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Free Traveling Guides » States » Virginia History of Virginia
Virginia, situated on the Atlantic Coat of the United States of America, was first inhabited by the Native American groups, including the Algonquian, the Iroquoian, and the Siouan. The first European to explore the Atlantic Coast of North America in 1584 was Sir Walter Raleigh. The London Virginia Company, incorporated as a joint stock company by the proprietary Charter of 1606, established the ‘Virginia Colony’, the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Captains John Smith and Christopher Newport discovered Jamestown on May 13, 1607 and named it after King James I. In the year 1619, the House of Burgesses was established as the elected governance of the colony. The ‘Head-right System’ introduced in 1683 promised settlers 50 acres (0.2 sq-km) of land for each indentured servant (enslaved Africans) they transported. Williamsburg was declared the capital of the colony in 1698. The Virginia Convention, held on May 12, 1776, called for independence of Virginia from the British Empire. It adopted George Mason’s Virginia Declaration of Rights and finally, enacted a constitution, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, on June 29, 1776. This new constitution declared Virginia as an independent commonwealth. The capital was moved to Richmond during the American Revolutionary War. In 1781, in the Battle of Yorktown, the French and Continental forces, led by George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau, finally defeated the British General Cornwallis on the Yorktown peninsula. The British officially ceded the claims to the land to the United States on October 19, 1781. The Virginian Plan and the Bill of Rights were drafted in 1787 and 1789 respectively, by the Father of Constitution, James Madison. Both Virginia and Maryland ceded territory in 1790 to form the District of Columbia. However, the area to the south of Potomac was retro-ceded to Virginia in 1847. After President Abraham Lincoln called for a response to the CSA attack on Fort Sumter, Virginia seceded from the Union on April 17, 1861. Nearly 48 counties to the northwest of the state alienated from Virginia in 1863 to form the State of West Virginia. The most significant battles fought in Virginia during the American Civil War include the Seven Days Battle, Battles of Bull Run, the Battle of Chancellors Ville, and the final Battle of Appomattox Courthouse. Virginia rejoined the Union on January 26, 1870, and implemented a constitution, which provided for Negro Suffrage, guarantee of political and civil rights, and a system of free public schools. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s gained a number of participants, who fought to secure national legislation for protection of suffrage and civil rights for African Americans. As a result, the Constitution was re-written in 1971, and the Jim Crow laws were retracted. Douglas Wilder became the first African-American to hold office of the Governor of Virginia, on January 13, 1990. Restoration of the colonial era buildings in the historic district was started in 1926 by Dr. W. A. R. Goodwin, the rector of Burton Parish Church, Williamsburg. These restoration efforts led to the development of the Colonial Williamsburg. World War II, the Cold War, and the September 11, 2001 attacks on Northern Virginia are some of the other major events in the history of the State.
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