In the colonial era, documents mentioning enslaved persons are hard to come by, and even rarer are documents with details about the slaves themselves. Newspaper advertisements for runaway enslaved persons would often mention slaves by name and brief descriptions and what they may have last been wearing; this was the exception because at that time […]
On 6 August 1694, Richard Kennon of Conjurer’s Neck (what was then Henrico County, in present-day Colonial Heights, Virginia), either wrote or dictated to another his will. Around this time, the bridge between the 17th and 18th centuries, the way wills in colonial Virginia were executed went through a change. In the 17th century, wills […]
Colonial Virginia history has many women who hold a place in this Commonwealth, some well-known, but many who are not. One such woman who holds an important place among Virginia’s colonial history was Anne Catherine Spotswood. Born in 1728 in London, England, she was the daughter of Virginia’s former colonial Lieutenant Governor, Alexander Spotswood, and […]
Tobacco is one of the main reasons that the colony of Virginia became successful and survived past its turbulent early years at Jamestown. Since its founding in 1607, the Jamestown colony had sought to turn a profit by finding gold and other precious metals and find a path to Cathay (what China was called in […]
The Year was 1676. There was much unrest in the colony as supporters of Governor Berkeley, those of Bacon, and natives were going around killing one another. Much of the hubbub was the result of many people looking for a leader of the people to stand up to what was occurring throughout the colony, the […]
The year 1676 saw the colony of Virginia in a state of Rebellion. The unrest that would come to be known as Bacon’s Rebellion, began at a time of discord in the colony over economic issues and tensions between Indian’s and colonists. On one side was Governor William Berkeley; the other Nathaniel Bacon, Berkeley’s cousin […]
“and evry [sic] Loyal person was engaged assisting in some way I was at Hoke’s warehouse when news came that our men where [sic] falling back I hurried down but coudent [sic] get my shoes to the place they where [sic] before so in the hurry without we carried them up and put them in […]
Slavery played a large and important role in the new and forming territories in the Western frontier that were acquired through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and with the defeat of Mexico in 1848 in the Mexican War. When the United States acquired these vast territories, many questions arose. The biggest question that came up […]
Most people know George Washington for being the commander in chief of Continental forces during the Revolution and as our first President of the United States. Many know that he served in the French and Indian War, playing a major factor in the start of that war, and know he was a member of Virginia’s […]
Chelsea is one of the best preserved and, for the most part, unchanged colonial era homes in Virginia. In about 1705, Colonel Augustine Moore purchased land in King William County, Virginia from the Graves Family. He named his plantation and home Chelsea, after the home of his supposed ancestor, Sir Thomas More. Chelsea is located […]