Difference between revisions of "History of Virginia"

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The '''History of Virginia''' began with the settlement of the geographic region now known as the Commonwealth of Virginia in the U.S. thousands of years ago by Native Americans. Permanent European settlement began with English settlers at Jamestown in 1607.  Tobacco emerged as a profitable export crop, and the Virginia Colony became the richest and largest British colonies in North America.  The year 2007 marked the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown.  
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The '''History of Virginia''' began with the settlement of the geographic region now known as the Commonwealth of Virginia in the U.S. thousands of years ago by Native Americans.  
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Permanent European settlement began with English settlers at Jamestown in 1607.  Tobacco emerged as a profitable export crop, and the Virginia Colony became the richest and largest British colonies in North America.  The year 2007 marked the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown.  
  
 
As one of the original 13 United States which won their independence from Great Britain during the [[American Revolution]], Virginia produced more national leaders than any state, including four of the first five presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe). The new state gave up its western lands to form Kentucky and Ohio. During the first half of the 19th century, Virginia grew less rapidly than industrial states to the north, or cotton states to the south. The state exported young people and slaves to form plantations and farms to the west and south.  
 
As one of the original 13 United States which won their independence from Great Britain during the [[American Revolution]], Virginia produced more national leaders than any state, including four of the first five presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe). The new state gave up its western lands to form Kentucky and Ohio. During the first half of the 19th century, Virginia grew less rapidly than industrial states to the north, or cotton states to the south. The state exported young people and slaves to form plantations and farms to the west and south.  
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In partisan terms, the two parties compete furiously for the legislature and the governorship.  In presidential elections Virginia was reliably Republican from 1968 until 2004, but in 2008 Obama won, thanks to the growing liberal strength in the Washington suburbs.
 
In partisan terms, the two parties compete furiously for the legislature and the governorship.  In presidential elections Virginia was reliably Republican from 1968 until 2004, but in 2008 Obama won, thanks to the growing liberal strength in the Washington suburbs.
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for the state today see [[Virginia]]
 
==Indians==
 
==Indians==
 
Before Europeans arrived, there were three main groups of [[American Indians]] living in the area now covered by Virginia. These were the [[Algonquian]], [[Iroquoian]] (including [[Cherokee]], [[Meherrin]] and [[Nottoway]]) and the [[Siouan]] Indians.<ref>http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/vahistory/tribes.html accessed 10 March 2007</ref>
 
Before Europeans arrived, there were three main groups of [[American Indians]] living in the area now covered by Virginia. These were the [[Algonquian]], [[Iroquoian]] (including [[Cherokee]], [[Meherrin]] and [[Nottoway]]) and the [[Siouan]] Indians.<ref>http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/vahistory/tribes.html accessed 10 March 2007</ref>

Revision as of 19:59, June 12, 2009

The History of Virginia began with the settlement of the geographic region now known as the Commonwealth of Virginia in the U.S. thousands of years ago by Native Americans.

Permanent European settlement began with English settlers at Jamestown in 1607. Tobacco emerged as a profitable export crop, and the Virginia Colony became the richest and largest British colonies in North America. The year 2007 marked the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown.

As one of the original 13 United States which won their independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution, Virginia produced more national leaders than any state, including four of the first five presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe). The new state gave up its western lands to form Kentucky and Ohio. During the first half of the 19th century, Virginia grew less rapidly than industrial states to the north, or cotton states to the south. The state exported young people and slaves to form plantations and farms to the west and south.

Virginia was a slave state but refused to join the cotton states in the new Confederacy until Lincoln called for troops to invade the Confederacy. Then it seceded and Richmond became the new Confederate capital. After many decades of sectional hostility in 1861 West Virginia broke away as a separate state and joined the Union.

With the Yankees intent on capturing Richmond, Virginia became the main battlefield of the war, which it lost in 1865 as its greatest general, Robert E. Lee, surrendered.

Reconstruction brought the liberation of the state's slaves, and proved less contentious than elsewhere in the South. Virginia was poor after 1865, though the new popularity of cigarettes boosted its tobacco industry. After 1940, prosperity returned. World War II gave the state a major naval and industrial economic base. Desegregation of schools and the integration of African Americans in many other aspects of the society were major issues from the 1950s to the 1970s and the changes did not come without considerable efforts. However, in 1989 Douglas Wilder became the first elected black governor anywhere in the country. By the 1980s the suburban fringes of Washington D.C. known as Northern Virginia saw the greatest growth and prosperity, a trend which was also seen in the Hampton Roads region.

Politically, the state was a stronghold of conservative Democrats for most of the 20th century, with a new strength shown by conservative Republicans in the final decade. In the early 21st century, funding for transportation needs emerged as the most controversial single issue.

In partisan terms, the two parties compete furiously for the legislature and the governorship. In presidential elections Virginia was reliably Republican from 1968 until 2004, but in 2008 Obama won, thanks to the growing liberal strength in the Washington suburbs.

for the state today see Virginia

Indians

Before Europeans arrived, there were three main groups of American Indians living in the area now covered by Virginia. These were the Algonquian, Iroquoian (including Cherokee, Meherrin and Nottoway) and the Siouan Indians.[1]

Spanish explorers visited parts of what is now Virginia in 1560 and again in 1570 when Jesuit missionaries attempted to set up a mission. Within a year, instead of converting the Indians to Christianity, they had been killed by the Indians.[2]

Sir Walter Raleigh led an English exploration party in 1584. A group of men from England invested in a Joint Stock Company called "The Virginia Company" to find gold and other treasures. The company was granted lands in 1606 from what is now North Carolina to New York, all under the name of "Virginia" after Queen Elizabeth I (known as the "Virgin Queen" as she never married). It established the first permanent settlement for England known as Jamestown.[3]

Colonial Era

American Revolution

New Nation

Civil War and Reconstruction

New South 1877-1913

The Readjuster Party was a political faction formed in Virginia in the late 1870s during the turbulent period following Reconstruction. Their leader was William Mahone, a former Confederate general who was president of several railroads. The main issue was whether or not to pay off the prewar state debt, which was primarily for stock in infrastructure improvements such as canals, roads, and railroads. By `1865 most of the improvements had been destroyed by war or were located in West Virginia, so the "Readjusters" did not want to pay for them. After his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1877, Mahone became the leader of the "Readjusters", forming a coalition of conservative Bourbon Democrats with some support from black Republicans. Mahone was a controlling force in Virginia politics from around 1870 until 1883, when the Readjusters lost control to the "Conservative Democrats."

The Readjusters elected its governor (1882-1886) and sent Mahone to the U.S. Senate 1881 to 1887, where he aligned with the Republicans. After the Readjusters collapsed the Democratic Party was to rule the state's politics for the next 80 years.

War, Depression and War, 1913-1950

The Byrd machine dominated state politics from the 1930s to the 1960s. World War II pulled Virginia out of the depression and launched its economic modernization.

Massive Resistance and Modernization, 1950-1975

"Massive resistance" was the Byrd machine response to the Supreme Court's outlawing of segregated schools. Some counties closed their schools and in others legal turmoil lasted for years.

Postmodern State, 1975-present

The recent expansion of government programs in the areas near Washington has profoundly affected the economy of Northern Virginia, and the subsequent growth of defense projects has also generated a local information technology industry. The Hampton Roads region has also experienced much growth.

In 1990, Douglas Wilder became the first African American to be elected as governor since Reconstruction.


Bibliography

Surveys

  • Dabney, Virginius. Virginia: The New Dominion (1971)
  • Dinan, John. The Virginia State Constitution: A Reference Guide. Praeger, 2006. 258 pp.
  • 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.
  • 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)
  • Tarter, Brent. "Making History in Virginia." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (2007) 115(1): 2-55. Issn: 0042-6636 Fulltext: in . Ebsco; historiography
  • 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 1860

  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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 University of Nebraska Press. 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)
  • Majewski, John. A House Dividing: Economic Development in Pennsylvania and Virginia before the Civil War (2000)
  • Morgan, Edmund S. Virginians at Home: Family Life in the Eighteenth Century (1952). online edition
  • 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)
  • Noe, Kenneth W. Southwest Virginia's Railroad: Modernization and the Sectional Crisis (1994)
  • 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 Carolinaonline 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)
  • Shade, William G. Democratizing the Old Dominion: Virginia and the Second Party System 1824-1861 (1996)
  • Shanks, Henry T. The Secession Movement in Virginia, 1847-1861 (1934) online edition
  • Simpson, Craig M. A Good Southerner: The Life of Henry A. Wise of Virginia (1985), wide-ranging political history
  • Varon; Elizabeth R. We Mean to Be Counted: White Women & Politics in Antebellum Virginia 1998
  • Wertenbaker, Thomas J. The Shaping of Colonial Virginia, comprising Patrician and Plebeian in Virginia (1910); Virginia under the Stuarts (1914); and The Planters of Colonial Virginia (1922)
  • Wright, Louis B. The First Gentlemen of Virginia: Intellectual Qualities of the Early Colonial Ruling Class (1964)
  • Wynes, Charles E. Race Relations in Virginia, 1870-1902 (1961)

Since 1861

  • Blair, William. Virginia's Private War: Feeding Body and Soul in the Confederacy, 1861-1865 (1998) online edition
  • 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
  • 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 Honor": 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) online edition
  • 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) online edition
  • Smith, J. Douglas. Managing White Supremacy: Race, Politics, and Citizenship in Jim Crow Virginia (2002) online edition
  • 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)

Localities and regions

  • Lankford, Nelson. Richmond Burning: The Last Days of the Confederate Capital (2002)
  • Parramore, Thomas C., with Peter C. Stewart and Tommy L. Bogger. Norfolk: The First Four Centuries (1994)
  • Shiftlett, Crandall. Patronage and Poverty in the Tobacco South: Louisa County, Virginia, 1860-1900 (1982), new social history


Primary sources

External links

  1. ↑ http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/vahistory/tribes.html accessed 10 March 2007
  2. ↑ Spanish Martyrs for Virginia by Matthew M. Anger (30 August 2003), accessed 10 March 2007
  3. ↑ Jamestown Settlement, accessed 10 March 2007
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