Encyclopedia
The
Commonwealth of Virginia is one of the
original thirteen colonies of the
United States that revolted against
British rule in the
American Revolution. It is located in the
Southern United States but is sometimes included, geographically, in the
Mid-Atlantic States. It is one of four
states that use the name commonwealth. Virginia was the first part of the Americas to be continuously inhabited by English colonists from its founding as a European colony up to the
American Revolution.
Virginia is known as the "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of eight
U.S. presidents , more than any other state. Four of the first five presidents were from Virginia, and seven of the first twelve. The most recent Virginian president was Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president. Virginia has also been known as the "Mother of States", because portions of the original Colony subsequently became
Kentucky,
Indiana,
Illinois, and
West Virginia as well as some portions of
Ohio.
Geography
Virginia is a Commonwealth and is bordered by
West Virginia,
Maryland, and the
District of Columbia to the north; by
Chesapeake Bay and the
Atlantic Ocean to the east; by
North Carolina and
Tennessee to the south; and by
Kentucky and
West Virginia to the west.
The
Chesapeake Bay divides the commonwealth, with Virginia's Eastern Shore, a part of the
Delmarva Peninsula, completely separate from the rest of the Commonwealth.
Geographically, Virginia is divided into the following five regions:
- Ridge and Valley—between the Appalachian Plateau and Allegheny Plateau to the west and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east. Sometimes referred to as Valley and Ridge.
- Shenandoah Valley—located within the Ridge and Valley Region; it is referred to geographically—and culturally— as its own region.
- Blue Ridge Mountains—between the Ridge and Valley Region to the west and the Piedmont region to the east.
- Piedmont—between the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west and the Tidewater region to the east.
- Tidewater—between the fall line to the west and the Atlantic coast to the east; it includes the Eastern Shore.
Virginia's long east-west axis means that metropolitan northern Virginia lies much closer to
New York City and
New England than to its own rural western panhandle. Conversely, Lee County, at the tip of the panhandle, is closer to eight other
state capitals than it is to
Richmond, its own capital.
Virginia has a number of
National Park Service units, including one
national park, the
Shenandoah National Park. For a list of all areas managed by the National Park Service within Virginia, see:
List of areas in the National Park System of the United States in Virginia.
For Virginia state parks, see:
List of Virginia state parks.
History
Native Americans
At the time of the English colonization of Virginia, Native American people living in what now is Virginia were the
Cherokee, Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Meherrin, Monacan, Nansemond, Nottaway,
Pamunkey, Pohick,
Powhatan, Rappahannock, Saponi, and Tuscarora. The natives are often divided into three groups. The largest group are known as the
Algonquian who numbered over 10,000. The other groups are the
Iroquoian and the
Siouan.
Virginia Colony: 1607–1776
At the end of the
16th century, when England began to colonize North America,
Queen Elizabeth I of England gave the name "Virginia" to the whole area explored by the 1584 expedition of Sir
Walter Raleigh along the coast of
North America. The name eventually applied to the whole coast from
South Carolina to
Maine. The
London Virginia Company became incorporated as a joint stock company by a proprietary charter drawn up on April 10, 1606. The charter granted lands stretching from approximately the 34th parallel north to approximately the 45th parallel and from the Atlantic Ocean westward. It swiftly financed the first permanent
English settlement in the
New World, which was at
Jamestown, named in honor of
King James I, in the
Virginia Colony, in 1607. The settlement was founded by Captain
Christopher Newport and
Captain John Smith. Its Second Charter was officially ratified on May 23, 1609.
The Viginia Company was also left in control of
Bermuda from 1609, when its flagship was wrecked there en route to Jamestown. Its Royal Charter was extended to include the Islands of Bermuda, alias
The Somers Isles , in 1612. Bermuda remained part of Virginia until 1614, when its administration was handed to the Crown .
Jamestown was the original capital of the Virginia Colony, and remained so until the State House burned in 1698. After the fire, the colonial capital was moved to nearby Middle Plantation, which was renamed Williamsburg in honor of William of Orange,
King William III. Virginia was given its nickname, "The Old Dominion", by King
Charles II of England at the time of
The Restoration, because it had remained loyal to the crown during the
English Civil War.
An independent commonwealth
In 1780, during the
American Revolutionary War, the capital was moved to
Richmond at the urging of then-
Governor Thomas Jefferson, who was afraid that Williamsburg's location made it vulnerable to a
British attack. In the
autumn of 1781, American troops trapped the
British on the
Yorktown peninsula in the famous Battle of Yorktown. This prompted a British surrender on October 19, 1781, formally ending the war and securing the former colonies' independence, even though sporadic fighting continued for two years.
Patrick Henry served as the first Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779, and again from 1784 to 1786. On June 12, 1776, the Virginia Convention adopted the
Virginia Declaration of Rights written by
George Mason, a document that influenced the
Bill of Rights added later to the
United States Constitution. On June 29, 1776, the convention adopted a constitution that established Virginia as a commonwealth independent of the British Empire. In 1790, both Virginia and
Maryland ceded territory to form the new
District of Columbia, but in an Act of the
U.S. Congress dated July 9, 1846, the area south of the Potomac that had been ceded by Virginia
was retroceded to Virginia effective 1847, and is now
Arlington County and part of the
City of Alexandria.
American Civil War
Virginia is one of the states that seceded from the Union and operated independently until it joined the
Confederacy during the
Civil War when it turned over its military on June 8 and ratified the Constitution of the Confederate States on June 19. When it did, some counties were separated as Kanawha , an act which was upheld by the
United States Supreme Court in 1870. More battles were fought on Virginia soil than anywhere else in America during the Civil War. The city of
Richmond served as the capital of the Confederacy during the war. Virginia formally rejoined the Union on January 26, 1870, after a period of post-war military rule.
Demographics
| Historical populations |
|---|
Census
year | Population |
|---|
|
| 1790 | 691,737 |
| 1800 | 807,557 |
| 1810 | 877,683 |
| 1820 | 938,261 |
| 1830 | 1,044,054 |
| 1840 | 1,025,227 |
| 1850 | 1,119,348 |
| 1860 | 1,219,630 |
| 1870 | 1,225,163 |
| 1880 | 1,512,565 |
| 1890 | 1,655,980 |
| 1900 | 1,854,184 |
| 1910 | 2,061,612 |
| 1920 | 2,309,187 |
| 1930 | 2,421,851 |
| 1940 | 2,677,773 |
| 1950 | 3,318,680 |
| 1960 | 3,966,949 |
| 1970 | 4,648,494 |
| 1980 | 5,346,818 |
| 1990 | 6,187,358 |
| 2000 | 7,078,515 |
As of 2005, Virginia had an estimated population of 7,567,465, which is an increase of 86,133, or 1.2%, from the prior year and an increase of 488,435, or 6.9%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 231,055 people and an increase from net migration of 243,498 people into the commonwealth. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 139,977 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 103,521 people.
As of 2006, the commonwealth had a foreign-born population of
874,000 people.
Ethnicity and ancestry
The five largest reported ancestry groups in Virginia are:
African American ,
German ,
American , English ,
Irish .
Historically, as the largest and wealthiest colony and state and the birthplace of Southern and American culture, a large proportion of Virginia's population was made up of black slaves who worked its
tobacco,
cotton, and
hemp plantations. Initially, these slaves came from West Central Africa, primarily
Angola. During the eighteenth century, however, about half of them derived from various ethnicities located in the
Niger Delta region of modern day
Nigeria. The twentieth century Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the urban North reduced Virginia's black population to about 20 percent.
Today, blacks are concentrated in the eastern and southern tidewater and piedmont regions where plantation agriculture was most dominant. The western mountains are populated primarily by people of British and American ancestry. People of German descent are present in sizable numbers in the northwestern mountains and Shenandoah Valley. And because of recent immigration, there is a rapidly growing population of Hispanics and Asians in the
northern Virginia suburbs of
Washington, DC. Also, the Norfolk–Virginia Beach area is home to over 80,000 Filipinos and over 100,000 Vietnamese residents, along with several hundred
Hmong.
6.5% of Virginia's population were reported as under 5, 24.6% under 18, and 11.2% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51% of the population.
Religion
The religious affiliations of the people of Virginia are:
- Christian – 84%
- Protestant – 69%
- Roman Catholic – 14%
- Other Christian – 1%
- Other Religions – 2%
- Non-Religious – 12%
Virginia is predominatly Protestant; Baptists account as the largest single group with 32.1% of the population being members. Roman Catholics are the second biggest group, and also the third fastest growing. Islam, the second fastest growing group, accounts for 0.99% of the 2% "Other Religions" shown above. Buddhism and Hinduism combined form the fastest group, and largest of the "Other Religions" shown above, accounting for 1.00% of that statistic shown above. About 50.0% of the non-Christian faiths come from India, 3.70% come from the Middle East, 5.50% come from China, 2.20% from Guyana, 0.1% come from Sri Lanka, and 37.9% come from other nations.
Economy
According to the 2004 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis report, Virginia’s gross state product was $326.6 billion. The per capita personal income was $35,477 in 2004.
Virginia's economy is well balanced with diverse sources of income. From the Hampton Roads area to Richmond and down to Lee County in the southwest it includes military installations, cattle, tobacco and peanut farming in Southside Virginia. Northern Virginia hosts software, communications, consulting, defense contracting, diplomats, and considerable components of the professional government sector.
Coal mining in Virginia dates to
Midlothian and Gayton during the 18th and 19th century, and some mines are still active in southwest Virginia.
Kaolin clay has also been mined at Willis Mountain and at
Bon Air.
Gold mining was once economically significant, and, at its peak, Virginia was the third largest gold-producing state. Though there are no active commercial mines, gold prospecting continues today on an amateur/hobbyist basis. A large diamond was once discovered during a minor excavation in
Manchester.
Virginia, arguably the wealthiest southern state before the Civil War, recovered from the Civil War and the Great Depression much faster than the rest of the South. Today it is still significantly wealthier than the rest of the South, although much of that is from the northern influence around Washington D.C.
Virginia collects personal
income tax in five income brackets, ranging from 3.0 percent to 5.75 percent. The sales and use tax rate is 4 percent. The tax rate on food is 1.5 percent. There is an additional 1 percent local tax, for a total of a 5 percent combined sales tax on most Virginia purchases and a combined tax rate of 2.5 percent on food. Virginia's property tax is set and collected at the local government level and varies throughout the commonwealth. Real estate is taxed at the local level based on 100 percent of fair market value. Effective true tax rates on real estate vary and are set by locality. Tangible personal property also is taxed at the local level and is based on a percentage or percentages of original cost. Tangible personal property includes, but is not limited to, machinery and equipment, furniture, fixtures, and trucks and automobiles. The Virginia General Assembly exempted intangible personal property from taxation in 1984 by making the tax rate zero. Virginia does not collect inheritance taxes; however, its estate tax is decoupled from the federal estate tax laws, and therefore the Commonwealth imposes its own estate tax.
Transportation
Virginia is served by a network of
Interstate Highways, arterial highways, several limited-access tollways,
railroads,
ferries,
rapid transit,
bridges,
tunnels and even bridge-tunnels.
In the
Hampton Roads area, there are three bridge-tunnel complexes known as the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, and the
Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Two tunnels and numerous bridges span portions of the Elizabeth River. The
James River Bridge, opened in 1928, and rebuilt in the 1970s, spans the James River near its mouth and north of the
Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel.
The
Springfield Interchange Project is a major effort to help traffic flow at the
Interstate 95, 395, and
Capital Beltway interchange south of
Washington, D.C. Virginia has
Amtrak passenger rail service along several corridors, and
Virginia Railway Express maintains two commuter lines into Washington, D.C. The
Washington Metro rapid transit system serves
Northern Virginia as far west as
Fairfax County.
The
Virginia Department of Transportation operates several free ferries throughout Virginia, the most notable being the Jamestown-Scotland ferry which crosses the James River between historic
Jamestown and the community of Scotland in Surry County.
Law and government
The current governor of Virginia is
Tim Kaine. The
Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond was designed by
Thomas Jefferson, and the cornerstone was laid by Governor
Patrick Henry in 1785.
In colonial Virginia, the lower house of the legislature was called the
House of Burgesses. Together with the Governor's Council, the House of Burgesses made up the
General Assembly. The Governor's Council was composed of 12 men appointed by the
British Monarch to advise the Governor. The Council also served as the
General Court of the colony, a colonial equivalent of a Supreme Court. Members of the House of Burgesses were chosen by all those who could vote in the colony. Each county chose two people or burgesses to represent it, while the
College of William and Mary and the cities of
Norfolk, Williamsburg, and
Jamestown each chose one burgess. The Burgesses met to make laws for the colony and set the direction for its future growth; the Council would then review the laws and either approve or disapprove them. The approval of the Burgesses, the Council, and the governor was needed to pass a law. The idea of electing burgesses was important and new. It gave Virginians a chance to control their own government for the first time. At first, the burgesses were elected by all free men in the colony. Women, indentured servants, and
Native Americans could not vote. Later the rules for voting changed, making it necessary for men to own at least fifty acres of land in order to vote. Founded in 1619, the Virginia General Assembly is still in existence as the oldest legislature in the New World. Today, the
General Assembly is made up of the
Senate and the
House of Delegates.
Like many other states, by the 1850s Virginia featured a state legislature, several executive officers, and an independent judiciary. By the time of the Constitution of 1901, which lasted longer than any other state constitution, the General Assembly continued as the legislature, the Supreme Court of Appeals acted as the judiciary, and the eight elected executive officers were the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of the Commonwealth, State Treasurer, Auditor of Public Accounts, Superintendent of Public Instruction and Commissioner of Agriculture and Immigration. The Constitution of 1901 was amended many times, notably in the 1930s and 1950s, before it was abandoned in favor of more modern government, with fewer elected officials, reformed local governments and a more streamlined judiciary.
Virginia currently functions under the 1970 Constitution of Virginia. It is the Commonwealth's ninth
constitution. Under the Constitution, the government is composed of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.
The
legislative branch or state legislature is the Virginia General Assembly, a
bicameral body whose 140 members make all laws of the Commonwealth. Members of the Virginia House of Delegates serve two-year terms, while members of the Virginia Senate serve four-year terms. The General Assembly also selects the Commonwealth's Auditor of Public Accounts. The statutory law enacted by the General Assembly is codified in the
Code of Virginia.
The
executive branch comprises the
Governor of Virginia, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, and the Attorney General of Virginia. All three officers are separately elected to four-year terms in years following Presidential elections and take office in January of the following year.
The governor serves as chief executive officer of the Commonwealth and as commander-in-chief of its militia. Virginia law forbids any governor from serving consecutive terms. The
lieutenant governor serves as president of the Senate of Virginia and is first in the line of succession to the governor. The attorney general is chief legal advisor to the governor and the General Assembly, chief lawyer of the Commonwealth and the head of the Department of Law. The attorney general is second in the line of succession to the governor. Whenever there is a vacancy in all three executive offices of governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, then the Speaker of the House of the Virginia House of Delegates becomes governor.
The Office of the Governor's Secretaries helps manage the Governor's Cabinet, comprised of the following individuals, all appointed by the governor:
- Governor's Chief of Staff
- Secretary of Administration
- Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry
- Secretary of Commerce and Trade
- Secretary of the Commonwealth
- Secretary of Education
- Secretary of Finance
- Secretary of Health and Human Resources
- Secretary of Natural Resources
- Secretary of Public Safety
- Secretary of Technology
- Secretary of Transportation
- Assistant to the Governor for Commonwealth Preparedness
- Counselor to the Governor
The
judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Virginia Court of Appeals, the General District Courts and the Circuit Courts. The Virginia Supreme Court, composed of the chief justice and six other judges is the highest court in the Commonwealth . The Chief Justice and the Virginia Supreme Court also serve as the administrative
