A Conversation With a Nation Builder
When
Jan 10, 2009 12:45 pm - 1:15 pm (Saturday)
Where
What
The world is familiar with the accomplishments of America’s historical giants: men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. The efforts of these great men ...
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Event details: A Conversation With a Nation Builder
Description
The world is familiar with the accomplishments of America’s historical giants: men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. The efforts of these great men were essential to the overthrow of tyranny and the establishment of the United States as a self-governing republic. But their contributions were made possible by the often overlooked people of history on whose shoulders these first line patriots stood.
These people, preachers and servants, enslaved and free, who lived their lives, some heroically and some humbly, were nation builders no less than the Washingtons, Jeffersons and Henrys of history.
Have a conversation with a Nation Builder as they discuss the "Revolutionary" events that helped to inspire and influence the ideas of their American dream.
More about Mary Stith House
Mary Stith House
Mary Stith House* Daughter of president of College of William & Mary * 1813 will bequeathed property to African American servants * Interpretive programs take place in restored building today
Charming one-story brick building on Duke of Gloucester Street
A small, reconstructed building on Duke of Gloucester Street, the Mary Stith Shop is a one-story brick structure with a bay window and three dormers, and a charming, almost dollhouse appearance. Here visitors might encounter a Colonial Williamsburg character interpreter – Martha Washington, Mary Stith herself, various ladies of the town, the gentlemen's gentlemen, etc. Interpretive programs at the Mary Stith House vary from week to week.
Mary Stith lived to see independence and the establishment of the Republic. She wrote her will in 1813. Among its beneficiaries were her African American servants, to whom she left her shop. Her will shows her depth of feeling for them:
"All the coloured people in my family being born my slaves, but now liberated, I think it my duty not to leave them destitute nor to leave them unrecompensed for past services rendered to me. As in the cause of humanity I can do but little for so many, and that little my conscience requires me to do, therefore I subject the whole of my estate to the payment of my just debts, and to the provision which I herein make for them."
Will left most property to freed black servants
With the exception of few small legacies to white friends, Stith left most of her considerable estate, including three buildings and the ground on which they stood, to her freedmen. To Jenny, "the mother of the family," she left her dwelling house and lot, some furniture, clothing, and £100, as well as £5 a year for each of her two granddaughters, Jenny and Patty Gillett. These two jointly received the second building on Stith's town lot, which she described as "my house in the yard called the tin shop." Each of them also received clothing, items of furniture, and £25. The third structure Stith bequeathed to Nelly Bolling and "her two sisters Eve and Sally." This building she described as "my house on the main street called Woods shop." Each of these three women also received cash legacies, as did Peter Gillett, Benjamin White, Beverley Rowsay, Rachel White, and Fanny White.
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