"African American Heritage" - Adult Tour
Destinations:
Williamsburg, Jamestown, Newport News, Hampton, Charles City County and Richmond
Four Days/Three Nights
Call us today at 800.378.1571 or request information.
Day 1 - Jamestown
1:00pm
Meet your Colonial Connections Tour Manager at Historic Jamestowne
1:00pm-2:45pm
Guided tour of Historic Jamestowne focusing on the arrival of Africans to Virginia in 1619 and the Royal African Company responsible for supplying slaves to Jamestown
A National Park Service site, Historic Jamestowne offers a wealth of activities for exploring the first permanent English settlement in North America. Overlooking the scenic James River, Historic Jamestowne boasts the only remaining 17th-century above ground structure – the church tower - and reconstructed 17th-century Jamestown Memorial Church. See the original site of the 1607 James Fort and more than 1,000 artifacts at the Archaearium, a museum of Archaeology.
3:00pm-5:00pm
Guided tour of Jamestown Settlement focusing on the Africans from the Kongo/Angola region of West Central Africa, their cultural origins, their interactions with the English in Virginia and the 17th-century Virginia culture they helped to create
At Jamestown Settlement, comprehensive gallery exhibits describe world events and social and economic conditions that led to the English colonization of America and the formation of the Virginia Company that sponsored Jamestown with a goal of earning its investors a profit. Learn about the land and lifestyle of Algonquian-speaking tribes in coastal Virginia under the powerful leader Powhatan and about the culture of the first documented Africans in Virginia. Outdoor living-history areas bring the 17th-century to life – the re-created Powhatan Indian Village, re-created James Fort, Riverfront Discovery Area, and full-size replicas of the Susan Constant, Discovery and Godspeed - the three ships that brought settlers to Virginia in 1607.
5:30pm
Check-in to your Williamsburg hotel (includes round-trip baggage handling)
Choose from limited to full-service properties with exterior or interior corridors, indoor or outdoor pools, with deluxe continental breakfast or full breakfast buffet, priced from budget and moderate to deluxe.
7:00pm
Dinner and optional shopping (on own)
Dining and shopping available at Merchants Square, High Street, New Town, Premium Outlets and Yankee Candle Village.
9:00pm
Return to the hotel. Colonial Connections Tour Manager departs.
Day 2 - Williamsburg
8:00am
Deluxe Continental breakfast at your Williamsburg hotel
8:45pm
Depart for Colonial Williamsburg with your Colonial Connections Tour Manager
9:00am-1:00pm
Guided tour of Colonial Williamsburg, the Revolutionary City, including Great Hopes Plantation
Explore the nation's largest living history museum. From 1699 to 1780, Williamsburg was the political and cultural center of Britain's largest colony in the New World. In the shops, taverns, government buildings, homes and streets, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Mason and other Virginia Patriots debated the ideas of liberty, independence, and personal freedoms that led to the founding of American democracy and inspired generations of Americans and others from around the world.
In 1979, Colonial Williamsburg became a pioneer in the presentation of 18th-century African-American history. Thirty years later, the story of Williamsburg’s free and enslaved African-American residents remains an integral part of programming throughout the Historic Area. During your visit, you’ll have an opportunity to interact with free and enslaved Virginians as they debate and discuss the events leading up to American independence. At Great Hopes Plantation, you’ll learn through a hands-on experience how most Virginians lived more than 200 years ago.
1:00pm
Lunch provided in a Colonial Tavern
Taverns were not only an integral part of colonial life in America, but were also a necessity. The modes of travel and transportation of the day mandated the location of a tavern every few miles on the main thoroughfares. Each of the operating taverns located in Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area is inspired by a different style of colonial-era cooking.
2:15pm-5:00pm
Continue self-guided tours of Colonial Williamsburg, the Revolutionary City
5:15pm
Return to your hotel to relax before dinner
6:30pm
Dinner provided at Pierce’s Pitt BBQ
Since 1971 people have enjoyed going to Pierce’s Pitt for delicious, hickory-smoked, Tennessee style Bar-B-Que made with “Doc” Pierce’s original Bar-B-Que sauce. It all started when Julius C. (Doc) Pierce set out from Flat Creek, Tennessee for Virginia with his family and their prized bar-b-que sauce recipe. He settled in Williamsburg and opened Pierce’s Pitt and the rest, as they say, is history! Now whenever there’s good times, good laughs and good eatin’ Pierce’s is often part of it.
8:00pm
“African-American Music” at Great Hopes Plantation
Appreciate and understand the music, songs, and dances of the 18th-century African-American community which borrowed from the many cultures of Africa and Europe. In the 18th-century African-American community, there were opportunities for everyone to participate, whether it was singing, dancing or playing an instrument. Keep the rhythms, sing the songs and dance the dances adapted from the West African people during colonial America.
9:30am
Return to the hotel. Colonial Connections Tour Manager departs.
Day 3 - Newport News, Hampton
7:30am
Deluxe Continental breakfast at your Williamsburg hotel
8:30am
Depart for Newport News with your Colonial Connections Tour Manager
9:00pm-10:00pm
Visit the Virginia War Museum
American military history unfolds at the Virginia War Museum. Outstanding collections of personal artifacts, weapons, vehicles, uniforms, posters and much more, trace the development of the U.S. military from colonial times through the present. The “Marches Toward Freedom” gallery explores the roles of African-Americans in the military since 1775. One such soldier was James Bowser, a free black who fought in the Revolutionary War. Future generations of his family would continue his tradition of military service and many would remain in the Coastal Virginia region. Photographs and personal artifacts from members of the famous Tuskegee Airmen are also featured in the gallery.
10:30am-11:00am
Visit the James A. Fields House
James A. Fields (1844-1903) was a born a slave in Hanover County, VA. In 1862, he and his brother escaped slavery and found refuge at Fort Monroe in Hampton. His restored home is historically significant for its long association with the development of the social and civic life of the African-American community in Newport News. In 1908, four doctors pooled their savings and asked the Fields family for use of the top floor to start a hospital. From these modest beginnings, Whitaker Memorial Hospital was born. Other than the city jail’s infirmary, this institution represented the only outlet for hospitalization of blacks and provided two years of generous service to the black community.
11:15pm-12:15pm
Visit the Newsome House Museum & Cultural Center
The Newsome House Museum & Cultural Center is the restored 1899 residence of the African-American attorney J. Thomas Newsome and his wife Mary Winfield Newsome. Mr. Newsome was a respected attorney, journalist, churchman and civic leader, and prospered as part of the postwar Civil War south's new urban African-American middle class. His elegant Queen Anne residence served as the hub of the local black community from which he led the fight for social justice within Virginia.
12:45-2:00pm
Lunch at the Peninsula Town Center (on own)
The Peninsula Town Center reinvents an enclosed mall as an open-air destination. Enjoy a diverse mix of restaurants and retailers.
2:15-3:15pm
Guided tour of Fort Monroe and the Casemate Museum
The largest stone fort ever built in the United States Fort Monroe National Monument spans the American story through the 21st century: American Indian presence, Captain John Smith’s journeys, a safe haven for freedom seekers during the Civil War, and a bastion of defense for the Chesapeake Bay. The Casemate Museum located within the historic fort's stone walls chronicles the history of the fort and the Coast Artillery Corps. During the Civil War, Fort Monroe was a Union-held bastion in the center of a Confederate state and helped shelter thousands of slave refugees earning it the nickname Freedom’s Fortress. See the cell where Confederate President Jefferson Davis was imprisoned.
3:30pm-5:00pm
Visit Hampton University Museum and Campus including a stop at the Emancipation Oak
Founded in 1868, the museum is the oldest African-American museum in the United States and one of the oldest museums in the state of Virginia. The collection features more than 9,000 objects including African-American fine arts, traditional and African, Native American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Island, and Asian art, and objects relating to the history of Hampton University.
Emancipation Oak is a historic tree located on the campus of Hampton University. In September 1861, the peaceful shade of the young oak served as the first classroom for newly freed African American men and women eager for an education. In 1863, the Virginia Peninsula’s black community gathered under the oak to hear the first Southern reading of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation leading to its nickname as the Emancipation Oak.
5:00pm
Depart for Williamsburg
6:30pm
Dinner provided at Golden Corral
Golden Corral® family-style restaurants offer the biggest buffet and grill available anywhere. Their famous buffet contains an array of food choices including hot meat options, pasta, pizza, fresh vegetables, salad bar, a selection of carved meats and fresh baked goods and tempting desserts.
8:00pm
“Papa Said, Mama Said” at Colonial Williamsburg
Experience a moving program in which 18th century free and enslaved blacks reflect on lessons learned through stories told by the elders. This is an interactive program that explores the significance of oral African tradition, Guests participate in the experience featuring recollections of stories that teach moral lessons that have been passed down from generation to generation.
9:30am
Return to the hotel. Colonial Connections Tour Manager departs.
Day 4 - Charles City County, Richmond
7:00am
Deluxe Continental breakfast at your Williamsburg hotel. Colonial Connections Tour Manager rejoins group to facilitate check-out and baggage handling.
8:00am
Depart for Charles City County
9:00am-10:15am
Visit Shirley Plantation (guided house tour, self-guided grounds tour)
Shirley tells the story of the Hill-Carter family, eye witnesses to 11 generations of American history. To this day, the 11th generation continues to own, operate, and work this grand southern plantation. Shirley Plantation is Virginia’s first plantation (1613) and one of the first economic engines of the New World. Enslaved labor played a very important role at Shirley Plantation and slaves were essential to the plantation system. They tended the field, harvested the crops, maintained the house, cooked the meals, and provided the majority of skilled labor including carpentry, masonry and blacksmithing. Today, Shirley continues to be a working plantation, a private family home, a growing business, a National Historic Landmark and a direct link between the past and the present.
10:30am
Depart for Richmond
11:15am-3:00pm
Visit the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia
Enjoy lunch on your own in the Jackson Ward neighborhood and visit the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site.
Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia
Founded in 1981 by Carroll Anderson Sr., the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia collects and exhibits artifacts and objects that serve to illustrate the history of Black peoples, with an emphasis on Virginians. Located in the heart of historic Jackson Ward at 00 Clay Street, the museum has a collection of nearly 5,000 artifacts and documents, art and photography.
Maggie L. Walker National Historical Site
The Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site commemorates the life of a progressive and talented African American woman. Despite many adversities, she achieved success in the world of business and finance as the first woman in the United States to charter and serve as president of a bank. The site includes her residence of thirty years and a visitor center detailing her life and the Jackson Ward community in which she lived and worked. The house is restored to its 1930's appearance with original Walker family pieces.
3:00pm-3:30pm
Riding tour of the Arthur Ashe, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Richmond Slavery Reconciliation Statue and Virginia Civil Rights Memorial
3:30pm
Depart for home. Colonial Connections Tour Manager departs.
Special events are scheduled throughout the year in addition to Black History Month in February.
Your Connection to Williamsburg
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