The town looks as it did in the 1700s. Visitors can venture into an apothecary or watch printers and bookbinders ply their trade at the site of the Virginia colony's first newspaper. You can get your feet wet, literally, at the brick-makers' yard by joining the young workers in a huge pit full of moist clay. Feeling the soft clay all over your bare feet as you stomp the gooey substance, while undeniably fun, imparts an idea about the difficulty and monotony of a laborer's life. Altogether different lives were played out 8 miles away at Carter's Grove, one of the huge old plantations that line the James River.
Exhibits here show how life evolved along the river for four centuries.
Back in Williamsburg's Historic Area, plenty more to see and do awaits. About 20 evening programs are available, ranging from music and dance to comedy, social gatherings, a tavern tour and a dramatic courthouse trial. The Raleigh Tavern, featured on one of the evening programs, can also be seen during the day. Williamsburg's most important watering hole two centuries ago, this tavern was built in 1717. It not only became the center of social and business activity, it might be no exaggeration to call it the embryo, or certainly one of the embryos, of American democracy.