Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9408010058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JAMESTOWN LENGTH: Medium
British House of Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd and Gov. George Allen addressed Virginia General Assembly members who filled a rustic church at the rebuilt fort in Jamestown, where the first English settlers landed in 1607.
``The significance of what took place here 375 years ago cannot be overstated,'' Allen said of the July 30, 1619, session. ``It is the people who own their government.''
Boothroyd, the first woman speaker of the British House, lauded American founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson, but took slight exception to his line that ``all men are created equal.''
``It would be impossible to write such a document today without mentioning the other half of the human race,'' she said.
The legislators sat on rough wooden benches but had the comfort of air conditioning pumped into the building for the occasion.
Their relatives, former legislators and dignitaries such as U.S. Senator Charles Robb, D-Va., watched the proceedings on television monitors in a stuffy tent set up nearby.
Clusters of tourists also watched on monitors outside the thatched-roof church. Some legislators said the air conditioning had little effect, however, during the hour-long ceremony on a hot, humid afternoon.
``I'm absolutely amazed that no one fainted,'' said Del. Jay DeBoer, D-Petersburg.
One of the 20 representatives who attended the 1619 session did pass out, Allen noted in his remarks.
The Virginia Colony initially was governed by martial law. Because the dangerous early years of the settlement were over in 1618, some investors protested that the harsh rule endured.
The protesters worried that English men and women would not come to Virginia if it meant giving up political, personal and property rights they had at home.
The investors failed to oust the colony's business leader, Sir Thomas Smith, but managed to force changes in the way Virginia was governed. The next year, a new governor arrived with proposals to end martial rule and create a legislature.
``Basically, there was a stockholders' revolt,'' said Thomas E. Davidson, senior curator at the Jamestown Settlement. ``They were strong enough to get senior management to agree to certain changes.''
Each plantation in Virginia elected two representatives, and they gathered in Jamestown on a hot July day. Before adjourning Aug. 4, the 20 burgesses approved a series of proposals to begin democratic rule in the colony.
The intense summer heat may have caused the quick adjournment, but Davidson said there also was little disagreement about the reforms.
``What the people in Virginia had wanted for some time was more local control,'' he said. ``All of them would have seen this as a step in the right direction.''
by CNB