JAMESTOWN — Jamestown Rediscovery will mark Jamestown Day, a commemoration of the establishment of James Fort more than 400 years ago, on Saturday, May 17.
According to the organization, on May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company landed at the swampy island in what George Percy termed “Paspiha’s country” and established “James Cittie,” which would become the capital of England’s most successful colony in North America and would lay the foundations of the democracy in which we live today.
Jamestown Day is hosted by Jamestown Rediscovery, which co-manages Historic Jamestowne alongside the National Park Service’s Colonial National Historical Park. Programming includes walking tours with historians and archaeologists, living history that takes visitors back to the 17th century, and archaeology in action near the site of Jamestown’s last Statehouse. Plus, it adds visitors of all ages will be able to explore ground-penetrating radar and touch real artifacts in the Ed Shed.
“Jamestown almost failed many times,” says Director of Living History & Historic Trades Willie Balderson. “But through the tenacity — and desperation — of those who came here over 400 years ago, Jamestown became the capital of Virginia and the backdrop for two of the most pivotal moments in American history: the first General Assembly, held in the choir of Jamestown’s church in late July 1619 and, a few weeks later, the arrival of about twenty
enslaved Africans, forcibly removed from their homeland by the Spanish and then trafficked
once again to Virginia. This legacy laid the foundations of our nation, even to this day.”
All-day events include:
- Visit the archaeological site of the 1607 James Fort.
- Visit the Memorial Church and see the re-interpretation of the site’s original 1617-18 church and its foundations — which was the meeting place for the first representative government in English America. Stand on the exact spot where the first General Assembly was held in 1619 and where our nation’s democracy began.
- Explore the tobacco boom in Virginia, Jamestown’s development from a fort to a port, as well as the exploitation of Africans, Virginia Indians, and indentured servants in a new gallery exhibit at the Natalie P. and Alan M. Voorhees Archaearium Museum.
Special activities include:
- Meet Dan Firehawk Abbott of the Nanticoke people of Maryland’s Eastern Shore and learn about the material culture and lifeways of the Tidewater Algonquians and their interactions with the settlers of Jamestown at James Fort.
- Blacksmithing was one of the earliest trades to be practiced at Jamestown. Join blacksmiths Shel Browder and Steve Mankowski for demonstrations and a discussion of the types of work that went on at the site of the original James Fort Forge at James Fort.
- Building a fort proved a necessity for the colonists within a month of their 1607 arrival. Carpenters Danny Whitten and Jesse Robertson will demonstrate the tools and methods used by the first colonists to build everything from the fort walls to the buildings at James Fort.
- Learn first-hand about the trials of the first English settlers and their experiences exploring the Chesapeake from Anas Todkill, one of the settlers who explored the bay with Capt. John Smith at James Fort.
- Join the archaeology team and help identify and sort through artifacts from the John Smith Well at the Ed Shed, located just outside of the west wall of James Fort.
Jamestown Rediscovery programs are included with admission to the Preservation Virginia portion of the site.
For more information about ticketing and how to plan a visit, go to the Historic Jamestowne webpage.
