History of Virginia
The History of Virginia began with settlement of the geographic region now known as the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States thousands of years ago by Native Americans. Permanent European settlement began with the establishment of Jamestown in 1607, by English colonists. As tobacco emerged as a profitable export, Virginia imported more African laborers to cultivate it. Gradually the state hardened the boundaries of slavery, essentially making it a racial caste. The Virginia Colony became the wealthiest and most populated British colony in North America. Although elections were democratic, the colony was dominated by elite planters associated with the established Anglican Church. Common planters, yeomen farmers and artisans in the 18th century tended to join the Baptist and Methodist churches after the Great Awakening, a trend that deepened in the 19th century. A fourth of the population comprised slaves, most of whom worked the tobacco plantations.
Virginia leaders (together with those of Massachusetts) had a major role in the road to winning independence, with Thomas Jefferson's writing the Declaration of Independence and George Washington's commanding the American army. Washington captured the main British army at Yorktown in 1781 to win the American Revolutionary War. The state produced more national leaders than any other, including four of the first five presidents: Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. After the Revolution and with the weakening of the tobacco economy, some planters manumitted slaves, bringing the number of free blacks in the state from a few thousand before the Revolution up to 13,000 in 1790 and 20,000 in 1800.[1]
In 1861, Virginia was a slave state but refused to join the cotton states in the new Confederacy until Lincoln called for troops to "repossess federal property" in seceding states, which did not include Virginia.[2] Then it seceded and Richmond became the new Confederate capital. Because the Confederacy needed to defend Richmond in order to maintain its legitimacy as an independent nation, Virginia became the main target of Union attacks and thus the major theater of the American Civil War. Unionists in western Virginia resisted secession in 1861, declared the state offices vacant, and elected new state officers. They were recognized by Abraham Lincoln as the Restored government of Virginia. In 1863 West Virginia became a separate state. Richmond fell in April 1865, effectively ending the Civil War.
Like the other Southern states, Virginia was impoverished after the war and struggled to rebuild. Dependence on agriculture made the economy weak. As in other former Confederate states, when white Democrats regained power after Reconstruction, they passed laws to impose segregate public facilities, discriminate against blacks by Jim Crow rules, and approved a constitution that effectively disfranchised blacks by 1900.
The state was dominated by the "Byrd machine" of conservative rural Democrats from the 1920s to the 1960s. The long struggle by African Americans to regain equal rights through education, litigation and nonviolent activism, lasted deep into the 1960s. The US Congress passed federal civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965 establishing equality under the law, ending public segregation and protecting citizens' voting rights.
After World War II, the state's economy began to thrive, with a new industrial and urban base. In recent decades, the agricultural base has lost its preeminence. The contemporary economy includes many new professional and high-tech industries, consultants and defense-related businesses employing highly educated people, especially in Northern Virginia, in association with the government. This change in demographic has disrupted the traditional conservative rural base, making for closely divided but still generally conservative state politics. Virginia voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
Native Americans
The portion of the New World designated Virginia had been inhabited for thousands of years by varying cultures of indigenous peoples. Archaeological and historical research by anthropologist Helen Rountree and others established 3,000 years of settlement in much of the Tidewater. Recent archaeological work at Pocahontas Island has revealed prehistoric habitation dating to about 6500 B.C.E.[4]
At the end of the 16th century, Native Americans living in what is now Virginia were part of three major groups, based chiefly on language families. The largest group, known as the Algonquian, numbered over 10,000 and occupied most of the coastal area up to the fall line. Groups to the interior were the Iroquoian (numbering 2,500) and the Siouan. Tribes included the Algonquian Chesepian, Chickahominy, Doeg, Mattaponi, Nansemond, Pamunkey, Pohick, Powhatan, and Rappahannock; the Iroquoian Cherokee, Meherrin, Nottoway, and Tuscarora; and the Siouan Monacan and Saponi.[5]
When the first English settlers arrived at Jamestown in 1607, Algonquian tribes controlled most of Virginia east of the fall line. Nearly all were united in what has been historically called the Powhatan Confederacy. Researcher Rountree has noted that empire more accurately describes their political structure. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a Chief named Wahunsunacock created this powerful empire by conquering or affiliating with approximately 30 tribes whose territories covered much of eastern Virginia. Known as the Powhatan, or paramount chief, he called this area Tenakomakah ("densely inhabited Land").[6] The empire was advantageous to some tribes, who were periodically threatened by other Native Americans, such as the Monacan.
The Native Americans had a different culture than the English. Despite some successful interaction, issues of ownership and control of land and other resources, and trust between the peoples, became areas of conflict. Virginia has drought conditions an average of every three years. The colonists did not understand that the natives were ill-prepared to feed them during hard times. In the years after 1612, the colonists cleared land to farm export tobacco, their crucial cash crop. As tobacco exhausted the soil, the settlers continually needed to clear more land for replacement. This reduced the wooded land which Native Americans depended on for hunting to supplement their food crops. As more colonists arrived, they wanted more land.
The tribes tried to fight the encroachment by the colonists. Major conflicts took place in the Indian massacre of 1622 and the war of 1644, both under the leadership of the late Chief Powhatan's younger brother, Chief Opechancanough. By the mid-17th century, the Powhatan and allied tribes were in serious decline in population, due in large part to epidemics of newly introduced infectious diseases, such as smallpox and measles, to which they had no natural immunity. The European colonists had expanded territory so that they controlled virtually all the land east of the fall line on the James River. Fifty years earlier, this territory had been the empire of the mighty Powhatan Confederacy.
Surviving members of many tribes assimilated into the general population of the colony. Some retained small communities with more traditional identity and heritage. In the 21st century, the Pamunkey and Mattaponiare the only two tribes to maintain reservations originally assigned under the English. As of 2010, the state has recognized eleven Virginia Indian tribes. Others have renewed interest in seeking state and Federal recognition since the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown in 2007. State celebrations gave Native American tribes prominent formal roles to showcase their contributions to the state.
Colonial period
After their discovery of the New World in the 15th century, European states began trying to establish New World colonies. England, the Dutch Republic, France, Portugal, and Spain were the most active.
In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh sent Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to explore what is now the North Carolina coast, and they returned with word of a regional "king" named Wingina, who ruled a land supposedly called Wingandacoa. The latter word was modified later that year by the Queen to "Virginia", perhaps in part noting her status as the "Virgin Queen." On the next voyage, Raleigh was to learn that, while the chief of the Secotans was indeed called Wingina, the expression wingandacoa heard by the English upon arrival actually meant "What good clothes you wear!" in Carolina Algonquian, and was not the name of the country as previously misunderstood.
Virginia is the oldest surviving English place-name in the U.S. not wholly borrowed from a Native American word, and the fourth oldest surviving English place name, though it is Latin in form.[7]
In the much smaller area now known as Virginia, the Spanish were the first to attempt to establish a colony, although they failed. More than 36 years later, the English established their first permanent settlement in the same area, at a swampy mosquito-infested island they named "Jamestown" in honor of their King, James I of England.
Spanish Mission
A Spanish exploration party had come to the lower Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia about 1560 and met the Native Americans living on the Virginia Peninsula. A 17-year-old Powhatan boy from the village of Chiskiack (located on the lands of the present-day U.S. Naval Weapons Station Yorktown), who was the son of a chief, agreed to leave with them. He was baptized and renamed Don Luis, in honor of his sponsor, Luis de Velasco. Don Luis was educated in Mexico and Madrid, Spain.
In the fall of 1570, ten years later, the native-convert Don Luis returned to Virginia to help as a guide and iinterpreter in the establishment of the Jesuits planned Ajacan Mission to be named for St. Mary on the lower peninsula. Shortly after they were left by a Spanish ship, Don Luis abandoned the group, returning to his people, where he became a Weroance. The following February, Don Luis and a group of Powhatan returned and killed the eight Jesuit missionaries, stealing their clothes and possessions, sparing only the life of a Spanish servant boy named Alonzo. This young boy escaped and made his way to a rival tribe, where he stayed until rescued by another Spanish ship bringing supplies.[8]
When told of the events by young Alonzo in the early part of 1572, Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the Spanish governor of Florida, returned to Virginia to retaliate. The Spanish captured and hanged some of the Indians believed responsible for the massacre, but they were unable to locate Don Luis. While this marked the end of Spanish efforts to colonize the area which became Virginia, there is some speculation over 400 years later that Don Luis and Opechancanough, who was later Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy, may have been the same individual.[9] The name Opechancanough meant "He whose Soul is White" in the Algonquin language used by the Powhatan people.
Roanoke Island
The Roanoke Colony was the first English colony in the New World. It was founded at Roanoke Island in what was then Virginia, and is now part of Dare County in the state of North Carolina.
Between 1584 and 1587, there were two major groups of settlers sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh who attempted to establish a permanent settlement at Roanoke Island, and each failed. The final group disappeared completely after supplies from England were delayed three years by a war with Spain. Because they disappeared, they were called "The Lost Colony."
Jamestown
After the death of Queen Elizabeth I, in 1603 King James I assumed the throne of England. After years of war, England was strapped for funds, so he granted responsibility for England's New World colonization to the Virginia Company, which became incorporated as a joint stock company by a proprietary charter drawn up in 1606. There were two competing branches of the Virginia Company and each hoped to establish a colony in Virginia in order to exploit gold (which the region did not actually have), to establish a base of support for English privateering against Spanish ships, and to spread Protestantism to the New World in competition with Spain's spread of Catholicism.[10]
Within the Virginia Company, the Plymouth Company branch was assigned a northern portion of the area known as Virginia, and the London Company area to the south.
First landing
In December, 1606, the London Company dispatched a group of 104 colonists in three ships: the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, under the command of Captain Christopher Newport. The voyage was a rough and lengthy one. After 144 days, the colonists finally arrived in Virginia on April 26, 1607 at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. They named the Virginia capes after the sons of their king, Cape Henry for Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Cape Charles for his younger brother, Charles, Duke of York. At Cape Henry, they went ashore, erected a cross, and did a small amount of exploring, an event which came to be called the "First Landing."
Under orders from London to seek a more inland location safe from Spanish raids, they explored the Hampton Roads area and sailed up the newly christened James River to the fall line at what would later became the cities of Richmond and Manchester.
After weeks of exploration, the colonists selected a location and founded Jamestown on May 14, 1607. It was named in honor of King James I (as was the river). However, while the location at Jamestown Island was favorable for defense against foreign ships, the low and marshy terrain was harsh and inhospitable for a settlement. It lacked drinking water, access to game for hunting, or much space for farming. While it seemed favorable that it was not inhabited by the Native Americans, within a short time, the colonists were attacked by members of the local Paspahegh tribe.
The colonists arrived ill-prepared to become self-sufficient. They had planned on trading with the Native Americans for food, were dependent upon periodic supplies from England, and had planned to spend some of their time seeking gold. Leaving the Discovery behind for their use, Captain Newport returned to England with the Susan Constant and the Godspeed, and came back twice during 1608 with the First Supply and Second Supply missions. Trading and relations with the Native Americans was tenuous at best, and many of the colonists died from disease, starvation, and conflicts with the Natives. After several failed leaders, Captain John Smith took charge of the settlement, and many credit him with sustaining the colony during its first years, as he had some success in trading for food and leading the discouraged colonists.
Starving time
After Smith's return to England in August 1609, there was a long delay in the scheduled arrival of supplies. During the winter of 1609-10 and continuing into the spring and early summer, no more ships arrived. The colonists faced what became known as the "starving time". The leader who had replaced John Smith, Captain John Ratcliffe of the Discovery, was killed by the Powhatans, who were much more aggressive after Smith's departure. Only a small amount of food was traded, and at very high prices, as the colonists gave up valuable tools and equipment. The colonists had no way of knowing if help would ever come. However, they had not been forgotten, and separate events were underway at Bermuda and in England to re-supply them.
When Captain Newport, his Admiral, Sir George Somers, and the new governor, Sir Thomas Gates, finally arrived at Jamestown on May 23, 1610, they anticipated finding a thriving colony. Instead, they discovered over 80% of the 500 colonists had perished, and many of the survivors were sick. Meanwhile, back in England, the Virginia Company had been reorganized under its Second Charter, ratified on May 23, 1609, which gave most leadership authority of the colony to the governor, the newly-appointed Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr (known in modern times as "Lord Delaware"). Word had reached England that food and supplies in Jamestown were nearly exhausted. In June 1610, De La Warr arrived with 150 men and ample supplies to rescue the colonists and assume command. As he became established, De La Warr began the First Anglo-Powhatan War, against the natives. Under his leadership, Samuel Argall kidnapped Pocahontas, daughter of the Powhatan chief, and held her at Henricus. Attempts at ransom failed, however.
The economy of the Colony was another problem. Gold had never been found, and efforts to introduce profitable industries in the colony had all failed until John Rolfe introduced his two foreign types of tobacco: Orinoco and Sweet Scented. These produced a better crop than the local variety and with the first shipment to England in 1612, the customers found the flavor to be favorable. This identification of a cash crop to export marked the beginning of Virginia's economic viability.
The First Anglo-Powhatan War ended when Rolfe married Pocahontas in 1614; peace was established.
The Virginia Colony began to prosper with a thriving tobacco industry, but required more land. Especially after the death of Pocahontas in 1617 during a trip to England and her father, Chief Powhatan in 1618, conflicts with the Powhatans escalated again. There were also conflicts among the colonists. De La Warr's deputy, Samuel Argall, who had been left in charge of the colony, ran Jamestown as an autocrat. Responding to accusations of Argall's abuses, De La Warr left to return to the colony in 1618 but died en route.
Plantation beginnings
George Yeardley took over as Governor of Virginia in 1619. He ended one-man rule and created a representative system of government with the General Assembly, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World.
Also in 1619, the Virginia Company sent 90 single women as potential wives for the male colonists to help populate the settlement. That same year the colony acquired a group of "twenty and odd" Angolans, brought by two English privateers. They were probably the first Africans in the colony. They, along with many European indentured servants helped to expand the growing tobacco industry which was already the colony's primary product. Although these black men were treated as indentured servants, this marked the beginning of America's history of slavery. Major importation of African slaves by both African and Europeans profiteers did not take place until much later in the century.
Also in 1619, the plantations and developments were divided into four "incorporations" or "citties" (sic), as they were called. These were Charles Cittie, Elizabeth Cittie, Henrico Cittie, and James Cittie, which included the relatively small seat of government for the colony at Jamestown Island. Each of the four "citties" (sic) extended across the James River, the main conduit of transportation of the era. Elizabeth Cittie, know initially as Kecoughtan (a Native word with many variations in spelling by the English), also included the areas now known as South Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore.
In some areas, individual rather than communal land ownership or leaseholds were established, providing families with motivation to increase production, improve standards of living, and gain wealth. Perhaps nowhere was this more progressive at than Sir Thomas Dale's ill-fated Henricus, a westerly-lying development located along the south bank of the James River, where natives were also to be provided an education at the Colony's first college.
About 6 miles south of the falls at present-day Richmond, in Henrico Cittie the Falling Creek Ironworks was established near the confluence of Falling Creek, using local ore deposits to make iron. It was the first in North America.
Natives conflicts
While the developments of 1619 and continued growth in the several following years were seen as favorable by the English, many aspects, especially the continued need for more land to grow tobacco, were the source of increasing concern to the Native Americans most affected, the Powhatan.
The central issue was who would be in charge. The Powhatan formally and ritually admitted Virginia into their political system in 1607 and 1608. For years under the rule of Chief Powhatan, and even later, they fought to enforce the control they felt was rightfully theirs. The colonists, however, never recognized Powhatan's authority, and they also fought to take control.
By this time, the remaining Powhatan Empire was led by Chief Opechancanough, chief of the Pamunkey, and brother of Chief Powhatan. He had earned a reputation as a fierce warrior under his brother's chiefdom. Soon, he gave up on hopes of diplomacy, and resolved to eradicate the English colonists.
On March 22, 1622, the Powhatan killed about 400 colonists in the Indian Massacre of 1622. With coordinated attacks, they struck almost all the English settlements along the James River, on both shores, from Newport News Point on the east at Hampton Roads all the way west upriver to Falling Creek, a few miles above Henricus and John Rolfe's plantation, Varina Farms.
At Jamestown, a warning by an Indian boy named Chanco to his employer, Richard Pace, helped reduce total deaths. Pace secured his plantation, and rowed across the river during the night to alert Jamestown, which allowed colonists some defensive preparation. They had no time to warn outposts, which suffered deaths and captives at almost every location. Several entire communities were essentially wiped out, including Henricus and Wolstenholme Towne at Martin's Hundred. At the Falling Creek Ironworks, which had been seen as so promising for the Colony, two women and three children were among the 27 killed, leaving only two colonists alive. The facilities were destroyed.
Despite the losses, two thirds of the colonists survived that fateful day. After withdrawing to Jamestown, many returned to the outlying plantations, although some were abandoned. The English carried out reprisals against the Powhatan and there were skirmishes and attacks for about a year before the colonists and Powhatan struck a truce.
The colonists invited the chiefs and warriors to Jamestown, where they proposed a toast of liquor. Dr. John Potts and some of the Jamestown leadership had poisoned the natives' share of the liquor, which killed about 200 men. Colonists killed another 50 Indians by hand.
The period between the coup of 1622 and another Powhatan attack on English colonists along the James River (see Jamestown) in 1644 marked a turning point in the relations between the Powhatan and the English In the early period, each side believed it was operating from a position of power; by 1646, the colonists had taken the balance of power.
The colonists defined the 1644 coup as an "uprising". Chief Opechancanough expected the outcome would reflect what he considered the morally correct position: that the colonists were violating their pledges to the Powhatan. During the 1644 event, Chief Opechancanough was captured. While imprisoned, he was murdered by one of his guards. After the death of Opechancanough, and following the repeated colonial attacks in 1644 and 1645, the remaining Powhatan tribes had little alternative but to accede to the demands of the settlers.[11]
Early demographics
The death rate from illness and attacks by Indians was high as can be seen in the following statistics:
Easter,1619 - about 1,000
Easter, 1620 - 866
From Easter 1620 to Easter 1621, ten ships brought 1051 colonists.
Easter, 1621 - 843
In four years 1620 to 1623, 4,000 people migrated to the colony.
February 1624 - 1,277
A Royal Council met to discover what had happened to "5,000" missing subjects of the King. They determined that they had died or been killed in the Indian massacre of 1622.[12]
Royal colony
In 1624, the Virginia Company's charter was revoked and the colony transferred to royal authority as a crown colony, but the elected representatives in Jamestown continued to exercise a fair amount of power. Under royal authority, the colony began to expand to the North and West with additional settlements. In 1630, under the governorship of John Harvey, the first settlement on the York River was founded. In 1632, the Virginia legislature voted to build a fort to link Jamestown and the York River settlement of Chiskiack and protect the colony from Indian attacks. This fort would become Middle Plantation and later Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1634, a palisade was built near Middle Plantation. This wall stretched across the peninsula between the York and James rivers and protected the settlements on the eastern side of the lower Peninsula from Indians. The wall also served to contain cattle.
Also in 1634, a new system of local government was created in the Virginia Colony by order of the King of England. Eight shires were designated, each with its own local officers. These shires were renamed as counties only a few years later. They were:
- Accomac (now Northampton County)
- Charles City Shire (now Charles City County)
- Charles River Shire (now York County)
- Elizabeth City Shire (existed as Elizabeth City County until 1952, when it was absorbed into the city of Hampton)
- Henrico (now Henrico County)
- James City Shire (now James City County)
- Warwick River Shire (existed as Warwick County until 1952, then the city of Warwick until 1958 when it was absorbed into the city of Newport News)
- Warrosquyoake Shire (now Isle of Wight County)
Of these, as of 2007, five of the eight original shires of Virginia are considered still extant in essentially their same political form (county), although some boundaries have changed in almost 400 years. Also, including the earlier names of the cities (sic) in their names resulted in the source of some confusion, as that resulted in such seemingly contradictory names as "James City County" and "Charles City County".
The first significant attempts at exploring the Trans-Allegheny region occurred under the administration of Governor William Berkeley. Efforts to explore farther into Virginia were hampered in 1644 when about 500 colonists were killed in another Indian massacre led, once again, by Opechancanough. Berkeley is credited with efforts to develop others sources of income for the colony besides tobacco such as cultivation of mulberry trees for silkworms and other crops at his large Green Spring Plantation, now a largely unexplored archaeological site maintained by the National Park Service near Jamestown and Williamsburg.
Most Virginia colonists were loyal to the crown (Charles I) during the English Civil War, but in 1652, Oliver Cromwell sent a force to remove and replace Gov. Berkeley with Governor Richard Bennett, who was loyal to the Commonwealth of England. This governor was a moderate Puritan who allowed the local legislature to exercise most controlling authority, and spent much of his time directing affairs in neighboring Maryland Colony. Bennett was followed by two more "Cromwellian" governors, Edward Digges and Samuel Matthews, although in fact all three of these men were not technically appointees, but were selected by the House of Burgesses, which was really in control of the colony during these years.[13] There are conflicting sources as to whether the latter two were ever actual Puritans; indeed Matthews, though he did as governor maintain loyalty to Cromwell, had previously been known as a persecutor of the Puritan sect in the colony.
Many royalists fled to Virginia after their defeat in the English Civil War. Many of them established what would become the most important families in Virginia. After the Restoration, in recognition of Virginia's loyalty to the crown, King Charles II of England bestowed Virginia with the nickname "The Old Dominion", which it still bears today.
Berkeley, who remained popular after his first administration, returned to the governorship at the end of Commonwealth rule. However, Berkeley's second administration was characterized with many problems. Disease, hurricanes, Indian hostilities, and economic difficulties all plagued Virginia at this time. Berkeley established autocratic authority over the colony. To protect this power, he refused to have new legislative elections for 14 years in order to protect a House of Burgesses that supported him. He only agreed to new elections when rebellion became a serious threat.
Berkeley finally did face a rebellion in 1676. Indians had begun attacking encroaching settlers as they expanded to the north and west. Serious fighting broke out when settlers responded to violence with a counter-attack against the wrong tribe, which further extended the violence. Berkeley did not assist the settlers in their fight. Many settlers and historians believe Berkeley's refusal to fight the Indians stemmed from his investments in the fur trade. Large scale fighting would have cut off the Indian suppliers Berkeley's investment relied on. Nathaniel Bacon of Henrico organized his own militia of settlers who retaliated against the Indians. Bacon became very popular as the primary opponent of Berkeley, not only on the issue of Indians, but on other issues as well. Berkeley condemned Bacon as a rebel, but pardoned him after Bacon won a seat in the House of Burgesses and accepted it peacefully. After a lack of reform, Bacon rebelled outright, captured Jamestown, and took control of the colony for several months. The incident became known as Bacon's Rebellion. Berkeley returned himself to power with the help of the English militia. Bacon burned Jamestown before abandoning it and continued his rebellion, but died of disease. Berkeley severely crushed the remaining rebels. In response to Berkeley's harsh repression of the rebels, the English government removed him from office. After the burning of Jamestown, the capital was temporarily moved to Middle Plantation, located on the high ground of the Virginia Peninsula equidistant from the James and York Rivers.
Following a failure at Henricus in 1622, Virginia's first permanent institute of higher learning was founded under Governor Francis Nicholson. In 1691, with urging and support of the House of Burgesses, Reverend Dr. James Blair, the colony's top religious leader, went back to England and in 1693, obtained a charter from King William and Queen Mary II of England. The college was named the College of William and Mary in honor of the two monarchs.
The rebuilt statehouse in Jamestown burned again in 1698. After that fire, upon suggestion of students of the College of William and Mary, the colonial capital was permanently moved to nearby Middle Plantation again, and the town was renamed Williamsburg, in honor of William of Orange, King William III.
Border dispute
The colony of Maryland and Virginia had a long series of border disputes of which one continues to this day. The dispute revolved around the boundary that King Charles I granted the charter to George Calvert the baron of Maryland in 1632. It granted him feudal rights of the region between lat. 40°N and the Potomac River which Virginia claimed. The disputes over the area were mostly resolved in 1930. However Maryland and Virginia still dispute the usage of the Potomac and water rights.
Exploration
Alexander Spotswood became lieutenant governor, or acting royal governor, of Virginia in 1710, and in 1716 he led an expedition of westward exploration, later known as the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition. Spotswood's party reached the top ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains at Swift Run Gap (elevation 2,365 feet (721 m)). Such was the English colonials understanding of the extent of the land, that they thought they had reached the continental divide. There was some expectation that, "like Balboa", they would be overlooking the Pacific Ocean.[14]
Established Church
Church of England
When the English colony was established in Virginia, the role of the Church of England and its relationship to the government had been established by King Henry VIII some years earlier. The same relationship was established in the new colony.
At Jamestown, worship services and a primitive chapel were early priorities even as the first fort was built, with Robert Hunt as the spiritual leader. Hunt was the spiritual leader of the three ship expedition headed by Christopher Newport. He lit the candle for the Anglican Church in Virginia a few weeks earlier when he first prayed on April 29, 1607, when the settlers made their "First Landing" in the New World and planted a cross at Cape Henry, near the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. In his role as religious leader, he was a peacemaker, often bringing harmony to a quarreling group of men.[15] In July 1610, Elizabeth City Parish Church was founded by The Reverend William Mease who was appointed by the Bishop of London to lead the church at Kecoughtan, Virginia, now part of Hampton.[16] Renamed St. John's Episcopal Church in 1830, after restoration from damages suffered during the War of 1812, it is the oldest English-speaking parish in the US today.[16] The current church, the fourth, was built in 1728.
Parishes
After five very difficult years, during which the majority of the continually arriving colonists also did not survive, the colony began to grow more successfully. As in England, the parish became a unit of local importance, equal in power and practical aspects to other entities, such as the courts and even the House of Burgesses and the Governor's Council (the precursors of the Virginia General Assembly). (A parish was normally led spiritually by a rector and governed by a committee of members generally respected in the community which was known as the vestry). A typical parish contained three or four churches, as the parish churches needed to be close enough for people to travel to worship services, where attendance was expected of everyone. Virtually all parishes had a church farm (or "glebe") to help support it financially.
Expansion and subdivision of the church parishes and, after 1634, the shires (or counties) followed population growth. The intention of the Virginia parish system was to place a church not more than six miles-easy riding distance-from every home in the colony. The shires, soon after initial establishment in 1634 known as "counties", were planned to be not more than a day's ride from all residents, so that court and other business could be attended to in a practical manner.
In his Notes on the State of Virginia published in 1781-82, Thomas Jefferson described the parish arrangement: "The state, by another division, is formed into parishes, many of which are commensurate with the counties: but sometimes a county comprehends more than one parish, and sometimes a parish more than one county. This division had relation to the religion of the state, a Parson of the Anglican church, with a fixed salary, having been heretofore established in each parish. The care of the poor was another object of the parochial division."[17]
Missionaries
Religious leaders in England felt they had a duty as missionaries to bring Christianity (or more specifically, the religious practices and beliefs of the Church of England), to the Native Americans. There was an assumption that their own "mistaken" spiritual beliefs were largely the result of a lack of education and literacy, since the Powhatan did not have a written language. Therefore, teaching them these skills would logically result in what the English saw as "enlightenment" in their religious practices, and bring them into the fold of the church, which was part of the government, and hence, a form of control.
The leaders of the Virginia Colony had long desired a school of higher education, for the sons of planters, and for educating the natives. An earlier attempt to establish a permanent university at Henricus for these purposes around 1618 had gotten off to a start, and had been promising, but failed after the Indian Massacre of 1622 wiped out the entire settlement, which was not rebuilt.
Almost 70 years later, with encouragement from the Colony's House of Burgesses and other prominent individuals, Blair prepared a plan, believed by some historians to be modeled after the earlier one from Henricus, and returned to England in 1691 to petition the monarchy for a new college.
Control of the Powhatan was no longer a priority in the Colony, as they had been largely decimated and reduced to reservations after the last major conflict ended in 1646, but the religious principle of educating them in Christianity was nevertheless retained, perhaps as a moral incentive to help successfully gain support and approval in London for the new College of William and Mary, which received its Royal Charter in 1693. The efforts to educate and convert the natives there were minimal, though the Indian school remained open until the Revolution. Apart from the Nansemond tribe, which had converted in 1638, and a few isolated individuals over the years, the other Powhatan tribes as a whole did not fully convert to Christianity until c. 1791.[18]
Another attempt at an Indian Christian school was made under Gov. Spotswood at Fort Christanna in 1714 for the Siouan Saponi and Tutelo tribes of Virginia, but it was shut down by the House of Burgesses after only four years.
Williamsburg
Bruton Parish was located in the tiny community of Middle Plantation, on high ground midway across the Virginia Peninsula about 8 miles north of Jamestown. Colonel John Page, a merchant who had emigrated from Middlesex, England with his wife Alice Lucken Page in 1650, was chiefly responsible for developing Middle Plantation into a substantial town.
Bruton Parish Church, a fine but small brick church, was built there, financed mostly by Colonel Page, who also donated the land. Complete by November 29, 1683, the building was dedicated on Epiphany, January 6, 1684 by the first rector, the Reverend Rowland Jones.[19]
The capital of the colony and the College of William and Mary were relocated to Middle Plantation in 1699. The community was renamed Williamsburg in honor of King William III). Plans were made to construct a capitol building and plat the new city according to the survey of Theodoric Bland.
Bruton Parish Church held a prominent location in the new plan. Historians from Colonial Williamsburg Foundation have noted that the brick church stood near the center of Williamsburg's original survey map, suggesting the church's importance to the colonial community's life.[20] During the colonial period, all those in public office were required to attend church. Government and college officials in the capital city of Williamsburg attended Bruton Parish Church. The influx of students, the governor and his entourage, and the legislature, as well as townspeople, overwhelmed the small church.
Bruton Parish Church
In 1706, the vestry of Bruton Parish began considering building a larger church. However, with only 110 families as late as almost 20 years later (in 1724), the parish vestry could only afford to plan a small church, and invited the colony's government to finance an enlargement to accommodate the needs not arising from the local residents.[20] Four years later the General Assembly agreed to fund pews for the governor, council, and burgesses. Royal Governor Alexander Spotswood drafted plans for the structure: a cruciform-shaped church (the first in Virginia) 75 feet (23 m) long, 28 feet (8.5 m) wide, with 19-foot-long (5.8 m) transepts (wings.)
Under the watchful eye of Reverend Dr. James Blair, who was rector from 1710 to 1743 (and also president of William and Mary from 1693 until his death), the construction of the new church got underway, with the first construction contract awarded in 1711. Finished in 1715, the church soon had all the required furnishings: Bible, prayer books, altar, font, cushions, surplice, bell, and reredos tablets.[20]
In addition to the Royal Governors and officials of the college of William and Mary, prominent Virginians who attended Bruton Parish Church in the 18th century included George Washington, James Madison, John Tyler, Benjamin Harrison, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson.
18th century clergy
In the 1740s, the established Anglican church had about 70 parish priests around the colony. There was no bishop, and indeed, there was fierce political opposition to having a bishop in the colony. The Anglican priests were supervised directly by the Bishop of London. Each county court gave tax money to the local vestry, composed of prominent layman. The vestry provided the priest a glebe of 200 or 300 acres, a house, and perhaps some livestock. The vestry paid him an annual salary of 16,000 lbs. of tobacco, plus 20 shillings for every wedding and funeral. While not poor, the priests' living were modest and their opportunities for improvement were slim.
Social order
Historian Douglas Southall Freeman has explained the hierarchical social structure of the 1740s:
West of the fall line... the settlements fringed toward the frontier of the Blue Ridge and the Valley of the Shenandoah. Democracy was real where life was raw. In Tidewater, the flat country East of the fall line, there were no less than eight strata of society. The uppermost and the lowliest, the great proprietors and the Negro slaves, were supposed to be of immutable station. The others were small farmers, merchants, sailors, frontier folk, servants and convicts. Each of these constituted a distinct class at a given time, but individuals and families often shifted materially in station during a single generation. Titles hedged the ranks of the notables. Members of the Council of State were termed both "Colonel" and "Esquire." Large planters who did not bear arms almost always were given the courtesy title of "Gentlemen." So were Church Wardens, Vestrymen, Sheriffs and Trustees of towns. The full honors of a man of station were those of Vestryman [of the Church], Justice [lifetime member of the County Court, appointed by the legislature] and Burgess [elected member of the legislature]. Such an individual normally looked to England and especially to London and sought to live by the social standards of the mother country.[21]
Baptist vs Episcopalians
By the 1760s, Baptist missionaries were drawing Virginians, especially poor farmers, into a new, much more democratic religion. Many slaves attended Baptist services. Historians have debated the implications of the religious rivalries for the American Revolution. The Baptist farmers did introduce a new egalitarian ethic that largely displaced the semi-aristocratic ethic of the Anglican planters. However, both groups supported the Revolution. George Washington, for example, was active in his vestry.
There was a sharp contrast between the austerity of the plain-living Baptists and the opulence of the Anglican planters, who controlled local government. Baptist church discipline, mistaken by the gentry for radicalism, served to ameliorate disorder. The struggle for religious toleration erupted and was played out during the American Revolution, as the Baptists worked to disestablish the Anglican church.[22] As population became more dense, the county court and the Anglican Church were able to increase their authority. The Baptists protested vigorously; the resulting social disorder resulted chiefly from the ruling gentry's disregard of public need. The vitality of the religious opposition made the conflict between 'evangelical' and 'gentry' styles a bitter one.[23] The strength of the evangelical movement's organization determined its ability to mobilize power outside the conventional authority structure.[24]
Some ethnic groups, especially the German Lutherans and Scotch Irish Presbyterians, funded their own ministers, and favored disestablishment of the Anglican church. Especially in the back country, most families had no religious affiliation whatsoever and their low moral standards were shocking to proper Englishmen[25]
After the American Revolution, when freedom of religion and the separation of church and state were established in the new nation, the Church of England was dis-established in Virginia. Most ministers were Loyalists and returned to England. When possible, worship continued in the usual fashion, but the local vestry was no longer the recipient of tax money and no longer had local government functions such as poor relief. The Right Reverend James Madison (1749–1812), a cousin of James Madison, was appointed in 1790 as the first Episcopal Bishop of Virginia and slowly rebuilt the denomination[26]
American Revolution
Antecedents
Revolutionary sentiments first began appearing in Virginia shortly after the French and Indian War ended in 1763. The very same year, the British and Virginian governments clashed in the case of Parson's Cause. The Virginia legislature had passed the Two-Penny Act to stop clerical salaries from inflating. King George III vetoed the measure, and clergy sued for back salaries. Patrick Henry first came to prominence by arguing in the case against the veto, which he declared tyrannical.
The British government had accumulated a great deal of debt through spending on its wars. To help payoff this debt, Parliament passed the Sugar Act in 1764 and the Stamp Act in 1765. The General Assembly opposed the passage of the Sugar Act on the grounds of no taxation without representation. Patrick Henry opposed the Stamp Act in the Burgesses with a famous speech advising George III that "Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I his Cromwell..." and the king "may profit by their example." The legislature passed the "Virginia Resolves" opposing the tax. Governor Francis Fauquier responded by dismissing the Assembly.
Opposition continued after the resolves. The Northampton County court overturned the Stamp Act February 8, 1766. Various political groups, including the Sons of Liberty met and issued protests against the act. Most notably, Richard Bland published a pamphlet entitled An Enquiry into the Rights of Ike British Colonies. This document would set one of the basic political principles of the Revolution by stating that Virginia was a part of the British Empire, not the Kingdom of Great Britain, so it only owed allegiance to the Crown, not Parliament.
The Stamp Act was repealed, but additional taxation from the Revenue Act and the 1769 attempt to transport Bostonian rioters to London for trial incited more protest from Virginia. The Assembly met to consider resolutions condemning on the transport of the rioters, but Governor Botetourt, while sympathetic, dissolved the legislature. The Burgesses reconvened in Raleigh Tavern and made an agreement to ban British imports. Britain gave up the attempt to extradite the prisoners and lifted all taxes except the tax on tea in 1770.
In 1773, because of a renewed attempt to extradite Americans to Britain, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Mason, and others created a committee of correspondence to deal with problems with Britain. Unlike other such committees of correspondence, this one was an official part of the legislature.
Following the closure of the port in Boston and several other offenses, the Burgesses approved June 1, 1774 as a day of "Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer" in a show of solidarity with Massachusetts. The Governor, Lord Dunmore, dismissed the legislature. The first Virginia Convention was held August 1–6 to respond to the growing crisis. The convention approved a boycott of British goods, expressed solidarity with Massachusetts, and elected delegates to the Continental Congress where Virginian Peyton Randolph was selected as president of the Congress.
On April 20, 1775, a day after the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Dunmore ordered royal marines to remove the gunpowder from the Williamsburg Magazine to a British ship. Patrick Henry led a group of Virginia militia from Hanover in response to Dunmore's order. Carter Braxton negiotiated a resolution to the Gunpowder Incident by transferring royal funds as payment for the powder. The incident exacerbated Dunmore's declining popularity. He fled the Governor's Palace to the British ship Fowey at Yorktown. On November 7, Dunmore issued a proclamation declaring Virginia was in a state of rebellion and that any slave fighting for the British would be freed. By this time, George Washington had been appointed head of the American forces by the Continental Congress and Virginia was under the political leadership of a Committee of Safety formed by the Third Virginia Convention in the governor's absence.
On December 9, 1775, Virginia militia moved on the governor's forces at the Battle of Great Bridge. The British had held a fort that guarded the land route to Norfolk. The British feared the militia, who had no cannon for a siege, would receive reinforcements, so they abandoned the fort and attacked. The militia won the 30 minute battle. Dunmore responded by bombarding Norfolk with his ships on January 1, 1776.
The Fifth Virginia Convention met on May 6 and declared Virginia a free and independent state on May 15, 1776. The convention instructed its delegates to introduce a resolution for independence at the Continental Congress. Richard Henry Lee introduced the measure on June 7. While the Congress debated, the Virginia Convention adopted George Mason's Bill of Rights (June 12) and a constitution (June 29) which established an independent commonwealth. Congress approved Lee's proposal on July 2 and approved Jefferson's Declaration of Independence on July 4.
Independence
The constitution of the Fifth Virginia Convention created a system of government for the state that would last for 54 years. The constitution provided for a chief magistrate, a bicameral legislature with both the House of Delegates and the Senate. The legislature elected a governor each year (picking Patrick Henry to be the first) and a council of eight for executive functions. In October, the legislature appointed Jefferson, Edmund Pendleton, and George Wythe to adopt the existing body of Virginia law to the new constitution.
After the Battle of Great Bridge, little military conflict took place on Virginia soil for the first part of the American Revolutionary War. Nevertheless, Virginia sent forces to help in the fighting to the North and South, including Daniel Morgan and his company of marksmen who fought in early battles in the north. Charlottesville served as a prison camp for the Convention Army, Hessian and British soldiers captured at Saratoga. Virginia also sent forces to its frontier in the northwest, which then included much of the Ohio Country. George Rogers Clark led forces in this area and captured the fort at Kaskaskia and won the Battle of Vincennes, capturing the royal governor, Henry Hamilton. Clark maintained control of areas south of the Ohio River for most of the war, but was unable to make gains in the Indian-dominated territories north of the river.
The British brought the war back to coastal Virginia in May, 1779 when Admiral George Collier landed troops at Hampton Roads and used Portsmouth (after destroying the naval yard) as a base of attack. The move was part of an attempted blockade of trade with the West Indies. The British abandoned the plan when reinforcements from General Henry Clinton failed to arrive to support Collier.
Fearing the vulnerability of Williamsburg, then-Governor Thomas Jefferson moved the capital farther inland to Richmond in 1780. That October, the British made another attempt at invading Virginia. British General Alexander Leslie entered the Chesapeake with 2,500 troops and used Portsmouth as a base; however, after the British defeat at the Battle of Kings Mountain, Leslie moved to join General Charles Cornwallis farther south. In December, Benedict Arnold, who had betrayed the Revolution and become a general for the British, attacked Richmond with 1,000 soldiers and burned part of the city. Arnold moved his base of operations to Portsmouth and was later joined by another 2,000 troops under General William Phillips. Phillips led an expedition that destroyed military and economic targets, against ineffectual militia resistance. The state's defenses, led by General Friedrich Wilhelm, Baron von Steuben, put up resistance in the April 1781 Battle of Blandford, but was forced to retreat.
George Washington sent the French General Lafayette to lead the defense of Virginia. Lafayette marched south to Petersburg, preventing Phillips from immediately taking the town. Cornwallis, frustrated in the Carolinas, moved up from North Carolina to join Phillips and Arnold, and began to pursue Lafayette's smaller force. Lafayette only had 3,200 troops to face Cornwallis's 7,200. The outnumbered Lafayette avoided direct confrontation and could do little more than annoy Cornwallis with a series of skirmishes. Lafayette retreated to Fredericksburg, met up with General Anthony Wayne, and then marched into the southwest. Cornwallis dispatched two smaller missions: 500 soldiers under Colonel John Graves Simcoe to take the arsenal at Point of Fork and 250 under Colonel Banastre Tarleton to march on Charlottesville and capture Gov. Jefferson and the legislature. The expedition to Point of Fork forced Steuben to retreat further while Tarleton's mission captured only seven legislators and some officers thanks to Jack Jouett's all night ride to warn Jefferson and the legislators of Tarleton's coming.[3] Cornwallis reunited his army in Elk Hill and marched to the Tidewater region. Lafayette, uniting with von Steuben, now had 5,000 troops and followed Cornwallis.
Under orders from General Clinton, Cornwallis moved down the Virginia Peninsula towards the Chesapeake Bay were Clinton planned to extract part of the army for a siege of New York City. Cornwallis passed through Williamsburg and near Jamestown. When Cornwallis appeared to be moving to cross the James River, Lafayette saw a chance to attack Cornwallis during the crossing, and sent 800 troops under General Wayne against what they believed to be Cornwallis' rear guard. Cornwallis had set a trap, and Wayne was very nearly caught by the much larger, 5,000 soldier, main body of Cornwallis' forces at the Battle of Green Spring on July 6, 1781. Wayne ordered a charge against Cornwallis in order to feign greater strength and stop the British advance. Casualties were light with the Americans losing 140 and the British 75, but the ploy allowed the Americans to escape.
Cornwallis moved his troops across the James to Portsmouth to await Clinton's orders. Clinton decided that a position on the peninsula must be held and that Yorktown would be a valuable naval base. Cornwallis received orders to move his troops to Yorktown and begin construction of fortifications and a naval yard. The Americans had initially expected Cornwallis to move either to New York or the Carolinas and started to make arrangements to move from Virginia. Once they discovered the fortifications at Yorktown, the Americans began to place themselves around the city. Gen. Washington saw the opportunity for a major victory. He moved a portion of his troops, along with Rochambeau's French troops, from New York to Virginia. The plan hinged on French reinforcements of 3,200 troops and a large naval force under the Admiral de Grasse. On September 5, Admiral de Grasse defeated a fleet of the Royal Navy at the Battle of the Virginia Capes. The defeat ensured French dominance of the waters around Yorktown, thereby preventing Cornwallis from receiving troops or supplies and removing the possibility of evacuation. Between October 6 and 17 the American forces laid siege to Yorktown. Outgunned and completely surrounded, Cornwallis decided to surrender. Papers for surrender were officially signed on October 19. As a result of the defeat, the British Prime Minister, Lord North, resigned and the British government offered peace in April 1782. The Treaty of Paris of 1783 officially ended the war.
Statehood
The Constitution
By the end of the Revolutionary War, the new American states had joined together under the Articles of Confederation. The Confederation granted very little power to the federal government. Virginia helped begin the move to stronger union by meeting with representatives from Maryland to discuss trade and navigation issues in 1785. The two states invited other to the Annapolis Convention, held in September 1786, to discuss these issues. Washington, Madison, and Alexander Hamilton all saw the talks as an opportunity for stronger union. The Annapolis Convention agreed to meet again in Philadelphia for a Constitutional Convention. At the Convention, Edmund Randolph promoted the Virginia Plan designed by Madison. This plan called for a strong national government with a bicameral legislature, where representatives were allocated proportionally based on population. Some of the ideas of the plan were adopted, but smaller states did not like having proportional representation, so compromise was struck and each state received two Senators in the upper house. The Virginia delegates also pushed for a bill of rights. Most agreed to sign the United States Constitution on the promise that a bill of rights would be quickly adopted, but George Mason and Randolph refused to sign. Madison wrote several of the Federalist papers and took other measures to push for ratification of the Constitution. Mason and Patrick Henry led the political opposition. Many in the Piedmont region and southwest Virginia opposed ratification because of fears over tariffs and since importation of slaves were still allowed. Virginia narrowly ratified the Constitution on June 25, 1788, and became the tenth state to enter the Union.
Changing borders
After declaring independence, Virginia's borders shifted a great deal. In 1779, Virginia extended its southern border with North Carolina westward. In 1784 and 1785, Virginia negotiated its northern border with Pennsylvania. Virginia and Pennsylvania also had disputes along the Virginia-Pennsylvania border areas throughout the colonial period. After the areas in dispute became part of the newly-formed United States, the new states of Virginia and Pennsylvania (each one of the first thirteen states which formed the union) soon reached an agreement, and most of Yohogania County, claimed by both, became part of Pennsylvania in the 1780s under terms agreed of the state legislatures of both Virginia and Pennsylvania. A small remaining portion left in Virginia was too small to form a county, and was annexed to another Virginia county, Ohio County.
Most significantly, Virginia relinquished its claims to the Northwest Territory in 1784. This vast area, consisting of much of the modern Midwest and Great Lakes region, was frontier land at the time. Several of the states claimed the territory, but all eventually agreed to let the federal government take control under the Northwest Ordinance. Virginia did not relinquish all land, it preserved the Virginia Military District, an area of land set aside to reward veterans of the Revolutionary War. In 1790, both Virginia and Maryland ceded territory to form the new District of Columbia, but in an Act of the U.S. Congress dated July 9, 1846, the area south of the Potomac that had been ceded by Virginia was retroceded to Virginia effective 1847, and is now Arlington County and part of the City of Alexandria. In 1792, three western counties formed Kentucky.
Early Republic and antebellum periods
The Revolution meant change and sometimes political freedom for enslaved African Americans, too. Thousands of slaves from southern states escaped to British lines and freedom during the war. Some left with the British; others disappeared into rural and frontier areas or the North.[27] Inspired by the Revolution and evangelical preachers, numerous slaveholders in Virginia and other Chesapeake Bay states manumitted some or all of their slaves in the two decades following the war. From a few thousand, the population of free blacks in Virginia increased to 13,000 in 1790 and 20,000 in 1800. Many free blacks migrated from rural areas to cities such as Petersburg, Richmond, and Charlottesville for jobs and community; others migrated with their families to the frontier where social strictures were more relaxed.[1] Among the oldest black Baptist congregations in the nation were two founded near Petersburg before the Revolution. Each moved into the city and built churches by the early 1800s.[28] Although most slaveholders freed slaves in their wills, Robert Carter III freed more than 450 slaves in his lifetime, beginning in 1791 with a "Deed of Gift" filed with the county. He individually freed more slaves than any other person had or would.[29]
As the new nation of the United States of America experienced growing pains and began to speak of Manifest Destiny, Virginia, too, found its role in the young republic to be changing and challenging. Beginning with the Louisiana Purchase, many of the Virginians whose grandparents had created the Virginia Establishment began to expand westward. Famous Virginian-born Americans affected not only the destiny of the state of Virginia, but the rapidly developing American Old West.
Beginning in the 1750s, the Ohio Company of Virginia was created to survey and settle its new lands. Following the French and Indian War, westward settlement by Virginians was limited to more southern portions of the American Old West. Virginians Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were influential in their famous expedition to explore the Missouri River and possible connections to the Pacific Ocean. Notable names such as Stephen F. Austin, Edwin Waller, Haden Harrison Edwards, and Dr. John Shackelford were famous Texan pioneers from Virginia. Even eventual Civil War general Robert E. Lee distinguished himself as a military leader in Texas during the 1846-1848 Mexican-American War.
From regional competition to secession
As the western reaches of Virginia were developed in the first half of the 19th century, the vast differences in the agricultural basis, cultural, and transportation needs of the area became a major issue for the Virginia General Assembly. In the older, eastern portion, slavery contributed to the economy. While planters were moving away from labor-intensive tobacco to mixed crops, they still held numerous slaves and their leasing out or sales was also part of their economic prospect. Slavery had become an economic institution upon which planters depended. Watersheds on most of this area eventually drained to the Atlantic Ocean.
In the western reaches, families farmed smaller homesteads, mostly without enslaved or hired labor. Settlers were expanding the exploitation of resources: mining of minerals and harvesting of timber. The land drained to the Ohio River Valley, and trade followed the rivers.
Representation in the state legislature was heavily skewed in favor of the more populous eastern areas and the historic planter elite. This was compounded by the partial allowance for slaves when counting population; as neither the slaves nor women had the vote, this gave more power to elite white men. The legislature's efforts to mediate the disparities ended without meaningful resolution, although the state held a constitutional convention on representation issues. Thus, at the outset of the American Civil War, Virginia was caught not only in national crisis, but in a long-standing controversy within its own boundaries. While other border states had similar regional differences, Virginia had a long history of east-west tensions which finally came to a head; it was the only state to divide into two separate states during the War.
Civil War
Virginia began a convention about secession on February 13, 1861 after six states seceded to form the Confederate States of America on February 4. Unionist members blocked secession but, on April 15 Lincoln called for troops from all states still in the Union in response to the firing on Fort Sumter. That meant Federal troops crossing Virginia on the way south to subdue South Carolina. On April 17, 1861 the convention voted to secede. The Confederacy rewarded the state by moving the national capital from Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond in late May—a decision that exposed the Confederate capital to unrelenting attacks and made Virginia a continuous battleground. Virginians ratified the articles of secession on May 23.[30] The following day, the Union army moved into northern Virginia and captured Alexandria without a fight.
The first major battle of the Civil War occurred on July 21, 1861. Union forces attempted to take control of the railroad junction at Manassas, but the Confederate Army had moved its forces by train to meet the Union. The Confederates won the First Battle of Manassas (known as "Bull Run" in Northern naming convention). Both sides mobilized for war; the year went on without another major fight.
Soldiers
Men from all economic and social levels, both slaveholders and nonslaveholders, as well as former Unionists, enlisted in great numbers. The only areas that sent few or no men to fight for the Confederacy had few slaves, a high percentage of poor families, and a history of opposition to secession, were located on the border with the North, and were sometimes under Union control.[31]
Richmond
During the war, Richmond was the capital of the Confederate States of America. The White House of the Confederacy, located a few blocks north of the State Capital, was home to the family of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In April 1865, Richmond was burned by a retreating Confederate Army and was returned to Union control.
Industrialization
The most industrialized area of Virginia, around Wheeling, stayed loyal to the Union. A small center of iron production during the civil war was located in Richmond at Tredegar Iron Works. Tredegar was run partially by slave labor, and it produced most of the artillery for the war, making Richmond an important point to defend. Petersburg became a manufacturing center, as well as a city where free black artisans and craftsmen could make a living. In 1860 half its population was black and of that, one-third were free blacks, the largest such population in the state. Richmond and Petersburg were linked by railroad before the Civil War, and the latter was an important shipping point for goods.
West Virginia breaks away
The western counties could not tolerate the Confederacy; acting without any permission from Richmond they broke away and formed first the Union state of Virginia (recognized by Washington), then with its permission formed the new state of West Virginia in 1862.[32]
At the Richmond secession convention on April 17, 1861, the delegates from western counties were 17 in favor and 30 against secession.[33] From May to August 1861, a series of Unionist conventions met in Wheeling; the Second Wheeling Convention constituted itself as a legislative body called the Restored Government of Virginia. It declared Virginia was still in the Union but that the state offices were vacant and elected a new governor, Francis H. Pierpont; this body gained formal recognition by the Lincoln administration on July 4.[34] On August 20 the Wheeling body passed an ordinance for the creation; it was put to public vote on Oct. 24. The vote was in favor of a new state—West Virginia—which was distinct from the Pierpont government, which persisted until the end of the war.[35]
Congress and Lincoln approved, and, after providing for gradual emancipation of slaves in the new state constitution, West Virginia became the 35th state on June 20, 1863.[36]
During the War, West Virginia contributed about 32,000 soldiers to the Union Army and about 10,000 to the Confederate cause. Richmond of course did not recognize the new state, and Confederates did not vote there. Everyone realized the decision would be made on the battlefield, and Richmond sent in Robert E. Lee. But Lee found little local support and was defeated by Union forces from Ohio. Union victories in 1861 drove the Confederate forces out of the Monongahela and Kanawha valleys, and throughout the remainder of the war the Union held the region west of the Alleghenies and controlled the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the north. The new state was not subject to Reconstruction.[37]
Reconstruction
Virginia had been devastated by the war, with the infrastructure (such as railroads) in ruins; many plantations burned out; and large numbers of refugees without jobs, food or supplies beyond rations provided by the Union Army, especially its Freedman's Bureau.[38]
There were three phases in Virginia's Reconstruction era: wartime, presidential, and congressional.[39] Immediately after the war President Andrew Johnson recognized the Pierpont government as legitimate; it restored local government; passed Black Codes that gave the Freedman a higher status than slaves but they were not citizens, could not vote, and had only limited rights. It ratified the 13th amendment to abolish slavery (which had already disappeared), and revoked the 1861 ordnance of secession. That was enough for Johnson who said Reconstruction was complete. It was not adequate for the Radical Republicans in Congress who refused to seat the newly elected state delegation; the Radicals wanted proof that slavery was really dead (and not to be revived as some kind of serfdom), and that Virginia had truly renounced Confederate nationalism. After winning large majorities in the 1866 election, the Radical Republicans took full charge. They closed down the state's civilian government and put Virginia (and nine other ex-Confederate states) under military rule. Virginia was administered as the "First Military District" in 1867-69 under General John Schofield Meanwhile the Freedmen became politically active by forming their own political organizations, holding conventions, and demanding universal male suffrage and equal treatment under the law, as well as demanding disfranchisement of ex-Confederates and the seizure of their plantations.[40].
In 1867 James Hunnicutt (1814–1880), a white editor and Scalawag (white Virginian) mobilized the black Republican vote with promises of confiscating the large plantations and turning them over to the Freedmen. The moderate Republicans, including led by former Whigs, businessmen and planters, while supportive of black suffrage, drew the line at confiscation. Hunnicutt's coalition took control of the Republican Party, and began to demand the permanent disfranchisement of all whites who had supported the Confederacy. The Virginia Republican party was now permanently split, and many moderates switched to the opposition "Conservatives". The Radicals won the 1867 election for delegates to a constitutional convention.[41]
The 1868 constitutional convention included 33 white Conservatives, and 72 Radicals (of whom 24 were Blacks, 23 Scalawag, and 21 Carpetbaggers [42] Called the "Underwood Constitution" after the presiding officer, the main accomplishment was to reform the tax system, and create, for the first time in Virginia, a system of public schools[43] After furious debates over disfranchising Confederates, the new Constitution made it impossible for an ex-Confederate to hold office, but he could vote[44]. General Schofield, under pressure from national Republicans to be more moderate, still controlled the state through the Army. He appointed a personal friend, Henry H. Wells as provisional governor. Wells was a Carpetbagger and a former Union general. Using the Freedman's Bureau, to control the black element in the Republican Party, Schofield and Wells fought and defeated Hunnicutt and the Scalawag Republicans and ruined Hunnicutt's newspaper financially by taking away state printing. The national government ordered elections in 1869 that included a vote on the new Underwood constitution, a separate one on its two disfranchisement clauses that would have permanently stripped the vote from most former rebels, and a separate vote for state officials. The Army enrolled the Freedmen (ex-slaves) as voters but would not allow some 20,000 prominent whites to vote or hold office. The Republicans nominated Wells for governor, as Hunnicutt and most Scalawags went over to the opposition[45].
The leader of the moderate Republicans, calling themselves "True Republicans" was William Mahone (1826–1895), a railroad president and former Confederate general who formed a coalition of white Scalawag Republicans, some blacks, and the ex-Democrats who formed the Conservative Party. Mahone said it was time for a New Departure for Virginia: whites had to accept the results of the war, including civil rights and the vote for Freedmen. Mahone convinced the Conservative Party to drop its own candidate and endorse Mahone's candidate for governor Gilbert C. Walker, while Mahone's people would endorse Conservatives for the legislative races. Mahone's plan worked, as the voters in 1869 elected Walker and defeated as well the proposed disfranchisement of ex-Confederates.[46] When the new legislature ratified the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, Congress seated its delegation and Virginia Reconstruction came to an end in January 1870. The Radical Republicans, although in power 1867-69 during Army rule, were thus ousted in a fair, non-violent election[47]. Indeed, Virginia was thus the only southern state not to have a civilian Radical government. Nevertheless white Virginians generally came to share the bitterness so typical of the southern attitudes.[48].
Readjustment and Jim Crow
The Readjuster Party was a political faction formed in Virginia in the late 1870s during the turbulent period following Reconstruction. The so-called Readjusters aspired "to break the power of wealth and established privilege" and to promote public education. The Readjusters were led by Harrison H. Riddleberger of Woodstock, an attorney, and William Mahone, a former Confederate general who was president of several railroads. Mahone was a controlling force in Virginia politics from about 1870 until 1883, when the Readjusters lost control to the "Conservative Democrats."
A division among Virginia politicians occurred in the 1870s, when those who supported a reduction of Virginia's pre-war debt ("Readjusters") opposed those who felt Virginia should repay its entire debt plus interest ("Funders"). Virginia's pre-war debt was primarily for infrastructure improvements overseen by the Virginia Board of Public Works, largely in canals, roads, and railroads. Prior to 1861, the State had purchased a total of $48,000,000 worth of stock in turnpike, toll bridge, canal, and water and rail transportation enterprises. Many these improvements were heavily damaged or destroyed during the Civil War by Union forces. Much of those remaining were located in the portion of the state which became West Virginia and much of the debt was held by "northerners", making the issue of debt repayment complex.
After his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1877, Mahone became the leader of the "Readjusters", forming a coalition of conservative Democrats and white and black Republicans. They sought a reduction in Virginia's prewar debt in order to protect funding for public education, newly established during Reconstruction. They also wanted an appropriate allocation of debt made to the former portion of the state that constituted the new State of West Virginia. For several decades thereafter, the two states disputed the new state's share of the Virginian government's debt. The issue was finally settled in 1915, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that West Virginia owed Virginia $12,393,929.50. The final installment of this sum was paid off in 1939.
The Readjuster Party promised to "readjust" the state debt. Its proposal to repeal the poll tax and increase funding for schools and other public facilities attracted biracial and cross-party support. The Readjuster Party was successful in electing its candidate, William E. Cameron as governor, and he served from 1882-1886. Mahone served as a Senator in the U.S. Congress from 1881 to 1887. However, in Congress, he became primarily aligned with the Republican Party, as did fellow Readjuster Harrison H. Riddleberger, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1883-1889. The Virginia legislature replaced both Mahone and Riddleberger in the U.S. Senate with Democrats.
Readjusters' effective control of Virginia politics lasted until 1883, when they lost majority control in the state legislature, followed by the election of Democrat Fitzhugh Lee as governor in 1885. Mahone stayed active in politics, but lost his bid for reelection as U.S. Senator, as well as another bid for Governor (as a Republican). Riddleberger died in 1890, Mahone in 1895.
In 1888 the exception to Readjustor and Democratic control was John Mercer Langston, who was elected to Congress from the Petersburg area on the Republican ticket. He was the first black elected to Congress from the state, and the last for nearly a century. He served one term. A talented and vigorous politician, he was an Oberlin College graduate. He had long been active in the abolitionist cause in Ohio before the Civil War, had been president of the National Equal Rights League from 1864–1868, and had headed and created the law department at Howard University, and acted as president of the college. When elected, he was president of what became Virginia State University.
Jim Crow and disfranchisement
After the Readjuster Party disappeared, Virginia Democrats rapidly passed legislation and constitutional amendments that effectively disfranchised African Americans and many poor whites, through the use of poll taxes and literacy tests. They created white, one-party rule under the Democratic Party for the next 80 years. White state legislators passed statutes that restored white supremacy through imposition of Jim Crow segregation. In 1902 Virginia passed a new constitution that reduced voter registration.
Despite the gains of freedmen since the war and the existence of thousands of educated free blacks before the war, the black voter turnout for the Presidential election of 1904 was reduced to near zero.[49] The disfranchisement was devastating and long lasting. Not until Federal civil rights legislation was passed in 1964 and 1965 did African Americans recover the power to vote and the protection of other basic constitutional civil rights.
War, Great Migration and Great Depression
Temperance became an issue in the early 20th century. In 1916, a statewide referendum passed to outlaw the consumption of alcohol. This was overturned in 1933.[50]
After 1930, tourism began to grown exponentially with the development of Colonial Williamsburg, which helped the Historic Triangle area become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. The new U.S. Interstate highway system begun in the 1950s and the new Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel in 1958 helped transform Virginia Beach from a tiny resort town into one of the state's largest cities by 1963, and spurring the growth of the Hampton Roads region linked by the Hampton Roads Beltway. In the western portion of the state, completion of north-south Interstate 81 brought better access and new businesses to dozens of counties over a distance of 300 miles.
The economic stimulus of World War II brought new prosperity to the state. The buildup for the war greatly increased the state's naval and industrial economic base, as did the growth of federal government jobs in Northern Virginia. The Pentagon was built there as the largest office building in the world. In the early 1960s, an entirely new airport, Dulles International Airport, was built straddling the Fairfax County-Loudoun County border, another major stimulus.
Massive resistance and Civil Rights
The first black students attended the University of Virginia School of Law in 1950, and Virginia Tech in 1953.[51]
Postmodern commonwealth
By the 1980s, Northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads region had achieved the greatest growth and prosperity, chiefly because of employment related to Federal government agencies and defense, as well as an increase in technology in Northern Virginia. Shipping through the Port of Hampton Roads began expansion which continued into the early 21st century as new container facilities were opened. Coal piers in Newport News and Norfolk had recorded major gains in export shipments by August, 2008. The recent expansion of government programs in the areas near Washington has profoundly affected the economy of Northern Virginia. The subsequent growth of defense projects has also generated a local information technology industry. The Hampton Roads region has also experienced much growth.
On January 13, 1990, Douglas Wilder became the first African American to be elected as Governor of a US state since Reconstruction when he was elected Governor of Virginia.
Virginia served as a major center for information technology during the early days of the Internet and network communication. Internet and other communications companies clustered in the Dulles Corridor. By 1993, the Washington area had the largest amount of Internet backbone and the highest concentration of Internet service providers.[52] In 2000, more than half of all Internet traffic flowed along the Dulles Toll Road.[52] Bill von Meister founded two Virginia companies that played major roles in the commercialization of the Internet: McLean, Virginia based The Source and Control Video Corporation, forerunner of America Online. While short-lived, The Source was one of the first online service providers along side CompuServe. On hand for the launch of The Source, Isaac Asimov remarked "This is the beginning of the information age."[53] The Source helped pave the way for future online service providers including another Virginia company founded by von Meister, America Online (AOL). AOL became the largest provider of Internet access during the Dial-up era of Internet access. AOL maintained a Virginia headquarters until the then struggling company moved in 2007.
In 2006 former Governor of Virginia Mark Warner gave a speech and interview in the massively multiplayer online game Second Life, becoming the first politician to appear in a video game.[54] In 2007 Virginia speedily passed the nation's first spaceflight act by a vote of 99-0 in the House of Delegates.[55] Northern Virginia company Space Adventures is currently the only company in the world offering space tourism. In 2008 Virginia became the first state to pass legislation on Internet safety, with mandatory educational courses for 11- to 16-year-olds.[56]
Virginia was targeted in the September 11, 2001 attacks, as American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County.
Local, regional political structure, cooperation issues
The independent cities in Virginia enabled by an 1871 change in the state constitution are unusual in the United States. Combined with the annexation laws, the situation provided both the motivation and methods for almost all the communities in the extreme southeastern section of Hampton Roads region of Virginia to become independent cities. In this status, they were equal to each other and this immune from annexation by adjacent localities, an action much-feared by those in many communities.
However, this transition left the region with some oddities, such as the entire Virginia portion of the Great Dismal Swamp being located entirely within cities (Chesapeake and Suffolk). It is hard to imagine a less populated portion of a traditional city, save perhaps Central Park in New York City.
Although incorporated towns are located within counties, and independent cities are separate, both the towns and the cities long held a powerful tool for growth through Virginia's annexation laws, which basically provided for seizure of unincorporated territory from the counties. However, the annexation laws also have long been felt by many leaders to be a barrier to regional cooperation among localities, causing wounds which took many years to heal, and with some individuals negatively impacted, never did.
A moratorium on major annexations by the larger cities and adjacent counties has been in place since the late 20th century by actions in the Virginia General Assembly. Other changes have allowed cities to revert to town status and rejoin a county. South Boston and Clifton Forge took such actions, and several other smaller cities have studied doing so. Additionally, some Regional cooperation among the localities has been stimulated by the legislature through favorable funding incentives, with new regional jails as a prime example.
See also
- Colony of Virginia
- History of Richmond, Virginia, the current state capital
- History of the East Coast of the United States
- History of the Southern United States
- Lost counties, cities and towns of Virginia
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Philip D. Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, University of North Carolina Press, 1998, p.490
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Brown, Hutch (Summer 2000). "Wildland Burning by American Indians in Virginia". Fire Management Today (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service) 60 (3): 32.
- ↑ "Pocahontas Research Project", Petersburg, VA Official Website, 2006, accessed 29 Dec 2008
- ↑ Virginia Indian Tribes
- ↑ c.f. Anishinaabe language: danakamigaa: "activity-grounds", i.e. "land of much events [for the People"
- ↑ Three names from the Roanoke Colony are still in use, all based on Native American names. Stewart, George (1945). Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States. New York: Random House. p. 22.
- ↑ Price, 11
- ↑ Boyer, 39, 41
- ↑ In 1570, the Spanish tried to establish Ajacan Mission a Jesuit mission. It was destroyed by Indians in 1571.
- ↑ Gleach p. 199
- ↑ Morison, Samuel Eliot (1972). The Oxford History of the American People. New York City: Mentor. pp. 92. ISBN 0-451-62600-1.
- ↑ See eg. discussion in John Esten Cooke, Virginia: A History of the People (1883) p. 205.
- ↑ Morison, Samuel Eliot (1972). The Oxford History of the American People. New York City: Mentor. pp. 76. ISBN 0-451-62600-1.
- ↑ http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/RHunt.html
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Tormey, James (April 2009). How Firm a Foundation. Richmond, VA: Diets Press. pp. 184. ISBN 978-0-87517-135-7.
- ↑ http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefVirg.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all
- ↑ Rountree p. 161-162, 168-170, 175
- ↑ http://www.brutonparish.org/history.htm
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Bruton Parish Church
- ↑ Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington (1948) 1:79
- ↑ Rhys Isaac, "Evangelical Revolt: The Nature of the Baptists' Challenge to the Traditional Order in Virginia, 1765 To 1775," William and Mary Quarterly 1974 31(3): 345-368
- ↑ Richard R. Beeman, "Social Change and Cultural Conflict n Virginia: Lunenburg County, 1746 To 1774," William and Mary Quarterly 1978 35(3): 455-476
- ↑ J. Stephen Kroll-Smith, "Transmitting a Revival Culture: The Organizational Dynamic of the Baptist Movement in Colonial Virginia, 1760-1777," Journal of Southern History 1984 50(4): 551-568
- ↑ Charles Woodmason, The Carolina Backcountry on the Eve of the Revolution: The Journal and Other Writings of Charles Woodmason, Anglican Itinerant ed. by Richard J. Hooker (1969)
- ↑ Thomas E. Buckley, Church and state in Revolutionary Virginia, 1776-1787 (1977)
- ↑ Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619-1877, New York: Hill and Wang, 1994, p.73
- ↑ Albert J. Raboteau, Slave Religion: The 'Invisible Institution' in the Antebellum South, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 137, accessed 27 Dec 2008
- ↑ Andrew Levy, The First Emancipator: The Forgotten Story of Robert Carter, the Founding Father who freed his slaves. New York: Random House, 2005 (ISBN 0-375-50865-1)
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ Aaron Sheehan-Dean, "Everyman's War: Confederate Enlistment in Civil War Virginia," Civil War History, March 2004, Vol. 50 Issue 1, pp 5-26
- ↑ The U.S> Constitution requires permission of the old state for a new state to form. David R. Zimring, "'Secession in Favor of the Constitution': How West Virginia Justified Separate Statehood during the Civil War," West Virginia History, Fall 2009, Vol. 3 Issue 2, pp 23-51
- ↑ In the statewide vote on May 23, 1861 on secession, the 50 counties of the future West Virginia voted 34,677 to 19,121 to remain in the Union. Richard O. Curry, A House Divided, Statehood Politics & the Copperhead Movement in West Virginia, (1964), pp. 141-147.
- ↑ Curry, A House Divided, pg. 73.
- ↑ Curry, A House Divided, pgs. 141-152.
- ↑ Charles H. Ambler and Festus P. Summers, West Virginia: The Mountain State ch 15-20
- ↑ Otis K. Rice, West Virginia: A History (1985) ch 12-14
- ↑ The main scholarly histories are Hamilton James Eckenrode, The Political History of Virginia during the Reconstruction (1904); Richard Lowe, Republicans and Reconstruction in Virginia, 1856-70 (1991); and Jack P. Maddex, Jr., The Virginia Conservatives, 1867-1879: A Study in Reconstruction Politics (1970). See also Heinemann et al., New Commonwealth (2007) ch. 11
- ↑ Richard Lowe, "Another Look at Reconstruction in Virginia," Civil War History, March 1986, Vol. 32 Issue 1, pp 56-76
- ↑ James L. McDonough, "John Schofield as Military Director of Reconstruction in Virginia.," Civil War History, Sept 1969, Vol. 15#3, pp 237-256
- ↑ Eckenrode, The Political History of Virginia during the Reconstruction, ch 5
- ↑ The Carpetbaggers were Northern whites who had moved to Virginia after the war. Heinemann et al., New Commonwealth (2007) p. 248
- ↑ Blacks wanted to prohibit segregated schools, but lost on that issue.
- ↑ Eckenrode, The Political History of Virginia during the Reconstruction, ch 6
- ↑ Eckenrode, The Political History of Virginia during the Reconstruction, ch 7
- ↑ Walker had 119,535 votes and Wells 101,204. The new Underwood Constitution was approved overwhelmingly but the disfranchisement clauses were rejected by 3:2 ratios. The new legislature was controlled by the Conservative Party, which soon absorbed the "True Republicans". Eckenrode, The Political History of Virginia during the Reconstruction, p. 411
- ↑ The Ku Klux Klan surfaced in Virginia but played a negligible role and soon vanished. Heinemann et al., New Commonwealth (2007) p. 249
- ↑ Nelson M. Blake, William Mahone of Virginia: Soldier and Political Insurgent (1935)
- ↑ Morgan Kousser, The Shaping of Southern Politics (1974) pp 537-39
- ↑ Arlington Connection, Michael Lee Pope, October 14–20, 2009, Alcohol as Budget Savior", page 3
- ↑ Wallenstein, Peter (Fall 1997). "Not Fast, But First: The Desegregation of Virginia Tech". VT Magazine. Virginia Tech. http://www.vtmagazine.vt.edu/fall97/feature1.html. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
- ↑ 52.0 52.1 Donnelly, Sally B. "D.C. Dotcom." Time 8 August 2000. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,52073-2,00.html
- ↑ http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/1995/05/25/obit.aspx
- ↑ LIFE: Mark Warner becomes first U.S. politician to campaign in a video game
- ↑ Virginia leads the way
- ↑ Virginia First State to Require Internet Safety Lessons
Surveys
- Dabney, Virginius. Virginia: The New Dominion (1971)
- Heinemann, Ronald L., John G. Kolp, Anthony S. Parent Jr., and William G. Shade, Old Dominion, New Commonwealth: A History of Virginia, 1607-2007 (2007). ISBN 978-0-8139-2609-4.
- Rubin, Louis D. Virginia: A Bicentennial History. States and the Nation Series. (1977; repr. 1984).
- Salmon, Emily J., and Edward D.C. Campbell, Jr., eds. The Hornbook of Virginia history: A Ready-Reference Guide to the Old Dominion's People, Places, and Past 4th edition. (1994)
- Wallenstein, Peter. Cradle of America: Four Centuries of Virginia History (2007). ISBN 978-0-7006-1507-0.
- WPA. Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion (1940)
- Younger, Edward, and James Tice Moore, eds. The Governors of Virginia, 1860–1978 (1982)
To 1850
- Adams, Sean Patrick. Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth: Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America (2004)
- Ambler, Charles H. Sectionalism in Virginia from 1776 to 1861 (1910) full text online
- Beeman, Richard R. The Old Dominion and the New Nation, 1788-1801 (1972)
- Billings, Warren M., John E. Selby, and Thad W, Tate. Colonial Virginia: A History (1986)
- Bond, Edward L. Damned Souls in the Tobacco Colony: Religion in Seventeenth-Century Virginia (2000),
- Breen T. H. Puritans and Adventurers: Change and Persistence in Early America (1980). 4 chapters on colonial social history online edition
- Breen, T. H. Tobacco Culture: The Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters on the Eve of Revolution (1985)
- Breen, T. H., and Stephen D. Innes. "Myne Owne Ground": Race and Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676 (1980)
- Brown, Kathleen M. Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia (1996) excerpt and text search
- Byrd, William. The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1709-1712 (1941) ed by Louis B. Wright and Marion Tinling online edition
- Bruce, Philip Alexander. Institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Religious, Moral, Educational, Legal, Military, and Political Condition of the People, Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records (1910) online edition
- Freeman, Douglas Southall; George Washington: A Biography Volume: 1-7. (1948). Pulitzer Prize. vol 1 online
- Gleach; Frederic W. Powhatan's World and Colonial Virginia: A Conflict of Cultures (1997).
- Isaac, Rhys. Landon Carter's Uneasy Kingdom: Revolution and Rebellion on a Virginia Plantation (2004)]
- Isaac, Rhys. The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790 (1982, 1999)] Pulitzer Prize winner, dealing with religion and morality online review
- Lebsock, Suzanne D. A Share of Honour: Virginia Women, 1600-1945 (1984)
- Link, William A. Roots of Secession: Slavery and Politics in Antebellum Virginia (2007) excerpt and text search
- Majewski, John D. A House Dividing: Economic Development in Pennsylvania and Virginia Before the Civil War (2006) excerpt and text search
- Menard, Russell R. "The Tobacco Industry in the Chesapeake Colonies, 1617-1730: An Interpretation." Research In Economic History 1980 5: 109-177. 0363-3268 the standard scholarly study
- Morgan, Edmund S. Virginians at Home: Family Life in the Eighteenth Century (1952). online edition
- Morgan, Edmund S. "Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox." Journal of American History 1972 59(1): 5-29 in JSTOR
- Morgan, Edmund S. American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (1975) online edition highly influential study
- Nelson, John A Blessed Company: Parishes, Parsons, and Parishioners in Anglican Virginia, 1690-1776 (2001)
- Rasmussen, William M.S. and Robert S. Tilton. Old Virginia: The Pursuit of a Pastoral Ideal (2003)]
- Risjord, Norman K. Chesapeake Politics, 1781-1800 (1978). in-depth coverage of Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina online edition
- Roeber, A. G. Faithful Magistrates and Republican Lawyers: Creators of Virginia Legal Culture, 1680-1810 (1981)
- Selby, John E. The Revolution in Virginia, 1775-1783 (1988)
- Rutman, Darrett B., and Anita H. Rutman. A Place in Time: Middlesex County, Virginia, 1650-1750 (1984), new social history
- Shade, William G. Democratizing the Old Dominion: Virginia and the Second Party System 1824-1861 (1996)
- Varon; Elizabeth R. We Mean to Be Counted: White Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia 1998
- Virginia State Dept. of Education. The Road to Independence: Virginia 1763-1783 online edition; 80pp; with student projects
- Wertenbaker, Thomas J. The Shaping of Colonial Virginia, comprising Patrician and Plebeian in Virginia (1910) full text online; Virginia under the Stuarts (1914) full; txt online; and The Planters of Colonial Virginia (1922) full text online; well written but outdated
- Wright, Louis B. The First Gentlemen of Virginia: Intellectual Qualities of the Early Colonial Ruling Class (1964)
1850-1870
- Blair, William. Virginia's Private War: Feeding Body and Soul in the Confederacy, 1861-1865 (1998) online edition
- Crofts, Daniel W. Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis (1989)
- Eckenrode, Hamilton James. The political history of Virginia during the Reconstruction, (1904) online edition
- Kerr-Ritchie, Jeffrey R. Freedpeople in the Tobacco South: Virginia, 1860-1900 (1999)
- Lebsock, Suzanne D. "A Share of Honor": Virginia Women, 1600-1945 (1984)
- Lowe, Richard. Republicans and Reconstruction in Virginia, 1856-70 (1991)
- . Maddex, Jr., Jack P. The Virginia Conservatives, 1867-1879: A Study in Reconstruction Politics (1970).
- Majewski, John. A House Dividing: Economic Development in Pennsylvania and Virginia before the Civil War (2000)
- Noe, Kenneth W. Southwest Virginia's Railroad: Modernization and the Sectional Crisis (1994)
- Robertson, James I. Civil War Virginia: Battleground for a Nation (1993) 197 pages; excerpt and text search
- Shanks, Henry T. The Secession Movement in Virginia, 1847-1861 (1934) online edition
- Sheehan-Dean, Aaron Charles. Why Confederates fought: family and nation in Civil War Virginia (2007) 291 pages excerpt and text search
- Simpson, Craig M. A Good Southerner: The Life of Henry A. Wise of Virginia (1985), wide-ranging political history
- Wallenstein, Peter, and Bertram Wyatt-Brown, eds. Virginia's Civil War (2008) excerpt and text search
- Wills, Brian Steel. The war hits home: the Civil War in southeastern Virginia (2001) 345 pages; excerpt and text search
Since 1870
- Brundage, W. Fitzhugh. Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880–1930 (1993)
- Buni, Andrew. The Negro in Virginia Politics, 1902–1965 (1967)
- Crofts, Daniel W. Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis (1989)]
- Ferrell, Henry C., Jr. Claude A. Swanson of Virginia: A Political Biography (1985) early 20th century
- Gilliam, George H. "Making Virginia Progressive: Courts and Parties, Railroads and Regulators, 1890–1910." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 107 (Spring 1999): 189–222.
- Heinemann, Ronald L. Depression and the New Deal in Virginia: The Enduring Dominion (1983)
- Heinemann, Ronald L. Harry Byrd of Virginia(1996)
- Heinemann, Ronald L. "Virginia in the Twentieth Century: Recent Interpretations." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 94 (April 1986): 131–60.
- Kerr-Ritchie, Jeffrey R. Freedpeople in the Tobacco South: Virginia, 1860-1900 (1999)
- Key, V. O., Jr. Southern Politics in State and Nation (1949), important chapter on Virginia in 1940s
- Lankford, Nelson. Richmond Burning: The Last Days of the Confederate Capital (2002)
- Lassiter, Matthew D., and Andrew B. Lewis, eds. The Moderates’ Dilemma: Massive Resistance to School Desegregation in Virginia (1998)
- Lebsock, Suzanne D. "A Share of Honour": Virginia Women, 1600-1945 (1984)
- Link, William A. A Hard Country and a Lonely Place: Schooling, Society, and Reform in Rural Virginia, 1870-1920 (1986)
- Martin-Perdue, Nancy J., and Charles L. Perdue Jr., eds. Talk about Trouble: A New Deal Portrait of Virginians in the Great Depression (1996)
- Moger, Allen W. Virginia: Bourbonism to Byrd, 1870-1925 (1968)
- Muse, Benjamin. Virginia's Massive Resistance (1961)
- Parramore, Thomas C., with Peter C. Stewart and Tommy L. Bogger. Norfolk: The First Four Centuries (1994)
- Pulley, Raymond H. Old Virginia Restored: An Interpretation of the Progressive Impulse, 1870-1930 (1968)
- Shiftlett, Crandall. Patronage and Poverty in the Tobacco South: Louisa County, Virginia, 1860-1900 (1982), new social history
- Smith, J. Douglas. Managing White Supremacy: Race, Politics, and Citizenship in Jim Crow Virginia (2002)
- Sweeney, James R. "Rum, Romanism, and Virginia Democrats: The Party Leaders and the Campaign of 1928" Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 90 (October 1982): 403–31.
- Wilkinson, J. Harvie, III. Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia Politics, 1945–1966 (1968)
- Wynes, Charles E. Race Relations in Virginia, 1870-1902 (1961)
Environment and geography
- Sawyer, Roy T. America's Wetland: An Environmental and Cultural History of Tidewater Virginia and North Carolina (University of Virginia Press; 2010) 248 pages; traces the human impact on the ecosystem of the Tidewater region.
Primary sources
- Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia
- Duke, Maurice, and Daniel P. Jordan, eds. A Richmond Reader, 1733–1983 (1983)
- Eisenberg, Ralph. Virginia Votes, 1924–1968 (1971), all statistics
External links
- Encyclopedia Virginia
- Virginia Historical Society short history of state, with teacher guide
- The Daily Republican: Short Sweet Life of The Virginia Company
- Genealogy Magazine: Bermudian settlers of the American colonies
- How Counties Got Started in Virginia
- The WPA Guide to the Old Dominion Hypertext with maps (ca. 1940), and a series of contextual projects about Virginia in the Great Depression. From American Studies at the University of Virginia
- WPA project: Indians in Virginia
- WPA Project: History of Virginia
- Virginia and the Civil War
- Civil War timeline
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