Browse Items (29 total)

On the eve of the passage of the Statute for Religious Freedom, numerous citizens and religious denominations bombarded the General Assembly with petitions advocating both for and against a tax (called an "assessment") to support Protestant…

Free and enslaved Black people were on both sides of the American Revolutionary War. Many leaders, including George Washington, were largely lukewarm to the thought of recruiting enslaved people for the war, whereas the British side fully embraced…

Women served in many capacities during the American Revolution. The women, called camp followers, often traveled with their husbands who were serving in the Continental Army. Camp followers did not stay in the Army encampments but set up camps…

In the process of breaking away from England, representatives for Virginia realized they had to define the government of the new state. In 1776, the Fifth Virginia Convention ratified a document, known as the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which…

After the Revolutionary War began, Virginia began to raise a militia for defense. Baptist leaders petitioned the third Virginia Revolutionary Convention requesting permission for Baptist ministers to preach to soldiers who did not wish to attend…

On May 10, 1773 the British Parliament passed the Tea Act which granted The British Eat India Company a monology on importing tea. A tax on tea and other imported goods had been around since the Townsend Revenue Act became law in 1767. In December…

The portrait of Mary Willing Byrd was painted in the early 1770’s by artist Matthew Pratt. After placing three advertisements for a portrait artist in the Virginia Gazette, William Byrd hired Pratt to paint a portrait of his second wife, Mary Willing…

The House of Burgesses was the first elected general assembly in the colonies. From 1619- 1776, the elected representatives would pass laws, grant supplies, and act in the capacity of a supreme court to review cases of the county courts. From…

In January 1754, Virginia's lieutenant governor, Robert Dinwiddie, sent a small force of Virginia soldiers to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio River, where Pittsburgh now stands. The stockade was barely finished when they were driven off by a…