Browse Items (28 total)
Phillis, Commonwealth Cause, Accomack County, 1824
Commonwealth causes are criminal cases filed by a county's prosecuting attorney (commonwealth's attorney) against individuals who violate Virginia law. Prior to the abolition of slavery in Virginia in 1865, criminal offenders and victims included…
Clara Robinson, Petition to Remain in Virginia, 1848
In 1806, Virginia's General Assembly passed a law that required enslaved people who had been freed after that date to leave the state within one year's time. Those who remained in the Commonwealth more than a year could be re-enslaved and sold.…
Anna Maria Lane, Commendation and Pension Award from William H. Cabell, 1808
Women played many roles during the American Revolution, but only a few are known to have disguised themselved as men and participated in battle. The penalties for being discovered could be severe. Women who fought in the army tried hard to keep their…
Mary Webley, Petition to the General Assembly, 1776
After the Battle of Great Bridge on December 9, 1775, Lord Dunmore and his fleet abandoned the city of Norfolk. Patriot soldiers from North Carolina and Virginia took control of the city. They refused to provide food and supplies to the British…
Lucy Jarvis Pearman Scott, Freedom Paper, 1848
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…
The Age of Iron, Broadside Satirizing Women's Suffrage Movement, 1869
“The Age of Iron” was published by the New York printing firm of Currier and Ives in 1869. It satirized the woman suffrage movement that was gaining widespread support in America during that time.The woman suffrage movement took root in 1848 at the…
The Young Crusader, Woman’s Christian Temperance Magazine for Children, 1934
"Agitate – Educate – Legislate” was the slogan of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which advocated the prohibition of alcohol. Established in 1874 in Ohio, the union became a national movement and Virginia women established a state chapter in…
Female Charitable Society of Portsmouth, Virginia, Broadside, 1804
During the 19th century, local and state governments provided few social programs and women's benevolent activities provided food, shelter, education, and alms for the poor. Often, wealthy white women established charitable or religious-based…
State Conference to Complete Organization of Virginia League of Women Voters, Broadside, 1920
The woman suffrage movement coincided with major national reform movements seeking to improve public education, create public health programs, regulate business and industrial practices, and establish standards to ensure safety in food and public…
Women Do Want the Vote, Broadside, 1916
This broadside was one of many produced by the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia (ESL) to advocate voting rights for women during the 1910s. About twenty women met in Richmond in 1909 to establish the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. Many of the…