Tea Partiers Visit Colonial Williamsburg

Bless those first-person interpreters. I did my share of first-person impressions in my reenacting days, and I can only imagine how annoying it must be to give 18th-century responses to visitors who are more interested in 21st-century politics than in 18th-century history.

Boston Massacre +239 Years

Today is the 239th anniversary of the Boston Massacre. I'm stuck in bed with the flu, but if anyone out there is healthy and interested, there will be several commemorative events over the next few days.

If you are looking for an excellent play-by-play account of the Boston Massacre, I can't think of anything better than Hiller B. Zobel's helpfully titled, The Boston Massacre. If you're looking for clear writing, extreme detail, and a fairly even-handed account, Zobel is for you. I particularly appreciate his efforts to put the "massacre" in the context of other violent incidents during the winter of 1769-1770.

If neither reenactments nor reading appeals to you, you can always stop by the Granary Burying Ground and place a stone on the monument dedicated to those killed on March 5, 1770 (and Christopher Snider, d. 2/22/1770). Just watch your step lest you get a little closer to the dead than you had originally planned.

Colonial Dame

Emily Yoffe at Slate writes about her stint as an historical interpreter at an 18th-century farm in the most recent edition of "Human Guinea Pig."

In general, reenactors, living historians, and first-person interpreters are portrayed as crazy people, so it's nice to read a sympathetic, even celebratory, depiction. While I haven't done much active reenacting lately, I grew up in a reenacting family that eventually went over toward the "living history" side of the spectrum. Like Ms. Yoffe, I find stays rather comforting.