Gallivanting Grandma

Many southern plantations exist today along both sides of the James River in Virginia.  Several are open to the public on a regular schedule and others are ‘by appointment only.’  Some of the plantations are currently working farms, while some are private dwellings.  After studying about plantation economy in Colonial Virginia all week, I wanted to see them firsthand.

Map of Berkeley Plantation

On our way back to New York, we meandered along scenic Route 5, which parallels the north shore of the James River, and stopped at two Virginia plantations.  The first one we visited was the  beautiful Berkeley Plantation.  A costumed docent gave us a tour of the first floor of the main house.

Berkeley Plantation

The Georgian-style mansion was built in 1726 and was the birthplace of two American presidents: William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison.  The plantation had a long colorful history and claims to be the location of the Colonists’ First Thanksgiving in 1619.

Cotton Field

Closer to Richmond, we turned into the driveway at Shirley Plantation and were surprised to see a huge cotton field.  I didn’t know that cotton grew as far north at Virginia and it seemed late in the year.  The weather was chilly this week with temperatures in the 40s at night.

Cotton Plants Up-Close

Cotton plants are almost unreal because the cotton balls seem to poof out from the hard stems.  During the lectures this past week, we learned about the enslaved African people who did the backbreaking work of picking cotton and how important their work had been to the economy of our young country.

Modern Cotton Picking & Bailing

Further along the road there were several more vast cotton fields and a large harvesting machine at work picking the cotton.  The green machine, with one driver, drove through the field and created the huge cylindrical bales of cotton.

Shirley Plantation

We followed signs to a parking lot and walked toward the James River.  Another sign directed us to an out-building where we bought tickets for a guided tour of the main house.  We learned that the 11th generation of the original Carter family still lives on the top two floors of the mansion.  The descendants of “King” Carter, the land baron of the early 1700s who owned hundreds of thousands of acres in the region, were vacuuming upstairs during our tour of the first floor.

Kitchen Building at Shirley Plantation

The original kitchen was in one of the outer buildings and set up with plastic food.  There were several other buildings which had been used for storage of grain and tobacco.  The other buildings included a large ice house, a dovecote, and barns for goats, sheep and horses.  It had been an interesting and informative week.

Sunset Over the James River

Friday, November 8, 2013

My last entry was written at the beginning of this trip.  Now I’m writing at the end of a very busy week which was filled with history and genealogy lectures at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.  While I sat listening and taking notes in seminars, Jeff filled his time exploring the Tidewater region of coastal Virginia.  The lectures and field trips were organized by Road Scholars, which conducts national and international learning adventures for people over 55 years of age.

Bruton Parish Church From 1674

For me this was a week of lectures about Colonial history intersperced with several research field trips.  My group of 15 historians and I traveled to the Swem Library on the campus the College of William & Mary, the Library of Virginia in Richmond, and Colonial Williamsburg.

Colonial Williamsburg Houses

I was able to take a few photographs when our group had a tour of Colonial Williamsburg conducted by a professional guide.  Her knowledge of the early Virginia colony was impressive.  She was familiar with every house in the village and told stories about the people and families who lived there.  Her colorful stories were very interesting and amusing.

Relaxing on a Fall Afternoon

Colonial Williamsburg is a wonderful place to visit to learn about early American history.  A few miles away are two more historic sites of Jamestown Settlement and Historic Jamestowne.  Jamestown Settlement is a living history site with several recreated villages and a large museum.  Historic Jamestowne, which is part of  the U. S. National Park Service, is the original site of the first Virginia colony of 1607.

The Susan Constant

One free afternoon, Jeff and I explored Jamestown.  We visited replicas of the first three ships which brought 144 people and supplies to the new Virginia Colony.  The largest ship was the Susan Constant which carried 71 people and cargo on the hazardous four-month trans-Atlantic journey.  The smaller ships, the Godspeed and the Discovery, carried fewer people but additional supplies for the British Colonists.

Powhatan Village Homes

Jamestown Settlement had a replica of a Native American village of the Powhatans.  When I asked the docents about the authenticity of their costumes, the woman said the native people wore much less clothing year-round.  She said they wore little clothing, smeared bear grease on their bodies, and wrapped animal skins around themselves to keep warm in winter.

Interior of Native American Houses

Native American Guides

The re-created fort of Jamestown showed buildings and houses from 1610 – 1614.  The village and fort were created from original drawings of the period.  There are excellent websites for more information about all the sites.

Buildings Within Jamestown Settlement

Artillery at the Fort

Early British Adventurer

During the rest of the week, while I was learning about chancery records, deeds, and church records, Jeff explored local museums and other historic sites of Yorktown and Richmond.  For me, it was an intense learning experience and I learned a great deal about genealogy and the history of the early Colonists and how they lived.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

We’re on our way south to a genealogy/history class to learn about the early American colonists who settled in the Tidewater Region of Virginia.  The class is a joint effort of Road Scholars and the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.  I’m excited about the class because I have traced some early ancestors back to Colonial Virginia and I am looking forward to digging up more information about them and learning about the life and times of that period of American history. 

Fall Leaves Along I-95 South

Williamsburg, Virginia is a nine hour car-ride from our house, so we planned to stop about half-way in Baltimore, Maryland.  The city was new to both of us and, with a little research, we discovered “The Best Crab Cakes in Maryland” right in downtown Baltimore at John W. Faidley Seafood in the Lexington Market.  One of my favorite foods in the entire world are Maryland Crab Cakes, and since I am a purist, I only eat crab cakes in Maryland.  Therefore, when in Maryland, I have to eat this delicious treat.

Located in Downtown Baltimore, Maryland

The first crab cakes I ever ate were at a dock-side restaurant in St. Michael’s Maryland many years ago.  As I sat outside at a crude picnic table, a crabbing boat pulled up to the dock and a deckhand offloaded wooden boxes filled with twitching, waving blue-claw crabs.  Two men, dressed in kitchen whites, rushed down the dock from the restaurant and hauled the wooden crates up to the kitchen.  Now, those were fresh crabs!

Oyster Bar at Faidley Seafood

Patrons at the restaurant ordered ‘lump-meat’ crab cakes or whole steamed crabs.  Over a couple of days in St. Michael’s, I tried both preparations.  A dozen whole steamed crabs were dumped onto butcher paper which had been rolled out across my wooden table.  Eaters received nutcrackers and narrow picking tools and a bucket for shells.  It was a crude, messy, hands-on meal, but fun.  Of course, the Maryland Crab Cakes were heavenly.  They were prepared with huge lumps of succulent crabmeat, perfectly seasoned, and lightly fried.  Maryland Crab Cakes immediately became the gold standard for all crab cakes in my future.

Variety of Offerings at Faidley Seafood & Game

This afternoon, we found ‘The World Famous Lexington Market’ in downtown Baltimore.  As we circled the market looking for a place to park our car, we saw a sign for Faidley Seafood.  We entered Faidley’s from the street and were pleasantly surprised to see the place busy with patrons on a Saturday afternoon.  There was an oyster bar in the center and the rest of the large space was filled with tall stand-up communal tables.  Patrons order from a menu on the wall and slide their trays along to the cashier.  Under the menus, the current owner was forming crab cakes from a freshly prepared secret-ingredient mixture.  See her photo below.

My Crab Cake with Greens & Cucumber Salad

So, how did my Crab Cake taste?  Delicious.  It was a baseball size ‘cake’ of sweet juicy large lumps of crab loosely held together by a lightly spiced mixture.  It was incomparable and very good.  The spices didn’t overpower the crabmeat and there was no bread holding it together.  It was the pure taste of crabmeat.

Chef/Owner of Faidley Seafood

After our lunch, we walked around Lexington Market to explore.  We saw many food stalls, meat markets, bakeries, and produce sellers.  The market was a bee-hive of activity, filled with Baltimore locals enjoying a pleasant fall afternoon with their families.  Afterwards, we retrieved our car from the parking lot and drove around the city.

Another Food Stall at the Lexington Market

It was a good beginning to our historical adventure in Colonial America.  Baltimore has a lot to offer tourists, in addition to crab cakes.  We plan to return soon to visit: the Edgar Allen Poe  House and Gravesite, the 1854 USS Constellation, a US Coast Guard ship built in 1935, the Lightship Chesapeake, and, of course, the Baltimore Museum of Art.