Perturbed, Disturbed and Angry

I was at Sam's last week, yes, Sam's  Club - Walmart's cousin, and I saw a woman dressed in a full burka.  Basically, she looked like this.  My mouth dropped open, and I literally stopped walking.   I looked again.  She was with a man, presumably her husband, and she had a little girl by the hand, who was about four.  The little girl was wearing a lightweight short sundress and a pair of sandals. 

Then, I felt this incredible rush of anger. 

I walked away really shaken and trying to figure out why I felt such anger which felt intolerant and prejudiced.  It took me a few minutes to get my feelings under control, but the sense of 'this isn't right' just wouldn't go away.  I wished I'd gone up and talked to her, but as Drake put it, "Thank God your better judgement prevailed."  What I felt was based on my Western perception that this garb symbolizes the oppression of women.  Then I had to step back and ask, does it?

First, wearing a 'burka' is NOT a requirement in the Qur'an  (Koran).  Yes, this holy book does prescribe modesty for women, but  apparently, the full covering stems from custom in the time of Mohamed rather than scripture.  So, let's say you're a 21st century Muslim woman and you choose to wear the burka.  Are you oppressed because you choose modesty in the strict Eastern interpretation?   There are some women around the world who wear the burka as a  symbol of their direct rejection of Western culture.  Others say they wear it because they don't like being judged by their bodies.

It still seems like oppression because I'm not convinced that women in an Islamic society are exercising free choice.  Are we not all brainwashed  to a greater or lesser extent by our culture?  The strict Islam culture believes in the subjugation of women and enforces this view by teaching women they must conform or they will bring shame on themselves and their families and ultimately damn themselves to hell.  Guilt and shame are powerful emotions which can cause anyone buckets of anguish and doubt.   

Clothing customs are very much a matter of culture.  Throughout history, men always seems to be obsessed with how much (or how little) women wear.  Islamic men do not have a corner on this.   In our own country's experience, clothing was very much an instrument of control.  A woman can not run, or even move very fast in 50 pounds of clothing in nine layers  which was commonly accepted dress throughout most of the 19th century.  

Corsets have been a standard undergarment since the 1600's.  The Victorians refined it into an instrument of torture by prescribing the lacing be so tight as to obstruct breathing and cause actual physical deformity.  A woman appearing in public without a corset was tantamount as a declaration of prostitution.  In most places in America in the 1800's there were laws prohibiting women from wearing trousers in public.  You could certainly expect to be arrested, and your husband/father would be chastised for allowing their wife/daughter to appear in pubic dressed indecently.  Sound familiar?

My point is that women have been conditioned throughout history to accept cultural clothing strictures, and it is very, very recently, and only in a relatively small percentage of the world that a woman ACTUALLY  has free choice. in the matter of her own clothing.  There is also no 'choice' involved if a woman is considered fair game for rape or being beaten or both if she doesn't choose to wear the burka.  Since the woman in Sam's doesn't run that risk from the general public, you have to accept she is choosing the burka.   This is America.  She can wear what she wants even if I think it's nuts.   

Some Western countries are banning the burka.  They cite the faux choice argument (pressured by men, religious custom, etc.), as well as something I think is much more important.  Burkas cover bruises.  One rationale for burka ban is that women can be more easily abused, when only their eyes and hands are visible.  There are some studies that seem to indicate women who live in societies that insist on the burka have higher rates of abuse than societies that are more clothing flexible. 

When I finally sorted myself out about why this woman at Sam's Club disturbed me so, I realized that it wasn't her that bothered me - it was the little girl whose hand she was holding.  That little girl was dressed in typical little American girl attire.  What is going to happen to her when she's thirteen?  How in good conscience can her mother wear clothing that screams oppression and subjugation over a vast part of the world?  Why would she set this example?  All said and done - that's what really, really made me so angry.  We've struggled and struggled as women to have cultural and economic equality in this country.  I don't want any little girl who lives in America to be sent the message by her own mother that inferior and unequal and subjugated to men is in ANY way OK.
         

Maymont, The Gilded Age Mansion

When we moved to Richmond, we asked people what they considered to be the best attraction in their city.  Over and over again, people suggested we visit "Maymont".  Turns out that

Maymont is a 100 acre park on the James River.  The property was bought by the Thomas and Sally Dooley in the 1890's.  He was an early backer of railroads in the devastated South and made a boat load of money on them.  He was an Irish, Catholic Confederate vet, and she was a western Virginia upper middle class Episcopalian.  The families disowned both upon their marriage due to their different faiths, and never reconciled.   

The couple discovered this beautiful property while horseback riding. He bought the land and they built a small mansion which she surrounded with gardens of her own design.  This property is so special because it never changed hands. The Dooley's never had children, and upon Mrs. Dooley's death in 1925 (her husband died in 1920), the property was deeded to the City of Richmond along with all the furnishings.  Maymont is an unparalleled example of a Gilded Age mansion with all the fixins'  It's never been lived in by anyone besides the original owners.  It's never been remodeled.  The original furniture is still intact.  AND, the Foundation that maintains the property is experimenting with allowing visitors to take non-flash photography of not only the outside but also the interior of the mansion! 

Richmondtonians?  Richmondians?  Richmondtons?  (I don't know what these folks call themselves) are justifiably proud of this property.  You will see what I mean when you catch the pix.  Oh, and I'm always talking about how beautiful it is here in town - well, this property kind of shows you what I mean.

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Williamsburg and Yorktown

Southern English Colonial America is defined by three historic sites: Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown.   All three are located on a peninsula of land formed by the James River on the west side and the York River on the east side each emptying into the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay where it meets the Atlantic Ocean.  The land between these two rivers is an American historical jackpot.  

Once you which grasp the geography, it's very easy to understand what made this place very attractive to the early English Colonists.  Jamestown, a virtual island floating in the mouth of the James River, was considered easy to defend and had the added bonus of two navigable river accesses north into the mainland.  Williamsburg was the refinement of Jamestown - better water, out of the swamps, and easier to reach for trade with the rest of young Colonies.  Yorktown's attraction was the deep harbor situated at the neck where the Chesapeake Bay empties into the Atlantic Ocean.   I think we toured the peninsula correctly by seeing these iconic American historical sites in chronological order as they were settled: Jamestown first, Williamsburg, next and finally the Yorktown battlefield. 

Jamestown is the area first settled by 104 Englishmen in 1607. Those initial colonists were quickly followed by a series of ships coming roughly three times a year carrying colonists, and in 1609 included English women. (Obviously, you can't have guys cavorting with those Native women).  By 1609 there were 500 colonists.  At the end of the winter that started in 1609 and finally gave way to spring in 1610, there were 60 colonists.  It's called the 'starvation time' in the Colonial diaries and journals left behind. The colonists finally resorted to cannibalism to survive. (This had been documented by the archaeologists.)   That winter the Powhatan Indians finally realized these new people were not going away, and their numbers were increasing with each new ship that landed.  Feeling justifiably threatened, the Indians bottled up the Colonists inside their fort. Failure of the crops that year mandated hunting to survive.  Any colonists who ventured out of the fort to hunt were slaughtered that winter by the Indians. Only 60 English were left out of 500 when spring and a new ship arrived just in the nick of time. 

The most important English colonist arrived in May of 1610:  John Rolfe.  Without a cash crop export, no colony could survive in the 17th century.  John Rolfe learned how to grow

Caribbean tobacco in Virginia which was in hot demand in England.  Rolfe and tobacco solidified the economic base of the new colony.  I saw my first bale of tobacco at Virginia State Fair, and I'm sure it hasn't changed much in 400 years.

Jamestown was interesting for what worked and what didn't.  It was a final fire destroying the Virginia Colonial Statehouse that sent the government seat to Williamsburg and turned Jamestown into a ghost town and farmland within a very short period of time.  This was a blessing in disguise since its archaeological treasures are just below the plowed surface.  Our 21st century problem will doom this significant historical site.  Global warming is causing the rise of the Atlantic Ocean, which is rising the James River and within 15 years, the site of the original English settlement in North America will be under water.

Williamsburg is a collection of colonial buildings which have been resuscitated by vision and Rockefeller money.  In the 1930's John D's oldest son and wife paired with activists in 20th century Williamsburg setting up an ongoing Foundation and pouring millions of dollars into rescuing the dilapidated Colonial buildings along the  Duke of Gloucester Street.  These buildings were on the main drag of 18th century Williamsburg.  In addition to ordinary houses and shops, this street includes the Governor's Palace, the Colonial Statehouse, historic taverns, the Bruton Anglican Church, the Colonial Magazine (armory) of Virginia, and an open air food market all surrounding a Colonial green.

What sets Williamsburg apart from other Colonial sites (such as Deerfield, Massachusets)  are not only the Rockefeller money, but also the actors doing historic re-enactments of life and skills practiced in 18th century America.

 
When you walk into the Silversmith's shop, there are people in period costumes making silver objects using Colonial tools and methods.   A Revolutionary officer and his wife are strolling the street stopping to visit.  Taverns built in the early 1700's are serving food.  Handlers are driving authentic carriages and wagons up and down the street.  Each building is filled with Colonial furniture and decorations and staffed with actors in Colonial costumes.  The Armory is filled with antique Colonial weapons.
So far, we've been to Williamsburg twice and have a third trip planned to see the buildings we've missed in our first two trips.

The other Colonial site is the Yorktown battlefield.  It's here that George Washington defeated Lord Cornwallis with the aid of French weapons, French soldiers, and the French fleet.  It's at Yorktown that the British population lost their taste for a war that just kept dragging on and on and on, and the Americans proved they finally had a fully functioning army.  The American long gun and the marksmanship the Americans were able to achieve using it, together with the ability to execute a battle plan, defeated the best army in the world. (The Americans capitalized on the accuracy of the long gun at longer range. Their best marksmen climbed trees during the battles and functioned as the first American snipers, deliberately picking off English officers during the Revolutionary battles and disrupting on the battlefield communications.  The crackerjack British units were led completely by their officer corps and without them, simply didn't know what to do during the fighting. The British considered this tactic to be just short of a 'war crime'.)

Yorktown's military importance can be instantly understood by looking at a map.  The French fleet controlled the "neck" where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean.  They defeated the British fleet sending it back to the North thus trapping the southern portion of the British army on the same peninsula where Jamestown and Williamsburg are still located. Washington hurriedly marched the majority of the Continental Army South and, using the Marquis de Lafayette's battle suggestions, the American army and French troops defeated Cornwallis and 5000 British soldiers.  Today, the battlefield is mostly grass grown over redoubts and trenches  scattered over long ragged earth mounded lines looking out toward the York River.  The mounds so visible today are mostly the result of the Confederate Army digging dirt fortifications in the same Revolutionary War spots as they defended the peninsula against Union ships.  I've heard of Yorktown my entire life, but being here has finally helped me grasp its significance.

These three places define Southern Colonial America in the same way that Plymouth and Boston define the colonies in the North. I believe that history often turns on small events.  A ship that arrives a month later in 1610 finds a deserted Jamestown.  Lafayette's admiration of Washington turns into a winning military tactics team.  Williamsburg supplants Jamestown just as 100 years later Richmond supplants Williamsburg - leaving entact it's Colonial architectural heritage.  We came to Virginia for the American history, and so far it's delivered in spades.

I took pictures, pictures and more pictures mostly in Williamsbtached to Williamsburg.  You're welcome to view them:

https://plus.google.com/urg, but also in Yorktown.  I also took pictures in the two art museums atu/0/photos/115478608971584948192/albums/5924961010825115697?authkey=CLLrkd3r66GlFg
       

A Bust Day

I should have listened to Drake's intuition.  (Don't tell him I said that; I'll NEVER hear the end of it.)  Everyone knows how much I love Fairs.  Some of our best days of vagabonding have been spent at both little and big fairs.  Who can forget eight year olds herding pigs around a ring with a long stick?  Is there anything more entertaining than llama packing?  There's something totally satisfying watching the longhorn cattle competition and trying to pick winners in each class.  Why, that's almost as fun as guessing the correct evaluation on Antiques Roadshow.  Lumberjack competitions are fast, furious, and involve quite a bit of cheering.  We both love seeing tiny children all dressed up in cowboy garb leading a massive animal around a ring.  Don't forget the 'costume' parade on top of big horses.  

I had high hopes for the Virginia State Fair.  Drake was less than lukewarm.  I convinced him on the basis of anecdotal information from our hairdresser about how fun the fair was, as well as the $8 admission and the free parking.  Finally, Drake capitulated saying, "OK, we're not doing anything else."  Part of going was also influenced by the cancellation of our Washington D.C. trip.  (Oh, please, don't get me started on those idiots in the House of Representatives.)  It was a bad trade-off.

Things started out pretty good, other than we are having a heatwave here, and it was almost 90 degrees the day we chose to go to the fair.  We started at the sheepdog trials which were fun for about 15 minutes, but they just didn't capture our interest.  We moved onto the miniature horse show which was better, but both of these competitions would have been a lot better if they hadn't been held outdoors with the sun beating down.  There was no shade either for the competitors or the spectators.  In retrospect both these events turned out to be the high points of the day.

Still, I was heartened by this fun little photo opportunity involving my used to be favorite fair food - more of 'why' later. I thought, "Okie, Dokie - this is great."  Then I saw the tunnel...and the trek.  A big quirk of the Virginia State Fair is that it's laid out in two sections, and the sections are divided by a four lane divided highway.  There's a tunnel like walkway under the highway.  It's a loooooong way from one side to the other.  Since I never saw the mythical shuttle service between the sides, it meant with my foot difficulties we really couldn't go 'back and forth'.  OK.....first strike.

 

Now a big part of fair time is the food, of course.  I've had some amazing fair food over the past four years, and some of it hasn't even been bad for you. Well, OK, a very small percentage of it hasn't been a visit to Heart Attack City nestled in the heart of Grease and Fat County.  I'm specifically thinking of the fresh salmon and home grown blueberry crepes we had at the Skagit County Fair.  Oh, those were so unexpected, and so delicious. Usually it's hot dogs, hamburgers, funnel cakes, Icee's - the blah of Fair Food.  I'm always on the look out for my personal favorites:  Texas State Fair Corndogs, Maple Cotton Candy, Apple Fritters, homemade ice cream, Fried Butter.  The Virginia State Fair food was SOOOOO forgettable - the usual blah stuff plus foot long corn dogs, regular cotton candy, soft serve ice cream, one type of funnel cake, and, do you know what their 'fried food' was?  Oreos.  Oh, please, so boring, so done by everyone else forever.  It was all so unappealing that I only ate the substandard corn dog, with a $.75 cent ice tea.  I do love cotton candy, well, make that I DID love cotton candy - but the spun maple sugar version in New Hampshire has totally ruined the pink stuff for me.  Virginia Fair Food:  second strike.

We love to look at the animals, and if we're lucky, we get the bonus of talking to the kids who raised them.  At the Virginia STATE Fair, two out of the big three animal barns were empty even though we went mid-fair.  What's up with that?  It didn't tell me anywhere in the fair promotion ads that the majority of the fair animals would be taking a sabbatical this year.  There were no cows, no horses, no oxen, no sheep, no goats.  Here's what we saw:  miniature horses, pigeons, chickens, and rabbits, and that's it.  There was one animal I've never seen at a Fair before.  Yes, that's a real live giraffe.  You could buy carrots for $1 and feed them to the giraffe.  I had to laugh, though, when I saw this sign:  "DO NOT FEED THE GIRAFFE FROM YOUR MOUTH".  Never overlook the possibility of stupid people tricks.  Lack of farm animals....BIG MINUS, but the up close giraffe viewing saved this from being the third strike.  

The third strike and you're out for this Fair wound up being the Arts and Handicrafts barn.  Because of my embroidery hobby, this part of any Fair is always what I look forward to the most.  I love looking at real experts' work.  The Virginia State Fair handicrafts were terrible.  Mostly, it was like looking at the elementary school walls on Parents' Night.  I was hoping the quilts would save the day.  Nope.  Here's the "Best in Show" Blue Ribbon Quilt.  Yes, some skill involved, but can we all say it together:  UGLY.  I did see one beautiful item, but one was not enough to save the entire exhibit.

All I can say is:  "Virginia State Fair, all I got from you is a pair of very sore feet, and a husband with I told you so rights.  How galling! 

 

    

Birthday, Anyone?

I've discovered as I move into old age, I'm supposed to not care about my birthday anymore.  At the very least, I'm supposed to feel embarrassed about enjoying my birthday.  If you're ten and you wake up saying, "Yea!  It's MY birthday!", everyone thinks that's wonderful.  If you're sixty-three and you vocalize that sentiment, people privately wonder if you're getting senile.

It's way, way too easy to knuckle under and pretend you don't care about presents, cake, ice cream, and birthday wishes.  That's complete bushwa!  News flash, Baby Boomers - 60 is NOT the new 40.  I think that's why birthdays have fallen out of favor with my particularly narcissistic group.  You have to be comfortable with getting older, and so many of my generation, who have worshiped their own youth way past its expiration date, don't like to be reminded of getting older by their birthday rolling around each year.    It's going to happen no matter what.  You'd think that would be obvious.

Somehow, it's not.  I laugh when I read the 70 million boomers are projected to spend $115 billion (that's BILLION with a B) on anti-aging products.  That's not just wrinkle cream; it's worse than that.  It's also now about life extension through better chemistry.   Most of us have by now caught a whiff of our own mortality.  (OMG!  I'M GOING TO DIE!!!!!!) Again, those pesky birthdays remind you of the unthinkable.  (This world without ME?)

We all know that I really don't care what other people think.  I always make up my own mind, have my own opinions, and am perverse enough to resist peer disapproval.  I've written blogs that have incensed people to the point they froth at the mouth. Some have even screamed, "I don't want to read your damn blog again!!!!!"  If those folks only knew how much they inspire me.  Any writing that makes people tear out their hair must be sensational.  What a compliment!  

Same with the birthday thing.  I'm not going to downplay  my attitude.  I LOVE my birthday.  I want to be catered to the entire day just as if this were my seventh birthday rather than my sixty-third. I plan to eat cake and ice cream, and celebrate.  Oh, and if you 'forgot' my birthday today, it's not too late - there's still 13 hours left in this fabulous, only going to happen once, day.  Cheers!  It's my birthday.              

I've Been Seeing Dead People

There's an awfully lot of prime real estate tied up in grave sites.  It was truly baffling in New England.  The amount of relatively flat, open land was so small; the amount tied up with sprouting tombstones was noticeable.  There are quite a few New England towns in which the grave yard is bigger than the town.  Cemeteries are fascinating.  I've been to them all over the world.  I got hooked on this practice over 30 years ago in Vienna where some very famous musicians are buried under some fancy stonework.

The Grove Cemetery at New Haven was a few centuries walk through a who's who at Yale.  It had quite a few interesting monuments, but mostly lots and lots of WORDS every where.  You didn't see too many "Beloved Mother" sentiments.  There was bunches of Joe Blow, Reverend, Teacher, Lawyer, Statesmen, Yale Graduate 1809.  Discovered how Air Tasted, Known as the Best Cloud Lover in Thirty States, etc., etc., etc. Oh, and even as fab as he was he died in 1869. 

The Grove in New Haven was among the first 'designed' cemeteries.  Prior to the Grove (1797 - first burial), you died, you got planted, and the next guy who died got planted next to you.  The Grove started the idea of 'family plots', and they pre-sold those plots prior to death.  This new cemetery came into being because of yellow fever epidemics that killed 5000 people quickly and filled up the burial space on the "Common" - the green space at the center of town.  This new fangled idea of having a planned place waiting for you when you died caught on, and the most cosmopolitan towns like New York City and Baltimore and Philadelphia quickly developed their own planned cemeteries.  

1846 rolls around, and the good folks of Richmond are alarmed they are falling behind the times.  They, too, decided a planned cemetery with family plots was just the ticket.  A group of investors bought land bordering the James River and hired an important architect who laid out a massive grave yard leaving the already large American Holly trees on the property as decoration.  He suggested they call it "Hollywood" after the trees that are still standing today.
  
Just fifteen short years later, the first of the Richmond Confederate soldiers came home to the graveyard.  Eventually there would be 18,000 of them, and a large pyramid like monument was raised in 1869 to honor them.  It was made from Richmond cut granite and stacked up without mortar.  The crane was too short to place the capstone.  Placing it by 'hand' was deemed to be a 50/50 risk of death for the person who attempted it.  A prisoner volunteered.  If he succeeded, he got out of jail.  A tough way to win his freedom, but he won his bet.  The monument is about 80 feet high and sits on Confederate Hill.  Directly surrounding the granite pyramid are the soldiers who fell in battle.  This part of Hollywood Cemetery is a grave yard of teenagers and twenty somethings.

Two famous Confederates are buried here:  Major George E. Pickett, the leader of the infamous "Picket's Charge" at Gettysburg in which more than three brigades were shot to doll rags by Union crossfire.  As the remnants of survivors retreated, eye witnesses said that Pickett wept.  When Lee asked Pickett to assemble his brigade, Pickett supposedly replied, General Lee, I have no brigade.  Pickett survived the war and died in 1875; he is buried under this elaborate monument.  There's an equally elaborate monument next to his erected by the survivors of the charge at Gettysburg in remembrance of their fallen comrades. 

The other famous Confederate is J.E.B. Stuart.  Stuart graduated from West Point in 1854, and resigned his US Army military commission returning to Virginia and Lee at the start of the War.  By all accounts, Lee considered Stuart an adopted son.  This famous cavalry officer died at the Battle of Yellow Tavern in 1864 in an offensive led by another famous Union officer, Phil Sheridan.  Sheridan was specifically to ordered to find and eliminate Stuart who the Union generals considered to be the most able Confederate commander after Lee.  Stuart was only 34 years old when he was killed, but his widow Flora lived until 1923, never remarried and only wore black from the day Stuart was killed until she died.  That level of devotion to the Lost Cause was displayed by many, many Southern women of the upper class.  They preserved numerous historical sites as well as significant artifacts in the decades following the Civil War. 

Hollywood is also the resting place of two United States Presidents:  James Monroe and John Tyler.  They are interred in the "Presidents' Circle" and surrounded by the 19th century movers and shakers of Richmond and Virginia society.  There are several Virginia Governors buried in this area.  Ironically, this cemetery has beautiful waterfront views of the James River, but all of the graves in that section of the Presidents' Circle face toward the Circle and away from the river view.  Monroe's tomb is a showcase for the ironwork this cemetery is famous for.  

 
Tyler's tomb is topped with an obelisk, and the obelisk is topped with an American Eagle.  

Of far more interest is the life sized angel standing next to his tomb.  This is over the grave of one of his daughters.  I think this is the really interesting feature of the Hollywood cemetery.  There are angels everywhere; I mean the stone variety, not the real deal.  Most of them are life sized, and they have varying poses.  Some are intact, while others, like this lady, are missing a piece or two.  

Jefferson Davis has his OWN circle and he's got a bigger than life sized bronze statue of himself.  Varina, his wife, has a seated angel over hers

 The Atkinson family didn't want to leave any doubt as to their religious affiliation - not only a life sized praying angel but a larger than life sized cross.

My favorite statue of the entire cemetery was this one.  She kneels on the grave of a 19 year old boy.  I immediately thought, "that's his mother" the instant I saw it.

I'm sure this won't be the last graveyard I visit.  What's fascinating about 18th, 19th and early 20th century graves are the variety of the monuments.  Post 1950, the monuments are all rectangular slabs of granite.  There are no angels, lambs, dogs, fancy fences, crosses, mythological creatures, or fanciful miniature buildings. Post 1970 there aren't even that many granite rectangles.  Instead, there are flat plaques even with the ground.  Ease of mowing has replaced expressions of grief.  I think the faceless perpetual care of contemporary cemeteries coupled with the movement for better land use and the not inconsequential cost of burial is making places like the Hollywood Cemetery relics of the past.

The rest of the pix show other interesting features of this cemetery.

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The Civil War, oh, excuse me, The War Between the States

Over one hundred years after the horrible American conflict, depending on which side of the Mason Dixon line you lived, you either studied the Civil War (the Northern perception of the war) or The War Between the States (the Southern take on the war).  When we visited the Museum of the Confederacy, the 'war between the states' argument is still being presented.  In a nutshell, the Southern reasoning is they were fighting for 'states rights' in contrast to the Northern perception of fighting to preserve the Union between the States.  Historians agree the war was about economics, specifically slave economics. The more the Northern abolitionists and politicians tried to limit and thwart the slave economy, the more rabid the Southern politicians and planter class (slave holders) became.  They considered slaves property, and thus, should be regulated by the property owners, and otherwise only lightly regulated by the individual states, not the Federal Government.  The territories were the rub:  Slavery permitted or not?  Who decides?  Various compromises were tried to no avail.  Lincoln's election as President from the new abolitionist dominated Republican Party was the last straw.  Even former President John Tyler trying to promote a peace conference didn't stop the slavery conflict from escalating to all out war.  I wonder if the participants could have seen the future, would they have been so eager to start firing weapons?

The Museum of the Confederacy left me with an overwhelming sadness similar to what I felt when I went to Gettysburg.  This museum's strong points are the amazing number of actual artifacts they possess as well as a comprehensive chronological overview of the War from 1860 to 1865.  As you move through the various battles, the casualty figures mount and mount.  The sheer bloodshed on both sides is almost unbelievable.  The Civil War is an example of tactics used from the previous war meeting the first mass output of industrially produced weapons. This war is filled with 'charges' by waves of soldiers against rapid fire weapons as well as multiple canons.  You can imagine the carnage.  The South, having a smaller population, and almost no manufacturing base could ill afford to fight this type of war. By the end of the second year, the Southern defeat was an inevitable conclusion. 

Situated next to the Museum of the Confederacy, in fact, the museum's first home, is the White House of the Confederacy.  This mansion built in the 1830's was a wonderfully decorated example of a mid 19th century home.  It was filled not with reproductions, but with many original pieces used by the Davis family as well as fine original antiques of the period.  It has been meticulously decorated using clues in correspondence as well as stripping off paint and layers of wall paper to get down to the time period of the house.  The curators are very proud that the house has the same appearance as during the Davis' family occupation.  
The most interesting person in the Davis family (my opinion) was not Jefferson, but rather his wife Varina.  She came from a middle class family, and she continued to do a lot of her own chores as well as having middle class hobbies - like sewing with an early sewing machine making practical clothing.  She was snubbed by the Southern upper class wives, but this didn't seem to affect her. She spent the post war years trying to secure her husband's release from prison (he did 2.5 years of 'time' after the war), and she raised her children.  She was also a writer, and after the death of her husband, she secured a job with Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York World newspaper, as a columnist.  She founded the New York Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy where she lived until her death.  She's buried in the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond with a lovely stone angel over her grave.

Pictures as always:  

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