March 19, 1999 Next
Toured the Governor’s Palace. The entry walls and ceiling are covered with weapons. Rifles, pistols, swords and sabers. The stairway walls to the second flow were also covered with weapons. They were there to show the power of England and also handy should they need to arm the troops or people of the town. Everyone who came to the Palace of course saw this since it was the entry. To the left was the kitchen/worker area. If your were here for a meeting or a party, you used the parlor to the right. If you had a high enough social status, you met with the Governor upstairs. If you were high in society, the Governor recognized that by meeting physically higher in the Palace. The second floor had the Governors office, bedrooms and two large halls for dinner and dancing. There could be as many as 100 couples for a dance. The dance started by each couple having to do a minuet, on their own. The rest of the people would stand and watch and critique the dancers. A very embarrassing experience, if you did not dance well. They went in order of their status in the community, the highest to the lowest. This took several hours to complete. Once that was done, then the fun dancing would begin. Many times the dance would start at 6Pm and continue on until 6 the next morning. That is a lot of dancing. The third floor is where the children slept and played. There is a hidden spiral staircase that the children and slaves used so they could get from floor to floor without having to "bother" the guests that were visiting the Governor.
