Interpreters are often advised to simply allude to contemporary issues. Jefferson (Smith) said, “How do you get a bunch of men to vote just because it’s the right thing to do? I don’t know. Maybe your politicians do it all the time.” “I guess so!” he said. The audience was amused.
Those who visit Williamsburg will be grappling with real political issues of 2024. One woman said: “There are people who want all the power, like the king. They wanted the power to rule over everyone. I think that’s what’s happening now.”
One young woman said, “This country is full of conflict and fights for freedom. But I really wish I could live in a world where I have the right to my own body.”
“Abortion,” Koppel asked. “Do you feel that strongly?”
“Yes,” she answered.
Martha Washington has her own take on this. Back then, she said, the issue was dealt with from within the home: “Childbirth and women’s health are women’s domains,” she said. “There’s no need to check the services of a midwife if that’s what you want. These treatments are known among women. They’re also known in indigenous communities. African cultures It is also known that our European culture is similar, whether it is a difference in herbs or a difference in techniques, they generally use the female sex to rid themselves of unwanted children. But I know that my husband, General Washington, would fully support me in whatever I wanted to do myself.
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An even more contentious issue then and now was race. In Jefferson’s time, that meant slavery. Despite owning more than 600 enslaved men, women, and children, Jefferson introduced legislation in 1779 to end the practice. “But here’s the problem,” Jefferson said. “Bill 51, which makes the slave trade illegal, must go to a group of men. They all have property…what?”
Williamsburg portrays slavery in a particularly dramatic and non-representational way, with the character of James Lafayette, an enslaved man who is instructed to meet the Marquis de Lafayette, a French nobleman who served the American cause. (whose name would become James Lafayette eventually adopted).
Lafayette asked James to sneak past British lines as a false fugitive slave, infiltrate British officers, and report what he had heard. James was so successful that he ended up working directly under General Cornwallis. “We could and did share British intelligence and information with the American side many times,” James said.
Although he served the American cause faithfully, he was “not granted freedom for what he had done for American independence. He was returned to slavery. He remained with Dr. William for another six years. I was sent back,” he said.
It wasn’t until the Marquis de Lafayette petitioned the Virginia General Assembly for freedom that it was finally granted.
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Given its extraordinary backstory, I wondered how Stephen Shields (James’ interpreter) would take on the role. “I hope you understand that many of the issues we are dealing with today are related to many of the decisions that were made in colonial areas,” Shields said. “I can see the line between one side and the other, and once I came to terms with it and realized that, I was so depressed that I almost quit.”
Later, a colleague reminded him that he was giving a voice to his ancestors who were denied a voice during his lifetime. “And the moment she told me that, I had little problem with the fact that I had to play an enslaved person every day, because now I understood why I was doing it.” he said. “So, I love my job and it’s an honor to do this job, but there’s a reason I live in the middle of nowhere. Because here… It’s how I deal with it because I want to get away from it all when I’m done.”
Finally, there is the father of our nation, George Washington. “At the start, I said we should avoid creating cliques,” he said. “Although I specifically mentioned regional differences, it is equally important to try to avoid factions created by the spirit and rage of party politics.”
Asked by a visitor who he would support in the 2024 presidential election, Washington responded, “I don’t know what you mean by presidential election. Do you mean an election? Do you mean a race? What kind of person do you mean? Can you imagine lacking virtue as well?” Or is it the dignity that a race should have? We run for office, we never run for office! ”
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Ron Carnegie gives a memorable performance as a man who could have been president for the rest of his life, but chose a different path. “Often when I’m talking to people at the end, someone in the group will say, ‘I wish President Washington was running today,'” Carnegie said. “There is no way someone like President Washington could be president today.”
because? “He’s aloof, he’s not friendly, he’s not sociable, he doesn’t like public speaking. And he doesn’t want the job. And how can he be president today if he doesn’t want the job?” Are you planning on becoming one?”
In 1800, that didn’t matter. John Adams wanted to continue working. Thomas Jefferson wanted to accept that.
Smith said, “The 18th century is just as bad as the 21st century. There were newspapers that said some pretty awful things about John Adams. And there were some awful things thrown into the corner of Jefferson. New Englanders and New Englanders. There was also a newspaper that said, “If Jefferson was elected president, he was sure he would raid their homes and steal their Bibles.”
John Adams lost the election and conceded. “Jefferson referred to the election of 1800 as the Second American Revolution,” Smith said. “And it was just because for the first time in this country there was a change of party at the head of government and it was peaceful. It was a peaceful transfer of power. That’s a powerful thing.”
Nothing like this had ever happened before, but it set a precedent that continues into our time.
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Story produced by Dustin Stevens. Editor: Ed Givenish.
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