Browse Items (38 total)

By 1775, approximately half a million enslaved Americans were living in the thirteen colonies. During the American Revolution, thousands of Black Americans participated. Some joined the British, while others fought with the Americans depending on who…

James Lafeyette was born enslaved about 1748. He lived on a plantation owned by William Armistead in New Kent County. Although he is sometimes identified as James Armistead, he never signed his name or self-identified as having the surname Armistead.…

George Washington was born in 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia, to a relatively prosperous family. His father died when he was eleven and so he was not sent to school in England like his older half-brothers, but studied with tutors. He trained…

Women played many roles during the American Revolution, but only a few are known to have disguised themselved as men and participated in battle. The penalties for being discovered could be severe. Women who fought in the army tried hard to keep their…

After the American Revolution, relations between the United States and Great Britain remained strained. In its long war with France, Britain imposed a blockade on neutral countries, including the United States, that disrupted shipping and trade.…

Illustrated periodicals like Harper's Weekly were popular with Americans in the middle of the 19th century. After southern states formed the Confederate States of America, residents there could not easily receive newspapers and magazines printed in…

On February 3, 1865, Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens and two other commissioners met with United States President Abraham Lincoln on the steamship River Queen near Fort Monroe in Hampton. The meeting was a futile effort to end the…

On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. The surrender effectively ended the American Civil War in Virginia, although fighting continued in…

The power of the president to pardon those who commit offenses against the United States is enumerated in the Article Two of the U. S. Constitution. A presidential pardon is an executive order granting clemency for a conviction of a crime, with the…

The power of the president to pardon those who commit offenses against the United States is enumerated in the Article Two of the U. S. Constitution. A presidential pardon is an executive order granting clemency for a conviction of a crime, with the…