Statue of Captain John Smith at Historic Jamestowne, the actual settlement site.
Outline of the church where Pocahontas and John Rolfe were married in 1614.
state-funded Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, and Colonial Williamsburg bring these key historic periods back to life with artifacts, interactive digital technology and outdoor living history exhibits manned by costumed interpreters. Part of Colonial National Historical Park, nearby Historic Jamestowne is the exact site where the colonists built their settlement and fort. A statue of Capt. John Smith, who once told the settlers, “he that will not work shall not eat,” stands tall over the grounds of what was James Fort where archeological digs continue today. “The last time a shovel hit that spot there was in 1608,” explains Amber Phelps, Historic Jamestowne’s assistant manager of educational programs as we look down into an excavation pit. “That flat surface at the bottom was the layer that John Smith and Pocahontas were walking on,” she continues. Excavations have unearthed evidence of both successes and horrors of settlement life. Wooden posts mark the outline of the church where Pocahontas, daughter of the Indian chief Powhatan, married planter John Rolfe in 1614. Another site reveals a 1608 kitchen with trash materials including eggs, tortoise and oyster shells, and sturgeon and deer bones. More gruesome artifacts there reveal a human skull and evidence of cannibalism,
most likely during the so-called “starving time” when, surrounded by hostile Indians, the colonists holed up in the fort during the winter of 1609-1610. At Jamestown Settlement, an outdoor recreation of James Fort depicts how it looked from 1610-1614, its wooden-façade building recreations based on archeological research and written sources. “You’re seeing basically a little tiny chunk of England plunked down in the wilderness of Virginia,” notes Templin. Reconstructed buildings include an Anglican church, guardhouse, and storehouse. The Governor’s House was the most lavishly decorated, because the governor brought his furnishings at his own expense. Gunfire erupts with matchlock musket-firing demonstrations. An adjacent Powhatan Indian village features huts recreated with water reeds weaved into mats and secured on a framework of sapling branches. Inside, furs cover wooden frames used as beds. Historic interpreters at both sites don period costumes, including the likes of breeches and petticoats, painstakingly sewn together by the Settlement’s costume shop. “I think the clothing gives interpreters instant credibility,” says Historical Clothing Manager Chris Daley. “We try to build everything the visitor sees
COLONIAL LIVING HISTORY
COAST TO COAST FALL MAGAZINE 2018
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