Introduction
Ours is a tough city, a military town with an enlightened soul, a town that knows violence and yet clings to its cultural assets with fierce pride, knowing, as a city of veterans, that the alternative to civilization is unthinkable.
There’s a cannonball lodged in the wall of St. Paul’s Church in downtown Norfolk. Visitors to Norfolk hear about this fateful ball, fired from the cannon of Lord Dunmore, the last Colonial Governor of Virginia whose fleeing frigate paused in the waters of the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River on January 1, 1776, to hurl iron at a besieged and restless city, one that had dared, with the rest of the nation, to rise against oppression and exploitation, to stand for the rights of a people to govern themselves.
A cannonball is a thing of iron, an artifact of war, a weapon meant to terrorize, terminate lives, cleave the skies and tear down walls to get inside. Like the steel-hulled ships and the black submarine cylinders that crouch today in Norfolk ports on constant alert, these metal tools are meant to rule. And yet Dunmore’s ball did not end the wall. Though the city of Norfolk lay consumed by flame, the shot stuck fast in bricks that absorbed the blow and held it there, where it remains to this day.
Task
The students will watch a video regarding The Battle of Great Bridge & The Burning of Norfolk
Process
Look at the church on google maps:
Watch the following video:
Evaluation
Teacher will distribute a multiple choice quiz regarding the Battle of the Great Bridge and the Burning of Norfolk
Conclusion
Great job! You have researched the Burning of Norfolk, and now know more about the history of our great city! Next time you are in Norfolk, look for St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
Be sure to turn in the answers to your questions next class.