After the Redcoats march into town en masse Friday afternoon for the annual Under the Redcoat reenactment, we watched them set up their encampment in Market Square with the audacious Banastre Tarleton leading them on.
Meanwhile, someone caught my attention!
The manager of the Visitor Center Bookstore saw me standing near Chownings refreshment booth.
In the Visitor Center he always comes to meet us with gracious greetings, making us feel warmly welcomed!
While chatting with me, the manager showed me that he had his bookstore table set up behind the Chownings refreshment booth, featuring a local author, George Morrow.
He’s written four books, each about 100 pages in length, about different people of Williamsburg in the 18th century: Patrick Henry, Governor Fauquier, Lord Botetourt, and Lord Dunmore.
After a great deal of chatting, I bought the books!
Then the manager introduced me to the author.
Then I got to chat to Mr. Morrow about his books which led to my telling him that we homeschool, with real books, not with textbooks.
When I asked him if he was the author who had held a book signing in April with Colonial Williamsburg’s Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson in attendance, debating each other.
He said he was! I told him I had wanted to come to that but there was also a unique tour at Bassett Hall. How to choose between unique options?
Mr. Morrow personally autographed them for us!
PATRICK HENRY ARRESTED AT UNDER THE REDCOAT
Before we left the manager said that earlier while Patrick Henry was standing with them to promote the book, the Redcoats arrested him!
“What?! And I missed it????”
Ahem, I mean, “Horrors! He should know better than to show himself to those brutes.”
Renown as the firebrand of the American Revolution, I guess it was inevitable.
REVIEW OF THE GREATEST LAWYER THAT EVER LIVED
After settling into bed that night, I pulled out one of Mr. Morrow’s books titled, The Greatest Lawyer that Ever Lived: Patrick Henry at the Bar of History.
Wow! It was fascinating!
Shortly before finishing the book, I fell asleep.
It’s not your typical biography.
Using a lot of primary source documentation, it gave many examples of Patrick Henry’s greatness as a lawyer and orator.
Then the author shared how Thomas Jefferson tried to put Patrick Henry in a bad light.
In the early 19th century, after Henry’s death, William Wirt wrote a biography of his famous grandfather, Patrick Henry.
In the process, Wirt wrote President Jefferson for some recollections of his interactions with Patrick Henry, since both were burgesses in Williamsburg before the American Revolution.
Jefferson was not the most cooperative communicator in the world, preferring to mislead Wirt, since he did not want the world to glean from Wirt’s biography that Henry could possibly have positive qualities.
Finally in 1817, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry was published.
Perhaps my favorite part of the book is the preface, written by none other than the actor who memorably portrays Colonial Williamsburg’s Patrick Henry!
In fact, I had taken the book to dinner with me that night to read the preface aloud to the kids!
We were laughing at the humor and behind the scenes look of what it’s like to BE Patrick Henry!
PREPARING FOR UNDER THE REDCOAT
The next morning, I decided to pack the little book in my colonial basket.
Since I was to be in costume that day, I thought it would make interesting fodder if the Redcoats found the book in my basket. 😉
PATRICK HENRY INTERVIEWED BY BEST OF THE ROAD
That morning while walking to the Mary Dickenson Shop from Market Square, we saw Patrick Henry and a couple of guests standing under a tree in front of the Roscow Cole House.
In fact, his face was nearly in the tree branches. Ah, he learned his lesson from the day before to hide from those Redcoats!
But I wondered why even be on the streets? I don’t usually see him on the streets, especially during Under the Redcoat.
The kids wanted me to ask him to autograph my book but I wasn’t so sure.
I doubt he would, especially since I didn’t know who the guests were.
As we deliberated, Patrick Henry saw us.
“Greetings, friends! Welcome back to town!”
We smiled, waved and said hi, but weren’t sure that he wanted us to walk over and join his conversation with the guests.
Continuing a couple of buildings down to the Mary Dickenson shop, we found it was closed.
Turning back to the Roscow Cole house, we saw that he was still busy with the guests.
Then a lady walked up and said my name. I had to think a moment. Turned out it was one of my blog readers, Lucy!
She said she’d be there and would say hi to us if she saw us.
BEST OF THE ROAD INTERVIEWED ME!
As we stood there talking, a guy came to interview me while a camera shot footage.
That completely caught me off guard!
And turns out, he was from Best of the Road and had just finished interviewing Patrick Henry!
Now it was my turn! Stay tuned for that story!
