Browse Items (215 total)

With the end of the Civil War came the end of slavery in the American South. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on December 9, 1865, officially outlawed slavery. Racial hostilities towards formerly enslaved men and…

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…

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…

The Loving v. Virginia case ended a long history of banning marriage between white and Black Virginians dating back to the 17th century. In 1878 the General Assembly enacted a law punishing both parties in an interracial marriage with prison…

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…

On the morning of September 11, 2001, members of the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda launched a coordinated attack against the United States. They hijacked four planes scheduled to be cross-country flights from the East Coast to California. American…

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 Vietnam War was a 40-year conflict between the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, and South Vietnam whose principal ally was the United States. This war stemmed from a war of independence from…

The fight for woman suffrage was a decades-long struggle that included many participants who held different opinions on how to achieve the goal of voting rights for women. In 1915, suffragists in Virginia split over this issue. Since its founding in…

Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute opened in 1868 near the site of Fort Monroe, which had served as a refugee camp for thousands of enslaved men, women, and children who sought freedom there during the Civil War. The fort and surrounding…