Browse Items (38 total)

In January 1754, Virginia's lieutenant governor (acting in place of the absent royal governor), Robert Dinwiddie, sent a small force of Virginia soldiers to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio River, where present-day Pittsburgh now stands. In…

The struggle for the ratification of the United States Constitution convinced some political leaders that amendments were needed to protect individual liberties from the strengthened national government created by the Constitution. During the First…

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention approved a new constitution for the United States on September 17, 1787. But before it could be adopted, nine states had to ratify the document. It had the support of some of America's brightest statesman…

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention approved a new constitution for the United States on September 17, 1787. But before it could be adopted, nine states had to ratify the document. Despite it having the support of America's brightest statesman…

Virginia's Fifth Revolutionary Convention met at the Capitol in Williamsburg from May 6 to July 5, 1776, and declared independence from Great Britain. The delegates also voted to prepare a constitution for Virginia as well as a statement of rights.…

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was the most prolific writer of pro-independence tracts during the Revolutionary War. He wrote for average Americans, so his works—notably Common Sense and The American Crisis—reached thousands of readers and convinced many…

The last of Virginia's Revolutionary Conventions met from early May through July 5, 1776, to establish a new government for the independent Commonwealth of Virginia. In this session, the delegates unanimously passed the Virginia Declaration of Rights…

In May 1773 the British Parliament passed the Tea Act, granting the British East India Company a monopoly on importing tea. Intended in part to discourage colonists from buying smuggled tea on which they paid no taxes, the act implicitly acknowledged…