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Time Period
1623 to 1763
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The colony prospered. Tobacco—grown by indentured servants and enslaved Africans—sustained the economy. The first popularly elected legislative body in the New World was established. Following the failed Indian uprising in 1622 and on orders from London, the native peoples were “removed” and reduced in number to 3,000 by a “War of Extermination.” During the next hundred years, the remainder of Virginia’s population expanded a hundred fold. Social inequalities, however, and frontier conflicts with the French and with Indians made this distant dominion increasingly difficult to govern from London.
Time Period
1764 to 1824
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British taxation—introduced to pay for a British military presence in America—was unexpected by the Virginia gentry and resented. Those Americans began to view British policy as a plot against their liberty. They played leading roles in the Continental Congresses that debated independence, in the fighting of the American Revolution, and in the conception and implementation of a new government. Virginia also provided four of the new nation’s first five presidents. Virginia leaders advocated equality for all but they never considered extending it to women and African Americans.
Time Period
1925 to Today
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A century of foreign wars expanded the presence of both the federal government in Northern Virginia and the military in the Hampton Roads area. Growth in those regions helped transform the state from a rural to a primarily urban one, from a poor to a relatively affluent one, and from a state with few non-natives to one with many. Only painstakingly, however, have minorities gained equality. Since 1960, the population has doubled. The largest employer now is the government, next is agriculture, which adds billions of dollars to the state’s economy.
Time Period Chapter
A Century of Foreign Wars
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Virginians were engulfed by the many wars that spanned the twentieth century and touched every generation.
Time Period Chapter
Causes of the Revolution
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After 1763, Great Britain underestimated the economic and political maturity of the Americans
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Establishing a Nation
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Three of Virginia’s Revolutionary era leaders played critical roles in the successful establishment of the nation’s...
Time Period Chapter
Made in Virginia
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For more than 400 years, Virginians have been part of a global community—exporting ideas, products, and culture to the...
Time Period Chapter
The French and Indian War
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To shield against Indian attacks and French expansion, and to deter runaway slaves from establishing colonies in the...
Time Period Chapter
The Revolutionary Era in Virginia
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Virginia—the largest and most populous colony—played a major role in winning independence and determining the values and...
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The Struggle for Equality
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The American concept that all people are equal and all have unalienable rights was introduced by Virginians George Mason...
Time Period Chapter
Virginia and the Planter Class
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Governor William Berkeley set out to imitate the society of inequality of wealth and education that he knew in England.
Time Period Chapter
Virginia’s Traffic in the Atlantic World
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Tobacco proved to be good as gold for Virginians. Wealth from its sale and easy navigation of the colony’s rivers...