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Time Period
16,000 BCE to 1622 CE
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At the time of the great northern glaciers, Native Americans followed the game they hunted to Virginia. Ten thousand years later, as the cold of the Ice Age gave way to a warmer, drier climate, they relied also on foraging and farming. After about 900 CE they settled into villages that united into chiefdoms. In 1607, in pursuit of opportunity in a new world, English settlers intruded into an eastern Virginia chiefdom of thirty-two tribes (15,000 to 20,000 people). Its leader then was Wahunsenacawh, whom the new settlers called by his title, Powhatan.
Time Period
1861 to 1876
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If Virginians were instrumental in creating the Union in 1776, they were also pivotal in breaking it apart eighty-five years later. Most Virginians rejected secession until they were called upon to provide troops after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter. The far northwestern counties refused to secede and instead formed West Virginia. Virginia became the bloodiest battleground of the war. At its conclusion, slavery was ended and black males could vote, but the daily lives and standard of living of African Americans changed little. Virginia was put under military rule for three years.
Time Period
1877 to 1924
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After the Civil War, Virginia remained largely rural, but Virginians embraced economic development and the new technologies that were revolutionizing everyday life. At the same time, however, they resisted political and social change––especially racial and gender equality. Living standards improved and income rose, but the political system became less democratic and society was rigidly segregated by race. “The New South” brought economic renewal but little reform. The Virginia legislature rejected a woman’s right to vote in 1919, and it passed a regressive Racial Integrity Act in 1924.
Time Period Chapter
A New Virginia
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In the early twentieth century, the nation’s economy was becoming more industrialized and its population more urbanized.
Article Set - Intro
An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia
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An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia is divided into two parts that pose a series of questions. Waging War examines how the conflict was fought and Surviving War measures the impact of the war on civilian life.
Time Period Chapter
Contact and Conflict
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The first settlers were welcomed by the Indians with ceremony. However, following Capt. John Smith’s return to England...
Article Set - Intro
Early Images of Virginia Indians: The William W. Cole Collection
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![VHE_EarlyImagesAmericanIndians_townofPomeiocc_teaser.jpg VHE_EarlyImagesAmericanIndians_townofPomeiocc_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_EarlyImagesAmericanIndians_townofPomeiocc_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=OngB_uMv)
Explore engravings and illustration of early Virginia Indians.
Time Period Chapter
Exploration of the New World
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Initially, European nations were searching for a water route to the Far East, not a New World.
Article Set - Intro
Eye of the Storm: The Civil War Drawings of Robert Knox Sneden
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Through his 5,000-page personal memoir, Robert Knox Sneden takes us to the front lines of the Civil War.
Article Set - Intro
General Orders No. 61
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On May 2, 1863, during the battle of Chancellorsville, friendly fire struck Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson while he and others rode amid the chaos of the still-forming Confederate lines. Thus began the series of events that led eventually to Robert E. Lee composing General Orders No. 61, which announced to his army the death of Jackson.
Article Set - Intro
Getting the Message Out: Presidential Campaign Memorabilia from the Collection of Allen A. Frey
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Buttons and banners, ribbons and posters, coffee mugs and whiskey flasks, match books and mouse pads. For nearly 200 years, presidential candidates and their supporters have used almost every means available to attract votes.
Article Set - Intro
Lee and Grant
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By the end of the Civil War, most Americans considered either Robert E. Lee or Ulysses S. Grant to be a hero. The time has come for a reassessment of these two men, on whom fell the greatest responsibility for the survival or disintegration of the United States.
Time Period Chapter
Racial Inequality
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Confederate defeat threatened to change white southern identity. Suddenly African Americans were free to determine the...
Time Period Chapter
Reconstruction
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During the decade following the Civil War, former Confederate states were required to “reconstruct” their state...
Time Period Chapter
The Battlefront in Virginia
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Home to the Confederate capital, Virginia became a battleground.
Time Period Chapter
Virginia and Women’s Suffrage
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Despite the socio-political changes that occurred during Reconstruction, women at the dawn of the twentieth century...
Article Set - Intro
Virginia's Colonial Dynasties
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In the colonial period, portraiture proved to be a particularly useful tool in establishing and preserving family status. This exhibit presents twenty-four portraits from the Virginia Historical Society's collection. Early Virginia portraits reveal much about the families that commissioned them, as well as how these Virginians valued how they were perceived by others.
Time Period Chapter
Wandering, Foraging, and Farming
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Over more than 16,000 years, Indians in Virginia transitioned from nomadic bands of hunter gatherers to sedentary...
Time Period Chapter
War on the Home Front
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For some, the war brought deprivation, horror, and loss right to their very doorsteps.