American Revolution - Virginia Colony

Related Topics

Virginia Colony

Past, far away past

Many times, in a far, far distant past, much of what is now Virginia west of the Blue Ridge was flooded by ancients seas. Then the shrinking of the earth squeezed enormous folds of the rocky layers of the earth into the air, forming the ancestors of today's Appalachian Mountains. Over the years wind and waters wore these ranges almost level, then the were raised up again, and again three times. The precipitation average in a year is 45 inches (114 centimeters).

The greatest part of Virginia's land was ruled by Wahunsonacock, or Powhatan, just before the Colonists came here. He was like a king. He welded a confederacy of thirty separate kingdoms under his autocratic rule. The confederacy included as many as 161 villages, with an army of 2400 trained warriors. When Captain John Smith came to Virginia and visited the principal indian capital of Werowocomoco, he wrote that he found the "Emperor proudly lying upon a Bedstead a foote high, upon tenn or twelve mattes, richly hung with manie Chaynes of great Pearles about necke, and covered with great Covering of Rajaughcums. At head sat a woman, at his feete another; on each side sitting upon a Matte uppon the ground, were raunged his chiefe men on each side the fire, tenne in a ranke, and behind them as many yong women, each a great Chaine of white Beades over their shoulders, their heades painted in redde: and with such a grave Majesticall countenance, as drave me into admiration..."

In 1497 British explorer John Cabot explorer the northern shoreline of North America. Later, the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth the third claimed for Her Majesty all vast region north of the lands of Spain, and named it Virginia after her. Both England and Spain laid claim to this region. As early as 1680's Spanish Jesuit missionaries had set up a mission on the banks of Aquia Creek in the Potomac region, though they failed in the mission of making the Indians turn to Christianity because they were massacred by them. In 1606 King James I of England chartered two companies to colonize Virginia. The London Company who ruled Virginia south of Chesapeake Bay and the Plymouth Company ruled the north of Virginia (roughly everything everything north of Chesapeake Bay).

On April 26, 1607, three little ships, the Discovery, the Godspeed, and the Flagship Susan Constant landed on what is now Virginia Beach. The people set up a cross to give thanks to the God at arriving in the New World. They named the place where they landed Cape Henry, and the opposite cape of this they named Cape Charles, to honor the king's son. The colonists moved slowly up the great Chesapeake Bay on May 14 of 1607, and in the next morning, the very first Virginians went ashore, they built a tiny fort and named in James Towne in honor to the king, later it became know as Jamestown.

When they landed John Smith was in chains for a minor reason, but later he was freed because he was supposed to be one of the members of the governing council. Gradually he became a acknowledged leader. A large number of the Virginians were very arrogant, and consider themselves "Gentlemen" too dignified for ordinary labor. John Smith later in the year was captured by Indians and taken to Powhatan's capital of Werowocomoco. Powhatan was going to kill Smith because of some problems that they had, one of the problems was that England was taking over Indian land. Just before he killed him the 13 year old princess threw her body over Smith to protect him and save his life. With this act, Indians became a little bit more friendly with the colonists, they helped them with supplies and things that they needed. In October of 1609 Captain John Smith went back to England because he had some severe injuries and he had to be treated in England. The winter of that year (1609-1610) became know as the "starving time." When the winter started the population of Jamestown was five hundred, and by may only sixty-five of them survived. These people that survived were going back to England but just 14 miles away they met Lord De la Warr, who came from England with supplies and new settlers, they were encouraged by this.

Next Few years the colony began to rebuild. The Indians became more unfriendly. By 1614 John Rolphe had become the leader of the colony. He promoted the growing of tobacco, which proved to be a successful crop. He also married princess Pocahontas, who has been brought to Jamestown as a hostage. Since then Powhatan kept his people generally quiet until his death in 1618. In 1619 the colony was divided into eleven regularly established plantations. An election was held to choose two representatives from each of the eleven plantations of the colony to form a "House of Burgesses." This year also was the year of the first arrival of the first European women and the first blacks, these blacks were not to be slaved, but came as indentured servants who would be free after a while. After the death of Powhatan, King Opechancanough ruled the region. He pretended friendship with settlers but had plans to drive them from the country. On March 22, 1622, along a 140 mile front covering most of the colonized are the indians attacked and killed 347 settlers, they might have succeeded completely if it wasn't by Chanco, and Indian youth who was converted to Christianity. Virginia was hard to recover from this massacre. Plans to convert the Indians to Christianity and give them education were abandoned, the colonists build a palisade across the peninsula as protection from the Indians. The Aged Opechancanough made his last effort in 1644, but failed. He was captured and carried wounded on a stretcher to Jamestown. There he was shot by a soldier who was supposed to have been protecting him.

The London Company charter had been repealed in 1624. By this time Virginia was ruled as a royal colony. King I recognized the House of Burgesses in 1628, and as early 1635 the House of Burgesses had been able to cause the removal of one royal governor. In 1660 Sir William Berkeley was the governor of Virginia, but he wasn't a good governor because he didn't defend the Colony from western Indian attack. One of the protesters was Nathaniel Bacon was angry and he had a lot of followers. Later Bacon virtually took over the government and Berkeley fled to eastern shore. When Berkeley returned to Jamestown, Bacon and his followers set the town on fire and Bacon wrote the "America's first Declaration of Independence." Bacon wrote that if England upheld Berkeley, the people of Virginia would fight for their liberties or leave the colony. He made a trip around Virginia trying to tell the people to stand firm, but he died on the trip with a fever. After Bacon's death Berkeley hanged twenty of Bacon's leader without trial, and robed their lands. The King Charles II didn't liked this and said, "That old fool has hanged more men in that naked country than I have done here for the murder of my father."

The first battle in the Revolutionary War took place at the Great Bridge on December 9, 1775, when Virginia militia defeated Lord Dunmore. On May 6, 1776, the fifth Virginia Convention meeting at Williamsburg declared the colony to be a free and independent commonwealth (almost the same meaning as "State"). On June 7 Richard Henry Lee suggest to the Continental Congress accept the Declaration of Independence. On June 12 Virginia adopted the George Mason's Bill of Rights and then adopted a constitution which lasted more than 50 years. The Bill of Rights was later used as a model for the U.S. bill of rights. In 1779 Patrick Henry was the Virginia's Governor, he made great speeches telling the people make temselves independent from England, one of his great know parts a speech was "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death". American Revolution - Patrick Henry delivers his great Give me liberty or give me death speech to a convention at Richmond on March 23, 1775, after the governor had suspended the Virginia Assembly. On May 20, 1781 Lord Charles Cornwallis arrived to Virginia and soon began to pursue Lafayette, who was a French General. Lafayette joined Anthony Wayne and they pushed Cornwallies to his final destination, Yorktown. Meanwhile enforcement from France and General Washington were coming to Yorktown to reinforce Lafayette's trop. Admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse was defeating British navy and kept it from bringing reinforcements to Lord Charles Cornwallis. On October 18, 1781 Britain was negotiating the surrender after there wasn't no place to escape for Cornwallis, from this time on, Americans were free. After that (six year later) the Colony was governed by the Articles of Confederation, the new, and first president of this new independent country was George Washington. Virginia became the tenth State of the United State, accepting the constitution in June of 1788. George Washington came from this particular commonwealth, or State. Virginia took a lot of leadership on the country after knowing that Washingto, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe were all president and all Virginians, the only one that governed the country on that period and was not a Virginian was John Adams.