Browse Items (44 total)

During the 1760s, many Americans came to believe that the British government was imposing unfair taxes on goods coming into the colonies. Parliament levied its first direct tax on the colonists in 1764 to help pay for the costs of fighting the Seven…

During the secession crisis of 1860–1861, attitudes about leaving the United States varied widely throughout Virginia. While the majority of white men supported the secession referendum that was approved in a vote on May 23, 1861, many white…

In the decades after World War II, many towns and cities across the United States considered plans to redevelop aging neighborhoods. Many of these neighborhoods suffered from substandard housing, including public housing that had been erected during…

In March 1865, before the Civil War had ended, Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands (generally known as the Freedmen’s Bureau) to supervise matters related to freed people as well as to distribute land "abandoned" by…

Silk has been produced and sold as a consumer good for thousands of years. Silk production originated in China and the earliest known examples date to 3000 B.C.E. For centuries, the trade routes known as the Silk Road stretched between East Asia and…

Waterways provided the people of the Eastern Shore and Hampton Roads regions with access to food, supplies, and transport long before English colonists arrived in 1607. As English settlements displaced and removed Indigenous people from the land near…

Waterways provided the people of the Eastern Shore and Hampton Roads regions with access to food, supplies, and transport long before English colonists arrived in 1607. As English settlements displaced and removed Indigenous people from the land near…

In 1801, following Gabriel's failed slave rebellion, the Virginia General Assembly decreed that county commissioners of the revenue were to return a complete list of all free Black men and women in their districts on an annual basis. The list was to…

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…

After the Civil War, the temperance movement swept the nation. Starting with Maine in 1851, states and localities around the country held referendums to let its citizens vote on whether or not to ban alcohol. In 1886, Virginia adopted the “Local…