Browse Items (215 total)

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…

In earlier eras, books were expensive luxury items only owned by those who could afford to purchase them. The advent of the printing press made it easier to produce books; however, it was far easier to mass produce newspapers, pamphlets, and other…

After the Civil War and the enfranchisement of Black men, political contests in Virginia were often heated. In 1879, a biracial coalition known as the Readjuster Party won control of the General Assembly and two years later won the governor’s race,…

In 1716, Virginia's royal lieutenant governor Alexander Spotswood led an expedition over the Blue Ridge Mountains into the Shenandoah Valley. The explorers located Swift Run Gap, which provided relatively easy passage over the mountains, and…

Virginia's economy was based on slavery until the Civil War and emancipation. In 1860, Virginia was home to 500,000 enslaved people, more than any other state. Although most Virginians were not enslavers, farmers and planters used enslaved laborers…

Trolleys, or electric railway streetcars, were a very popular way for people to travel across cities or towns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Earlier versions of the trolley, or tram, were drawn by horses. By the late 1800s, however,…

Washington County is one of the first known localities in the United States to be named for George Washington. He had been commander in chief of the Continental army for little more than a year when the county was split from Fincastle in 1776. At the…

After the American Revolution, relations between the United States and Great Britain remained strained. In its long war with France, Britain imposed a blockade on neutral countries, including the United States, that disrupted shipping and trade.…

As Americans prepared to send soldiers overseas during the First World War, the government reorganized the economy to better supply and equip its troops. Peacetime industries shifted towards producing necessary military goods like uniforms and…

By the end of the 19th century, the conservative Democratic Party dominated Virginia’s General Assembly. After wresting control from the short-lived bi-racial Readjuster Party early in the 1880s, legislators passed a series of laws designed to weaken…