Fredericksburg, VA



Mary Washington's home

We’re headed down from Baltimore to Williamsburg, Virginia. On the way, we stop in Fredericksburg’s Historic Section. Our first stop was Mary Washington’s home. It was bought by her son, George and expanded to house his mother in style at age 64. She ended up living there for 17 more years. The house while simple also was quite large, especially for a single woman. She had a large formal parlor on one side of the house, only opened up when she was entertaining. On the other side was her bedroom/living room and upstairs were three small bedrooms for guests. The house had a few of her possessions, but was mostly filled with period pieces.

Rising Sun Tavern

The best spot of the day was the Rising Sun Tavern. This tavern was run by one George Washington’s brothers for five years or so. The tour explained how mostly men would stay at the inn. The gentleman (staying with a meal cost about 2 days wages) would share a bed, while the commoners would have a hay comforter with no blankets. Women had a separate room where they would read or do their handy work. Generally, the women had to get up about 2 AM to be ready for the carriage that would leave at 4 AM to make the next tavern about 15 miles away by nightfall. The best part of the tour, however, was learning the why’s behind many common expressions: You could play cards with a deck of 52 cards, 51 cards were free, but there was a tax on the ace of spades. So many played with just 51 cards: “he’s not playing with a full deck”. The ale was poured in a pewter mug with a glass bottom: “Here’s looking at you” as you drank and could see through the bottom. When the British would impress new seaman, they often would put shillings in the bottom of the cup, and when you drank from it, they could impress you, since you had accepted the king’s money: “bottoms up” was the call to make sure there were no coins in the bottom. At night, your boots would be shined, at the time, both boots were identical and by wearing them on one foot or the other the boot would be shaped. “Putting your right foot forward” implied that the right boot was hung upright.  

James Monroe Museum

Our final stop was James Monroe’s Museum, the fifth president of the United States. It did the usual job of pointing out his role as a young captain in the Revolutionary War, how we served as a politician in Virginia after the war, both in the legislature and as governor, serving as ambassador to France, and finally as President. His eight years as President were relatively peaceful, a time of prosperity for the Republic. He is best known for the Monroe doctrine – a policy that no Western Hemisphere country once free, should be further interfered with by outside powers. This doctrine was used at the time, to stop Spain from recolonizing South America. But it is still evoked today: Kennedy to stop the USSR from arming Cuba, Regan invading Grenada, and Bush, Nicaragua. I was quite impressed at how many Monroe artifacts were in the museum: swords, his rifle, various writings, and the desk he used to sign the Monroe doctrine. The museum was established by his descendants in the early 1900’s, it was obvious that they had preserved quite a few of his possessions.