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Article Set - Intro
Virginia's Colonial Dynasties
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![VHE_Dynasties_MaryWillingByrd.1996.174.1.jpg VHE_Dynasties_MaryWillingByrd.1996.174.1.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Dynasties_MaryWillingByrd.1996.174.1.jpg.webp?itok=azbFZvpP)
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.
Article
Virginia’s Sweet History – Chocolate-Making in the Commonwealth
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![VHE_Chocolate_2019-12-14_Chocolate-Demo001.jpg VHE_Chocolate_2019-12-14_Chocolate-Demo001.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Chocolate_2019-12-14_Chocolate-Demo001.jpg.webp?itok=q1IV_d0S)
Production methods and flavorings have changed in the 4,000 years since chocolate was consumption began, but it remains...
Time Period Chapter
Virginia’s Traffic in the Atlantic World
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![SlaveShackles.1997.89.jpg SlaveShackles.1997.89.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/SlaveShackles.1997.89.jpg.webp?itok=VQYbsOGc)
Tobacco proved to be good as gold for Virginians. Wealth from its sale and easy navigation of the colony’s rivers...
Media
VIRTUAL LECTURE - Escape to the City: Fugitive Slaves in Antebellum Richmond
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On September 21, 2023, Viola Franziska MĂĽller gave a virtual-only lecture about her book, Escape to the City: Fugitive Slaves in the Antebellum Urban...
Time Period Chapter
War on the Home Front
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![0.50Confederate.2010.40.23.jpg 0.50Confederate.2010.40.23.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/0.50Confederate.2010.40.23.jpg.webp?itok=kzi4PlXz)
For some, the war brought deprivation, horror, and loss right to their very doorsteps.
Media
Washington at the Plow: The Founding Farmer and the Question of Slavery
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On December 9, 2021, historian Bruce A. Ragsdale presented a lecture about his book, Washington at the Plow: The Founding Farmer and the Question of...
Media
What Caused the Civil War
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This video looks at the question "What Caused the Civil War." The video specifically looks at differences between the North and South and the outbreak...
Article
Who Freed the Enslaved People?
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![Who Freed the Enslaved People? Painting of President Lincoln writing the Proclamation of Freedom by David Gilmore Blythe](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/WhoFreedTheEnslavedPeople_VHE_ATP_LC-DIG-ppmsca-18444.jpeg.webp?itok=zYcrzehk)
Two years of fighting changed what the war was about. Beginning in 1863, the North no longer fought only to save the...
Article
Why is there a West Virginia?
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![Why is there a West Virginia? A drawing of Confederates gathering in the Shenandoah Valley.](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/WhyIsThereAWestVirginia_VHE_ATP_IrregularTroops.2000.165.3.jpeg.webp?itok=9uWgE1j1)
Secession from Virginia was the hope of some western Virginians as early as 1829. Many western Virginians felt...
Article
Why We Need to Talk About James Armistead Lafayette
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![James Armistead Lafayette An 1824 engraving of James Armistead Lafayette, after a painting by John B. Martin. The print reproduces the handwritten text of a 1784 testimonial by the Marquis de Lafayette.](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/JamesLafayette_jamesalafayette-1993-215_crop.jpg.webp?itok=1yhFWQLq)
James Armistead Lafayette was an enslaved man who, during the American Revolution, volunteered to join the Continental...