Browse Items (29 total)

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…

This act from the General Assembly granted William Pennock a government contract for a transportation company. Having a reliable way to transport people and goods across the state is important for a healthy economy. By granting this contract, the…

The Virginia Declaration of Rights was drafted by George Mason and adopted on June 12, 1776. The Virginia Declaration of Rights was written after the members of Virginia's fifth Revolutionary Convention voted in favor of preparing a new plan of…

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 Constitution was written, nine states were needed to ratify it before it became law. George Mason, who was the author of Virginia Declaration of Rights, wanted the Constitution to include guarantees for fundamental liberties which reflected…

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…

This watercolor painting by Benjamin Henry Latrobe depicts three Black men directing a bateau, a long flat-bottomed boat, through the rapids of the James River at Richmond. The boats were used to carry goods such as tobacco and coal along rivers and…

Located among the odds and ends of Accomack County court records is this 1758 advertisement from Landon Carter of Richmond County for his runaway slave Will.  The advertisement is typical of runaway ads in that it seeks to provide as much information…