African-American Beginnings - On the Virginia Waterfront
Presented by Oleta Tours and Travel
The African-Americans story begins in Jamestown and helped shape the creation of the United States. Discover the first arrival, stories of courage, religion, hopes and dreams as you tour areas of Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown, Newport News, Hampton and Virginia Beach.
Day One:
Your tour begins at Historic Jamestowne, a National Park site, the first permanent English speaking settlement in North America and the first recorded arrival of Africans to Virginia in1619. Visit the 17 th century church, the archeological site and the glasshouse. Then on to Jamestown Settlement, a living-history museum of 17th –century that features an introductory film and indoor exhibition galleries. Outside, history comes alive in re-creations of a Powhatan Indian village, a colonial fort and the three ships – Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery – that brought America’s first permanent English colonist to Virginia in 1607. Learn how the cultures of the Powhatan Indian, English and western central African’s converged at Jamestown.
Enjoy lunch at Jamestown Settlement Café then travel the Colonial Parkway, as scenic, 23-mile roadway along the James River to Colonial Williamsburg. You will pass one of the first African-American owned working farms in America.
Step back into history an you walk across the new “bridge to the past” that transport you from the 21 st century back to 1774 at Colonial Williamsburg. Encounter costumed interpreters and trades people at the Great Hopes Plantation, where you will capture the essence of rural Colonial Virginia. Here you will discover how most 18 th century Virginian’s lived, what they ate and what they grew as whites and slaves worked together in agricultural activities that helped sustain Williamsburg residents. Dinner at a tavern or local favorite restaurant
Following dinner you might take an evening walking tour of the historic area to see Bruton Parish and the original site of First Baptist Church, one of the oldest African-American churches in America.
Accommodations for the next three nights are at lodging property of your choice in the Newport News/Williamsburg area.
Day Two:
Enjoy a leisure breakfast at your hotel then on to the Yorktown Victory Center, museum of the American Revolution, chronicles America’s struggle for independence, from the beginnings of colonial unrest to the formation of the new nation, through gallery exhibits and living-history Continental Army encampment and the 1780s farm. Your next stop is at the Yorktown Battlefield and Visitors Center with a walking tour to Historic Yorktown followed by a lunch stop at Riverwalk Landing on the York River.
Then on to Lee Hall Mansion and Endview Plantation, once a hospital for both Union and Confederate forces, and learn about the roles of African-Americans in rural Virginia before, during and after the Civil War. More personal history awaits you at the Virginia War Museum where you can trace stories of African American Soldiers in the Marches Toward Freedom Gallery.
“Dinnertainment” awaits you at the historic Boxwood Inn in Newport News. Accommodations for the next two nights are at lodging property of your choice in the Newport News/Williamsburg area.
Day Three:
Back to Newport News for a visit to the Newsome House and Cultural Center. The Victorian home was built in 1899 and was home to J. Thomas Newsome, a prominent African-American attorney and civic leader. A graduate of Howard University Law School, Newsome was one of the first African-American attorneys to argue before the Virginia Supreme Court. Today his elegant Queen Anne residence serves as a cultural center and site to changing art exhibits, as well as a permanent exhibit on his life and times. You will also see the James A. Fields House and hear stories of its restoration from the owner and guide Greg Cherry.
Then it’s on to Hampton, tour the campus of Hampton University and visit the Hampton University Museum, on of the oldest African-American museums in the United States. Visit the Casement Museum at historic Fort Monroe. Nicknamed “Freedom’s Fortress,” it was a safe haven for thousands of escaped slaves. After lunch you will tour the new Hampton History Museum and the Aberdeen Gardens Historic Museum and Community, a “New- Deal” planned community that was designed and built by African-American architects and workers to provide African-American shipyard employees and their families with clean, modern homes and gardens for sustenance. Your next stop is the Virginia Air and Space to see exhibits including the first black aviators to fly for the U.S, in wartime missions. Then tour of Little England Chapel. Build in 1879; the chapel is the only know African missionary chapel in Virginia.
For your evening entertainment visit the Power Plant shops and restaurants or book seats at the American Theatre. If you want to arrange their tour for the last weekend in June, you may have the group plan to attend a Friday or Saturday evening performance of the Hampton Jazz Festival. The festival attracts the nation’s top blues, soul, pop and jazz performers.)
Accommodations for the tonight are at lodging property of your choice in the Newport News/Williamsburg area.
Day Four
Enjoy breakfast at your leisure before you depart for Norfolk where you will explore the power of the seas at Nauticus, the National Maritime Center and the U.S.S. Wisconsin / Hampton Roads Naval Museum. Enjoy a beautiful lunch buffet, great music as you cruise Norfolk’s historic waterways on the Spirit of Norfolk. Then drive past the Martin Luther King Memorial, Norfolk State Universityand the Black Soldier Memorial.
Your next stop is the Norfolk Botanical Garden for a tram ride though one of the East Coast’s largest collections of azaleas, camellias, roses and rhododendrons. African –American women relocated azaleas to establish the garden as part of the Franklin D. Roosevelt W.P.A. project.
Then on to First Landing State Park and then on the Virginia Beach ocean front for a stroll on the boardwalk and a visit to the Old Coast Guard Station housed in a 1903 former Life-Saving Station, the museum tells the story of the men who served in the US Life-Saving Service and the US Coast Guard including the contributions of Michael A. Healy, and African American artic sea captain. If you have time visit the Francis Land House and the Adam Throughood House.
Depart for home or arrange for accommodations for the tonight at lodging property of your choice in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area.
Contact:
David N. Smith
Oleta Tours and Travel
P.O. Box 466
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
david@oleta.com
Office: 757-253-1008
FAX: 757-253-1050
www.Oleta.com