Williamsburg Yorktown Daily: CW Launches New Website on Revolution
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation launched a new website Friday dedicated to the American War of Independence and the Revolutionary era.
The website, OurAmericanRevolution.org, focuses on the period between 1750 and 1800. It was designed to be a standard reference point for students, scholars and the public and features objects, artifacts, buildings and primary sources along with interpretive essays creating a narrative of the period. The site highlights the Foundation’s collections as well as the role Williamsburg played in the events leading to the Revolution.
“The new website is a direct result of Colonial Williamsburg’s Education for Citizenship initiative,” said project director Jim Horn, vice president for research and historical interpretation and the George and Abby O’Neill director of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. “It engages guests with the principles that shaped our founding, the hardships endured to win independence, and the continuing struggle of those denied their rights. The Revolution was only a beginning, the start of an experiment in democracy that has continued down to our own times.”
The Foundation launched the site Friday to honor the anniversary of the Fifth Virginia Convention, which declared the colony's independence.
The site is organized around four chronological storylines. “Empire & Nations” documents the massive struggle between Britain, France and the Indian nations that laid the groundwork for crisis within the British colonial system. “Roads to Revolution” carries the story through the increasing tension between Britain and its colonies to the severing of ties with Britain in 1776. “War & Upheaval” chronicles the War for Independence and the creation of new republican states. “Continuing Revolutions” examines the efforts of America’s countrymen to build a government reflective of republican ideals and with the capacity to survive.
Colonial Williamsburg staff and other colonial scholars developed text and contributed thematic essays.
The website was funded through a $341,833 2007 Interpreting America’s Historic Places grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) with matching funds from The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. The project was also designated an NEH We the People project. The Kern Family Foundation of Waukesha, Wis., also helped support scholarship and website content development devoted to religious history and the American Revolution.
