Portrayals of historical figures to highlight Founders Day
“What’s happening in the war?” “What has the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia resolved?” “What in the world is happening at the Fifth Virginia Revolutionary Convention in Williamsburg?”
These questions will be answered by historical interpreters portraying 18th century patriots and Founding Fathers Lee and Mason. Their conversation, which will take place in the critical timeframe of late June 1776, will be showcased at this year’s Founders Day presentation at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 3, at Urbanna Baptist Church at 121 Watling St. in Urbanna.
“The World Turned Upside Down” is an apt name for this living history presentation because it happened at a time when neither Founding Father knew whether a new nation would be birthed or not. Present-day people can watch their discussion, see the tension grow, and experience the strategies and thoughts of Lee and Mason as they share their experience of the Revolutionary War and nation-building events.
Seats are limited to this free event, and the doors will close at 11 a.m.
Richard Henry Lee
Richard Henry Lee, a statesman of the well-known Lee Family of Virginia, was passionate in supporting the cause of independence from Great Britain. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses and later the House of Delegates, signed the Declaration of Independence, was president of the Continental Congress, and also served as a senator from Virginia in the new nation. He worked to stop the importation of slaves and devoted many of his years to forming the structure of the new American government. He opposed the new Constitution until the Bill of Rights was added. A prominent historian has said of Lee that “his legacy is intrinsic, albeit anonymous, in the founding documents of the United States.”
Lee is perhaps best known for delivering a fiery motion at the Second Continental Congress to declare independence from Britain. This motion, known as the Lee Resolution, passed the Congress, and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were then tasked to write the Declaration of Independence. John Adams later remarked to Abagail Adams that Lee would be known as the “Father of American Independence.”
George Mason
George Mason, a wealthy Fairfax County planter who became a revolutionary, was active in local committees of safety and correspondence, and also served in the House of Burgesses and later the House of Delegates. He, too, worked to ban the African slave trade and exercised a significant influence on American political thoughts and events. As a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he, like Lee, refused to sign the new Constitution until it contained a Bill of Rights. Historians have stated that Mason’s greatest contribution to present day Constitutional law was his influence on our Bill of Rights.
Mason is likely best known as an architect of the American Revolution and wrote Virginia’s Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Constitution, naming the new state the “Commonwealth of Virginia,” a name he chose to indicate that power stemmed from the people. These two documents had a profound influence on the formation of the new nation.
Thomas Jefferson paid homage to Mason by incorporating both Mason’s ideas and language into the Declaration of Independence.
Who are the historical interpreters playing Richard Henry Lee and George Mason and why are they doing so?
Portraying Lee, home builder Frank Megargee’s interest in colonial Tidewater architecture led him to Colonial Williamsburg from Maryland’s Eastern Shore. As he immersed himself in colonial history, he discovered “a giant of the period who had been reduced to a footnote: R.H. Lee.”
Frank has done a deep dive into all-things-Lee and has portrayed Lee, and other historical figures, as part of Colonial Williamsburg’s “Revolutionary City” Street Theater program. He has also played many other historical figures of the time period at other venues.
Bringing George Mason to life, Douglas Cohen is a third-generation Washingtonian and worked in a number of civilian and military federal organizations before retiring and moving to Williamsburg. He had long since fallen in love with colonial history and began volunteering at a number of museums and historic sites that date to the 18th century. A member of the Living History Foundation, he has portrayed several colonial personages and has become deeply acquainted with the life and works of George Mason, whom he represents at Gunston Hall, Mason’s ancestral home in Mason Neck, Virginia.
The Friends of Urbanna invite you to come and listen to Lee and Mason as they share urgent strategies and life-changing news and views of the time period — a time worth remembering.
