Browse Items (189 total)

After a public notice appeared in a Richmond newspaper in October 1842 that a petition would be presented to the Virginia General Assembly to sell King William County property known as "Indian town lands," members of the Pamunkey tribe took action.…

Black Hawk, born in 1767 and known in his native language as Makataimeshekiakiak, was a Sauk warrior and tribal leader. The Sauk lived on the Rock River, a tributary of the Mississippi, in what is now Illinois, and fought against the United States…

The contributions of African Americans to the politics, life, and culture of the Commonwealth of Virginia have often been ignored in traditional histories and textbooks. Historian Luther Porter Jackson (1892–1950), however, researched and wrote…

Beginning in the 18th century, cemeteries in Richmond were racially segregated. Deceased residents of African descent were interred in the Burial Ground for Negroes (also known as the African Burial Ground) alongside the city’s Shockoe Creek. The…

Touted as the largest and most magnificent exposition of all time, the New York World’s Fair opened at Flushing Meadows in April 1939. In the Court of States, one exhibition was strikingly different from the rest: the Virginia Room, “an island of…

Silk has been produced and sold as a consumer good for thousands of years. The origin of silk production was in China and the earliest known examples date to 3000 B.C.E. For centuries, the trade routes known as the Silk Road stretched beween Europe…

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses. They serve as beacons for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark dangerous…

In 1806, the General Assembly placed restrictions on emancipation and required that once an enslaved Virginian was freed, he or she had to leave the state within one year. Those who remained in Virginia more than a year could be sold back into…

In 1806, the General Assembly placed restrictions on emancipation and required that once an enslaved Virginian was freed, he or she was required to leave the state within one year's time or Those who remained in the Commonwealth more than a year…

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.…