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