Neal Embry Starnes Media
Jeremy Ward, development officer for American Village, speaks to the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 9.
Since 1999, American Village in Montevallo has been teaching students and adults alike about the battle for independence and American history, and that mission is still critical today, said Jeremy Ward, the organization’s development officer.
Ward spoke to the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 9 about their organization in honor of Veterans Day and told the crowd that studies have shown that many American citizens and many students do not know the reason the Revolutionary War was fought and other basic facts of American history.
“We’re among the stewards and safekeepers of our nation’s history,” Ward said.
History is “rapidly slipping away” from the current generation, Ward said.
American Village brings history to life, reenacting scenes from history and getting students involved in learning about America’s origins. Since it opened, it has served roughly 750,000 students, and serves about 35,000 annually, Ward said. There are also programs for the general public along with special events, including teacher workshops.
The founder of American Village, Tom Walker, is serving on the nation’s semi-quincentennial commission, which is planning the celebration of America’s 250th“birthday” on July 4, 2026. Walker’s vision for American Village, Ward said, was to help young people know and understand history so they might be better citizens. The 188-acre campus provides a place for them to learn, including 20 different historical buildings like Washington Hall, the Courthouse of 1770, and more. The nonprofit is currently building a recreation of Independence Hall, the Philadelphia landmark where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution was signed.
Students are guided through immersive, participatory experiences, in what Ward said is an effort to instill in them the “sacred fire of liberty.” Ward praised the staff at American Village.
“They make what students are learning in the classroom come to life,” Ward said.
Young people learn best by doing, Ward said, and American Village gives them the ability to gain “practice time behind the civic wheel” they need to become good citizens, he said.
There have been fun and inspiring stories to come out of American Village in the past, Ward said, including one little girl who took action against the “British.” One staff member was portraying a British soldier and informing the students, who played the part of American colonists, of how the British treated the colonists in the years leading up to the Revolution. One third-grade girl had enough of the British’s unfair treatment of Americans, Ward said, and ran up to the staff member and kicked him.
In a more inspiring moment, Ward said a Samford history major came back to American Village to thank Walker for building the campus and credited his experience there as the reason he pursued a career in history.
Ward said the goal is to show that the colonists were “ordinary people who did extraordinary things,” and help students learn and remember their nation’s history.
Ward ended with a quote that Walker often liked to repeat:
“Our young people cannot safeguard what they do not cherish, and they cannot cherish what they don’t know,” Ward said.
