Browse Items (196 total)

This painting depicts Thomas West, the twelfth baron De la Warr. De la Warr  was appointed by King James I in 1606 to be part of the royal council that oversaw the Virginia Company of London. He remained in England, where he helped monitor things…

White English colonists and Natives were openly viiolent to each other for much of the early seventeenth century. A few months prior to the passing of this act, the Third Anglo-Powhatan War started, resulting in many deaths and injuries on both…

Anthony Johnson was a black man and former indentured servant in 17th-century Virginia who was able to purchase his freedom. Upon becoming free, Johnson purchased land as well as servants. One such servant, John Casar, claimed that Johnson was…

This document provides a unique look at the status of African laborers in Virginia by clearly illustrating that fixed terms of indentured servitude existed, but also that they could be violated. In 1675 Phillip Gowen, an African American indentured…

A Controversial Map in the New World             Herman Moll was born in Holland in 1654 but lived in England for the rest of his life until he died in 1732. He moved to London in 1678 and opened his own map shop in 1689. He spent most of his time in…

As English colonists settled Virginia, they came into conflict with Native Americans over the concept of landownership. The Native Americans would not “own” their land, but would live on small portions and use a larger surrounding area for hunting,…

This document is a 1749 land survey that George Washington did for Edward Hogan as part of his job as the county surveyor for Culpeper County, which was then newly created. Washington was all of seventeen years of age when he took on this job,…

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 map was created in response to British concerns that French colonists were encroaching on British territory. Since there were no clear boundaries and very few maps that accurately depicted the lands that the Virginia colony held, the acting…

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…