http://encyclopediavirginia.org http://encyclopediavirginia.org/img/EV_Logo_sm.gif This is the url http://encyclopediavirginia.org The first and ultimate online reference work about the Commonwealth /Fay_Lydia_Mary_ca_1804-1878 Fri, 17 May 2013 09:22:26 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Fay_Lydia_Mary_ca_1804-1878 Fri, 17 May 2013 09:22:26 EST]]> /Daniel_Raleigh_Travers_1805-1877 Wed, 15 May 2013 14:35:05 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Daniel_Raleigh_Travers_1805-1877 Wed, 15 May 2013 14:35:05 EST]]> /Daniels_Edward_Dwight_1828-1916 Fri, 10 May 2013 11:23:32 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Daniels_Edward_Dwight_1828-1916 Fri, 10 May 2013 11:23:32 EST]]> /Cottrell_Sally_d_1875 Wed, 08 May 2013 11:31:05 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Cottrell_Sally_d_1875 Wed, 08 May 2013 11:31:05 EST]]> /_Life_of_Isaac_Jefferson_of_Petersburg_Virginia_Blacksmith_by_Isaac_Jefferson_1847 Fri, 03 May 2013 09:49:59 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/_Life_of_Isaac_Jefferson_of_Petersburg_Virginia_Blacksmith_by_Isaac_Jefferson_1847 Fri, 03 May 2013 09:49:59 EST]]> /Carter_William_Richard_1833-1864 Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:10:53 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Carter_William_Richard_1833-1864 Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:10:53 EST]]> /Blackford_W_W_1831-1905 Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:28:30 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Blackford_W_W_1831-1905 Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:28:30 EST]]> /Slave_Trade_Eyre_Crowe_s_Images_of_the Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:10:03 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Slave_Trade_Eyre_Crowe_s_Images_of_the Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:10:03 EST]]> /Cooke_Philip_St_George_1809-1895 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:53:47 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Cooke_Philip_St_George_1809-1895 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:53:47 EST]]> /Cooke_Philip_Pendleton_1816-1850 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:47:03 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Cooke_Philip_Pendleton_1816-1850 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:47:03 EST]]> /Cocke_Philip_St_George_1809-1861 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:16:16 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Cocke_Philip_St_George_1809-1861 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:16:16 EST]]> /Carter_Robert_Randolph_1825-1888 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:19:24 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Carter_Robert_Randolph_1825-1888 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:19:24 EST]]> /Butt_Martha_Haines_1833-1871 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:46:02 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Butt_Martha_Haines_1833-1871 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:46:02 EST]]> /Bryan_Daniel_ca_1789-1866 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:21:59 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Bryan_Daniel_ca_1789-1866 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:21:59 EST]]> /Beale_R_L_T_1819-1893 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:50:38 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Beale_R_L_T_1819-1893 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:50:38 EST]]> /Barron_Samuel_1809-1888 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:45:34 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Barron_Samuel_1809-1888 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:45:34 EST]]> /Baldwin_John_Brown_1820-1873 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:33:43 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Baldwin_John_Brown_1820-1873 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:33:43 EST]]> /Bagby_George_William_1828-1883 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:16:01 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Bagby_George_William_1828-1883 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:16:01 EST]]> /Aulick_John_H_ca_1791-1873 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:45:43 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Aulick_John_H_ca_1791-1873 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:45:43 EST]]> /Anderson_Joseph_Reid_1813-1892 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:57:06 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Anderson_Joseph_Reid_1813-1892 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:57:06 EST]]> /Mahone_William_1826-1895 Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:57:08 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Mahone_William_1826-1895 Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:57:08 EST]]> /_The_most_promising_work_an_excerpt_from_Exhibition_of_the_Royal_Academy_June_1_1861 Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:48:43 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/_The_most_promising_work_an_excerpt_from_Exhibition_of_the_Royal_Academy_June_1_1861 Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:48:43 EST]]> /_Sketches_in_the_Free_and_Slave_States_of_America_by_Eyre_Crowe_September_27_1856 Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:44:45 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/_Sketches_in_the_Free_and_Slave_States_of_America_by_Eyre_Crowe_September_27_1856 Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:44:45 EST]]> /Slavery_at_the_University_of_Virginia Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:02:07 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Slavery_at_the_University_of_Virginia Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:02:07 EST]]> /University_of_Virginia_Board_of_Visitors_Minutes_October_4-5_1824 Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:08:19 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/University_of_Virginia_Board_of_Visitors_Minutes_October_4-5_1824 Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:08:19 EST]]> /Randolph_Martha_Jefferson_1772-1836 Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:36:30 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Randolph_Martha_Jefferson_1772-1836 Martha Jefferson Randolph was the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and the wife of Thomas Mann Randolph, who served as governor of Virginia from 1819 to 1822. She grew up at Monticello and spent time in Williamsburg, Richmond, and Philadelphia before accompanying her widowed father to Paris, France, where she attended the Abbaye Royale de Panthemont, a prestigious convent school. After she returned to Virginia, she married and bore twelve children, eleven of whom survived to adulthood. Although she was the daughter of a president, the wife of a governor, and arguably the most highly educated woman in Virginia, Randolph's life was in many ways representative. Widely admired for her intelligence, sociability, and conversational skills, she was an exemplar of genteel white womanhood who was said to possess a "perfect temper" and who immersed herself in the trials and joys of marriage, motherhood, and plantation life. Randolph and her children lived mainly at Monticello, although her husband owned the nearby plantation Edgehill. Occasionally during her father's presidency, and throughout his retirement, she acted as hostess. Her presence reinforced Jefferson's image as a devoted family man with a stable domestic life, though fulfilling this role in her father's life may have exacerbated her already strained marriage. Both father and husband struggled and ultimately failed to remain solvent. After their deaths in 1826 and 1828, respectively, Randolph lived with her married children. She died at Edgehill on October 10, 1836.
Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:36:30 EST]]> /Monticello Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:13:52 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Monticello Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:13:52 EST]]> /Slave_Ships_and_the_Middle_Passage Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:48:55 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Slave_Ships_and_the_Middle_Passage Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:48:55 EST]]> /Burns_Anthony_The_Trial_of_1854 Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:41:13 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Burns_Anthony_The_Trial_of_1854 Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:41:13 EST]]> /Burns_Anthony_1834-1862 Thu, 17 Jan 2013 09:26:39 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Burns_Anthony_1834-1862 Thu, 17 Jan 2013 09:26:39 EST]]> /University_of_Virginia_Board_of_Visitors_Minutes_July_4-7_1840 Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:09:10 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/University_of_Virginia_Board_of_Visitors_Minutes_July_4-7_1840 Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:09:10 EST]]> /Known_World_The_2003 Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:10:28 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Known_World_The_2003 Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:10:28 EST]]> /Minkins_Shadrach_d_1875 Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:44:00 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Minkins_Shadrach_d_1875 Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:44:00 EST]]> /Fugitive_Slave_Laws Thu, 20 Dec 2012 12:52:00 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Fugitive_Slave_Laws Thu, 20 Dec 2012 12:52:00 EST]]> /Mourning_During_the_Civil_War Tue, 04 Dec 2012 08:24:08 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Mourning_During_the_Civil_War Mourning is the process of grieving the death of a loved one. In the mid-nineteenth century, middle- and upper-class Americans observed an elaborate set of rules that governed behavior following the death of a spouse or relative. The astronomical rate of death during the American Civil War (1861–1865) often hindered the mourning process, transformed the ways in which individuals and communities responded to death, and heightened women's public role in mourning traditions.
Tue, 04 Dec 2012 08:24:08 EST]]> /Lee_Robert_Edward_1807-1870 Tue, 04 Dec 2012 08:09:24 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Lee_Robert_Edward_1807-1870 Tue, 04 Dec 2012 08:09:24 EST]]> /Winder_John_H_1800-1865 Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:15:20 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Winder_John_H_1800-1865 Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:15:20 EST]]> /Letter_from_Ellen_Wayles_Randolph_Coolidge_to_Joseph_Coolidge_October_24_1858 Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:49:05 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Letter_from_Ellen_Wayles_Randolph_Coolidge_to_Joseph_Coolidge_October_24_1858 Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:49:05 EST]]> /Will_and_Codicil_of_Thomas_Jefferson_1826 Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:41:37 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Will_and_Codicil_of_Thomas_Jefferson_1826 Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:41:37 EST]]> /Lewis_Miller_s_Virginia_Slavery_Drawings Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:29:17 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Lewis_Miller_s_Virginia_Slavery_Drawings Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:29:17 EST]]> /Will_of_Martha_Jefferson_Randolph_April_18_1834 Thu, 08 Nov 2012 14:40:11 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Will_of_Martha_Jefferson_Randolph_April_18_1834 Thu, 08 Nov 2012 14:40:11 EST]]> /American_Civil_War_and_Virginia_The Tue, 06 Nov 2012 16:52:10 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/American_Civil_War_and_Virginia_The Tue, 06 Nov 2012 16:52:10 EST]]> /Jennings_Paul_1799-1874 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:31:43 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Jennings_Paul_1799-1874 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:31:43 EST]]> /_To_the_New_York_Committee_for_the_Celebration_of_the_Birthday_of_Washington_by_Daniel_Webster_February_20_1851 Wed, 03 Oct 2012 09:21:25 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/_To_the_New_York_Committee_for_the_Celebration_of_the_Birthday_of_Washington_by_Daniel_Webster_February_20_1851 Wed, 03 Oct 2012 09:21:25 EST]]> /Blake_or_the_Huts_of_America_1859-1861 Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:25:08 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Blake_or_the_Huts_of_America_1859-1861 Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:25:08 EST]]> /Brown_John_1800-1859 Thu, 13 Sep 2012 14:05:04 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Brown_John_1800-1859 John Brown was a fervent abolitionist who was accused of massacring pro-slavery settlers in Kansas in 1856 and who, in 1859, led an unsuccessful raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (in what is now West Virginia), in an attempt to start a slave insurrection. On October 16, 1859, Brown and his men occupied the federal arsenal in the northern Shenandoah Valley and were quickly surrounded by the combined forces of local militias and a detachment of United States marines led by Robert E. Lee and J. E. B. Stuart. After a thirty-six-hour shoot-out, Brown and his surviving men surrendered. At the insistence of Virginia governor Henry Wise, Brown was tried in state, not federal, court. At the end of a gripping trial held in Charles Town, he was found guilty of conspiracy, of inciting servile insurrection, and of treason against the state. He was hanged on December 2, 1859. Brown's raid (and the fact that five of his "soldiers" were African Americans) touched off a frenzy among Southern slave-owners and, in the estimation of many historians, set the nation on an irreversible course toward the American Civil War (1861–1865).
Thu, 13 Sep 2012 14:05:04 EST]]> /_A_Proclamation_by_the_President_of_the_United_States_February_18_1851 Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:09:50 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/_A_Proclamation_by_the_President_of_the_United_States_February_18_1851 Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:09:50 EST]]> /_Uncle_Gabriel Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:38:29 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/_Uncle_Gabriel Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:38:29 EST]]> /Floyd_John_B_1806-1863 Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:05:46 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Floyd_John_B_1806-1863 John B. Floyd was governor of Virginia (1849–1852), secretary of war in the administration of United States president James Buchanan (1857–1860), and a Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). As governor, he helped usher in the apportionment and suffrage reforms proposed by the constitutional convention of 1850–1851, but at Buchanan's War Department his reputation plunged because of various corruption scandals. His good name would never recover. At Fort Donelson, Tennessee, in February 1862, he held off the forces of Union brigadier general Ulysses S. Grant for two days. Rather than personally surrender, however, he and his Virginia soldiers fled by steamboat in the middle of the night, leaving the duty to his third in command. Floyd was relieved of his command a month later.
Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:05:46 EST]]> /_An_ACT_to_amend_the_several_laws_concerning_slaves_1806 Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:38:21 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/_An_ACT_to_amend_the_several_laws_concerning_slaves_1806 The following legislation, "An ACT to amend the several laws concerning slaves," was passed by the General Assembly on January 25, 1806, and prohibits the importation of slaves to Virginia and requires that any freed slaves leave the state within twelve months.
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:38:21 EST]]> /_Gabriel_s_Defeat_September_17_1831 Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:38:39 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/_Gabriel_s_Defeat_September_17_1831 In "Gabriel's Defeat," published on September 17, 1831, the editors of the Liberator reprint a romanticized and inaccurate account of Gabriel's Conspiracy (1800) that first appeared in the Albany Evening Journal. The context of its publication was the more recent, more successful uprising led by Nat Turner in Southampton County earlier in the year.
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:38:39 EST]]> /_Gabriel_s_Defeat_October_21_1831 Mon, 16 Jul 2012 14:49:02 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/_Gabriel_s_Defeat_October_21_1831 In "Gabriel's Defeat," published on October 21, 1831, the editors of the Richmond Enquirer seek to correct the facts in an article of the same name published in the Albany Evening Journal. The subject is Gabriel's Conspiracy (1800), although the context was the more recent, more successful uprising led by Nat Turner in Southampton County earlier in the year.
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 14:49:02 EST]]> /Poe_Edgar_Allan_1809-1849 Wed, 13 Jun 2012 13:33:07 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Poe_Edgar_Allan_1809-1849 Edgar Allan Poe was a poet, short story writer, editor, and critic. Credited by many scholars as the inventor of the detective genre in fiction, he was a master at using elements of mystery, psychological terror, and the macabre in his writing. His most famous poem, "The Raven" (1845), combines his penchant for suspense with some of the most famous lines in American poetry. While editor of the Richmond-based Southern Literary Messenger, Poe carved out a philosophy of poetry that emphasized brevity and beauty for its own sake. Stories, he wrote, should be crafted to convey a single, unified impression, and for Poe, that impression was most often dread. "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843), for instance, memorably describes the paranoia of its narrator, who is guilty of murder. After leaving Richmond, Poe lived and worked in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York, seeming to collect literary enemies wherever he went. Incensed by his especially sharp, often sarcastic style of criticism, they were not inclined to help Poe as his life unraveled because of sickness and poverty. After Poe's death at the age of forty, a former colleague, Rufus W. Griswold, wrote a scathing biography that contributed, in the years to come, to a literary caricature. Poe's poetry and prose, however, have endured.
Wed, 13 Jun 2012 13:33:07 EST]]> /Religion_During_the_Civil_War Thu, 10 May 2012 13:57:10 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Religion_During_the_Civil_War As many as two-thirds of all Virginians attended a Protestant church before the American Civil War (1861–1865). These men and women witnessed intense conflict within their congregations and denominational councils before, during, and after the war. All Virginia churchgoers saw their congregations torn asunder at least once during the sectional conflict, whether in the process of dividing from Northern churches before the war, when they sent their sons to fight, or upon the secession of black members from biracial communities. On a more ideological level, even many Virginians who were not connected with a particular church interpreted the Civil War in religious terms. All Virginians who faced death in the field or on forced labor projects—or who experienced the deaths of loved ones—wondered why God permitted such extraordinary suffering. In addition, white Virginians found Union victory a disturbing challenge to their belief that God had favored both slavery and the Confederacy. Black Virginians, on the other hand, found Union victory a resounding affirmation that God had heard their prayers.
Thu, 10 May 2012 13:57:10 EST]]> /_Nottoway_Indians_from_Gentleman_s_Magazine_1821 Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:31:08 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/_Nottoway_Indians_from_Gentleman_s_Magazine_1821 In this short dispatch from London's Gentleman's Magazine, originally printed in 1821, an anonymous writer—probably John Wood, a mathematics professor at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg—recounts his visit to a community of Nottoway Indians in Southampton County. He mistakenly describes the Nottoways' language as "Powhattan," which is to say Algonquian, and even Celtic; in fact, Wood's word list made its way from Thomas Jefferson to Stephen DuPonceau, who identified it as likely Iroquoian. In his short piece, Wood also comments on the Virginia Indians' religion.
Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:31:08 EST]]> /Brown_Henry_Box_ca_1815 Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:32:15 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Brown_Henry_Box_ca_1815 Henry Box Brown was an abolitionist lecturer and performer. Born a slave in Louisa County, he worked in a Richmond tobacco factory and lived in a rented house. Then, in 1848, his wife, who was owned by another master and who was pregnant with their fourth child, was sold away to North Carolina, along with their children. Brown resolved to escape from slavery and enlisted the help of a free black and a white slaveowner, who conspired to ship him in a box to Philadelphia. In March 1849 the package was accepted there by a leader of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. As a free man, Brown lectured across New England on the evils of slavery and participated in the publication of the Narrative of Henry Box Brown (1849). In 1850, a moving panorama, Henry Box Brown's Mirror of Slavery, opened in Boston. That same year, Brown, worried that he might be re-enslaved, moved to England, where he lectured, presented his panorama, and performed as a hypnotist. In 1875, he returned to the United States with his wife and daughter Annie and performed as a magician. Brown's date and place of death are unknown, but his legacy as a symbol of the Underground Railroad and enslaved African Americans' thirst for freedom is secure.
Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:32:15 EST]]> /Cook_Fields_ca_1817-1897 Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:08:24 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Cook_Fields_ca_1817-1897 Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:08:24 EST]]> /Chilton_Samuel_1805-1867 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:18:11 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Chilton_Samuel_1805-1867 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:18:11 EST]]> /Caruthers_William_Alexander_1802-1846 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:07:47 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Caruthers_William_Alexander_1802-1846 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:07:47 EST]]> /Letcher_John_1813-1884 Thu, 26 May 2011 16:41:48 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Letcher_John_1813-1884 John Letcher was a lawyer, newspaper editor, member of the United States House of Representatives (1851–1859), and governor of Virginia (1860–1864) during the American Civil War (1861–1865). In a career that lasted decades, he weathered radical shifts of opinion and power by consistently positioning himself as a moderate, supporting, for instance, increased commercial ties between the eastern and western portions of the state and more political representation for western counties, codified in the Convention of 1850–1851. He advocated for a gradual emancipation of slaves and resisted the entreaties of radical secessionists while still arguing on behalf of states' rights. Western support and a divided Whig Party helped him narrowly win the governorship as a Democrat in 1859, but his term was often a difficult one. He ably mobilized Virginia for war and then threw the state's tremendous resources behind the Confederacy. But his willingness to requisition for the Confederacy needed supplies such as salt caused controversy at home, as did his support of impressments. Letcher returned to Lexington in 1864, ran for the Confederate Congress and lost, and was briefly imprisoned at the conclusion of the war. After his release, he resumed his law career, returning to state politics before dying in 1884.
Thu, 26 May 2011 16:41:48 EST]]> /Tucker_George_1775-1861 Mon, 16 May 2011 13:01:57 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Tucker_George_1775-1861 Mon, 16 May 2011 13:01:57 EST]]> /Scott_Winfield_1786-1866 Mon, 16 May 2011 09:55:53 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Scott_Winfield_1786-1866 Winfield Scott was a hero of the Mexican War (1846–1848), the last Whig Party candidate for U.S. president, and commanding general of the United States Army at the start of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Known as "Old Fuss and Feathers" for his equal love of discipline and pomp, Scott by 1861 had served in the military for more than fifty years and under fourteen U.S. presidents. He had been severely wounded in battle, avoided several wars with his diplomatic skills, and commanded the army that conquered Mexico City in 1847, all of which made him the most admired and famous soldier in America. Less well known is the fact that Scott was convicted by court-martial for conduct unbecoming an officer, was investigated by a court of inquiry, once was accused of treason, and several times offered his resignation from the army. When the Civil War began, the Dinwiddie County native remained loyal to the Union, and while age had so reduced his once-towering frame that he could no longer even mount a horse, his ego and intellect were still intact. Scott's Anaconda Plan for winning the war proved to be prescient but politically out of step, and he eventually lost control of the army to George B. McClellan. He soon retired, published a two-volume memoir in 1864, and died in 1866.
Mon, 16 May 2011 09:55:53 EST]]> /Whig_Party_in_Virginia Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:51:27 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Whig_Party_in_Virginia The Whig Party was a political party in Virginia and across the United States that was founded in 1833 in opposition to the policies of U.S. president Andrew Jackson—a Democrat who was criticized for his expansion of executive powers—and in support of states' rights and, eventually, the sectional interests of the South. Whigs, especially in the North, vigorously opposed the Mexican War (1846–1848), a conflict that led to increased sectional friction as the federal government attempted, without great success, to strike a balance between the interests of North and South, free and slave, when admitting the newly captured territory into the Union. By 1856, that friction had destroyed the party, both within the state and nationally, forcing its members to affiliate with different parties dictated largely by their stance on slavery and secession. In the years leading up to the American Civil War (1861–1865), many prominent former Virginia Whig Party members, such as John Minor Botts, were vocal in their resistance to Democratic calls for secession. Other prominent Virginia Whigs included Mexican War heroes Zachary Taylor, who served as U.S. president from 1849 until 1850, and Winfield Scott, who ran unsuccessfully for the office in 1852.
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:51:27 EST]]> /Lee_Mary_Anna_Randolph_Custis_1807-1873 Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:42:57 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Lee_Mary_Anna_Randolph_Custis_1807-1873 Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee was an artist, author, and early antislavery activist. The great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, she enjoyed virtually unequalled social status throughout her life. Tutored in history and philosophy, she became acquainted with the early republic's leaders, who visited her father's estate, Arlington. Following her mother's lead, she fought slavery, and helped to ease the lives of her own family's slaves. Her uncle's death in 1830 prompted a religious awakening, and marriage the next year to Robert E. Lee put her in the position of being an army wife, a somewhat uncomfortable role for someone of her background. She followed her husband to his various outposts, sketching her travels and becoming an artist of some note. While her connection to Lee did not immediately augment her social standing, when he led the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865), she was accorded further deference. Mary Custis Lee had not supported secession, but she was a devoted Confederate, her grace under pressure making her a symbol of quiet strength in wartime Richmond. At the end of her life, she was embittered by the Union occupation of her beloved Arlington and felt betrayed by her family's former slaves. She died in 1873.
Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:42:57 EST]]> /West_Virginia_Creation_of Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:52:33 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/West_Virginia_Creation_of West Virginia was recognized by the United States government as the thirty-fifth state on June 20, 1863, an event that was the culmination of more than sixty years of heated sectional politics and legislative maneuverings. From the first political rumblings of new-state advocates at the turn of the nineteenth century through the formative sessions of the Wheeling conventions held from 1861 until 1863, the creation of West Virginia was a complex and contentious process that divided the residents, communities, and political leaders of Virginia. Spearheaded by northwestern Virginians, the statehood movement began as an effort to expand western political influence and the region's growing industrial economy. Final approval of West Virginia's statehood was forged amid the chaos and divisiveness of the secession debate and the bloodshed of the American Civil War (1861–1865).
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:52:33 EST]]> /States_Rights Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:35:21 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/States_Rights Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:35:21 EST]]> /Ruffin_Edmund_1794-1865 Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:15:40 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Ruffin_Edmund_1794-1865 Edmund Ruffin was a prominent Southern nationalist, noted agriculturalist, writer and essayist, and Virginia state senator (1823–1827). After dropping out of college and serving briefly in the Virginia militia during the War of 1812, Ruffin began a long career farming along the James River and studying the soil. He published the results of his experiments and founded a journal, the Farmers' Register, in 1833. During these years, Ruffin's politics also became radicalized, first around banking issues, and then around states' rights, slavery, and secession. After John Brown's failed raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in October 1859, Ruffin began speaking out against what he considered to be Northern aggression, and he even joined cadets from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington so he could attend Brown's execution. Ruffin continued to agitate for secession during the United States presidential election of 1860, and he is erroneously credited with firing the first shot on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, starting the American Civil War (1861–1865). A popular hero in the South, Ruffin nevertheless suffered financial setbacks during the war, as well as declining health, and in 1865, following the Confederates' defeat, he killed himself.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:15:40 EST]]> /Wise_Henry_A_1806-1876 Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:10:03 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Wise_Henry_A_1806-1876 Henry A. Wise was a lawyer, a member of the United States House of Representatives (1832–1844), U.S. minister to Brazil (1844–1847), governor of Virginia (1856–1860) during John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and a brigadier general in the Confederate army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Born in Accomack County on Virginia's Eastern Shore, Wise rose to national prominence during the political turmoil of the late antebellum period. A fiery politician and gifted orator with a mercurial temperament, he advocated a number of progressive positions, including capital improvements in western Virginia, broadening Virginia's electoral base through constitutional reform, and public funding for universal elementary education. Wise also was a stout defender of slavery and eventually became an ardent secessionist. Perhaps best known for being governor when Brown attempted to spark a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry, Wise had the authority to commute Brown's death sentence. Instead, he allowed the execution to take place, making possible the radical abolitionist's ascension to martyrdom. After Virginia's secession in 1861, Wise served in the Confederate army. In 1872, he supported U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant, the former Union general-in-chief, in his campaign for reelection.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:10:03 EST]]> /Davis_Jefferson_1808-1889 Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:21:03 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Davis_Jefferson_1808-1889 Jefferson Davis was a celebrated veteran of the Mexican War (1846–1848), a U.S. senator from Mississippi (1847–1851; 1857–1861), secretary of war under U.S. president Franklin Pierce (1853–1857), and the only president of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Tall, lean, and formal, Davis was considered to be an ideal leader of the Confederacy upon his election in 1861, despite the fact that he neither sought the job nor particularly wanted it. Davis was a war hero, slaveholder, and longtime advocate of states' rights who nevertheless was not viewed to be a radical "fire-eater," making him more appealing to the hesitating moderates in Virginia. Still, Davis's reputation suffered over the years. Searing headaches, caused in part by facial neuralgia, exacerbated an already prickly personality. "I have an infirmity of which I am heartily ashamed," he said. "When I am aroused in a matter, I lose control of my feelings and become personal." The challenges inherent in holding together a wartime government founded on the idea of states' rights didn't help, either, nor did critics like E. A. Pollard, editor of the Richmond Examiner, who charged after the war that the Lost Cause was "lost by the perfidy of Jefferson Davis." Robert E. Lee, however, spoke for many when he said, "You can always say that few people could have done better than Mr. Davis. I knew of none that could have done as well."
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:21:03 EST]]> /Conway_Moncure_Daniel_1832-1907 Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:00:03 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Conway_Moncure_Daniel_1832-1907 Moncure Conway was a Methodist minister, Unitarian minister, abolitionist, free thinker, and prolific writer who the historian John d'Entremont describes as "the most thoroughgoing white male radical produced by the antebellum South." Born into a prominent Virginia slaveholding family, he nevertheless became an outspoken critic of the South's "peculiar institution," anguishing over how to reconcile his background with his antislavery convictions in his younger years. He first openly allied himself with abolitionists in July 1854 in the wake of the capture in Boston, Massachusetts, of fugitive slave Anthony Burns, whom Conway claimed to have known in Virginia. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Conway accompanied thirty-one of his father's slaves, all of whom had escaped to Washington, D.C., on a harrowing train ride to freedom in southwestern Ohio. There he established what came to be known as the Conway Colony; many African Americans continue to live in the area and identify their ancestors as Virginia slaves. In addition, Conway traveled in high literary circles, authoring as many seventy published works, including popular book-length arguments against slavery and important biographies of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Paine.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:00:03 EST]]> /_Confessions_of_Nat_Turner_The_1831 Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:25:53 EST http://encyclopediavirginia.org/_Confessions_of_Nat_Turner_The_1831 "The Confessions of Nat Turner, the leader of the late insurrection in Southampton, Va., as fully and voluntarily made to Thomas R. Gray" is a pamphlet published shortly after the trial and execution of Nat Turner in November 1831. The previous August, Turner, a slave preacher and self-styled prophet, had led the only successful slave revolt in Virginia's history, leaving fifty-five white people in Southampton County, Virginia, dead, the slaveholding South convulsed with panic, and the myth of the contented slave in tatters. His confessions, dictated from Turner's jail cell to a Southampton lawyer, have provided historians with a crucial perspective missing from an earlier planned uprising, by Gabriel (also sometimes known as Gabriel Prosser) in 1800, as well as fodder for debate over the veracity of Turner's account. Meanwhile, the book arguably is one of two American literary classics to come from the revolt, the other being The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel by Virginia-native William Styron, published at the height of the Black Power movement in September 1967. Each of these texts has demonstrated the power of print media to shape popular perceptions of historical fact, even as each raised critical questions of accuracy, authenticity, and community control over historical interpretations of the past.
Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:25:53 EST]]>