Chelsea Miller, Co-Founder of Freedom March NYC heads to Williamsburg, Virginia to learn the truth about our nations founding and the legacy the city still holds today.
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00:00Hey Essence fam, so it's your girl Chelsea Miller, and you know I love a good travel
00:15destination and some history.
00:18And so we are in Colonial Williamsburg, yes Colonial Williamsburg, to learn about the
00:23history but also the culture and to have some fun.
00:27So come with me to experience what Colonial Williamsburg has to offer.
00:34So right now we're in the Powell House, we're in the kitchen at the Powell House at Colonial
00:39Williamsburg.
00:40The stories of enslaved people, freed blacks, are all told here, you get a chance to see
00:47how 18th century blacks would have lived, things that we would have been doing, in the
00:53kitchen.
00:54So tell us what we're doing today.
00:56So today we are going to roast a chicken 18th century style, and we're going to use
01:01as the base of it, sweet potatoes.
01:04Take us back, take us back to what this would even feel like being here.
01:09So the person who would have been in the kitchen of course is a person who can cook.
01:14Somebody who knew how to harness the fire, that's always going to be the most important
01:18part of all of this.
01:20And I want people to know that everything that came through enslavement, that period,
01:27has us where we are today.
01:29Everything in the kitchen that I do, at home, or wherever I'm at, is rooted deeply in those
01:35conversations that I've had with my elders, about their elders, who talk to their elders.
01:39Very nice.
01:40Okay, so I'm going to let you put this on the fire so we can see what happens next.
01:47Ms. Janice, so talk to us about where we are today and the significance of Colonial Williamsburg.
01:55Well, we're standing in the courtyard of the Benjamin Powell House, but actually where
01:59we are is sacred ground.
02:01Every space within this foundation, wherever you walk, is sacred ground.
02:05So you're talking about a capital city where the population was 52.4% African descent.
02:11So some enslaved, a few that were free.
02:13So there's no place or space that you can walk on or approach that they wouldn't have
02:18been present.
02:20I want folks to realize that they need to come back and see the Williamsburg that's
02:24here today.
02:26It has evolved from its first opening until now, and it's still evolving.
02:30It's always changing.
02:31And know that those people who are here, who are helping to construct the narrative and
02:36the interpretation, we very much want to tell a fuller story, a more texturized story, more
02:41substantial, more accurate.
02:43And so we're bringing those people from the background, from the shadows to the forefront
02:47so they can be seen and heard.
02:49And we need people to come with their questions, with their curiosities, and ask to hear their
02:54story and expect to hear the story.
02:56Right.
02:57And I think that there is so much power, and that is a testament to our, just the nature
03:02of our DNA.
03:03Right.
03:04How we show up in the world.
03:05And so I think that that is so important, and the fact that we are here.
03:10Slavery is not our story.
03:12You know, what came out of slavery, what continues to come out of the legacies of slavery,
03:16because things were born from it.
03:18That's who we are.
03:19And that's our story.
03:20And that's the one that we need to be vocal in telling.
03:23Beth?
03:24Yes.
03:25I know that you've been here for 35 years.
03:27That's true.
03:28And so what has that looked like for you?
03:32And what drew you to Colonial Williamsburg?
03:34It is a little unusual for someone to stay someplace for 35 years, but the perspectives
03:39that you get, that change how you feel about this place and your understanding of the past
03:46is unending.
03:47I mean, there's just nothing that I can definitively say I know everything about Williamsburg or
03:53the people here.
03:54It just constantly is growing, and it makes me think of things differently about the past,
03:58and that just excites me.
04:00And that's where I just find history to be so interesting.
04:02It is much more complex than how we were taught in school.
04:06I think that it's so important, even as I'm here, to know that there are folks who care
04:14about making sure that we don't lose this.
04:21Being on these grounds today, I feel so blessed to be able to experience it, see it, touch
04:28it, taste it, smell it, all the things, right?
04:31And I think understanding that your history is our history, is American history, right?
04:35It's all connected.
04:36I think people should come and take that memory walk, you know, walking back and let the grounds
04:44and the buildings and the people here who interpret evoke that feeling and that question
04:49to make you want to know more about yourself.
04:52And sometimes you have to relearn your history.
04:54Make it a multi-sensory approach, taking the sounds, the smells, the sights, be immersed
05:01in Colonial Williamsburg when you come and see where you would have fit, you know, depending
05:06on who you are.
05:07See how it would have looked for your ancestral roots.
05:10I really don't think that as an American, we can separate out our history.
05:15So we have to accept everything that has happened in the past to become who we are today.
05:20And you really understand who we are today when you come to a place like Colonial Williamsburg.
05:25Thank you so much for allowing me to be in community with you all today.
05:30And this will be my first time here, but definitely not my last.
05:33Yay!
05:34Hold you to it.
05:35Yep, hold me to it.
05:40Miss Liz, we are here at First Baptist Church.
05:44As soon as I stepped into the building, I felt the history.
05:50We were organized in 1776.
05:55And from that point, it has been a resilient situation for the African American community.
06:04Can you talk a little bit about how that came together?
06:09There is no place in Williamsburg that I can think of that hasn't had black hands touch
06:15it to help raise it from the ground up.
06:19So the resilience of the community has been overwhelming, not only for Colonial Williamsburg.
06:26Its members have served on city council.
06:30So members of this church have done so much in terms of helping Colonial Williamsburg.
06:38And by the way, before it became Colonial Williamsburg, it was called Middle Plantation.
06:43But what we're trying to do is tell the true story based on what we know.
06:46When we look at churches, right, we think about the history.
06:50We think about it as a faith institution.
06:54But there are so many stories that are part of what that looks like every single day and
06:59so many tied histories.
07:00And so I couldn't help as I was walking to see some of the pictures and the images of
07:05that time.
07:06If we do not fully understand our history, then we, of course, cannot know where we are
07:11going in our future.
07:13Well, you make a valid point.
07:16So my mission today is to make sure I bring up somebody else so that they will go out
07:21and teach somebody else.
07:23And in my opinion, that's what you're doing.
07:26Well, thank you so much, Ms. Liz.
07:28And thank you for allowing us to be in this space and to get just a taste of so much of
07:34the history that's here.
07:35Okay, y'all, so we are headed to Tipsy Beans, which is this Afro-Latina cafe that apparently
07:47has some of the best food in Colonial Williamsburg.
07:51So let's go and see.
07:55This is my love language, y'all.
07:56Food is my love language.
07:57And so Colonial Williamsburg, you have been more than good to me.
08:01This is crazy.
08:02Enjoy.
08:03Thank you.
08:04Thank you.
08:05Like, I am a food critic.
08:06Okay.
08:07And I was saying, these flavors, yeah, it's adding up.
08:08It's adding up.
08:09I'm like, I'm gonna have to take Tipsy Beans back with me.
08:10Okay, y'all, so I just left some of the best dinner that I've had.
08:11But you know what?
08:12We always got room for some more.
08:13We are ready to eat.
08:14Thank you.
08:15We are officially at Cookie Heaven.
08:16Welcome to Cookie Land.
08:17Okay.
08:18We got our chocolate cookie.
08:19Oreo.
08:21The brownie.
08:22Y'all need to come.
08:27Welcome to cookie land.
08:28Okay.
08:29We got our chocolate cookie.
08:31Oreo.
08:32Mamacita.
08:34Chocolate chip.
08:36Yeah, baby.
08:37Vitamin girl.
08:38Okay.
08:41Superior.
08:44The brownie.
08:46Y'all need to come.
08:47Come visit so we can figure out which one's the best.
08:50So when you visit, make a video so we can battle.
08:54Yeah.
08:55Y'all need to come check this out.
08:56Top notch.
08:58Open it up.
09:02Hi, Harvey.
09:02Hi, Chelsea.
09:03Welcome to Jamestown Settlement.
09:05Been looking forward to you.
09:06Absolutely.
09:07I'm so excited to be here.
09:08I have learned so much over these past few days.
09:11And so I'm excited for you to teach me some new things,
09:13some surprises, some hidden gems.
09:15Yes.
09:16We have plenty of surprises here at Jamestown Settlement.
09:19With Colonial Williamsburg,
09:20that gets into the 18th century.
09:21But here we're going to start with the 17th century.
09:23So it's going to connect with your experience
09:25at Colonial Williamsburg.
09:26As we tell the greatest story of Williamsburg
09:28and the beginning of the African American experience
09:31here in Virginia.
09:32I love it.
09:33So let's go.
09:42Okay, Harvey.
09:43So talk to me.
09:44We are looking at Angola, 1600.
09:48You can see a lot of the skills of West Africa
09:51during the slave trade are going to be transferred
09:53and bondage to the Americans.
09:55So they knew specifically the skills that Africans had,
09:58whether it's animal husbandry,
10:00those who live in urban communities,
10:02those who live in rural communities,
10:04and they transported those skills
10:06to the Americas under bondage.
10:08So that's one way to look at these objects
10:11as a prelude as to what was going to happen
10:15with the transatlantic slave trade.
10:17Many of the artifacts in American and British museums
10:19are part of colonialism.
10:21They were taken from societies,
10:24African societies during colonialism.
10:26So there are efforts to look at repatriation
10:28of these objects to the country from which they came from
10:32so that they can hold their wealth of culture.
10:35And it's something that's being looked at
10:36and it's contested, of course,
10:38in many museums around the world.
10:41And there's a lot of African countries
10:42who want their treasures back.
10:43But I wanted to really highlight this particular depiction
10:46of the role of religion.
10:48The Christian Catholic Church in Angola,
10:50you look closely at the hand of Jesus.
10:53He has like cornrows.
10:54Some texture.
10:55Yes.
10:56Well, we were just at the First Baptist Church yesterday.
11:00So this definitely also gives us more context on faith
11:04that we talk about when just the entire movement, right,
11:08of this Atlantic slave trade
11:10and black folks in our history.
11:12So that is powerful.
11:13And I feel like this is an act of resistance.
11:15This is a representation of an early slave cabin.
11:19At the end of the 18th century,
11:20the number of enslaved people are starting to increase.
11:23It's called the increase.
11:25And as they increase, the houses are becoming separate.
11:29So now they're creating slave quarters.
11:31Before that, you could have a white indentured servant.
11:34You can have an indigenous person and an African
11:36all in the same building, living in the same house.
11:40We are looking at also another historical site, right?
11:45So talk to us about where we are.
11:47Yes, we're at Jamestown Settlement
11:48and this is a representation of the first three ships
11:52that were sailed here to Virginia by the Virginia Company.
11:55But eventually the story that we tell
11:56at Jamestown Settlement includes indigenous people,
12:00Europeans, and then of course the importation
12:02of hundreds and then thousands of Africans
12:04who were imported into Virginia.
12:06So as I'm here and I'm looking around,
12:10it's not lost on me the weight of where we are.
12:13And so when we think about black folks coming here
12:18and experiencing this, what is that like?
12:21Or how do we process it, right?
12:23How do we show up in these spaces?
12:25Well, one thing a person can do when they come here
12:27to Jamestown is see all the places
12:30and activities they can engage in.
12:32But also just looking at this river, the James River,
12:34it hasn't really changed that much.
12:36So if you were to just meditate about how people
12:39may have felt when they arrived in the quote unquote
12:41new world and how they was afraid because it was an unknown,
12:45they didn't know what was going to happen to them.
12:47So it could also be a place of meditation and reflection.
12:52It's kind of a call to action to all of us
12:54to also be the keepers of that history and that legacy.
12:58Because I think that there's so much history
13:00even here right now, but then also so much history
13:03that we bring when we step into these places.
13:08So we are officially wrapping up,
13:11I guess, this part of the day.
13:13And so I would love for you to just talk to me
13:17a little bit more about where we are
13:20and what it means to you.
13:22So the work that we do here at Jamestown
13:24is really the parts of the beginning of that story.
13:28You know, one of the things I often hear is people say,
13:30oh, I never learned that in school or on it.
13:32School is to teach you how to learn.
13:34It's not to stop learning, right?
13:36We have to own our education and we have to amplify it
13:42and we have to take part in the resources
13:45that are available to us.
13:46And museums, honestly, are one of the best ways to do that.
13:50Let's say a young black girl
13:52comes to Jamestown Settlement.
13:55What do you want her to walk away with?
13:59I want her to walk away with the reality
14:02that the myth of this was a white nation
14:06completely stripped from her mind.
14:08I want her to understand that
14:14our ancestors were equally engaged
14:17in the development of this story,
14:19not just by our labor, but by our genius.
14:23Thank you for welcoming me.
14:25Absolutely.
14:26Jamestown will definitely continue to be a place
14:29that I explore and want to learn more about.
14:33And so- That's good.
14:34Yeah, off to Yorktown we go.
14:35Off to Yorktown.
14:36Yeah, have fun.
14:37All right.
14:40Harvey, so we just wrapped up on Jamestown.
14:43We are now in Yorktown.
14:45Talk to me on where we are.
14:47We're at the American Revolution Museum in Yorktown.
14:51This is where the revolution was won.
14:53And we're gonna learn about the African-Americans
14:55and their heritage, our American heritage,
14:57established right here at Yorktown.
14:59Every time we speak, you drop a new gem.
15:02So I'm ready for all the gems
15:03you're going to drop while we're here.
15:05Okay.
15:06Let's get into it.
15:07Let's go.
15:08Let's go.
15:17So now we're gonna go straight into the war.
15:19And this, which I will talk about
15:21when we go out to the farm,
15:23this is that watershed moment
15:26because they wanted freedom in their time,
15:28right then and now.
15:30And so one of the important battles here in the South,
15:32you've probably heard of, of course,
15:33Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill.
15:35But here in the South,
15:36the first battle in Virginia was the Great Bridge,
15:40which is across, which is on the South side of Virginia,
15:43South East side of Virginia.
15:44And so what you see here is the British
15:47and they're charging the causeway.
15:49The causeway is like a bridge.
15:50But there's one man who's represented here,
15:53this black man, his name was Billy Flora.
15:57He became legendary.
15:58Wow.
15:59He even fought in the War of 1812.
16:01In the War of 1812, he used the same musket
16:03that I'm gonna show you out there at the encampment,
16:06the brown-gassed musket.
16:07Okay, so we are at another stop on the train.
16:11So explain to me where we are, Harvey.
16:13We're at the Treaty of Paris.
16:14The war has actually come to an end.
16:17Yorktown was a decisive battle, didn't quite end the war,
16:20but they had to establish a treaty.
16:22But before Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman,
16:24Sir Jonah Tute and all the others from the 1800s,
16:28there were two generations of people
16:30and the American Revolution people
16:32who established those institutions.
16:35So it's time for us to go and see
16:37visually what this looks like.
16:39Yes, yes.
16:40I'm interested to see if you can handle a musket.
16:43Oh, I don't know if I can handle a musket, Harvey,
16:45but we're gonna put it to the test.
16:46Well, I wanna see if you can be like Billy Flora.
16:48Okay.
16:49Okay.
16:50No promises.
16:50All right.
16:51Let's head on out.
16:52Okay.
16:55Yeah, now we're coming to the encampment
16:58here at Yorktown in preparation for the siege
17:01of Yorktown, which is the decisive battle
17:03of the American Revolution.
17:04If you remember at James' time,
17:07I said one of the first laws to mention the word Negro
17:10is that Negro should not own firearms or carry firearms.
17:15Well, now for the American Revolution,
17:16almost 5,000 black men would fight with a firearm.
17:20This is called a brown musket.
17:21Would you like to feel the weight of this musket,
17:23this brown best musket?
17:24I'll give it to you.
17:25Okay, I wanna make sure I'm holding it right.
17:27Yes.
17:28Ooh, this is heavy.
17:29It is.
17:29Now I'm gonna show you a quick maneuver.
17:31It's called charge your bayonet.
17:33So your officer, white officer would say,
17:36charge your bayonet!
17:38And you would say, huzzah!
17:40Okay, you wanna try it?
17:42I don't know.
17:42I was doing it close to how you were doing it,
17:45but let's see what happens.
17:45You're gonna take one step.
17:47I need to put some bass in my voice.
17:48Yeah, put some bass as well.
17:50Charge your bayonet!
17:52Huzzah!
17:53Recover.
17:54Charge your bayonet!
17:56Huzzah!
17:57Recover.
17:58Very good.
17:59Oh, we did that.
18:00Okay.
18:01Yeah.
18:02For whatever's coming.
18:03Okay.
18:04So let's go and find out more about their stories.
18:06Okay.
18:07Yeah.
18:07Let's do that.
18:10Well, if you remember at Jamestown,
18:12when I talked about the increase of Africans
18:15being brought to the colonies,
18:16well, this is the increase.
18:17This is the time when Virginia is a slave-holding society.
18:22And that slave-holding society is gonna give birth
18:24to a culture of protest by the founding fathers,
18:27as well as the enslaved.
18:29So they seem like there was no light
18:30at the end of the tunnel.
18:32But the revolution, all that you saw in the museum,
18:35everything that has to do with the American Revolution
18:37was that light in the tunnel that opened up possibilities.
18:40For the first time, enslaved men, women, and children
18:43can make a decision.
18:44The American Revolution provided that window
18:48for them to take action, to use agency.
18:51They still took that chance on saying,
18:53we know that there is at least that possibility,
18:56that sliver of hope for better, and why not chase it?
19:00And I think that that is something incredibly powerful
19:03that when people come here and get to see this,
19:07they can grapple with so many different parts
19:09of not only the history,
19:10but also I think the very human experience, right?
19:14And the challenges that I think a lot of us face,
19:17even today, right, with questions about our future
19:20and where we're going.
19:21Thank you, Harvey.
19:22You're welcome, you're welcome.
19:23Thank you for coming.
19:24And it has been a pleasure.
19:25It's been a pleasure.
19:26It has, and come back.
19:27I definitely will.
19:28And I'll bring some friends with me.
19:29Yes, please do.
19:31Thank you.
19:31All right.
19:34Hey, Essence fam.
19:35So I just wrapped up an incredible trip and journey
19:41of going to Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown.
19:46And as I stand here right now,
19:49I can definitively say that the person that I was
19:53when I came yesterday is not the person
19:55that I'm leaving now.
19:57I have learned so much about our history.
19:59I've learned so much about hidden truths,
20:01about who we are.
20:03And I think in beautiful places,
20:05it's also important to remember
20:07that we can confront the ugly parts,
20:09but not have that define us.
20:11And that can be something that serves
20:14as a part of how we tell our story,
20:16but it does not end our story.
20:18And so I want all of you to come here
20:21and experience it yourself.
20:23I want the young black girls to come out here
20:25and know that they can take up space.
20:27I want the mothers to come out here with their kids
20:30because we know what they're teaching the schools
20:32is a little bit questionable sometimes, okay?
20:34So we need to take them back to community,
20:37back to church, like historical first Baptist church.
20:40At least make sure that we're creating more
20:42of these spaces for us.
20:43So I will definitely be back
20:45and I hope that you guys come with me.
20:53Thank you.