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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
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.
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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.
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Beginnings of Black Education
Few black Virginians received a formal education until public schools were widely established during Reconstruction. Public
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Conclusion
Throughout the twentieth century and during the past decade, apologists for John Brown have turned out imagery and
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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...
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Early Images of Virginia Indians: The William W. Cole Collection
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Explore engravings and illustration of early Virginia Indians.
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Elections from 1876 to 1920
This section contains information and memorabilia on the elections from 1876 to 1920. Scroll down the page to learn more
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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.
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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.
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Fanciful Figures
View illustrations of Virginia Indians as they were imagined by artists.
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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.
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Hampton Institute and Booker T. Washington
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute was founded in 1868 by General Samuel Armstrong. He was interested in moral
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Interpreting Historical Images
A historical image can be interpreted in a number of ways. Each approach brings a different set of considerations, or frame
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Invented Scenes for Narratives
When artists were hired to illustrate written accounts of events in Virginia, they did not aim to make realistic
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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.
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Memory
Which John Brown have Americans remembered? The crusader for abolition or the bloodthirsty terrorist? Brown was not forgotten
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Racial Inequality
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Confederate defeat threatened to change white southern identity. Suddenly African Americans were free to determine the...
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Reconciliation
After Appomattox, Ulysses S. Grant was the savior of the United States, while Robert E. Lee was the greatest hero of the Lost
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Robert Knox Sneden Chronology
1832 June 3 born in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, British provinces of America 1851 family moves to New York 1858 earliest