I Saw Three Ships: From Jamestown to the World

The Exchange takes a break to bring you this holiday special. Host Dan Roberts is joined by actors Dorothy Holland and Michael Goodwin in "I Saw Three Ships: From Jamestown to the World," an hour-long holiday special on the settlement of Jamestown as a pivotal historical marker for contemporary times. The program tells a story using contemporary to centuries-old Christmas music and narration that glances back to 17th-century Virginia. It begins at Christmas 1607, just seven months after the first colonists arrived. Roberts looks at their memories of England, at the Chesapeake tribes and to their aspirations and fears. He then turns to December 1707, 1807, 1907 and 2007, each jump opening up a wider perspective, first within America and finally in the world. The University of Richmond's Schola Cantorum, directed by Jeffrey Riehl, performs a rich palette of music, from the London of Shakespeare's time, the Appalachians and the spirituals of the Deep South, to colonial times, the voice of the Native American, on to the Civil War and then the 20th and 21st centuries.