# WILL VIRGINIA DEFY THE CROWN? YOU DECIDE
## A Living History Program
### Williamsburg, Virginia — May 1774
 
**Running time:** 30–35 minutes  
**Cast:** George Mason (Presiding), George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Peter Muhlenberg, Governor Dunmore  
**Visitor delegates:** Richard Henry Lee, Robert Carter Nicholas, Edmund Pendleton, Benjamin Harrison, Carter Braxton, Archibald Cary, Mann Page *(cards provided separately)*
 
---
 
> **STAGE DIRECTIONS appear in** *italics.*  
> Lines are written to feel natural in performance — interpreters should feel free to vary wording while preserving the substance.  
> **[VISITOR CUE]** marks moments to invite visitor delegates to speak.
 
---
 
## OPENING FRAME
### *(Mason steps forward — briefly out of character)*
 
**MASON/MODERATOR:**  
Welcome to Williamsburg, Virginia. The year is 1774, and you are seated as members of the Virginia House of Burgesses — the oldest elected legislative body in the Americas.
 
Two months ago, the British Parliament passed what they call the Coercive Acts. We call them the Intolerable Acts. They closed the port of Boston entirely, suspended the Massachusetts charter, and placed that colony under what amounts to military occupation — all as punishment for the destruction of East India Company tea in Boston Harbor last December.
 
On the first of June — just days from now — Boston Harbor will be sealed. No ships in. No ships out. A city of sixteen thousand people, cut off from trade and commerce, until they pay for every chest of tea.
 
This House has been called to debate two resolutions. The first: a formal declaration of sympathy and support for the people of Boston. The second: a proclamation of a day of fasting and prayer for the colony of Massachusetts, to be observed on June the first — the very day the port closes.
 
I should also tell you this: Governor Dunmore is present in this chamber. He is not a member of this body — he cannot vote — but he represents the Crown, and he has made it known that he considers these resolutions an act of defiance.
 
You are Burgesses. You have a voice. When called upon, please speak. And at the end — you will vote.
 
*Steps back into character.*
 
---
 
## ACT I — THE SESSION IS CALLED TO ORDER
### *(In character — approx. 5 minutes)*
 
**MASON:**  
*(Taking the chair with quiet authority)*  
Gentlemen, be seated. In the absence of Speaker Randolph, who is indisposed this morning, this body has seen fit to ask me to preside, though I am not a member of this house. I am George Mason of Fairfax County, and I will do my best to deserve your trust.
 
You have before you two resolutions. I will ask Mr. Jefferson of Albemarle to read them, as he had, I believe, a considerable hand in their drafting.
 
---
 
**JEFFERSON:**  
*(Rising — he is in his early thirties, precise and deliberate)*  
Thank you, Mr. Mason.
 
The first resolution reads as follows: *"This House, deeply sensible of the sufferings of our fellow subjects in the colony of Massachusetts Bay, under the operation of the late unjust, cruel, and oppressive acts of the British Parliament, doth most earnestly recommend to the inhabitants of this Colony to abstain from the use of all goods imported from Great Britain, and to give all possible encouragement to manufactures in this Colony."*
 
*(He pauses)*  
The second resolution sets aside the first day of June — the day the Port of Boston is to be closed — as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer: that we may avert the evils of civil war, and that the minds of His Majesty and his Parliament may be inspired with wisdom, moderation, and justice.
 
*(He sets down the paper)*  
I will confess, Mr. Mason, that in searching the records of this House for a proper precedent for such a resolution, I found one from the time of the English Civil War. It seemed appropriate. The circumstances, I fear, are not entirely dissimilar.
 
---
 
**MASON:**  
*(To the room)*  
The resolutions are before you. Before we open debate, I note that His Excellency Governor Dunmore has requested the opportunity to address this body.
 
*(Neutral — not welcoming, not hostile)*  
Courtesy requires that we hear him. Your Excellency.
 
---
 
**DUNMORE:**  
*(Rising from his place — he is controlled, but there is steel underneath)*  
Mr. Mason. Gentlemen.
 
I will be direct, because I believe you deserve directness from your Governor. What you are contemplating today is not merely a gesture of sympathy. It is a political act — a declaration that this colony stands in opposition to an act of the British Parliament. I want you to understand what that means before you proceed.
 
The Coercive Acts are the law of the Crown. They were passed in response to an act of destruction and lawlessness in Boston Harbor. The men who dumped that tea into the harbor were not patriots. They were criminals. And Parliament has responded accordingly.
 
*(Moving his gaze across the room)*  
Virginia has enjoyed a long and prosperous relationship with the mother country. Your tobacco reaches markets you could never otherwise access. Your debts — and gentlemen, I know something about your debts — are held in London. Your families send their sons to English universities. Your laws derive from English precedent.
 
I ask you: is that relationship worth throwing away over a dispute that belongs to Massachusetts — not Virginia?
 
*(Quietly, with warning in his voice)*  
I hope this body will reflect carefully on what it is about to do. Because I assure you — I will act accordingly.
 
*(Sits)*
 
---
 
## ACT II — THE DEBATE
### *(In character — approx. 15 minutes)*
 
**MASON:**  
The floor is open. Who speaks first?
 
---
 
**HENRY:**  
*(On his feet immediately — he never needs to be called)*  
I do, Mr. Mason.
 
*(He takes a moment — he is the best orator in the room and knows how to use silence)*  
Your Excellency warns us about our debts. About our markets. About the comfort of the arrangement we enjoy with Great Britain. I thank him for the reminder. It is, I suppose, the sort of warning a man gives when he expects to be obeyed.
 
But I want to ask this chamber a question that is more important than commerce. It is this: if Parliament can close the port of Boston today — without trial, without recourse, as collective punishment for the actions of a few men — then what cannot Parliament do tomorrow? To Boston? To Virginia?
 
*(Building)*  
The Coercive Acts do not merely punish Massachusetts. They establish a principle: that this Parliament may punish any colony, any city, any assembly — including this one — whenever it sees fit. And they have told us plainly that the charter of Massachusetts, the foundational document of that colony's self-governance, means nothing to them when they are displeased.
 
Virginia's charter is no older. Virginia's rights are no more secure.
 
*(His voice drops — this is the moment)*  
When Boston suffers, Virginia suffers. We are not separate nations with separate fates. We are one people. And if we will not say so now — in this chamber, on this day — then we will have no right to say it later, when it is our turn.
 
*(Sits)*
 
---
 
**DUNMORE:**  
*(Cannot entirely contain himself)*  
Mr. Mason — might I —
 
**MASON:**  
*(Firmly but correctly)*  
Your Excellency's presence here is a courtesy any you have already addressed this body. Debate belongs to the members.
 
*(Beat)*  
Mr. Washington.
 
---
 
**WASHINGTON:**  
*(Rising deliberately — he chooses his words with care)*  
I am not given to speeches. Mr. Henry has said most of what needs saying, and said it better than I could.
 
But I want to address something His Excellency raised — the question of Virginia's interests. Because I think he is right that this is partly a question of interest, and I want to answer it on those terms.
 
I am a farmer. I ship tobacco to London. I buy goods through British merchants. I know exactly what the commercial relationship with Britain looks like from the inside — including, as the Governor noted, the debts. So I am not speaking out of ignorance of what is at stake.
 
*(Steady)*  
And I will tell you what I have concluded. The trade arrangements that bind us to Britain are not free arrangements. We grow tobacco. We must sell it to British factors, at prices they set, on credit they extend at rates they determine. When we want to buy goods, we buy them through British merchants, who charge what they choose. We are prosperous — and we are dependent. Those are not the same thing as free.
 
What Parliament has done in Boston is not separate from our commercial situation. It is an extension of it. They believe — and they may not be wrong — that economic pressure will bring the colonies to heel. The question is whether they are right.
 
*(Looking around the room)*  
I do not think they are. I think a people pushed far enough will find they value something more than the comfort of a profitable dependency. I think we are being pushed toward that discovery now.
 
I support the resolutions.
 
---
 
**MASON:**  
Mr. Muhlenberg — I believe you wished to speak.
 
---
 
**MUHLENBERG:**  
*(He is a minister as well as a Burgess — there is a pastor's gravity to him)*  
Mr. Mason, I want to speak to the day of fasting and prayer, because I think it is the most important of the two resolutions before us — and because I suspect some members regard it as a formality.
 
It is not a formality.
 
When this body sets aside a day of fasting and prayer, we are making a declaration before God as well as before Parliament. We are saying that what is happening in Boston is not merely a political dispute. It is a moral one. It is a question of whether men made in the image of God may be governed without their consent, taxed without their voice, punished without trial.
 
*(With quiet intensity)*  
I am a minister of the Gospel. I have stood in my pulpit in Woodstock and watched my congregation wrestle with these questions. They are not abstract to them. They are farmers and tradesmen and veterans, and they understand — perhaps better than any man of property in this room — what it means to have nothing standing between you and the arbitrary power of the Crown except the law.
 
The day of fasting is not theater. It is a covenant. We are asking Almighty God to intercede in this crisis — and we are telling our constituents that their representatives take this seriously enough to get on their knees about it.
 
*(To the room)*  
I ask every member of this body: what do you believe? And are you willing to say it, in public, before God?
 
*(Sits)*
 
---
 
**MASON:**  
*(Before opening to visitors — he speaks briefly as a delegate, not as the chair)*  
I will say one thing before I call on our other colleagues, and then I will return to the chair.
 
His Excellency spoke of our charter. Of the legal relationship between these colonies and the Crown. I have spent years studying that relationship, and I want to be plain about what I have concluded.
 
The rights we claim are not gifts from Parliament. They are not graciously extended to us by the Crown. They derive from our nature as Englishmen — and before that, from our nature as human beings. Parliament does not have the authority to take them away, because Parliament did not give them in the first place.
 
What has been done to Massachusetts is not merely unjust. It is unconstitutional — a violation of the very principles on which English law rests. And if we allow it to stand unchallenged, we are not merely abandoning Boston. We are abandoning the principle.
 
*(Returns to chair posture)*  
Now — this body has other members who have not yet spoken. I see several of our colleagues who would be heard.
 
---
 
## VISITOR DELEGATE SEGMENT
### *[VISITOR CUES — approx. 7–8 minutes]*
 
*Mason calls on visitor delegates by name and county. Give each 30–60 seconds. After each speaks, a main character may respond briefly.*
 
**MASON:** *(Example call)*  
The chair recognizes the gentleman from *(county)*. Sir, where do you stand?
 
*Suggested brief responses:*
 
**HENRY** *(to a passionate patriot visitor):*  
"Now THAT is a Virginian. Write it down, Mr. Jefferson."
 
**HENRY** *(to a cautious visitor):*  
"I respect your caution, sir. I only ask — what will it take? What must Parliament do before caution becomes complicity?"
 
**WASHINGTON** *(to any visitor):*  
"You raise a fair point. I would only ask you to consider — what does Virginia owe to Massachusetts? And what does Virginia owe to itself?"
 
**DUNMORE** *(if a visitor seems sympathetic to the Crown — he cannot resist):*  
"A sensible man. This body would do well to listen to him."
 
**MASON** *(to an undecided visitor):*  
"The chair will not press you. But I would observe that doing nothing is also a choice — and it will be recorded as such."
 
**MUHLENBERG** *(to any visitor):*  
"Conscience is not a political argument, I know. But I have found it tends to outlast the political ones."
 
**JEFFERSON** *(to any visitor):*  
"The question is simpler than it seems. Do we believe Boston's rights are our rights? If yes, the answer follows."
 
---
 
## ACT III — THE VOTE AND THE DISSOLUTION
### *(In character — approx. 5 minutes)*
 
**MASON:**  
*(Rapping for order)*  
Gentlemen, the chair believes the matter has been fully debated. It is time to call the question.
 
I will ask each senior member to state his position plainly before we go to the full body.
 
---
 
**HENRY:**  
I vote yes on both resolutions. Without hesitation or qualification.
 
---
 
**JEFFERSON:**  
I vote yes. The resolutions speak for themselves and I am proud to have helped draft them.
 
---
 
**MUHLENBERG:**  
I vote yes. Before God and this assembly.
 
---
 
**WASHINGTON:**  
*(Simply)*  
Yes.
 
---
 
**MASON:**  
*(A pause — he presides, but is not a burgess)*  
The chair will step aside for one moment.
 
I have no vote, but I believe these resolutions are not only just but necessary. Parliament must understand that Virginia does not regard the rights of Massachusetts as foreign to its own.
 
*(Resumes the chair)*  
To the full body. All those in favor of the resolutions — in support of Boston, and for a day of fasting and prayer on the first of June — signify by raising your hand.
 
*(Visitor delegates vote)*
 
All those opposed.
 
*(Mason counts)*
 
The resolutions are adopted.
 
---
 
*A moment of satisfaction in the room — then Dunmore rises.*
 
---
 
**DUNMORE:**  
*(Standing — cold, formal, final)*  
Mr. Mason.
 
I warned this body. I warned you plainly, this morning, that I would act accordingly. You have chosen to pass resolutions in open defiance of an act of the British Parliament. You have used this chamber — this chamber, which exists by the authority of the Crown — to declare opposition to the Crown's lawful exercise of its authority.
 
*(He straightens)*  
I have no choice but to act on that warning.
 
By the my authority as His Majesty's lieutenant and Governor General of the Colony of and Dominion of Virginia and Vice Admiral of the Same, I hereby dissolve this House of Burgesses.
 
*(Looks around the room — a beat of genuine drama)*  
You are no longer in session, gentlemen. This assembly is concluded.
 
*(He turns and exits — or steps aside)*
 
---
 
*A moment of silence. Then:*
 
---
 
**HENRY:**  
*(Quietly — to the room)*  
Well. I suppose we had better find somewhere else to meet.
 
---
 
**WASHINGTON:**  
*(Standing — practical as always)*  
The Raleigh Tavern is just down the street.
 
---
 
## CLOSING FRAME
### *(Mason steps briefly out of character — approx. 2 minutes)*
 
**MASON/MODERATOR:**  
Thank you.
 
What you just witnessed happened almost exactly as you saw it. On May 26th, 1774, Governor Dunmore dissolved the Virginia House of Burgesses after they passed resolutions in support of Boston. Eighty-nine of the members — including Washington, Henry, Jefferson, and the men you met today — walked down Duke of Gloucester Street to the Raleigh Tavern, reconvened in the Apollo Room, and continued their work.
 
Within weeks, they had called for a meeting of all the colonies to coordinate their response. That meeting became the First Continental Congress, which convened in Philadelphia in September of 1774.
 
Patrick Henry stood on the floor of that Congress and said: *"The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American."*
 
Governor Dunmore remained in Virginia until 1775, when mounting tensions forced him to flee to a British warship in the harbor. He issued his famous proclamation offering freedom to enslaved people who escaped and joined the British forces — a desperate move that horrified Virginia planters and accelerated the colony's march toward independence.
 
George Mason went home to Gunston Hall and spent the summer of 1774 writing the Fairfax Resolves — a document that laid out, in careful legal and philosophical detail, exactly why Parliament had no right to do what it had done. George Washington presented those resolves at a Fairfax County meeting. Many of the ideas in them found their way, two years later, into the Declaration of Independence — and ultimately into the Bill of Rights.
 
*(A quiet beat)*  
None of them knew, on that May afternoon in 1774, how far it would go. They just knew they weren't going to sit still for it.
 
Please feel free to stay and speak with our Burgesses — and with the Governor, if you dare.
 
Thank you for being part of the Virginia House of Burgesses.
 
---
 
## DIRECTOR'S NOTES
 
**Mason as presiding officer:** Mason should carry quiet authority — he is a thinker, not a performer. His moment as a delegate (before calling the vote) is important: let it land as a considered statement, not a speech. He is the most intellectually formidable person in the room; play that through precision of language, not volume.
 
**Henry:** He is the fire. Let him be. But the best Henrys know that the pause before the speech is as important as the speech itself. Don't rush into the lines — take a breath, find the room, then begin. His closing line (*"I suppose we had better find somewhere else to meet"*) should be dry and calm — the contrast with his earlier fire is what makes it land.
 
**Dunmore:** He is not a cartoon villain. He is a man who genuinely believes he is in the right, that Virginia is being led toward ruin by hotheads, and that he has both the authority and the duty to stop it. The dissolution should feel inevitable — not petty — and his exit should be dignified. The drama comes from his certainty, not his anger.
 
**Washington:** Measured, deliberate, and damning. His speech is the most quietly radical in the room — he is calling the entire commercial relationship with Britain a form of dependency that has blinded Virginia to its own interests. He doesn't raise his voice. He doesn't need to.
 
**Muhlenberg:** This may be the most emotionally resonant speech in the program. The question *"What do you believe? And are you willing to say it?"* should be genuine — a pastor asking his congregation. Let it breathe.
 
**Jefferson:** Young, precise, slightly wry. His observation about the English Civil War precedent is real history and should land as a knowing detail — not a boast, just a fact that reveals how seriously he took the research.
 
**The dissolution:** This is the climactic moment. Give it space. Dunmore's silence before he speaks should be uncomfortable. After he exits, let Henry's line come naturally — it should feel like the first breath after a very tense moment.
 
**The vote:** If the audience votes NO (against the resolutions), Dunmore should acknowledge it with brief satisfaction — *"A prudent decision, gentlemen"* — and the closing frame should note that history went the other way, inviting visitors to reflect on what their vote meant.
 
## Visitor Cards:

[Richard Henry Lee](card1.html)

[Robert Carter Nicholas](card2.html)

[Edmund Pendleton](card3.html)

[Benjamin Harrison](card4.html)

[Carter Braxton](card5.html)

[Archibald Cary](card6.html)
 
[Mann Page](card7.html)