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Patrick Henry (1736–1799) could be considered Virginia’s most outspoken revolutionary. Born in Hanover County, Henry studied law on his own and was admitted to the bar in 1760. In 1763, he spoke out against the action of the king's Privy Council,…
From the beginning of the Civil War, the Confederate government attempted to requisition needed goods and services from private citizens. In March 1863, the Confederate Congress passed an Impressment Act that allowed them to requisition crops,…
After the Civil War and the enfranchisement of Black men, political contests in Virginia were often heated. In 1879, a biracial coalition known as the Readjuster Party won control of the General Assembly and two years later won the governor’s race,…
During the secession crisis of 1860–1861, attitudes about leaving the United States varied widely throughout Virginia. While the majority of white men supported the secession referendum that was approved in a vote on May 23, 1861, many white…
By 1780, the Continental Army had been battling British forces for five years during the American Revolution. Although the Americans had secured some key victories in places as far-flung as New York and South Carolina, the British still held…
The Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) was a French aristocrat whose family fortune ranked him among the wealthiest in France, but he was also one of America’s best-known Revolutionary heroes. Gilbert de Motier de Lafayette inherited his title at the…
The Brafferton School was one of several colonial “Indian Schools” intended to Christianize and educate Indigenous men and boys in a western scholastic tradition. It was part of a larger effort by Europeans to westernize and Christianize the…
Relations between Virgina's Indigenous peoples and the colonists who wanted to settle on their land were often contentious and violent. Virginia's colonial government passed multiple laws in the 17th century to regulate the actions of settlers and…
Even before the end of the Civil War, newly freed Black people called on the government to grant them equal suffrage (the right to vote). A committee of Black residents in Norfolk made this demand in June 1865, shortly after the war ended. Norfolk’s…
Emancipation at the end of the Civil War did not bestow citizenship or legal protections on formerly enslaved men and women. Concerned that the newly freed African Americans would not be treated equally in courts of law, Congress passed a Civil…