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Civil War

Few events have shaped Virginia’s history more profoundly than the Civil War. In 1861, many white Virginians chose secession, but the inhabitants of the far northwestern counties seceded from Virginia to form a new state—West Virginia. Black Virginians were pressed into the service of a nation that fought to enslave them, but war also brought opportunity to seize their freedom and join the fight against slavery. After four years of war, the Virginia landscape was left scarred, but those wounds would quickly heal. More enduring were the emotional effects of defeat felt by former Confederates, and the horrors of enslavement remembered by Black Virginians. The memory of the war and its aftermath continue to be felt to this day.

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16,000 BCE to 1622 CE
A Land of Opportunity: Creating Virginia
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1623 to 1763
A Distant Dominion
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1764 to 1824
From British Colony to American State
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1825 to 1860
Challenge of a New Century
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1861 to 1876
Civil War and Reconstruction
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1877 to 1924
Virginia in the New South
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1925 to Today
Dynamic Dominion

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