Cover Page

Contents

Introduction

Colonial Period

Revolution

Early Republic

War Between the States

Recent Era

District of Columbia

Historic Projects

Special Features: Jamestown Island, the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America in 1607 and the capital of Virginia to 1699; Williamsburg (privately owned and restored), the cultural and political center of colonial Virginia in the eighteenth century; Yorktown, where in 1781 the French and Americans besieged and captured Cornwallis' army in the last important battle of the Revolution.

Seventeenth-Century Foundations Uncovered on Jamestown Island.

ORIGINALLY authorized and established in 1930 as the Colonial National Monument to include the Yorktown battlefield area, parts of the city of Williamsburg, Jamestown Island, and a connecting parkway, the status of this area was changed to that of a national historical park by Act of Congress dated June 5, 1936. Here is depicted the colonial history of the United States from its beginning at Jamestown in 1607, through its development at Williamsburg, to its culmination at Yorktown in 1781. The program of the National Park Service for this area, on which considerable progress has already been made, includes the marking of historic sites and, so far as practical, the preservation of historic structures and other cultural remains of colonial life.

Jamestown Island. — In 1906 the United States Government was given an acre of land on Jamestown Island, where a large monument was erected in commemoration of the tercentenary of the settlement in 1607. In 1934 the Government purchased all the remainder of the island with the exception of about 20 acres around the old church tower which belong to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. The area administered by the National Park Service contains 1,537 acres.

Few historical shrines in America are of more interest than Jamestown Island. Millions of Americans will recall from their school histories some of the significant and glamorous events which occurred there—the landing of the first English settlers on the island and their struggles and privations, the adventures of Capt. John Smith, Pocahontas, the Indian massacres, Governor Berkeley's rule and Bacon's Rebellion.

At Jamestown Island on May 13, 1607, 13 years before the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, the English made their first permanent settlement in America. There in 1612 tobacco was first successfully raised by an Englishman. There the first legislative assembly in America was held in 1619, and in the same year negro slaves were introduced into an English colony for the first time.

In 1635, the Governor, Sir John Harvey, was deposed at Jamestown, and in 1676 the island was the scene of some of the important events in the rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor Berkeley. For nearly a hundred years, from 1607 to 1699, Jamestown was the seat of government in Virginia, and during that time the history of the colony to a large extent centers there.

After the removal of the capital of Virginia to Williamsburg in 1699, Jamestown Island remained almost unoccupied until the present time. During most of the eighteenth century it was a "pocket borough" of the Ambler and Travis families, reputedly the only such political unit of its kind in America. Cornwallis defeated Lafayette at nearby Green Spring in 1781, a few months before his army was besieged and captured at Yorktown. Jamestown was fortified by the Confederates during the first year of the Civil War and several redoubts which they erected are still standing. The Government in 1906 finished the construction of a sea wall in the upper part of the island to prevent the erosion of the shore, and in 1935 erected additional protection for the exposed portions of the southern shore line.

Under the direction of a trained staff, the National Park Service is conducting an extensive program of archeological and historical research on the island. Numerous brick foundations have been uncovered and antique pottery, glassware, ironware, and other interesting artifacts have been found, some of which are on display in the museum.

For a small fee visitors to Jamestown are admitted to the reservation of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities in the northern part of the island. There may be seen the tower of a seventeenth century church, the adjoining chapel built by the Colonial Dames of America, a Confederate fort, the foundations of a seventeenth century state house, and numerous monuments and other memorials.

Yorktown. — Although this old port is known to most students of American history as the scene of the surrender of Cornwallis' army in 1781, its historical importance actually dates back to the period of the early English settlements. Yorktown is situated at a beautiful spot on the lower York River where Gloucester Point juts out from the opposite shore and narrows the river to a deep channel dominated by the river bluffs. The first white settler on this site was Capt. Nicholas Martiau, a French or Walloon emigrant, and the earliest American ancestor of George Washington. Martiau obtained a holding here shortly after 1630. In 1691, when the Virginia Assembly passed an act providing for the establishment of port towns the York County court purchased 50 acres of the original Martiau tract and laid it out in 85 town lots.

The location of Yorktown on one of the best natural harbors on the South Atlantic coast helped to give it commercial importance in the first part of the eighteenth century. The Customs House, Grace Episcopal Church, the Shield House, the Lightfoot House, and West House, built about that time, have survived to the present day.

After the middle of the eighteenth century, exhaustion of the fertility of the soil and the westward movement of the colonists caused a decline in the importance of Yorktown. It has since figured in history only because of its strategic importance in war time. On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered his British Army here to the combined American and French forces under George Washington, thus virtually bringing the American Revolution to a close. That event, one of the most important in American history, is discussed later under the heading "The Siege of Yorktown." A few vestiges of the Revolutionary works still may be seen in the battlefield area and the more important historic sites are appropriately marked and accessible to visitors. The Moore House, where the articles of capitulation for the British Army were drawn up, was renovated recently.

During the War of 1812 Yorktown was threatened by a British fleet and garrisoned for a time by the militia. In 1861-62 fortifications were built around the town. These were connected with a line of trenches extending across the entire peninsula to the James River. The Confederate Army held this line from April 5 to May 4, 1862, when it withdrew before the numerically superior forces of General McClellan. For the remainder of the war the town was occupied by Union troops. About 10 miles of Union and Confederate trenches, with redoubts, gun emplacements, and embrasures, still may be seen in the Yorktown battlefield area. During the World War the harbor was used as a base by the Atlantic fleet.

Since coming under the administration of the National Park Service in 1930, the Yorktown battlefield area has been the scene of an extensive program of development. Under the Emergency Conservation Work program several CCC companies, supervised by a staff of historians, engineers, and other technical men, are assisting in the restoration and development of the area. Several historic buildings have been restored or renovated, the forest area improved, some of the old Revolutionary roads reconstructed, and archeological excavations made. After an extensive program of historical and archeological research to establish their exact nature and location, a French battery, a British redoubt, and the American artillery park have been rebuilt as outdoor museum exhibits. Museum displays are maintained in the Moore House and in the kitchen and stable of the Swan Tavern, and guides are on hand to explain these features to visitors.

Williamsburg. — This town originally was a palisaded outpost, built in 1633 for protection from the Indians. The College of William and Mary, second oldest in the United States, was established there in 1693, and in 1699 the town was made the colonial capital. For the next 75 years Williamsburg was the center of Virginia politics, society, and culture. There it was that Patrick Henry made his famous speech against the Stamp Act, and other important events connected with the American Revolution in Virginia also were enacted there. During the Revolution the capital was removed to Richmond, and Williamsburg entered upon a long period of decline. At the present time it is being restored to its eighteenth century appearance by the Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., through funds provided by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

The Parkway. — A broad concrete highway is being constructed to connect Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown. Running from Yorktown along the York River for about 5 miles, thence across the Peninsula to Williamsburg and Jamestown, it combines scenic and historic appeal.

Markers along the route will assist the visitor in understanding the historic and geographic relationship of these three outstanding developments.

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