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A Day in the Life
AN INSTRUCTIONAL TELEVISION SERIES
Introduction, Background Materials,
and Table of Contents
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Table of Contents
Introduction, Background Materials, and Table of Contents
Historical Background ............................................................................................................ 7
Family Demographic Information (1750–1775) ................................................................. 12
Glossary ................................................................................................................................. 13
Time Line of Events .............................................................................................................. 17
Episode One: Prissy, Dennis, and Tom’s Day
Episode Synopsis................................................................................................................... 23
Additional Information for Teachers on Daily Life in the Eighteenth Century ................ 24
Lesson One: Design a Day .................................................................................................. 29
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 29
Objectives .................................................................................................................. 29
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................... 29
Materials..................................................................................................................... 29
Strategy ...................................................................................................................... 29
Daily Activities of a Young Gentry Woman (Early Teens) .................................... 30
Possible Daily Activities of an Urban Slave boy (About Age 11,
in a Gentry Family) ........................................................................................... 32
Possible Daily Activities of a First-Year Apprentice Carpenter ............................. 33
Lesson Two: A Day in the Life of Prissy Carter; Dennis, Her Slave; and
Thomas Moss, A Carpenter’s Apprentice ........................................................................ 34
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 34
Objectives .................................................................................................................. 34
Materials..................................................................................................................... 34
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................... 34
Strategy ...................................................................................................................... 34
Map of Williamsburg................................................................................................. 36
Task Cards—Prissy Carter, Dennis, and Thomas Moss ........................................ 38
A Day in the Life Checklist........................................................................................... 44
Episode Two: Mr. Carter’s Day
Episode Synopsis................................................................................................................... 46
Lesson One: Rights, Controversies, and the American Revolution ................................ 47
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 47
Objectives .................................................................................................................. 47
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................... 47
Materials..................................................................................................................... 47
Strategy ...................................................................................................................... 47
Situation Cards—Patriots, Loyalists, and Undecided ............................................. 49
Time Line of Events Leading to the Declaration of Independence ........................ 52
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Patrick Henry’s Stamp Act Resolutions ................................................................... 55
A Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer ............................................................. 57
The Nonimportation Association of 1774................................................................. 58
Call for the First Continental Congress.................................................................... 59
Excerpt of a Letter from Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of Virginia,
to the Earl of Dartmouth................................................................................... 60
Patrick Henry’s “Liberty or Death” Speech ............................................................ 61
Patrick Henry Defies Royal Law and Government ................................................ 63
The Virginia Resolution for Independence—May 15, 1776 ................................... 64
Lesson Two: The Prelude to Independence: A Role-Playing Activity ............................ 66
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 66
Objectives .................................................................................................................. 66
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................... 66
Materials..................................................................................................................... 66
Strategy ...................................................................................................................... 66
Script for Debate ....................................................................................................... 68
Script for Roll Call ..................................................................................................... 69
The Grand Union Flag.............................................................................................. 70
Episode Three: Daniel Grove’s Day
Episode Synopsis................................................................................................................... 72
Lesson One: Modern Manners and Civility ...................................................................... 73
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 73
Objectives .................................................................................................................. 73
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................... 73
Materials..................................................................................................................... 73
Setting the Stage ........................................................................................................ 73
Strategy ...................................................................................................................... 73
Graphic Organizer on Manners ............................................................................... 75
Lesson Two: Manners and Civility in the Eighteenth Century ....................................... 76
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 76
Objectives .................................................................................................................. 76
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................... 76
Materials..................................................................................................................... 76
Setting the Stage ........................................................................................................ 76
Strategy ...................................................................................................................... 76
Primary Source Document 1—Rules of Civility ..................................................... 78
Primary Source Document 2—Phillip Vickers Fithian’s Journal .......................... 86
Primary Source Document 3—Colonel Landon Carter’s Diary ............................ 87
Primary Source Document 4—Rational Spelling-Book ......................................... 88
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Episode Four: Jill’s Day
Episode Synopsis..................................................................................................................... 90
Lesson One: The Old Plantation .......................................................................................... 91
Introduction ................................................................................................................. 91
Objectives .................................................................................................................... 91
Standards of Learning ................................................................................................. 91
Materials....................................................................................................................... 91
Strategy ........................................................................................................................ 91
Painting: The Old Plantation ...................................................................................................... 93
The Old Plantation Information Sheet .......................................................................... 94
The Old Plantation Worksheet ....................................................................................... 95
Lesson Two: Runaway Slave Advertisements in the Virginia Gazette:
Descriptions of African-American Life ........................................................................... 96
Introduction ................................................................................................................. 96
Objectives .................................................................................................................... 96
Standards of Learning ................................................................................................. 96
Materials....................................................................................................................... 96
Strategy ........................................................................................................................ 96
Extension Activities ..................................................................................................... 97
Runaway Slave Advertisements ................................................................................. 98
Runaway Slave Advertisement Worksheet .............................................................. 105
Episode Five: Anne Sparks’s Day
Episode Synopsis................................................................................................................... 107
Free Blacks in Virginia 1619–1790 ....................................................................................... 108
Lesson: Matthew Ashby, Free Man .................................................................................... 110
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 110
Objectives .................................................................................................................. 110
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................... 110
Materials..................................................................................................................... 110
Setting the Stage ........................................................................................................ 110
Strategy ...................................................................................................................... 111
Biographical Sketch of Patrick Henry ..................................................................... 113
Biographical Sketch of Matthew Ashby .................................................................. 114
Additional Information about Matthew Ashby........................................................ 115
Matthew Ashby Jackpot Game Instructions .......................................................... 116
Matthew Ashby Jackpot Game ................................................................................ 117
Graphic Organizer 1—Biographical Comparison of Patrick Henry and
Matthew Ashby ................................................................................................. 118
Graphic Organizer 2—Items from Matthew Ashby’s Inventory ........................... 119
Primary Source Document 1—Petition for Manumission ..................................... 120
Primary Source Document 2—Will of Matthew Ashby ......................................... 121
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Primary Source Document 3—Inventory of Matthew Ashby’s Estate.................. 122
Primary Source Document 4—Virginia Statutes Pertaining to Race,
Slave Status, Tithables, and Manumission ....................................................... 124
Episode Six: Patsy Grenville’s Day
Episode Synopsis................................................................................................................... 126
Lesson One: Virginia’s Agricultural Economy .................................................................. 127
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 127
Objectives .................................................................................................................. 127
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................... 127
Materials..................................................................................................................... 127
Strategy ...................................................................................................................... 127
Glossary of Eighteenth-Century Economic Terms ................................................. 128
Agricultural Work Schedule ..................................................................................... 130
Letter from Mann Page to John Norton ................................................................. 131
Crop Note .................................................................................................................. 135
Transfer Note ............................................................................................................. 136
Ledger Page—Edward Pate ..................................................................................... 137
Excerpts from Research Report on Tobacco Marketing ........................................ 138
Lesson Two: Running an Eighteenth-Century Business—Case Study of
James Geddy, Jr. ............................................................................................................. 140
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 140
Objectives .................................................................................................................. 140
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................... 140
Materials..................................................................................................................... 140
Strategy ...................................................................................................................... 140
James Geddy Family History .................................................................................. 141
Advertisements Placed by James Geddy, Jr........................................................... 142
Glossary for James Geddy, Jr., Advertisements .................................................... 145
Graphic Organizer: James Geddy, Jr.—A Case Study ......................................... 146
Episode Seven: James Campbell’s Day
Episode Synopsis................................................................................................................... 148
Lesson One: Apprentice Contract ...................................................................................... 149
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 149
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................... 149
Objectives .................................................................................................................. 149
Materials..................................................................................................................... 149
Strategy ...................................................................................................................... 149
John Draper Indenture Contract ............................................................................ 150
Graphic Organizer—Mater and Apprentice Responsibilities ................................ 151
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Lesson Two: Trades in Colonial Virginia, Who Is Doing What? ..................................... 152
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 152
Objectives .................................................................................................................. 152
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................... 152
Materials..................................................................................................................... 152
Setting the Stage ........................................................................................................ 152
Strategy ...................................................................................................................... 152
Evaluation .................................................................................................................. 153
Print: “Children Making Bricks”.............................................................................. 154
Nonagricultural Trades in Eighteenth-Century Virginia ........................................ 155
Occupational Structure of Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg .............................. 156
Glossary of Selected Trades in Eighteenth-Century Virginia ................................. 158
Episode Eight: Mrs. Wood’s Day
Episode Synopsis................................................................................................................... 161
Lesson: The Work Is Never Done ....................................................................................... 162
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 162
Objectives .................................................................................................................. 162
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................... 162
Materials..................................................................................................................... 162
Setting the Stage ........................................................................................................ 162
Strategy ...................................................................................................................... 162
Evaluation .................................................................................................................. 163
Housewifery Tasks Worksheet ................................................................................. 164
Print: “The Good Housewife” .................................................................................. 165
Print: Children Like Tender Oziers . . . ................................................................... 166
Print: Man in Sickbed ............................................................................................... 167
Print: “Mr. Garrick in the Farmer’s Return” ........................................................... 168
Print: “The Happy Family”....................................................................................... 169
Primary Source Quotations on Housewifery .......................................................... 170
Extension Ideas
Extension Ideas for Integrating Technology into the History Curriculum........................ 175
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Historical Background
A
Day in the Life presents the story of one day in late May 1774 in the town of Williamsburg,
Virginia. These eight episodes are designed to help students understand what life was like in
America during the third quarter of the eighteenth century. The characters your students will meet
are fictitious. They are composite characters representative of the diversity of people who lived in
Williamsburg, Virginia, during the third quarter of the eighteenth century. The stories and situations, however, are drawn from historical examples and years of research into the daily life of
eighteenth-century Virginians.
While this story takes place in Williamsburg, Virginia, the daily life routines illustrated here
would have been familiar to people living in other British colonies in America. Working-class young
men received their education by apprenticing themselves to a tradesman or businessman. Women
managed the household and domestic affairs. Gentlemen, men of wealth and property, were responsible for government and politics. Merchants and storekeepers made European goods available for
their local customers. Each colony had small groups of free African-Americans living and working
in cities and in rural areas. It’s also very important to remember that slavery was legal in each of the
original thirteen American colonies. Up and down the East Coast, enslaved African-Americans
worked in colonial homes, shops, businesses, and farms. In southern colonies, there were also plantations that used slave labor to produce cash crops, such as tobacco in Virginia and rice or indigo in
South Carolina. A Day in the Life gives students an opportunity to experience eighteenth-century life
from all these perspectives and more.
Most Virginians lived in the country. They were small farmers, cultivating several acres of tobacco, corn, and wheat. These were family farms where the husband, wife, children, and occasionally one or two slaves labored together through the agricultural seasons. They supported themselves
by selling tobacco or other crops to local merchants. Their homes were small one- or two-room
wooden weatherboard buildings. These rural communities gathered for monthly sessions of the
county court, militia musters, and services at the parish church. Occasionally, residents may have
traveled to an urban center, one of the small towns that had developed by the middle of the eighteenth century. Williamsburg was a lavish and amazing spectacle for most Virginians with large, tall
brick buildings, hundreds of merchants and tradesmen, fine carriages transporting well-dressed
gentlemen and ladies through the streets, and stately homes of fine gentlemen, including that of the
royal governor. Williamsburg was Virginia’s capital city.
The story of Williamsburg, the capital of eighteenth-century Virginia, really began at seventeenth-century Jamestown. For more than ninety years after the first English adventurers set foot
on Virginia soil, Jamestown served as the seat of government and the administrative center of
England’s largest colony in North America. From its statehouse on the banks of the James River,
officials and lawmakers governed the colonists, promoted the spread of settlement, and, with tragic
consequences, sanctioned the importation of African slaves to meet the colony’s labor shortage. As
Virginia grew, Jamestown did too, but by fits and starts.
When the statehouse burned for the fourth time in 1698, many Virginians, including the royal
governor, Francis Nicholson, seized on the accident as an opportunity to move the capital. Several
potential sites were considered. After some debate, members of the House of Burgesses chose a
propitious site five miles from the old capital city, an up-and-coming place between the York and
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James Rivers known as Middle Plantation.
Middle Plantation had been founded in the early seventeenth century as a defensive outpost
against Indian attacks. By 1690, it had developed into a prosperous neighborhood of widely scattered houses belonging to successful tobacco planters and merchants. It also contained a church,
several stores, a tavern, two mills, and, after 1695, the College of William and Mary. On several
occasions, most notably during Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 and 1677, when Jamestown was burned
to the ground, Middle Plantation served as a substitute capital. It possessed several attractions as a
potential site for the capital. First, it was located on high ground between two rivers and therefore
was relatively malaria free. Its inland location was thought to be safe from naval bombardment, and
it was already the home of the college, one of Virginia’s principal institutions. Finally, and perhaps
most important, several of Virginia’s leading politicians lived at Middle Plantation.
Begun in 1699, the new city was named Williamsburg in honor of the king of England, William
III. Once the decision was made to move the capital from Jamestown to Middle Plantation, an
entirely new capital city was laid out on the site. The desire to design a completely new city fulfilled
one of the reasons for moving the capital from Jamestown. Many Virginians thought their colony
was becoming too important to be served by anything less than a capital city built to reflect Virginia’s
preeminence among England’s American colonies. In all probability, Governor Francis Nicholson
took the initiative for the new design. As governor of Maryland, he had successfully planned Annapolis, and he was well versed in the latest principles of urban planning. The town plan of
Williamsburg reflected those principles. Several important physical landmarks were central to Nicholson’s plan and are still extant.
The first is a large, open area in the center of the town known as Market Square. In 1715,
Governor Alexander Spotswood ordered construction of the Magazine on the square. In 1770, a
The Frenchman’s Map, 1781, Swem Library, College of William and Mary. The map, probably drawn
by a French officer for the purposes of billeting troops after the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, shows
the streets and many of the buildings of eighteenth-century Williamsburg.
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courthouse was constructed on Market Square.
In the eighteenth century, the square served as a
town common where markets and fairs were held
regularly. Another distinctive feature of the colonial capital was Duke of Gloucester Street, or “the
Main Street,” as it was known in the eighteenth
century. It extended “uptown” from the College of
William and Mary at the western end to “downtown” and the Capitol building at the eastern. Designed to be ninety-nine-feet wide and nearly one
mile long, this street was a broad, open avenue
that highlighted the linear aspects of the city plan.
To the west of Market Square was Bruton Parish Church. Farther to the west was the main building for the College of William and Mary. The symbolic importance of these religious and educational
Capitol Building, Williamsburg, Virginia
institutions was reinforced by the Governor’s Palace (called simply the Palace), home of the king’s representative in Virginia. At the east end of town,
the Capitol, where the colony’s legislative assembly met, was the focus.
Traditionally, cities were viewed as centers of learning, religion, and government. City planners
for Williamsburg anchored the town on the college, church, and capitol, the physical symbols of a
traditional city. An eighteenth-century visitor to Williamsburg would have known from these three
official buildings that he was in a capital city. But even as Williamsburg began to grow, this older
understanding of what a city was meant to be was being supplanted by a newer vision.
In England, in its overseas colonies, and throughout western Europe, people who once were
content to acquire relatively few material possessions began to demand more—more clothes, more
crockery, more furniture, more books. This surge in consumer demand transformed villages and
towns into something that not even great metropolitan cities like London had been before. Some
grew into manufacturing centers, making the goods that consumers increasingly began to demand.
Others became retail centers selling affordable goods to regional markets of ordinary buyers.
The effect of this shift toward commercecentered urban activities was even felt in faroff Virginia. By the mid-eighteenth century,
Williamsburg had taken on a more modern
look. Retail stores lined the streets, their display windows filled with merchandise priced
to suit almost every consumer’s pocketbook.
Artisans, such as silversmiths and blacksmiths, frequently sold imported goods in
their shops. Amid the business of government, Williamsburg catered to a growing
number of eager new consumers.
Unlike Jamestown, Williamsburg did not
remain a small, undeveloped administrative
center. Partly because the colony’s growth
continued throughout the eighteenth century
and partly because economic forces reshaped
Virginia society, Williamsburg fulfilled the Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg, Virginia
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expectation of its founders and kept pace with the growing colony.
At first, the business of government attracted the nucleus of Williamsburg’s urban population.
Joining the small staff already living at the college were the governor, his household, and the clerks
of various government offices. Soon the regular meetings of the General Court, meetings of the
Governor’s Council, and the periodic sessions of the General Assembly brought a number of other
people to Williamsburg to support these governmental activities. Taverns were established to feed
and house those in town on government business. Lawyers settled here to be close to the General
Court. As the century progressed, more and more stores were opened to provide merchandise to
residents and out-of-town shoppers. The townspeople engaged in these activities needed to be housed
and provided with foodstuffs that they didn’t grow themselves. Carpenters and masons moved to
town to build houses and shops. Bakers, tailors, and barbers settled here to serve visitors and townspeople alike. Much of the heavy and domestic work around town was performed by blacks, most of
them slaves, although a few were free. By the eve of the American Revolution nearly two thousand
men, women, and children—roughly half
white, half black—lived in the capital city.
Together these men and women formed
a complex community. The artisans’ shops,
stores, taverns, and houses that crowded in
on the Capitol formed the busiest section of
town. The townspeople who lived and
worked here competed for the business of
visitors to the Capitol. Despite the clamor of
marketplace vendors, the open space of Market Square in the center of town had a special appeal for the prominent men who built
imposing dwellings. It provided an attractive
setting for their homes. After mid-century, the
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long, open avenue in front of the Governor’s Palace offered a similar attraction. In the west end of
Williamsburg, a few stores, artisans’ shops, and taverns lined the streets, but from a businessman’s
point of view, this end of town was not as desirable as downtown near the Capitol. It was common
for townspeople living here to buy half-acre lots in blocks of two or more, which they turned into
small urban estates. Kitchen and flower gardens filled much of the open space and reinforced the
residential character that Governor Nicholson had intended for this part of the capital. The back
streets of Williamsburg—Prince George, Scotland, Ireland, and especially Francis and Nicholson
Streets that extended to the east—strengthened this countrified aspect of the town.
Colonial towns and cities attracted concentrations of immigrants not to be found in rural areas.
Newcomers with skills in the fashion trades found ready employment in commercial centers like
Williamsburg. Town dwellers were eager to engage the services of foreign-trained tutors, dancing
masters, doctors, and clerks.
The capital city was seldom the final destination for slaves fresh off the boat from Africa or the
West Indies. Usually, they were sold directly to planters who broke them in by working them as
field hands. Williamsburg’s sizable black population was disproportionately native born compared
with its many newly arrived white inhabitants. Only blacks long settled in the colony had time to
acquire the special skills that townspeople valued. Those African-Virginians who lived and worked
in Williamsburg had often learned semiskilled trades. They could read, cipher, and sometimes write,
usually spoke English, and generally were familiar with the ways of white people, however much
they kept their own customs among themselves.
Eighteenth-century travelers to Williamsburg would have encountered the hustle and bustle of
shops, taverns, and stores. They would have savored pleasing vistas and hurried past byways. They
would have heard the sounds of people working, the ringing of bells at the college, church, and
Capitol, and the rattle of carriages and wagons moving along the streets. On the way out of town,
travelers might have held their noses when passing the bodies of criminals left on the gibbet or stood
aside to allow passage of a string of slaves in chains on the road from Yorktown to the auction block
in the busy capital. Williamsburg in the eighteenth century was a wide-open American town—alive
and vibrant—on the edge of empire.
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Family Demographic Information
(1750–1775)
T
hese facts and figures from the Colonial Williamsburg Research Department help to provide an
understanding about colonial families. Information and statistics were compiled from church
and court records and personal papers. However, the records are often incomplete, give conflicting
evidence, and provide more information about the affluent white family than the poor or enslaved
family.
MARRIAGE
Marriage was legal for whites and free blacks, but not for the enslaved.Legal marriage could
be ended only by death. There was no divorce in colonial Virginia. The master could dissolve black
unions at any time.
Average age at marriage:
White males: Mid-twenties
Black males: Around thirty
White females: Early twenties
Black females: First child born in late teens
Duration of marriage:
White and free black marriage: Twenty to thirty years
CHILDREN
Number of children:
White families: Six to eight children born alive from about ten pregnancies
Black families: Averaged six to seven children, with an unknown number of pregnancies
Birth intervals:
White families: Two to two and a half years
Black families: Approximately two and a half years, and often three years or more.
Mortality of children:
White children: Two-thirds to three-fourths of white children who lived through infancy
reached their twenty-first birthday
Black children: Approximately 50 percent mortality rate for enslaved children by the age of
fifteen
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Glossary
Apothecary—A medical practitioner who makes and sells medicine.
Apprenticeship—An arrangement by which a young person serves an adult for a specified period of
time and learns the master’s or mistress’s trade.
Nathaniel Bacon (1647–1776)—Leader of Bacon’s Rebellion in colonial Virginia. Dissatisfied with
the neglect of frontier defense by the government of Sir William Berkeley, Bacon led a popular
uprising in 1676. He forced Governor Berkeley from Jamestown and burned the city. After Bacon’s
death from malaria, the revolt was suppressed.
Blacksmith—A tradesperson who works with black metals such as iron and steel.
Boycott—To refrain from buying goods to prove a point or cause the other side to change its mind.
Boston Tea Party—An event in 1773 during which angry Bostonians dressed as Indians and, led by
Samuel Adams, threw tea into the Boston Harbor to show their displeasure with the tea tax.
Bray School—A school established in Williamsburg, Virginia, for the instruction of black children.
Carriage—Any two- or four-wheeled vehicle used to convey people as opposed to transporting
goods. “Coach” and “carriage” were commonly used interchangeably in the eighteenth century.
Carpenter—A tradesperson who builds and repairs wooden items, especially the wooden portions
of buildings.
Cart—A two-wheeled vehicle made in many different styles and used primarily to carry freight.
Carts were commonly drawn by one animal, although they could be drawn by two or more.
Carter—One who hauls goods for a living.
Ceremonies—Expressions of politeness such as table manners, forms of address, and modes of
conduct observed in fashionable society.
Child Mortality Rate—A statistic describing the number of children who die in a given population.
Cipher—To calculate or compute mathematically.
Civility—Qualities, including affability, complacence, and easiness of temper, a person of any sex or
class may possess.
Class—The division of society according to economic, occupational, or social status.
Committees of Correspondence—Committees formed in each colony to communicate with other
colonial legislatures. Virginia was the first to propose communication among the colonies.
Continental Army—Standing volunteer army created by the Continental Congress for the common
defense of the colonies.
Continental Congress—Group of delegates elected by each colony to represent the colonies’ common views, including resolving the conflicts with Britain.
Cooper—A person who makes wooden containers such as barrels and washtubs.
Delegate—A representative.
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Deportment—The conscious attention to correct and graceful posture, gestures, and motion.
Do.—An abbreviation for “ditto,” or “same as above.”
Emancipation—The act of freeing an individual from bondage.
Enslaved—The state of being forced to be a slave.
Etiquette—The code of good manners that determines how a person behaves in public.
Free Black—A person of African descent who is not enslaved.
Gentry—In Virginia, the highest social class. Gentry families owned large amounts of land and
numbers of slaves and held the highest public offices.
King George III—The king of England during the time of the American Revolution.
Gibbet—An upright post with a projecting arm from which criminals are hanged.
Patrick Henry (1736–1799)—A lawyer, plantation owner, member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and popular speaker and vocal advocate of the colonial Patriot movement.
Hogshead—The term for a certain size barrel used for storing tobacco.
House of Burgesses—The elected body (lower house) of the colonial Virginia government. Also
known as the Virginia Assembly or General Assembly.
Indentured Servant—A person who is legally bound to work for another person for a predetermined period. In the eighteenth century, the period was often, but not always, seven years.
Independent Companies—Extralegal military groups formed to enforce the Nonimportation Association and defend American rights and liberties.
Intolerable Acts—A group of laws passed by Parliament to punish the Bostonians for the Boston
Tea Party in December 1773. In England, these acts are known as the Coercive Acts.
Inventory—A list or catalog of the personal property of an individual.
Loyalist—A supporter of the British government during the American Revolution. See also Tory.
Luxuries—Those items, usually highly valued, that are appreciated, but not necessary for daily life.
Magazine—A brick or stone building in which military supplies such as gunpowder, firearms, tents,
uniforms, cannons, and drums are stored.
Mantuamaker—The maker of various types of gowns for women.
Manumission—The act of releasing an individual from slavery, usually by the slave owner.
Market—A time and place specified by a town for the sale of goods, mostly foodstuffs. In
eighteenth-century Williamsburg, the market was held on Market Square once or twice a week
(frequency varied during the century).
Martial Law—The law applied by military forces in occupied territory.
Master—A highly skilled tradesperson qualified to follow his trade independently and to supervise
the work of others; in eighteenth-century Virginia, the owner of a business. A person having authority over another; an owner of a slave.
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Middling Sort—People of middle-class rank, under the gentry and above the lower working laborers. People in trades or professions, sometimes quite wealthy.
Militia—A military force of able-bodied men mobilized for emergencies; not part of the regular
army.
Millinery—The trade of making retail goods such as caps, cloaks, aprons, and other clothing
accessories.
Minuteman—A member of an American Revolutionary War militia, so named because he was said
to be ready to fight on a minute’s notice.
Mulatto—An eighteenth-century term describing an individual who has African and European
ancestry.
John Murray, Fourth Earl of Dunmore—Royal governor of the colony of Virginia from 1769 to
1775.
Negro—A term used in the eighteenth century to describe a person of African descent.
Parliament—National legislature (lawmaking body) of Great Britain.
Plantation—Any farm that produces a crop for sale.
Rebellion—Open resistance to any authority.
Paul Revere (1735–1818)—Boston silversmith, leader of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety,
and vocal activist for the colonial Patriot cause.
Runaway Slave Advertisement—A newspaper notice describing a slave, indentured servant, or
apprentice who has run away from his or her master.
Slave Codes—Laws concerning slavery.
Social Mobility—The ability of an individual to advance in social status.
Stamp Act—A tax law passed by Parliament requiring publications and legal documents in the
American colonies to bear a tax stamp. The Stamp Act was repealed in 1766.
Status—An individual’s position or standing, determined by birth, education, wealth, and ability.
“Summary View of the Rights of British America”—Thomas Jefferson’s intended instructions to
the Virginia delegation to the Continental Congress, published anonymously in 1774.
Tavern—A public house that offered food, drink, and lodging in the eighteenth century.
Tea Act—Passed in 1773, this act allowed the East India Company to sell directly to American
merchants at a low-tax price. Parliament hoped this measure would make English tea competitive
with tea that Americans smuggled into the colonies. Colonial merchants saw this act as supporting a
monopoly (one company’s control), and they boycotted the East India Company, leading to the
Boston Tea party and other protests.
Three “R’s”—The educational fundamentals: reading, “’riting,” and “’rithmetic.”
Tidewater Virginia—Water affected by the ebb and flow of the tide. In Virginia, the tidewater is the
geographical area southeast of Richmond.
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Tithable—A taxable member of an eighteenth-century household. All males, black and white, and
all females age sixteen and over were taxed. A free white female was the only person in colonial
Virginia who was not taxed.
Tory—An American colonist who favored the British during the American Revolution (also called
Loyalist).
Townshend Duties—Taxes established by Parliament in 1767 on all paper, lead, glass, and tea imported into the American colonies. The colonists protested, declaring that it was not within Parliament’s
right to tax them without direct representation. Later, all the Townshend Duties were repealed
except for the tea tax.
Tradesman—Those who make a living by keeping a shop or producing goods by manual labor, as
opposed to those who make their living in the “learned professions.”
Treason—The betrayal of one’s country, especially by giving aid to an enemy.
Tutored—Taught by a private tutor or hired teacher.
Urban—Of or pertaining to living in a town or city.
Virginia Gazette—The newspaper name used by several different eighteenth-century printers in
Williamsburg, Virginia.
Viz—An abbreviation for “videlicet,” meaning “that is to say,” or “namely.” A term often used in
primary source documents.
George Washington (1732–1799)—Wealthy Virginia plantation owner who was named commander
in chief of the Continental Army on June 15, 1775.
Watermen—In the eighteenth century, men employed in sailing boats on the rivers.
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Time Line of Events
1607
Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America, is
established.
1609
Henry Hudson explores the Delaware Bay and Hudson River.
1612
John Rolfe plants Caribbean tobacco seeds in the rich Virginia soil. Tobacco becomes
the exported product that makes Virginia a wealthy colony.
1614
Pocahontas (1595–1617), a Powhatan Indian princess, marries John Rolfe.
1619
The first representative assembly in the American colonies meets at Jamestown.
The first recorded Africans in the colony of Virginia arrive at Jamestown. Colonial
Williamsburg historians believe these Africans were slaves.
1620
Plymouth colony is established. Massachusetts becomes a colony in 1629.
1624
Captain John Smith publishes A General Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles.
1640s
Sugar plantations and a large-scale slave labor system are established in the English
West Indies.
1642
Black women are counted as tithables—taxable property.
Tea first consumed in England.
1660
Customary law considers enslavement the normal condition for newly imported
Africans.
1661
Children born to enslaved mothers are considered slaves, regardless of their father’s
status. Children born of enslaved fathers and free mothers are not considered slaves.
1665
The Great Plague of London, England, begins. More than 68,000 people die.
1666
The Great Fire of London, England.
1670
Servant for life is the “normal” condition judged for blacks under the law.
The Hudson Bay Company is founded by royal charter to trade in the Hudson Bay
region of North America.
1676
Bacon’s Rebellion takes place in Virginia. Nathaniel Bacon leads an army of freedmen, indentured servants, and slaves against the government’s military, economic,
and political policies.
1678
Robert LaSalle explores the Great Lakes.
1681
Pennsylvania colony is established.
1683
The first Bruton Parish Church building is completed in Williamsburg.
1693
The College of William and Mary is founded. Classes established by 1695.
1698
The Virginia statehouse at Jamestown burns for the fourth time.
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1699
The capital of the colony of Virginia moves from Jamestown to Williamsburg.
The Wren building at the College of William and Mary burns.
1705
The new Capitol building in Williamsburg is completed.
England and Scotland are united under the name Great Britain.
1715
Parishioners of Bruton Parish Church build a new brick structure to replace the
original wood building.
1728
North and South Carolina become colonies.
1730
The Tobacco Inspection Act guarantees the quality of tobacco and encourages permanent retail businesses in the colonies.
1731
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) founds a subscription library in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
1732
Benjamin Franklin begins publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack.
1736
Williamsburg printer William Parks begins printing the Virginia Gazette.
1747
Fire destroys the Capitol building in Williamsburg.
1749
Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning rod and installs one on his Philadelphia home.
Georgia becomes a colony.
1751
Benjamin Franklin publishes New Experiments and Observations on Electricity.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) publishes the first volume of his influential twenty-eightvolume Encyclopedie.
1754
The French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years’ War (1754–1763), begins between Great Britain and France. Fighting occurs in many of the American
colonies.
The Pennsylvania Gazette publishes America’s first newspaper cartoon, a picture of a
snake cut into sections, each representing a colony, with the caption “Join or Die.”
1760
King George II of England dies. His grandson, George III, succeeds him.
The Bray School for African-American children is established in Williamsburg.
1763
The Peace of Paris ends the Seven Years’ (French and Indian) War between Great
Britain and France. Great Britain is at peace for the first time in more than fifty years.
Parliament turns its attention to regulating the empire, especially the British colonies
in North America.
King George III issues the Proclamation of 1763 prohibiting white settlement in the
American colonies west of the Allegheny Mountains.
1765
Parliament imposes the Stamp Act in the American colonies, taxing a variety of
everyday consumer items.
Patrick Henry introduces the Stamp Act Resolves in the Virginia House of Burgesses. These resolves challenge Great Britain’s right to impose the tax. During the
debate, Henry makes his famous “Caesar-Brutus” speech and is accused of treason.
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Governor Fauquier dissolves the General Assembly.
At the Stamp Act Congress in New York, delegates draw up a declaration of rights
and liberties.
1766
Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, but passes the Declaratory Act that asserts Great
Britain’s right to pass laws governing the American colonies.
1767
Parliament imposes the Townshend Duties taxing imports of tea, glass, paper, lead,
and paint into the American colonies.
At a public protest in Boston, the Nonimportation Agreement is drawn up.
1768
Virginia’s governor Francis Fauquier dies. Virginia’s House of Burgesses petitions
the king, House of Lords, and Parliament of Great Britain for the repeal of the
Townshend Duties.
The Massachusetts Assembly is dissolved for refusing to assist with the collection of
taxes.
Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, Virginia’s newly appointed governor, arrives in Williamsburg.
Captain James Cook (1728–1779) sets out on the first circumnavigation of the globe.
1769
The Virginia House of Burgesses begins designing an additional protest against the
Townshend Duties. Lord Botetourt dissolves the Assembly.
1770
Crispus Attucks (a runaway slave) is killed when British troops fire into a crowd of
demonstrators in Boston. This tragedy becomes known as the Boston Massacre.
Parliament repeals the Townshend Duties except the tax on tea.
Lord Botetourt dies.
1771
Lord Dunmore arrives to serve as the royal governor of Virginia.
1772
The Boston Assembly demands the rights of the colonies and threatens secession
from Great Britain.
Samuel Adams forms a Committee of Correspondence in Massachusetts.
The Williamsburg City Council appoints a night watch for the city.
1773
A Committee of Correspondence is established in Virginia.
Parliament passes the Tea Act.
Nearly fifty men disguised as Indians board ships, break open 343 chests of tea, and
empty them into Boston Harbor. This event becomes known as the Boston Tea Party.
1774
The Coercive Acts (widely known in America as the Intolerable Acts) are enacted by
Parliament. These acts include closing the port of Boston and modifying the Massachusetts charter.
The Virginia legislature passes a resolution declaring June 1, 1774, a day of fasting,
humiliation, and prayer to protest the closure of the port of Boston. Because of its
resolution, Virginia governor Dunmore dissolves the House of Burgesses. After they
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are dissolved by Governor Dunmore, eighty-nine former Burgesses meet at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg to continue their discussions. They form a nonimportation association—a boycott of tea and other British imports—and issue a call for a
continental congress.
Thomas Jefferson’s “Summary View of the Rights of British North America” is
published by Williamsburg, Virginia, printer Clementina Rind.
The First Virginia Convention of Delegates meets in Williamsburg and elects Peyton
Randolph, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton as delegates
to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
The First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia. Peyton Randolph of Virginia
is elected president of the Congress. They adopt a nonimportation and nonexportation
agreement, halting nearly all trade with Great Britain.
1775
The Second Virginia Convention meets at St. John’s Church in Richmond. Following
Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech, delegates adopt an ordinance for assembling and training an independent militia.
In April, the first battles of the American Revolution take place in Lexington and
Concord, Massachusetts.
Also in April, Governor Dunmore orders British marines to remove gunpowder from
the Magazine in Williamsburg.
The Second Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia. Peyton Randolph is reelected president of the Congress. George Washington accepts an appointment as
commander in chief of the American forces.
In early June Lord Dunmore flees Williamsburg with his family. Lady Dunmore and
the children sail for England at the end of June. Lord Dunmore stays in Virginia on
board ship in Virginia waters.
Congress formally appoints George Washington commander in chief of the Continental Army.
The Americans are defeated at the battle of Bunker Hill.
King George III declares the American colonies in rebellion.
Governor Dunmore issues a proclamation that imposes martial law in Virginia and
offers freedom to indentured servants and slaves willing to fight for the king of
England.
Edward Barnes writes the words to “Yankee Doodle” and sets it to an old English
tune.
1776
Washington raises a Continental flag with thirteen stripes at his quarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Virginia forces burn Norfolk to prevent its use as a British base of operations.
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) publishes Common Sense.
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The Fifth Virginia Convention of Delegates convenes in Williamsburg and adopts
Edmund Pendleton’s resolutions for independence. The convention instructs its delegates in Congress to propose independence from Great Britain. The British flag is
taken down from the Capitol and replaced by the “Grand Union” flag, America’s first
national standard.
The Virginia Convention adopts the Virginia Declaration of Rights, based on a draft
by George Mason and the “Plan of Government,” or Virginia State Constitution.
The Second Continental Congress passes the American Declaration of Independence.
The Virginia Convention chooses Patrick Henry to be the first governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
1777
The Stars and Stripes is adopted as the Continental Congress flag.
1778
France joins America as an ally in the American Revolution.
1779
Thomas Jefferson is elected governor of Virginia. He serves two successive terms.
1780
The capital of Virginia is moved to Richmond.
1781
In the last major battle of the American Revolution, Cornwallis surrenders 7,247
British forces at Yorktown, Virginia.
Fire destroys the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg.
1783
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The Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolution.
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