Day 164: Against All Odds

Our explorations today took us from the first British footsteps on America's soil to the defeat of the British at Yorktown, ending their claim on these lands. In Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement, we wandered through the fort, rebuilt on the foundations first laid in 1607. The "New Towne," just feet away, was home to hundreds of colonists just a few years later. Essentially abandoned to the elements in 1699, when the seat of government moved to Williamsburg, the town site all but disappeared. In the early 20th century, its significance as a national treasure prompted efforts to preserve the few foundations and other signs that remained. But the fort was believed lost, swept away by a supposed change in the course of the James River.

A William & Mary professor didn't buy the theory, and in the 1990s, he and a team of fellow archeologists began digging in an area to the north of New Towne. The fort's footprint was found, all but a corner of it still on land. Its rebuilt palisade now surrounds statues of John Smith, Virginia's first governor, and Pocahontas, the kidnapped Indian princess who brokered peace between her nation and the English settlers by marrying one of them, John Rolfe. Sadly, she died in London of fever, having accompanied her husband back to his homeland on a business mission: they sought large-scale buyers for their crop: a new kind of tobacco.

Rolfe returned to America alone, but his efforts in England succeeded in changing the course of our country. Prior to tobacco, and specifically Rolfe's variety, colonists had failed to develop a profitable venture that could justify the colony's existence and ongoing costs to its backers. Tobacco not only exploded into a cash crop, it became the backbone of Virginia's economy and ensured the survival of not only Jamestown but also hundreds of new colonies.

One hundred and seventy years later, British survival in the colonies was again under threat, this time by the patriots' cause of liberty. But little credence was given to the rebels' chances at besting the largest military force in the world. After all, General George Washington was pitting an untrained army of farmers and shopkeepers against career soldiers. The tide of war shifted back and forth between the two for many years and wasn't definitively turned until France joined forces with the united colonies. And the French naval blockade of Chesapeake Bay, in October 1781, and the resulting sea battle with the British Navy, was the nail in the coffin, so to speak, of Britain's hold.

Washington had used France's assistance to set a trap for General Cornwallis, who was holed up in Yorktown, just 20 miles from Williamsburg. When Cornwallis realized his ships weren't going to reach him, thanks to France's fleet, he withstood days of artillery bombardment from Washington and French troops under the command of the 22-year-old Marquis de Lafayette. On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis negotiated terms of surrender, effectively ending the Revolutionary War (although its official end was marked by the signing of the Treaty of Paris two years later). When the official ceremonies were administered, Cornwallis claimed illness and sent his sword of surrender by proxy. Not the noble course, in our humble opinion.

The girls finished up their final junior ranger programs today, the last of the trip. Ending our learning curve in Yorktown was the perfect conclusion to nearly six months of incredible experiences. Tomorrow's entry, Thanksgiving (and my last one!), will be the exclamation point.

Photos:
(1-3) Jamestown's fort, at the center of which is a statue of John Smith. Behind him is one of many active archeological dig sites.
(4) Pocahontas' true story is so much better than the Disney movie.
(5) Learning about Jamestown's "New Town," whose foundations are visible in the background.
(6) One of the early industries was glass blowing, a tradition carried on by modern craftsment at the Jamestown Glassblower Shop.
(7) George Washington used this very tent in the Battle of Yorktown. It was preserved by generations of his family.
(8) A one-quarter model of one of the ships in the French fleet that attacked the British outside the Chesapeake Bay, October 1781.
(9) Kendall was sworn in as a Junior Ranger in front of the Lafayette cannon; it took a direct hit (hadn't deflected the shot on the curve of the barrel--an incredibly rare phenonmenon) at Yorktown and has a sizeable dent to prove it.
(10) The Moore house, site of the negotiations for Cornwallis' surrender.

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