Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays

3:30 - A Declaration of Independence! July 25, 1776

The Declaration of Independence is read to the citizens of Williamsburg. This news arrives only a few weeks after Virginia’s representatives have adopted their own Declaration of Rights and a Constitution for the new state.

Learn More:

• Thomas Jefferson
• Virginia's Famous Signers
• Benjamin Waller
• Declaring Independence (will open in a new window)

3:50 - The War in the West, June 18, 1779

In this scene: Henry Hamilton, the British governor of Detroit, and other prisoners of war are held in the Public Gaol. The charges are vague and no evidence has yet been supplied. Hamilton resents being treated as a common prisoner, without the usual provisions allowed for officers and prisoners of war.

On February 23, 1779, American Colonel George Rogers Clark seizes the Illinois town of Vincennes, capturing British Lieutenant Henry Hamilton. Hamilton and 23 prisoners are sent to Williamsburg.

Because Hamilton is rumored to have offered bounties to Indians for the scalps of frontier men and women, Governor Thomas Jefferson treats him as a common criminal, placing him in chains and close confinement. Hamilton protests, insisting he is entitled to the rights of a prisoner of war.

Learn More:

• Williamsburg’s Publick Gaol

4:10 - In Desperate Circumstance! September 15, 1780

Barbry Hoy, a local woman who followed her husband southward with the army, returns to Williamsburg. Her husband Alexander was captured in the siege at Charleston, and she now seeks work at the King’s Arms Tavern. She tells the story of the war in South Carolina and of the Americans’ grim defeats.

Learn more

• Alexander Hoy
• Barbry Hoy

4:25 - The Town Is Taken! The British Occupy Williamsburg, April 20, 1781

In this scene: The American turncoat-now British Brigadier General Benedict Arnold and Major General William Phillips seize Williamsburg. Redcoats raise the British flag over the Capitol and announce the rules of occupation.

Disillusioned with the American cause, Major General Benedict Arnold thinks true liberty can only be secured by rejoining the British Empire. With 1,500 soldiers, he invades Virginia, winding up in Richmond. The forces swell to 3,500 when Arnold, as second in command, joins Major General William Phillips. Together, the men occupy Williamsburg for two days while British soldiers destroy Virginia's shipyard. Before leaving Virginia, Arnold calls on the townspeople to renew their allegiance to their king.

Learn More:

• Benedict Arnold in Williamsburg
• Virginia's Very Own Navy

4:40 - Running to Freedom! July 4, 1781

As Lord Cornwallis and the British army prepare to leave Williamsburg, Eve and other enslaved people prepare to leave with them. Can she be convinced not to run? Or will Eve proceed to join the more than 600 former slaves who left their rebel masters in the Carolinas to follow the British to northward?

Learn More:

• Dunmore’s Proclamation
• Summary of Dunmore’s Proclamation
• African Americans

4:50 - The Promised Land, or A Matter of Faith, September 28, 1781

In this scene: An African American Baptist preacher talks about the future in a new society where citizens are equal and where there is no state church. A young soldier confronts him with questions of faith in the face of war and world-changing events.

Gowan Pamphlet is heartened by the memory of some of the words in the Virginia Declaration of Rights, adopted in 1776. Article 16 of the Declaration began to move Virginia away from mere toleration of religious groups outside the state church (Anglican) and toward the free exercise of religion. Gowan applauds the idea of religion disentangled from government, but white Virginians associate slave religion with rebellion and continue to pass laws to control slave gatherings.

Learn More:

• Gowan Pamphlet
• Virginia Declaration of Rights
• Statute for Religious Freedom

5:05 - On to Yorktown and Victory! September 28, 1781

In this scene: General Washington addresses his troops and the citizens of Williamsburg as he prepares to leave for Yorktown.

General George Washington's American troops and the Comte de Rochambeau's French forces march from New York to Virginia. In August, a French fleet with 3,000 troops arrives at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, threatening to trap at Yorktown a British army commanded by Lord Cornwallis. On September 5, the French ships beat the British navy in the Battle of the Virginia Capes, closing the door on Cornwallis' escape. Washington reaches Williamsburg, a few miles from Yorktown, in mid-September, and prepares his troops to march to besiege Cornwallis.

Learn More:

• George Washington
• A Common American Soldier