Aboard the bus is historian joseph beatty, manager of Historical Research and training at colonial williamsburg. Our viewers were just watch ing what happened. Who was governor dunmore . Governor dunmore . Joseph he was the last royal governor of virginia who came to the United States in 1771 when things were in a state of turmoil. He stayed through the very earliest parts of the rising conflict as the revolution started, but left williamsburg in 1775 and left virginia in 1776. Greta why . Joseph things really heated up. What we just saw with the dissolving of the house in some ways really kind of marked a point of no return for any hopes of peaceful reconciliation with the royal government. To,so things really started tension started to rise and people in town, after the house was dissolved the burgesses set up a shadow government and eventually, things sort of came to a head. At the same time that lexington and concorde fought their fight, here in williamsburg we saw order,he governors powder removed from the magazine here in town. This really was in some ways the spark that set things off, and this led to some real, open confrontation really with the governor. I think he found it unsafe to be here in town anymore and decided that he was safer elsewhere. Greta what was the house of burgesses . Joseph the house of burgesses was the legislative body that represented virginians. It was the first representative body in colonial british north america. Andas established in 6019 in some ways it was kind of modeled after parliament. Each county sent two representatives to the house and electors, the qualifications for my made a person and a lector changed over time. By the time we get to the 18th century, looking at land owning white and, they had to hold the minimum amount of land. These folks elected representatives to the house of burgesses, and these folks really worked on the laws of the colony with the governor and his counsel sitting on top of this mirroring theways structure of parliament. Greta what our viewers just saw, did that really happen and how do we know . Joseph it did happen. Indeed dissolve the house of burgesses. Thomas jefferson wrote in his diary, and wrote letters to other folks describing and recollecting the events of the day. It was certainly a memorable occasion for them. Dunmore was not the first and only governor to dissolve the house of burgesses. This was in the governors prerogative. This incident was a little bit different because as tensions dunmore increasing, really saw this as and a front to his authority, i think, and a challenge to royal authority. The house at that point was really sort of acting in open particularly with their open and vocal support of their countrymen in massachusetts, dunmore felt as the scene per trade that this was intended really to stir the population as the scene portrayed, that this was intended to stir the population. And start the population against him. I have lost myself. Greta that is ok. Let me ask you this at this point in 1774, how long had virginia been a colony and what did that mean . Joseph virginia had been a colony since 1607. That is almost 170 years. So virginia was the first successful, permanent british colony in north america. It predated massachusetts or plymouth by 13 years. Virginia was in some ways , it was the largest and most populous colony in british north america. Was really a powerful outpost of the british empire, so for this to be happening it was a significant event. Really,ink dunmore maybe going a little too far to say he took this personally i think he took this a little personally, especially as the weresses in his mind really acting in open defiance. Greta we are talking with historian joseph betty this history tv,merican live from colonial williamsburg. He will be taking your questions. Nd tech texts if you live on the east coast, 8900. If you live on the 8901. Oast, 202748 you can join the conversation on and we willtwitter take your comments from there as well. Beatty, you are talking about virginia becoming one of the first colonies, but how did it compare to the other colonies . Startedso virginia was really as a commercial , which is in some ways much different from the impulses that started the colonies that plymouth and massachusetts, they were looking for religious freedom or freedom from religious persecution. Virginia was really established as a business venture. They were seeking gold. They did not really find it. They were seeking timber, which they found an awful lot of. They were looking to turn this into a commercial venture, to extend the new and emerging british empire. In some ways, that makes virginia as early days virginias early days different from some of the other colonies. Some are formed on the principle of religious freedom or freedom from religious persecution, and others are founded more on a commercial basis. I think virginia is the first of these that starts out really in the essence of trade. Greta what challenges did virginia present that these other states did not, to the british . Years orn the early just as a colony in general . Greta as a colony in general. As they set it up as a business venture. What challenges were there . Joseph one of the challenges is that people who are interested improvingmoney and their share in life do not always take a longterm view of their situation. If you look at plymouth or massachusetts, the colony was settled by families, by men and women, sometimes children. We see Multigenerational Families moving and they , and sort ofowns group along the model of towns as the center of their community. In the sort ofa, commercial enterprise after they made it through the really difficult first years where merely staying alive was a real challenge, once the colony started to develop, folks who came here were mostly men. Not to say that there were not women, but predominately a male population and they were looking at and interested in making some money, and hopefully heading back to england. They did not do things like build towns in the same way as they did in new england. Once tobacco becomes really the cash crop of virginia, it forces and encourages the population to , whichout and disperse means that we do not see here in virginia in the very early years the kind of Robust Community center and towns like we do in new england. Virginia was in some ways kind of challenging environment to live in with disease and all this, but it was a sort of challenging environment also because of the way the population started to move around, and the way the economy started to develop. Greta lets get to calls here for mr. Beatty. Thank you for this program. I am disabled and am not able to get to williamsburg, but this is a Wonderful Program and i appreciate it. Dunmoreion is, lord tried to incite the black slaves to join the british side. He offered them their freedom. How did this affect the blacks in williamsburg, and about how many at that time were slaves and how many were free . Thank you. Joseph that is a great question. There are really two things in here. Proclamation offered freedom to enslaved people who would fight for the british side at the beginning of the war. This had really important and powerful ramifications here in town. It really, really stirred up people here against dunmore, against royal authority. It is kind of ironic because to,ores goal in this was he almost wanted to do something so profoundly shocking that it s tod stir the loyalist rise up from their slumber and put down this rebellion. Instead, it had the opposite effect. Rather than stirring up up thets, it stirred rebels to really fight harder and stronger. In williamsburg at the time of the revolution, the population 1880,n the city was according to the 1775 senses. About 52 of that population was africanamerican. The majority of those folks were enslaved. A small but significant number of people fled to dunmores side , enough that he was able to muster together his ethiopian regimen. But i do not know that it had quite the effect he had wished that it would have, either in terms of its outcome with loyalists or with stirring up the population. I mean, any support from enslaved people. This was, if you consider the perspective of enslaved people considering this decision, this is fraught. Do you choose to stay on with the situation that you know, or face a situation that in many ways is entirely unknown . You do not know what commitment the british have two holding up their end of the bargain. That is a great question. Greta we will hear from linda next in michigan. Thank you. Williamsburg this august, and i have been there years before. I do have a question, how often do they go through the buildings to redo them and stuff to keep things up to par . Was, whenhe fighting washington and adams and the other founders came, how long were they there in williamsburg to start the capital in williamsburg . Thank you very much and have a great day. Joseph thank you. That first question, i love this question. Thank you for asking it. We have curators of our historic properties, and maintenance folks that go through our properties and our buildings on thetating basis, and do really valuable and essential maintenance to keep them standing. We have a powerful charge to steward these buildings and sites and stories into the future. It would not be possible without these folks who do that every day. The schedule of building maintenance, and it was projected out for three or four years. And this is an incredible ongoing process. Some sites see maintenance annually. Everyites see maintenance two to three years. Some sites see maintenance maybe every nine years or so. It is essential to do this kind of work. We sort of take it for granted that these buildings stand and are in good repair. It is through the really hard work of the folks who go in and make sure that things are sound and stable, and touch up the paint. It is a wonderful site to walk down the street here and to see ourguests stop and watch workers paint the building. They ask about, how do you do that . It is a really cool thing to see. Question, i am sorry. Greta i was going to remind you, she asked about when the Founding Fathers came to williamsburg and how long they were there. Joseph it sort of depending on who they were. Some unlike washington would come when the house of burgesses was in session so he would stay for a couple weeks or months at a time. Someone like jefferson who attended the college of william studied and studied here in town studied here in town, would have been here much longer. ,s the colonial capital essentially all of the really important business at the colonial level was administered here. If these individuals had business that needed to be done with the state, they had to come here. This was a busy place with people coming and going and visiting, sometimes for longer and sometimes for shorter. By all accounts, it was a pretty happening place. Greta when did williamsburg become the capital . Joseph williamsburg becomes the virginia in 1699. From 1607o that, 21698 the capital was in jamestown. In 1698, the statehouse in jamestown burned down to the third time and they started to look for they took the opportunity to see if there was a better location. Williamsburg at that time was known as Middle Plantation. It was the home to the college of william and mary. It had an established church at bruton parish. A couple of College Students and their professor leaned a little bit, or lobbied on the assembly to say, maybe you should consider coming here. Geographically we are in a relatively high location, about right in the middle of the peninsula. We have fairly good water access to both the york and james river systems. I think they did the math and decided that a move here to Middle Plantation would be good, and once they made that decision, changed the name to williamsburg and laid out plans for the city. Greta going back to the dissolving of the house of burgesses, what is the reaction of the town . We saw a little bit of it during that street scene, but what is the reaction from the town . Folks in town had a lot on their minds. The move that caused the house to be dissolved was this call for a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer in support of their friends in massachusetts. This was because of the boston port act, which was going to close boston. This was one in a long chain of call thew the courseacts or of all attacks the co ercible acts. There was some uncertainty, they did not know what was happening. I think there was some real concern that what was happening in boston could happen here. We in williamsburg do not have the same kind of port that boston has where the british could blockade the port, but our axis here by water is through the mouth of the chesapeake bay. Ifre is a real concern that the british could blockade boston, they could blockade that they and that virginians here would face may some of the same kinds of consequences that were happening up in massachusetts. So people were concerned. There was real uncertainty. There have been recent conflicts on the border with pennsylvania. The boston tea party. There are things that are causing people to have concern. Rightly, in here was think people were anxious but once the house reassembled at the raleigh tavern and set up a shadow government, it probably caused another layer of uncertainty because as you heard in some of the chatter on the street afterwards, is this really going to work . Can they do this . Off, just top things a few weeks after he dissolved the house done more left for done more d dunmore left. I think people were a little concerned. Greta lets go to richmond, virginia. William. Thank you. I am enjoying the show immensely. I have enjoyed wonderful, extemporaneous conversations with the interpreters in colonial williamsburg. How are these people chosen and trained to provide such great indepth information . Thank you. Joseph that is a great question. Have a couple different types of interpreters who face the public year. Arefolks who are describing probably firstperson interpreters who take on a historic personage and act that persons character in life. Folks wholy higher have a background in acting, and train them on the Historical Information they need to support their role. And so we have several Different Levels and programs of training that go through preparing people to understand what is happening in williamsburg as a place, what life in the 18th century was like here, and then once that happens, we really sit down with them and pair them up with a historian and help them flesh out the details of their character. We are fortunate that we have a bunch of really talented folks who are out in the historical area who help each other and support each other in finding the best ways of communicating, sharing information, and the best ways of really trying to recreate a sense of what life in the 18th century was like. Greta later on here on the program this morning, our viewers will get a chance to talk to president thomas jefferson, who will be per trade portrayed byr bill barker. Next, jacksonville, florida. I would like to thank mr. Beatty for specifying that virginia was the oldest british colony in north america. One of my many visits of williamsburg coincided with the archaeological dig at the present site of the coffeehouse. I was curious to know whether there were any archaeological digs ongoing, or any future reconstructions like the coffeehouse . Joseph thanks. Out, and i to point should rightly point out that the spanish did establish the first european settlement at saint augustine, right down the road from you. Yes, about archaeological excavations. We have a variety of excavations going on. I do not want to say all the time, but on an ongoing basis. Recently we have done some excavations at whether burn tavern. Urns a porch that may have been attached to the site, and we have been working with others in excavations at the bray school. Yes, we do have ongoing excavations. I do not think right now we have any grand plans for any new sites to emerge. Although just a few weeks ago, we cut the ribbon last week, actually cut the ribbon on our new market house which is our newest historic structure in town. If you are familiar with the site here, it sits on market square, more or less between the magazine and the courthouse. This is our newest structure based on archaeological excavations there, and historical architectural research. Greta we are asking viewers to text us their questions as well. One viewer texted in, lord war has been considered to be the first battle of the revolution. Can you discuss . At the beginning of the war, what was the percentage of loyalists versus patriots . War may wellres be one of the first battles of the revolution. If we consider the timing of things, i think there is some cause to argue that. Although i do not want to steal too much thunder from lexington and concorde, but i think there is some claim to this. Dunmore left ear and marched off onto the frontier in a place that was growing increasingly down their. D put there. I am going to have to ruminate on that. The question about the numbers ,f loyalists here in virginia that starts the beginning of the revolution. For a long time historians argued about one third of the population was loyalist during the war. Recently we have sort of revised those numbers down to about 15 or 20 . Williamsburg, we do not loyalists and we see a number of loyalists who advertise in the newspapers that they are quitting the colony, they are settling their business affairs. We see debate in public, in private, in the newspapers where people are clearly debating the loyalist versus patriot causes. Really really suffered and have a lot at stake during the war, especially during the early years as things were gaining steam. And so i think there are a number of people here in williamsburg and doubtless elsewhere in virginia, and elsewhere in other colonies who probably kept their thoughts to themselves and decided to ride it out quietly and see what would happen. Short answer is, it is kind of hard to say how many loyalists there were but in the big picture, historians are sort of of the mind that it was about 15 to 20 . Greta we will go to yonkers, new york, bob. Good morning, thank you for taking my call. I had seen a documentary on williamsburg some years ago, pbs. There was an excavation of one of the large spaces that revealed foundations of 19th century buildings. One of them i think was a civil war hospital. Basically two questions. I wondered if any followup has been done on that and the second part is related. There was a valid a battle of waynesburg in the civil war as well, and im curious to find williamsburgle of in the civil war as well, and i am curious to find out if your Educational Programs address that. Joseph i am not familiar with the excavation. I am trying to locate that excavation that you are referencing, and i do not want to at the wrong information and get off track. Let me think on this for a second. Your second question, we do not actively interpret the battle of williamsburg in the civil war. We really focus on the period up to about 1785. But we do have educational through our hero programs, electronic field trips, and our Teacher Professional Development program that handles and teaches about the battle of winesburg. But that williamsburg. Of that is not really one our core functions, even though it is just down the street. Greta we anticipate next we will hear from a historical interpreter that governor dunmore fled williamsburg in the middle of the night. Why did he leave and what did the governor symbolize . Could anyone have come in . Joseph dunmore fled in the middle of the night following the removal of the gunpowder from the magazine or amid the turmoil that erupted after that. Ways, because he was i think rightly fearful for his hanover militia under the command of Patrick Henry was approaching the city, if not here already. Though the things that heated up too much, the governor felt it in his best interest to leave. Not everyone could enter the palace. It,our viewers have seen there is a wall around it, it is gated. Visitors upon approaching the palace would have been allowed into the front room. Thatof their business, at point, it would be determined if their business was allowed to enter into the residence in self. When you enter the front room, there was a room off to the right where business could be done right there in the lobby without allowing people into the rest of the governors resident. As you step into the front room havee palace, you would seen, as you do today, and impressive display of arms and armaments. , things pistols, swords of this sort. It was a powerful display of force. The kind of force the governor had at his disposal if he chose to use it. Palace was and still remains and impressive structure. The extension of the kings power in this part of the empire. For folks going to see the governor or just passing through town, it was a powerful symbol of royal authority. Greta that is coming up. A tour of that. Thank you for