History of Virginia
Categories: History by state of the United States | Virginia history
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Native Americans in Virginia
At the end of the 16th century, among Native American people living in what now is Virginia were the Cherokee, Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Meherrin, Monacan, Nansemond, Nottaway, Pamunkey, Pohick, Powhatan, Rappahannock, Saponi, and Tuscarora. The natives are often divided into three groups. The largest group are known as the Algonquian who numbered over 10,000. The other groups are the Iroquoian (numbering 2,500) and the Siouan. [1] In the 21st century, the Pamunkey and Mattaponi maintain reservations in King William County, and there are active groups of other tribes.
Colonial Period
When England began to colonize North America, "Virginia" was the name Queen Elizabeth I of England (who was known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married) gave to the whole area explored by the 1584 expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh along the coast of North America, eventually applying to the whole coast from South Carolina to Maine and the Canadian Maritimes.
Early failures; Gilbert in Newfoundland, Raleigh's Lost Colony
The English first attempted to establish a colony in this region at what is now St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Humphrey Gilbert took possession of the region for England in 1583. The area shifted between British and French possession and did not succeed as a permanent settlement. In 1585, Walter Raleigh attempted to establish another colony on the Outer Banks of what is now North Carolina on Roanoke Island. The initial expedition of soldiers failed to establish a viable colony because most of their food supplies were destroyed when their ship flooded and because they had poor relations with the natives. One group of soldiers returned to England and promised to come back with supplies. Before the relief expedition returned, the remaining colonists left with Sir Francis Drake who offered to return them to England upon stopping in the ailing colony. The relief expedition returned to find an empty colony. Most returned to England, but fifteen men stayed. In 1587, under John White, Raleigh sent a second expedition of civilians to join the fifteen soldiers and establish a colony on Roanoke Island. This attempt faced many difficulties as well. White left for England to get relief. When he turned, he found the colony mysteriously abandoned. The fate of the "Lost Colony" was never discovered, although speculations abound.
Virginia Company: Jamestown and surrounding area
Following these two failed attempts, responsibility for England's New World colonization transferred to the London Virginia Company, which became incorporated as a joint stock company by a proprietary charter drawn up on April 10, 1606. England and the Virginia Company hoped to establish a colony in Virginia in order to exploit mineral wealth (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. The company dispatched a group of 144 colonists in three ships: the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. The colonists arrived in Virginia on May 13, 1607 and founded Jamestown, named in honor of King James I, as part of the Virginia Colony. After several failed leaders, Captain John Smith took charge of the settlement, and many credit him with sustaining the colony during its first years. In 1609, Smith was injured and forced to return to England. After Smith's departure, the colony faced a starving time under the poor leadership of Smith's replacements. Meanwhile, the Virginia Company 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. De La Warr left for Jamestown with 150 men to assume leadership over the colony. Upon his arrival in 1610, he forced the 90 surviving original colonists to stay in the New World and work with his fresh colonists to continue the settlement. De La Warr began a violent campaign, First Anglo-Powhatan War, against the natives. The conflict ended when John Rolfe married Pocahontas in 1614. Attempts to introduce profitable industries in the colony all failed until 1612 when Rolfe introduced two foreign types of tobacco: Orinoco and Sweet Scented. These produced a better crop than the local variety and the first shipment to England in 1614 marked the beginning of Virginia's economic viability.
Jamestown began to prosper with a thriving tobacco industry, but internal conflicts and external conflicts with the Indians continued. De La Warr's deputy, Samuel Argall, who had been left in charge of the colony, ran Jamestown as a autocrat. Responding to accusations of Argall's abuses, De La Warr left to return to the colony in 1618 but died en route. George Yeardley took over as Governor of Virginia in 1619. He reformed the old autocratic system and created a more democratic one. He established the House of Burgesses, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, which first met on July 30, 1619 in the Jamestown church. The same year, the Virginia Company sent 90 women as wives for the colonists to help populate the settlement. The company also sent the first shipment of African slaves as a cheap labor to expand the growing tobacco industry which was already the colonies primary product. This marked the beginning of America's infamous history of slavery.
Jamestown continued to have problems with the natives. In 1622, about 400 colonists were killed in an Indian massacre led by Opechancanough, chief of the Pamunkeys. Several entire communities were essentially wiped out, including Henricus and Wolstenholme Towne. At Jamestown, the death and destruction would have been worse had an Indian boy named Chanco not defied orders to kill his employer, Robert Pace, and instead warned him of the attack. Pace alerted the rest of Jamestown allowing for some preparation. Colonists and Indians fought for about a year until a truce was struck. A toast of liquor was proposed. Some of the Jamestown leadership had poisoned the Indians' share of the liquor, which killed about 200 of the natives. Another 50 Indians were killed by hand.
Virginia as a 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 water side 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:
- Accomack
- Charles City Shire (now Charles City County, Virginia)
- Charles River Shire (now York County, Virginia)
- Elizabeth City Shire
- Henrico (now Henrico County, Virginia)
- James City Shire (now James City County, Virginia)
- Warwick River Shire
- Warrosquyoake Shire now (Isle of Wight County, Virginia)
Of these, five are considered still extant in essentially their same political form in Virginia as of 2005, although most boundaries have changed in almost 400 years.
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. Most of Virginian colonists were loyal to the English monarchy during the English Civil War, but, in 1652 Oliver Cromwell sent a force to remove and replace Gov. Berkeley with governors loyal to the Commonwealth of England. These governors were moderate Puritans who allowed the local legislature to exercise most controlling authority.
Many royalists fled to Virginia after their defeat in the English Civil War. Many of them established 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 earlier in the century, under Governor Francis Nicholson, Virginia's first permanent institute of higher learning was founded. 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.
Borders, disputes
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.
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.
With the formation of West Virginia in 1863, Virginia no longer shared a border with Pennsylvania. However, even the Virginia-West Virginia border was subject to some fluctuation, with two Virginia counties electing to join West Virginia in 1866. Even in the 20th century, there were still some disputes about the location of exact location of the border in some of the northern mountain reaches of Virginia between Loudoun County and Jefferson County, West Virginia. In 1991, both state legislatures appropriated money for a boundary commission to look into 15 miles of the border area. [2]
Virginia also had several other minor border disputes over the Northwest Territory. These were cleared up with passing of the Northwest Ordinance in the late 17th century.
The border between Virginia and Washington D.C. has also changed several times, but without major dispute. The major change involved Alexandria County, an area ceded in the late 18th century for the creation of the nation's new capital city (now known as the District of Columbia). The portion south of the Potomac River was retroceded to Virginia in 1846, and now forms all of Arlington County and part of the independent city of Alexandria.
Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition; Shenandoah Valley
Alexander Spotswood became acting royal governor of Virginia in 1710, by which time pressure on the colony to expand had become more acute than ever. In 1716, Governor Spotswood led expedition of westward exploration of the interior of Virginia. They reached a rock-covered place between several peaks along the top ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains at Swift Run Gap (elevation 2,365 feet) on September 5, 1716. There, they drank the special toasts to the King George II and to Governor Spotswood. Upon descending into a portion of the Shenandoah Valley on the east side of Massanutten Mountain, they reached a point near the current town of Elkton, where they celebrated their arrival on the banks of the Shenandoah River. [3]
After the journey, Spotswood was believed to have given each member of the expedition a pin made of gold and shaped like a horseshoe. The members of Governor Spotswood's expedition soon became popularly known as the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe."
Although it is a frequently recounted and fictionalized event, the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition, despite the descriptions of the fertile valley land beyond the mountain range, the news apparently didn't do much in the short-term to open the Shenandoah Valley for development from the east. At a practical level, the mountain range was a formidable barrier. Instead, most of the early settlers came up the Valley from the north, many of German and Scottish decent. Groups of Mennonites migrated from Pennsylvania, and settled in the general area of present-day Rockingham County and Harrisonburg, where their descendants may still be found today.
Revolutionary War
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 England, 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, 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 November 7, the Yorktown Tea Party threw two half-chests of British tea into the river to enforce the boycott.
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 transfering 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 to 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). Congress approved Lee's proposal on July 2 and approved Jefferson's Declaration of Independence on July 4.
Independence
Patrick Henry served as the first Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779, and again from 1784 to 1786. On June 12, 1776, the Virginia Convention adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights, a document that influenced the Bill of Rights added later to the United States Constitution. On June 29, 1776, the convention adopted a constitution that established Virginia as a commonwealth independent of the British Empire. In 1780, the capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of then-Governor Thomas Jefferson, who was afraid that Williamsburg's location made it vulnerable to a British attack.
Statehood
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.
American Civil War
- Main article: American Civil War
Virginia is one of the states that seceded from the Union to become the Confederacy during the Civil War. When it did, some counties were separated as Kanawha (later renamed West Virginia), an act which was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1870. The first and last significant battles were held in Virginia. The first being the Battle of Manassas and the last being Battle of Appomattox Courthouse. During the American Civil 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 of 1865, Richmond was burned by a retreating Confederate Army and was returned to Northern control. Virginia was administered as the "First Military District" during the Reconstruction period (1865-1870) under General John Schofield. The state formally rejoined the Union on January 26, 1870.
West Virginia split
Virginia was one of the last states to join the Confederacy largely because the lack of support in the North-Western region due to the lack of slavery in this region. After it did join an upheaval in the region soon followed. After a successful revolt the area became known as the State of Kanawha and later West Virginia.
See also article History of West Virginia
Industrialization
Various textile production prior to the American Civil War but nothing of great signifigance. Center of iron production during the civil war located in Richmond at Tredegar Iron Works. Tredegar Iron Works was run partially by slave labor, and produced most of the artillary for the war, making Richmond an important point to defend.
20th and 21st centuries
The expansion of government programs in recent decades in the areas near Washington, has profoundly affected the economy of Northern Virginia. The Pentagon was finished in 1943, and subsequent growth of defense projects has also facilitated a local information technology industry.
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 was targeted in the September 11, 2001 attacks, as American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County.
See also
- Colony of Virginia
- History of Richmond, Virginia, the current state capital
- Lost counties, cities and towns of Virginia