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Article
Valentines
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![Valentine.2003.87.1.jpg Valentine.2003.87.1.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Valentine.2003.87.1.jpg.webp?itok=VoubH7_C)
February 14 has a long history as a day for friends and sweethearts to exchange tokens of affection. By the end of the...
Article
Virginia Landscapes: Sublime & Picturesque
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![Virginia Landscapes A painting titled "Near Harpers Ferry" by Andrew Melrose](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VirginiaLandscapes_SublimeLandscape_nearharpersferry-2013-86-5.jpeg.webp?itok=mg9wVGwu)
Thomas Jefferson wrote that Natural Bridge is “the most sublime of nature’s works”: “It is impossible for the emotions...
Media
Virginia Waterways and the Underground Railroad
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Enslaved Virginians sought freedom from the time they were first brought to the Jamestown colony in 1619. Acts of self-emancipation were aided by...
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
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.
Article
War or Murder?
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![War or Murder? A painting of City Point.](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/WarOrMurder_VHE_ATP_CityPoint.1991.jpeg.webp?itok=zERqgA0m)
Throughout the war, both sides sought a single decisive victory long after it was clear that no such event was...
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...
Media
Who Looks at Lee Must Think of Washington By Robert Tilton
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In his 1866 poem, “Lee in the Capitol,” Herman Melville portrays a dignified Robert E. Lee advocating reconciliation before the Congressional...
Article
Who Was American?
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![Who Was American? JEB Stuart's Revolver](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/WhoWasAmerican_VHE_ATP_JEBStuartRevolverRtSide.1983.jpeg.webp?itok=CfpLeEvC)
By 1861, the United States population was steadily growing more diverse. Most nineteenth-century immigrants settled in...
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 Richmond?
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![Why Richmond? Alabama Twenty-Five Cent Note](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/WhyRichmond_VHE_ATP_Alabama25CentNote.jpeg.webp?itok=l01ztJgD)
Once Virginia seceded, the Confederate government moved the capital to Richmond, the South’s second largest city. The...