Becoming Americans

Title

Becoming Americans

Description

Becoming Americans: Our Struggle to Be Both Free and Equal was the title of the master plan governing all interpretation at Colonial Williamsburg from 1996 through 2005. It was an educational curriculum that sought to demonstrate the continuing struggle in Virginia and the United States to expand or limit citizenship as promised by the Declaration of Independence and show the cultural transformation wrought by the arrival of Europeans and Africans to a land already inhabited by Native Americans. The framework of the central theme was outlined by the main headings Diverse Peoples, Clashing Interests, Shared Values, Formative Institutions, Partial Freedoms, and Revolutionary Promise. The plan of thematic interpretation was divided into six interconnected “storylines”: Choosing Revolution, Transforming Family (known for a period of time as Redefining Family), Freeing Religion, Enslaving Virginia, Taking Possession, and Buying Respectability: The Consumer Revolution in Colonial Virginia. Each of the storylines produced a substantial resource book filled with historical essays, bibliographies, and primary source materials that informed and supported interpretation in the Historic Area. The Choosing Revolution storyline produced three additional resource booklets titled People and Revolution, Chronology 1754-1784, and The African American Legacy Before During and After the American Revolution. The Taking Possession storyline produced one additional resource book titled Taking Possession: Slavery and the Movement West.