| Native Americans | | | | John Smith. Its Second Charter was officially ratified on |
| At the time of the English colonization of Virginia, | | | | May 23, 1609. The Virginia Company was also left in |
| Native American people living in what now is Virginia | | | | control of Bermuda from 1609, when its flagship was |
| were the Cherokee, Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Meherrin, | | | | wrecked there en route to Jamestown. Its Royal |
| Monacan, Nansemond, Nottaway, Pamunkey, Pohick, | | | | Charter was extended to include the Islands of |
| Powhatan, Rappahannock, Saponi and others. | | | | Bermuda, alias The Somers Isles (sometimes known |
| Spanish failure | | | | as Virgineola), in 1612. Bermuda remained part of |
| A Spanish exploration party had come to the lower | | | | Virginia until 1614, when its administration was handed |
| Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia around 1560 and | | | | to the Crown (although a spin-off of the Virginia |
| met the Native Americans living on the Virginia | | | | Company, the Somers Isles Company, would oversee |
| Peninsula. A 17-year old teenage Powhatan boy from | | | | it from 1615 to 1684). |
| the village of Chiskiack (located on the lands of the | | | | Jamestown was the original capital of the Virginia |
| present-day U.S. Naval Weapons Station Yorktown), | | | | Colony, and remained so until the State House burned |
| who was the son of a chief, agreed to leave with | | | | (not the first time) in 1698. After the fire, the colonial |
| them. He was baptized and renamed Don Luis, in | | | | capital was moved to nearby Middle Plantation, which |
| honor of his sponsor, Luis de Velasco. Don Luis was | | | | was renamed Williamsburg in honor of William of |
| educated in Mexico and Madrid, Spain. | | | | Orange, King William III. Virginia was given its nickname, |
| Ten years later, in the fall of 1570, the native-convert | | | | "The Old Dominion", by King Charles II of England at the |
| Don Luis returned to Virginia to help as a guide and | | | | time of The Restoration, because it had remained loyal |
| translator in the establishment of the Jesuit's planned | | | | to the crown during the English Civil War. |
| Ajacan Mission to be named for St. Mary on the lower | | | | Independent commonwealth |
| peninsula. Shorty after they were dropped off by a | | | | In 1780, during the American Revolutionary War, the |
| Spanish ship, Don Luis abandoned the group, returning | | | | capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of |
| to his people, where he became a Weroance. The | | | | then-Governor Thomas Jefferson, who was afraid |
| following February, Don Luis and a group of | | | | that Williamsburg's location made it vulnerable to a |
| Powhatans returned and killed the 8 Jesuit missionaries, | | | | British attack. In the autumn of 1781, American troops |
| stealing their clothes and possessions, sparing only the | | | | trapped the British on the Yorktown peninsula in the |
| life of a Spanish servant boy named Alonzo. This | | | | famous Battle of Yorktown. This prompted a British |
| young boy escaped and made his way to a rival tribe, | | | | surrender on October 19, 1781, formally ending the war |
| where he stayed until later rescued by another | | | | and securing the independence of the former colonies, |
| Spanish ship bringing supplies. | | | | even though sporadic fighting continued for another |
| When told of the events by young Alonzo, in the early | | | | two years. |
| part of 1572, the Spanish Governor of Florida, Pedro | | | | Patrick Henry served as the first Governor of Virginia, |
| Menendez de Aviles, returned to Virginia to retaliate. | | | | from 1776 to 1779, and again from 1784 to 1786. On |
| The Spanish ultimately captured and hanged some of | | | | June 12, 1776, the Virginia Convention adopted the |
| the Indians believed responsible for the massacre, but | | | | Virginia Declaration of Rights written by George |
| they were unable to locate Don Luis. While this marked | | | | Mason, a document that influenced the Bill of Rights |
| the end of Spanish efforts to colonize the area which | | | | added later to the United States Constitution. On June |
| became Virginia, some historians believe that Don Luis | | | | 29, 1776, the convention adopted a constitution that |
| and Opechancanough, who was later Chief of the | | | | established Virginia as a commonwealth independent |
| Powhatan Confederacy, may have been the same | | | | of the British Empire. In 1790, both Virginia and Maryland |
| individual. The name Opechancanough meant "He | | | | ceded territory to form the new District of Columbia, |
| whose Soul is White" in the Algonquin language used | | | | but in an Act of the U.S. Congress dated July 9, 1846, |
| by the Powhatan people. | | | | the area south of the Potomac that had been ceded |
| Virginia colony: 1607–1776 | | | | by Virginia was retroceded to Virginia effective 1847, |
| At the end of the 16th century, when England began to | | | | and is now Arlington County and part of the City of |
| colonize North America, Queen Elizabeth I of England | | | | Alexandria. |
| (who was known as the "Virgin Queen" because she | | | | American Civil War |
| never married) gave the name "Virginia" to the whole | | | | Virginia is one of the states that seceded from the |
| area explored by the 1584 expedition of Sir Walter | | | | Union (on April 17, 1861) and operated independently until |
| Raleigh along the coast of North America. The name | | | | it joined the Confederacy during the Civil War when it |
| eventually applied to the whole coast from South | | | | turned over its military on June 8 and ratified the |
| Carolina to Maine. The London Virginia Company | | | | Constitution of the Confederate States on June 19. In |
| became incorporated as a joint stock company by a | | | | 1863, during the Civil War, 48 counties remaining loyal |
| proprietary charter drawn up on April 10, 1606. The | | | | to the Union in the northwest of the state separated |
| charter granted lands stretching from approximately | | | | from Virginia to form the State Kanawha (later |
| the 34th parallel (North Carolina) north to approximately | | | | renamed West Virginia), an act which was upheld by |
| the 45th parallel (New York) and from the Atlantic | | | | the United States Supreme Court in 1870. More battles |
| Ocean westward. It swiftly financed the first | | | | were fought on Virginia soil than anywhere else in |
| permanent English settlement in the New World, which | | | | America during the Civil War. The city of Richmond |
| was at Jamestown, named in honor of King James I, in | | | | served as the capital of the Confederacy during the |
| the Virginia Colony, in 1607. The settlement was | | | | war. Virginia formally rejoined the union on January 26, |
| founded by Captain Christopher Newport and Captain | | | | 1870, after a period of post-war military rule. |