Monday, June 05, 2006
It All Started Here
One of the coolest things about the part of Virginia where we live is the high concentration of historical sites. Within an hour's drive, one can check out the beginning of the colonial period -- where English settlers landed at Cape Henry and the first permanent English settlement in the New World at Jamestown -- and the end of the colonial period at the Yorktown battlefield, where George Washington (sorry, Mr. Holman) finished off the Brits in the Revolutionary War. Note to our British friends...sure, we had help from the French. But we still kicked your collective ass.
In case you've been living under a rock for the past few months, next year marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. A certain Associated Press correspondent recently waxed poetic on the topic of the quadricentennial for AP's travel Podcast series: http://www.idiotvox.com/Travel/PodCast_Review_AP_Travel_Tips_and_Trips__13730.html
What a voice! I think I'll marry her.
And she makes a good point: the reason Plymouth, Mass., gets all the pub for being the first settlement, despite being founded 13 years AFTER Jamestown, is because it's a sexier story. They have the whole religious freedom thing going for them, along with the first Thanksgiving and charming pilgrims in funny hats and buckled shoes. Jamestown was pretty much a commercial venture. And while people know the story of John Smith and Pocahontas, that tale -- albeit a tall one -- never resonated with people the way Plymouth did.
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Having been raised and educated in Virginia, I must ask. . .what is it about Plymouth that resonates with Americans? Thanksgiving is nice, but once you learn that religious "freedom" was really the freedom to cast out anyone who didn't share your beliefs, Virginia's commercial venture seems a lot sexier. I'll take Jefferson's Virginia Statue of Religious Freedom over Hester Prynne's scarlet A any day. But shoes with buckles ARE pretty cool.