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Cromwell was on the brink of evacuating his army by sea from Dunbar. However, on 3 September , unexpectedly, Cromwell smashed the main Scottish army at the Battle of Dunbar , killing 4, Scottish soldiers, taking another 10, prisoner, and then capturing the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. The following year, Charles II and his Scottish allies made a desperate attempt to invade England and capture London while Cromwell was engaged in Scotland. Cromwell followed them south and caught them at Worcester on 3 September , and his forces destroyed the last major Scottish Royalist army at the Battle of Worcester.
Charles II barely escaped capture and fled to exile in France and the Netherlands, where he remained until To fight the battle, Cromwell organised an envelopment followed by a multi-pronged coordinated attack on Worcester, his forces attacking from three directions with two rivers partitioning them. He switched his reserves from one side of the river Severn to the other and then back again.
In the final stages of the Scottish campaign, Cromwell's men under George Monck sacked Dundee, killing up to 1, men and women and children. The northwest Highlands was the scene of another pro-royalist uprising in —55, which was put down with deployment of 6, English troops there.
Cromwell's conquest left no significant legacy of bitterness in Scotland. The rule of the Commonwealth and Protectorate was largely peaceful, apart from the Highlands. Moreover, there were no wholesale confiscations of land or property. Three out of every four Justices of the Peace in Commonwealth Scotland were Scots and the country was governed jointly by the English military authorities and a Scottish Council of State. Cromwell was away on campaign from the middle of until , and the various factions in Parliament began to fight amongst themselves with the King gone as their "common cause".
Cromwell tried to galvanise the Rump into setting dates for new elections, uniting the three kingdoms under one polity, and to put in place a broad-brush, tolerant national church. However, the Rump vacillated in setting election dates, although it put in place a basic liberty of conscience, but it failed to produce an alternative for tithes or to dismantle other aspects of the existing religious settlement. In frustration, Cromwell demanded that the Rump establish a caretaker government in April of 40 members drawn from the Rump and the army, and then abdicate; but the Rump returned to debating its own bill for a new government.
Several accounts exist of this incident; in one, Cromwell is supposed to have said "you are no Parliament, I say you are no Parliament; I will put an end to your sitting". After the dissolution of the Rump, power passed temporarily to a council that debated what form the constitution should take. They took up the suggestion of Major-General Thomas Harrison for a " sanhedrin " of saints.
Although Cromwell did not subscribe to Harrison's apocalyptic , Fifth Monarchist beliefs—which saw a sanhedrin as the starting point for Christ's rule on earth—he was attracted by the idea of an assembly made up of men chosen for their religious credentials. In his speech at the opening of the assembly on 4 July , Cromwell thanked God's providence that he believed had brought England to this point and set out their divine mission: The assembly was tasked with finding a permanent constitutional and religious settlement Cromwell was invited to be a member but declined.
However, the revelation that a considerably larger segment of the membership than had been believed were the radical Fifth Monarchists led to its members voting to dissolve it on 12 December , out of fear of what the radicals might do if they took control of the Assembly. After the dissolution of the Barebones Parliament, John Lambert put forward a new constitution known as the Instrument of Government , closely modelled on the Heads of Proposals.
It made Cromwell Lord Protector for life to undertake "the chief magistracy and the administration of government". Cromwell was sworn in as Lord Protector on 16 December , with a ceremony in which he wore plain black clothing, rather than any monarchical regalia. Nevertheless, Cromwell's power was buttressed by his continuing popularity among the army. Cromwell had two key objectives as Lord Protector. The first was "healing and settling" the nation after the chaos of the civil wars and the regicide, which meant establishing a stable form for the new government to take.
Such forms were, he said, "but Cromwell declared, "A nobleman, a gentleman, a yeoman; the distinction of these: Direct taxation was reduced slightly and peace was made with the Dutch, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War. Cromwell soon secured the submission of these and largely left them to their own affairs, intervening only to curb his fellow Puritans who were usurping control over the Maryland Colony at the Battle of the Severn , by his confirming the former Catholic proprietorship and edict of tolerance there.
Of all the English dominions, Virginia was the most resentful of Cromwell's rule, and Cavalier emigration there mushroomed during the Protectorate. Cromwell famously stressed the quest to restore order in his speech to the first Protectorate parliament at its inaugural meeting on 3 September He declared that "healing and settling" were the "great end of your meeting". After some initial gestures approving appointments previously made by Cromwell, the Parliament began to work on a radical programme of constitutional reform.
Rather than opposing Parliament's bill, Cromwell dissolved them on 22 January The House of Commons representatives from the boroughs were elected by the burgesses or those borough residents who had the right to vote in municipal elections, and by the aldermen and councilors of the boroughs. Cromwell's second objective was spiritual and moral reform.
He aimed to restore liberty of conscience and promote both outward and inward godliness throughout England. The triers and the ejectors were intended to be at the vanguard of Cromwell's reform of parish worship. This second objective is also the context in which to see the constitutional experiment of the Major Generals that followed the dissolution of the first Protectorate Parliament.
After a royalist uprising in March , led by Sir John Penruddock , Cromwell influenced by Lambert divided England into military districts ruled by Army Major Generals who answered only to him. The 15 major generals and deputy major generals—called "godly governors"—were central not only to national security , but Cromwell's crusade to reform the nation's morals. The generals not only supervised militia forces and security commissions, but collected taxes and ensured support for the government in the English and Welsh provinces.
Commissioners for securing the peace of the commonwealth were appointed to work with them in every county. While a few of these commissioners were career politicians, most were zealous puritans who welcomed the major-generals with open arms and embraced their work with enthusiasm. However, the major-generals lasted less than a year. Many feared they threatened their reform efforts and authority.
Their position was further harmed by a tax proposal by Major General John Desborough to provide financial backing for their work, which the second Protectorate parliament —instated in September —voted down for fear of a permanent military state. Ultimately, however, Cromwell's failure to support his men, sacrificing them to his opponents, caused their demise. Their activities between November and September had, however, reopened the wounds of the s and deepened antipathies to the regime. As Lord Protector, Cromwell was aware of the Jewish community's involvement in the economics of the Netherlands, now England's leading commercial rival.
It was this—allied to Cromwell's tolerance of the right to private worship of those who fell outside Puritanism—that led to his encouraging Jews to return to England in , over years after their banishment by Edward I , in the hope that they would help speed up the recovery of the country after the disruption of the Civil Wars. At the Whitehall conference of December he quoted from St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans William Prynne the Presbyterian, in contrast to Cromwell the Congregationalist, was strongly opposed to the latter's pro-Jewish policy.
Cromwell pledged to supply France with 6, troops and war ships. In accordance with the terms of the treaty, Mardyck and Dunkirk — a base for privateers and commerce raiders attacking English merchant shipping — were ceded to England. In , Cromwell was offered the crown by Parliament as part of a revised constitutional settlement, presenting him with a dilemma since he had been "instrumental" in abolishing the monarchy. Cromwell agonised for six weeks over the offer. He was attracted by the prospect of stability it held out, but in a speech on 13 April he made clear that God's providence had spoken against the office of King: The event in part echoed a coronation , using many of its symbols and regalia, such as a purple ermine-lined robe, a sword of justice and a sceptre but not a crown or an orb.
But, most notably, the office of Lord Protector was still not to become hereditary, though Cromwell was now able to nominate his own successor. Cromwell's new rights and powers were laid out in the Humble Petition and Advice , a legislative instrument which replaced the Instrument of Government.
Despite failing to restore the Crown, this new constitution did set up many of the vestiges of the ancient constitution including a house of life peers in place of the House of Lords. In the Humble Petition it was called the Other House as the Commons could not agree on a suitable name. Furthermore, Oliver Cromwell increasingly took on more of the trappings of monarchy. In particular, he created three peerages after the acceptance of the Humble Petition and Advice: Cromwell is thought to have suffered from malaria and from " stone ", a common term for urinary and kidney infections.
In , he was struck by a sudden bout of malarial fever, followed directly by illness symptomatic of a urinary or kidney complaint. The Venetian ambassador wrote regular dispatches to the Doge of Venice in which he included details of Cromwell's final illness, and he was suspicious of the rapidity of his death. He died at age 59 at Whitehall on Friday 3 September , the anniversary of his great victories at Dunbar and Worcester. He was buried with great ceremony, with an elaborate funeral at Westminster Abbey based on that of James I, [] his daughter Elizabeth also being buried there.
He was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son Richard. Richard had no power base in Parliament or the Army and was forced to resign in May , ending the Protectorate. There was no clear leadership from the various factions that jostled for power during the reinstated Commonwealth, so George Monck was able to march on London at the head of New Model Army regiments and restore the Long Parliament. Under Monck's watchful eye, the necessary constitutional adjustments were made so that Charles II could be invited back from exile in to be King under a restored monarchy.
Cromwell's body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey on 30 January , the 12th anniversary of the execution of Charles I, and was subjected to a posthumous execution, as were the remains of Robert Blake , John Bradshaw , and Henry Ireton. The body of Cromwell's daughter was allowed to remain buried in the Abbey. His body was hanged in chains at Tyburn, London and then thrown into a pit. His head was cut off and displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall until Afterwards, it was owned by various people, including a documented sale in to Josiah Henry Wilkinson, [] [] and it was publicly exhibited several times before being buried beneath the floor of the antechapel at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge in Many people began to question whether the body mutilated at Tyburn and the head seen on Westminster Hall were Cromwell's.
The stories suggest that his bodily remains are buried in London, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, or Yorkshire. The Cromwell vault was later used as a burial place for Charles II's illegitimate descendants. During his lifetime, some tracts painted Cromwell as a hypocrite motivated by power.
For example, The Machiavilian Cromwell and The Juglers Discovered are parts of an attack on Cromwell by the Levellers after , and both present him as a Machiavellian figure. Several biographies were published soon after Cromwell's death. An example is The Perfect Politician , which describes how Cromwell "loved men more than books" and provides a nuanced assessment of him as an energetic campaigner for liberty of conscience who is brought down by pride and ambition. Clarendon famously declares that Cromwell "will be looked upon by posterity as a brave bad man".
Clarendon was not one of Cromwell's confidantes, and his account was written after the Restoration of the monarchy. During the early 18th century, Cromwell's image began to be adopted and reshaped by the Whigs as part of a wider project to give their political objectives historical legitimacy. John Toland rewrote Edmund Ludlow 's Memoirs in order to remove the Puritan elements and replace them with a Whiggish brand of republicanism, and it presents the Cromwellian Protectorate as a military tyranny.
Through Ludlow, Toland portrayed Cromwell as a despot who crushed the beginnings of democratic rule in the s. I hope to render the English name as great and formidable as ever the Roman was. During the early 19th century, Cromwell began to be portrayed in a positive light by Romantic artists and poets. Thomas Carlyle continued this reassessment in the s, publishing an annotated collection of his letters and speeches, and describing English Puritanism as "the last of all our Heroisms" while taking a negative view of his own era. Oxford civil war historian Samuel Rawson Gardiner concluded that "the man—it is ever so with the noblest—was greater than his work".
During the first half of the 20th century, Cromwell's reputation was often influenced by the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany and in Italy. Harvard historian Wilbur Cortez Abbott , for example, devoted much of his career to compiling and editing a multi-volume collection of Cromwell's letters and speeches, published between and Abbott argues that Cromwell was a proto-fascist.
However, subsequent historians such as John Morrill have criticised both Abbott's interpretation of Cromwell and his editorial approach. Late 20th-century historians re-examined the nature of Cromwell's faith and of his authoritarian regime. Austin Woolrych explored the issue of "dictatorship" in depth, arguing that Cromwell was subject to two conflicting forces: He argued that the dictatorial elements of Cromwell's rule stemmed less from its military origin or the participation of army officers in civil government than from his constant commitment to the interest of the people of God and his conviction that suppressing vice and encouraging virtue constituted the chief end of government.
Davis have developed this theme, revealing the extent to which Cromwell's writing and speeches are suffused with biblical references, and arguing that his radical actions were driven by his zeal for godly reformation. In , one of the first ships commissioned to serve in the American Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War was named Oliver Cromwell. On Tangye's death, the entire collection was donated to the Museum of London , where it can still be seen. In , a statue of Cromwell by Matthew Noble was erected in Manchester outside the Manchester Cathedral , a gift to the city by Abel Heywood in memory of her first husband.
It was unpopular with local Conservatives and the large Irish immigrant population. Queen Victoria was invited to open the new Manchester Town Hall , and she allegedly consented on the condition that the statue be removed. The statue remained, Victoria declined, and the town hall was opened by the Lord Mayor. During the s, the statue was relocated outside Wythenshawe Hall , which had been occupied by Cromwell's troops. During the s, Parliamentary plans turned controversial to erect a statue of Cromwell outside Parliament. Pressure from the Irish Nationalist Party [] forced the withdrawal of a motion to seek public funding for the project; the statue was eventually erected but it had to be funded privately by Lord Rosebery.
Cromwell controversy continued into the 20th century. The suggestion was vetoed by King George V because of his personal feelings and because he felt that it was unwise to give such a name to an expensive warship at a time of Irish political unrest , especially given the anger caused by the statue outside Parliament. The fact that it did not include 'total' genocide in its remit, or that it failed to put into practice the vast majority of its proposed expulsions, ultimately, however, says less about the lethal determination of its makers and more about the political, structural and financial weakness of the early modern English state.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Cromwell disambiguation. For other topics referred to as Oliver Cromwell, see Oliver Cromwell disambiguation. A Samuel Cooper portrait of Cromwell. Robert Cromwell father Elizabeth Steward mother. First English Civil War. High Court of Justice for the trial of Charles I. Irish Confederate Wars and Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
Dissolution of the Long Parliament. Cromwell's signature before becoming Lord Protector in , and afterwards. Ancestors of Oliver Cromwell Morgan ap William 8. Sir Richard Williams Sir Henry Williams 2. Sir Thomas Warren Sir Ralph Warren 5. Oliver Cromwell in popular culture. The Gregorian calendar counterparts are: Henry suggested to Sir Richard Williams, who was the first to use a surname in his family, that he adopt the surname of his uncle Thomas Cromwell.
For several generations, the Williamses added the surname of Cromwell to their own, styling themselves "Williams alias Cromwell" in legal documents Noble , pp. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 23 April Archived from the original on 17 July Retrieved 10 July Nationalism and Rationality , Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 27 November Oliver Cromwell's letters and speeches. A Cambridge Alumni Database. Retrieved 6 August British Civil Wars Project. Civil War in Lincolnshire". Retrieved 21 June Oliver Cromwell's letters and speeches, with elucidations , vol I, p. Archived from the original on 16 May Cromwell as a soldier , in Morrill, pp.
The Greatness of Oliver Cromwell. London and New York: Rowland Laugharne at Spartacus. Archived from the original on 25 October Archived from the original on 7 November The Brish Civil wars Project. Retrieved 14 June Thomas Carlyle , ed. Retrieved 22 January Cromwell, Our Chief of Men , and Cromwell: See Commonwealth and Protectorate, iv. Retrieved 14 February To Hell or Barbados. Collective reprisals against the civilian population included forcing them out of designated 'no man's lands' and the systematic destruction of foodstuffs".
Letters from Ireland, and ". Chapman and Hall Ltd, London. Cromwell as soldier , in Morrill, John ed. Davis, Oliver Cromwell , pp. Cromwell as soldier , p. Review of Cromwell—An Honourable Enemy. Archived from the original on 21 February Albert Breton Editor, Cambridge University Press Ukrainian Society of America Writing the English Republic: Poetry, Rhetoric and Politics, — In interpreting Andrew Marvell's contemporarily expressed views on Cromwell Norbrook says; "He Cromwell laid the foundation for a ruthless programme of resettling the Irish Catholics which amounted to large scale ethnic cleansing.
Profiles in Leadership , Prentice-Hall. He was willing to act on his beliefs, even if this meant killing the King and perpetrating, against the Irish, something very nearly approaching genocide" Morrill, John December Canadian Journal of History. University of Toronto Press. Retrieved 23 June Of course, this has never been the Irish view of Cromwell. Most Irish remember him as the man responsible for the mass slaughter of civilians at Drogheda and Wexford and as the agent of the greatest episode of ethnic cleansing ever attempted in Western Europe as, within a decade, the percentage of land possessed by Catholics born in Ireland dropped from sixty to twenty.
In a decade, the ownership of two-fifths of the land mass was transferred from several thousand Irish Catholic landowners to British Protestants. The gap between Irish and the English views of the seventeenth-century conquest remains unbridgeable and is governed by G. Chesterton's mirthless epigram of , that 'it was a tragic necessity that the Irish should remember it; but it was far more tragic that the English forgot it'. The draconian laws applied by Oliver Cromwell in Ireland were an early version of ethnic cleansing.
The Catholic Irish were to be expelled to the northwestern areas of the island. Relocation rather than extermination was the goal. Genocide in the Age of the Nation State: A sample quote describes the Cromwellian campaign and settlement as "a conscious attempt to reduce a distinct ethnic population". Genocide in the Age of the Nation-State , I. Blood On The Harp. Retrieved 15 October A collection of speeches spoken by Discourse on the Extinction of Primitive Races, Oliver Cromwell and the Siege of Drogheda". Upon all of these Cromwell's record was a lasting bane.
To heal them baffled the skill and loyalties of successive generations. They became for a time a potent obstacle to the harmony of the English-speaking people throughout the world. Royal Historical Society, Boydell Press. Retrieved 16 December Cromwell, Scotland and Ireland , in Morrill, John ed. Battle of Edgehill" and " Writing Irish History, British Civil Wars project. Distressed Cavaliers and Indentured Servants, —75". Four British Folkways in America.
Archived from the original on 11 March Retrieved 5 July Retrieved 30 July The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Diary entries from October In the 21st century, the Pamunkey and Mattaponi are the only two tribes to maintain reservations originally assigned under the English. As of [update] , the state has recognized eleven Virginia Indian tribes.
Others have renewed interest in seeking state and Federal recognition since the celebration of the th anniversary of Jamestown in State celebrations gave Native American tribes prominent formal roles to showcase their contributions to the state. While the developments of and continued growth in the several following years were seen as favorable by the English, many aspects, especially the continued need for more land to grow tobacco, were the source of increasing concern to the Native Americans most affected, the Powhatan.
He had earned a reputation as a fierce warrior under his brother's chiefdom. Soon, he gave up on hopes of diplomacy, and resolved to eradicate the English colonists. On March 22, , the Powhatan killed about colonists in the Indian Massacre of With coordinated attacks, they struck almost all the English settlements along the James River, on both shores, from Newport News Point on the east at Hampton Roads all the way west upriver to Falling Creek, a few miles above Henricus and John Rolfe's plantation, Varina Farms. At Jamestown, a warning by an Indian boy named Chanco to his employer, Richard Pace , helped reduce total deaths.
Pace secured his plantation, and rowed across the river during the night to alert Jamestown, which allowed colonists some defensive preparation.
They had no time to warn outposts, which suffered deaths and captives at almost every location. Several entire communities were essentially wiped out, including Henricus and Wolstenholme Towne at Martin's Hundred. At the Falling Creek Ironworks, which had been seen as promising for the Colony, two women and three children were among the 27 killed, leaving only two colonists alive. The facilities were destroyed.
Despite the losses, two thirds of the colonists survived; after withdrawing to Jamestown, many returned to the outlying plantations, although some were abandoned. The English carried out reprisals against the Powhatan and there were skirmishes and attacks for about a year before the colonists and Powhatan struck a truce. The colonists invited the chiefs and warriors to Jamestown, where they proposed a toast of liquor.
John Potts and some of the Jamestown leadership had poisoned the natives' share of the liquor, which killed about men. Colonists killed another 50 Indians by hand. The period between the coup of and another Powhatan attack on English colonists along the James River see Jamestown in marked a turning point in the relations between the Powhatan and the English. In the early period, each side believed it was operating from a position of power; by the Treaty of , the colonists had taken the balance of power, and had established control between the York and Blackwater Rivers.
In , the Virginia Company's charter was revoked and the colony transferred to royal authority as a crown colony , but the elected representatives in Jamestown continued to exercise a fair amount of power. Under royal authority, the colony began to expand to the North and West with additional settlements. In , a new system of local government was created in the Virginia Colony by order of the King of England. Eight shires were designated, each with its own local officers; these shires were renamed as counties only a few years later.
The first significant attempts at exploring the Trans-Allegheny region occurred under the administration of Governor William Berkeley. Efforts to explore farther into Virginia were hampered in when about colonists were killed in another Indian massacre led, once again, by Opechancanough. Berkeley is credited with efforts to develop others sources of income for the colony besides tobacco such as cultivation of mulberry trees for silkworms and other crops at his large Green Spring Plantation. The colonists defined the coup as an "uprising". Chief Opechancanough expected the outcome would reflect what he considered the morally correct position: During the event, Chief Opechancanough was captured.
While imprisoned, he was murdered by one of his guards. After the death of Opechancanough, and following the repeated colonial attacks in and , the remaining Powhatan tribes had little alternative but to accede to the demands of the settlers. This governor was a moderate Puritan who allowed the local legislature to exercise most controlling authority, and spent much of his time directing affairs in neighboring Maryland Colony.
Bennett was followed by two more "Cromwellian" governors, Edward Digges and Samuel Matthews , although in fact all three of these men were not technically appointees, but were selected by the House of Burgesses, which was really in control of the colony during these years. Many royalists fled to Virginia after their defeat in the English Civil War.
Some intermarried with existing plantation families to establish influential families in Virginia such as the Washingtons, Randolphs, Carters and Lees. However, most 17th-century immigrants were indentured servants, merchants or artisans. Governor Berkeley, who remained popular after his first administration, returned to the governorship at the end of Commonwealth rule. However, Berkeley's second administration was characterized with many problems. Disease, hurricanes, Indian hostilities, and economic difficulties all plagued Virginia at this time.
Berkeley established autocratic authority over the colony. To protect this power, he refused to have new legislative elections for 14 years in order to protect a House of Burgesses that supported him. He only agreed to new elections when rebellion became a serious threat. Berkeley finally did face a rebellion in Indians had begun attacking encroaching settlers as they expanded to the north and west. Serious fighting broke out when settlers responded to violence with a counter-attack against the wrong tribe, which further extended the violence.
Berkeley did not assist the settlers in their fight. Many settlers and historians believe Berkeley's refusal to fight the Indians stemmed from his investments in the fur trade. Large scale fighting would have cut off the Indian suppliers Berkeley's investment relied on. Nathaniel Bacon organized his own militia of settlers who retaliated against the Indians.
Bacon became very popular as the primary opponent of Berkeley, not only on the issue of Indians, but on other issues as well. Berkeley condemned Bacon as a rebel, but pardoned him after Bacon won a seat in the House of Burgesses and accepted it peacefully. After a lack of reform, Bacon rebelled outright, captured Jamestown, and took control of the colony for several months. The incident became known as Bacon's Rebellion. Berkeley returned himself to power with the help of the English militia. Bacon burned Jamestown before abandoning it and continued his rebellion, but died of disease.
Berkeley severely crushed the remaining rebels. In response to Berkeley's harsh repression of the rebels, the English government removed him from office. After the burning of Jamestown, the capital was temporarily moved to Middle Plantation , located on the high ground of the Virginia Peninsula equidistant from the James and York Rivers. Local leaders had long desired a school of higher education, for the sons of planters, and for educating the Indians.
An earlier attempt to establish a permanent university at Henricus failed after the Indian Massacre of wiped out the entire settlement. Finally, seven decades later, with encouragement from the Colony's House of Burgesses and other prominent individuals, Reverend Dr. James Blair , the colony's top religious leader, prepared a plan. The college was named the College of William and Mary in honor of the two monarchs. The rebuilt statehouse in Jamestown burned again in After that fire, upon suggestion of college students, the colonial capital was permanently moved to nearby Middle Plantation again, and the town was renamed Williamsburg , in honor of the king.
Plans were made to construct a capitol building and plan the new city according to the survey of Theodorick Bland. As the English increasingly used tobacco products, tobacco in the American colonies became a significant economic force, especially in the tidewater region surrounding the Chesapeake Bay. Some elements of this system included the importation and employment of slaves to grow crops. Planters would then fill large hogsheads with tobacco and convey them to inspection warehouses.
In , the Virginia House of Burgesses standardized and improved quality of tobacco exported by establishing the Tobacco Inspection Act of , which required inspectors to grade tobacco at 40 specified locations. In terms of the white population, the top five percent or so were planters who possessed growing wealth and increasing political power and social prestige. They controlled the local Anglican church, choosing ministers and handling church property and disbursing local charity.
They sought elected and appointed offices. The bottom third owned no land, and verged on poverty. Many were recent arrivals, or recently released from indentured servitude. In some districts there 70 percent of the land was owned by a handful of families, and three-fourths of the whites had no land at all. In the frontier districts, large numbers of Irish and German Protestants had settled, often moving down from Pennsylvania.
Tobacco was not important there; farmers focused on hemp, grain, cattle, and horses. Entrepreneurs had begun to mine and smelt the local iron ores. Sports occupied a great deal of attention at every social level, starting at the top. In England hunting was sharply restricted to landowners, and enforced by armed gameskeepers. In America, game was more than plentiful. Everyone—including servants and slaves—could and did hunt.
Poor men with a good rifle aim won praise; rich gentlemen who were off target won ridicule. The typical farmer did not own a horse in the first place, and racing was a matter for gentlemen only, but ordinary farmers were spectators and gamblers. Selected slaves often became skilled horse trainers. Horse racing was especially important for knitting the gentry together. The race was a major public event designed to demonstrate to the world the superior social status of the gentry through expensive breeding, training, boasting and gambling, and especially winning the races themselves.
When they publicly bet a large sum on their favorite horse, it told the world that competitiveness, individualism, and materialism where the core elements of gentry values. Historian Edmund Morgan argues that Virginians in the s—and for the next two centuries—turned to slavery and a racial divide as an alternative to class conflict. By , the population reached 70, and continued to grow rapidly from a high birth rate, low death rate, importation of slaves from the Caribbean, and immigration from Britain and Germany, as well as from Pennsylvania.
The climate was mild, the farm lands were cheap and fertile. According to Encyclopedia Virginia, "By there were as many as families in the backcountry region, and within ten years nearly 10, Europeans lived in the Shenandoah Valley. When Robert "King" Carter died in , Lord Fairfax read about his vast wealth in The Gentleman's Magazine and decided to settle the matter himself by coming to Virginia.
Lord Fairfax travelled to Virginia for the first time between and to inspect and protect his lands. In the late s and the second half of the 18th century, the British angled for control of the Ohio Country. At the completion of the war, the Royal Proclamation of forbade all British settlement past a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains , [89] with the land west of the Proclamation Line known as the Indian Reserve. British colonists and land speculators objected to the proclamation boundary since the British government had already assigned land grants to them. Many settlements already existed beyond the proclamation line, [90] some of which had been temporarily evacuated during Pontiac's War, and there were many already granted land claims yet to be settled.
For example, George Washington and his Virginia soldiers had been granted lands past the boundary. Prominent American colonials joined with the land speculators in Britain to lobby the government to move the line further west. Their efforts were successful, and the boundary line was adjusted in a series of treaties with the Native Americans.
However, the Northwest Territories north of the Ohio continued to be occupied by native tribes until US forces drove them out in the early decades of the s. The Church of England was legally established in the colony in , and the Bishop of London sent in 22 Anglican clergyman by In practice, establishment meant that local taxes were funneled through the local parish to handle the needs of local government, such as roads and poor relief, in addition to the salary of the minister. There never was a bishop in colonial Virginia, and in practice the local vestry, consisting of gentry laymen controlled the parish.
Missionaries were sent to the Indians but they had little success apart from the Nansemond tribe, which had converted in The other Powhatan tribes converted to Christianity around The stress on personal piety opened the way for the First Great Awakening in the mid 18th century, which pulled people away from the formal rituals of the established church. Baptists, German Lutherans and Presbyterians, funded their own ministers, and favored disestablishment of the Anglican church.
The spellbinding preacher Samuel Davies led the Presbyterians, and converted hundreds of slaves. Slaves were welcome at the services and many became Baptists at this time. Methodist missionaries were also active in the late colonial period. Methodists encouraged an end to slavery, and welcomed free blacks and slaves into active roles in the congregations. The Baptists and Presbyterians were subject to many legal constraints and faced growing persecution; between and , about half of the Baptists ministers in Virginia were jailed for preaching, in defiance of England's Act of Toleration of that guaranteed freedom of worship for Protestants.
At the start of the Revolution, the Anglican Patriots realized that they needed dissenter support for effective wartime mobilization, so they met most of the dissenters' demands in return for their support of the war effort. Historians have debated the implications of the religious rivalries for the American Revolution.
The struggle for religious toleration was played out during the American Revolution, as the Baptists, in alliance with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, worked successfully to disestablish the Anglican church. This effort failed when non-Anglicans gave their support to Jefferson's "Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom", which eventually became law in as the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. With freedom of religion the new watchword, the Church of England was dis-established in Virginia.
Revolutionary sentiments first began appearing in Virginia shortly after the French and Indian War ended in The Virginia legislature had passed the Two-Penny Act to stop clerical salaries from inflating. King George III vetoed the measure, and clergy sued for back salaries. Patrick Henry first came to prominence by arguing in the case of Parson's Cause against the veto, which he declared tyrannical.
The British government had accumulated a great deal of debt through spending on its wars. The General Assembly opposed the passage of the Sugar Act on the grounds of no taxation without representation , and in turn passing the " Virginia Resolves " opposing the tax. Governor Francis Fauquier responded by dismissing the Assembly. Various political groups, including the Sons of Liberty met and issued protests against the act.
The Stamp Act was repealed, but additional taxation from the Revenue Act and the attempt to transport Bostonian rioters to London for trial incited more protest from Virginia. The Assembly met to consider resolutions condemning on the transport of the rioters, but Governor Botetourt , while sympathetic, dissolved the legislature. The Burgesses reconvened in Raleigh Tavern and made an agreement to ban British imports.
Britain gave up the attempt to extradite the prisoners and lifted all taxes except the tax on tea in In , because of a renewed attempt to extradite Americans to Britain, Richard Henry Lee , Thomas Jefferson , Patrick Henry , George Mason , and others in the legislature created a committee of correspondence to deal with problems with Britain. This committee would serve as the foundation for Virginia's role in the American Revolution. After the House of Burgesses expressed solidarity with the actions in Massachusetts, the Governor, Lord Dunmore , again dissolved the legislature.
The first Virginia Convention was held August 1—6 to respond to the growing crisis. The convention approved a boycott of British goods and elected delegates to the Continental Congress. On April 20, , Dunmore ordered the gunpowder removed from the Williamsburg Magazine to a British ship. Patrick Henry led a group of Virginia militia from Hanover in response to Dunmore's order. Carter Braxton negotiated a resolution to the Gunpowder Incident by transferring royal funds as payment for the powder.
The incident exacerbated Dunmore's declining popularity. He fled the Governor's Palace to a British ship at Yorktown. On November 7, Dunmore issued a proclamation declaring Virginia was in a state of rebellion. By this time, George Washington had been appointed head of the American forces by the Continental Congress and Virginia was under the political leadership of a Committee of Safety formed by the Third Virginia Convention in the governor's absence. On December 9, , Virginia militia moved on the governor's forces at the Battle of Great Bridge , winning a victory in the small action there.
Dunmore responded by bombarding Norfolk with his ships on January 1, After the Battle of Great Bridge, little military conflict took place on Virginia soil for the first part of the American Revolutionary War. Nevertheless, Virginia sent forces to help in the fighting to the North and South, as well as the frontier in the northwest.
The convention instructed its delegates to introduce a resolution for independence at the Continental Congress. Richard Henry Lee introduced the measure on June 7. While the Congress debated, the Virginia Convention adopted George Mason's Bill of Rights June 12 and a constitution June 29 which established an independent commonwealth. The constitution of the Fifth Virginia Convention created a system of government for the state that would last for 54 years, and converting House of Burgesses into a bicameral legislature with both a House of Delegates and a Senate.
Patrick Henry serves as the first Governor of the Commonwealth The British briefly brought the war back to coastal Virginia in May Fearing the vulnerability of Williamsburg, Governor Thomas Jefferson moved the capital farther inland to Richmond in However, in December, Benedict Arnold , who had betrayed the Revolution and become a general for the British, attacked Richmond and burned part of the city before the Virginia Militia drove his army out of the city.
Arnold moved his base of operations to Portsmouth and was later joined by troops under General William Phillips. Phillips led an expedition that destroyed military and economic targets, against ineffectual militia resistance. The state's defenses, led by General Baron von Steuben , put up resistance in the April Battle of Blandford , but were forced to retreat. The French General Lafayette and his forces arrived to help defend Virginia, and though outnumbered, engaged British forces under General Charles Cornwallis in a series of skirmishes to help reduce their effectiveness.
Jefferson and the legislature, though was foiled when Jack Jouett rode to warn Virginia government. Cornwallis moved down the Virginia Peninsula towards the Chesapeake Bay, where Clinton planned to extract part of the army for a siege of New York City. After surprising American forces at the Battle of Green Spring on July 6, , Cornwallis received orders to move his troops to the port town of Yorktown and begin construction of fortifications and a naval yard, though when discovered American forces surrounded the town.
The defeat of the Royal Navy by Admiral de Grasse at the Battle of the Virginia Capes ensured French dominance of the waters around Yorktown, thereby preventing Cornwallis from receiving troops or supplies and removing the possibility of evacuation. Following the two-week siege to Yorktown , Cornwallis decided to surrender. Papers for surrender were officially signed on October As a result of the defeat, the king lost control of Parliament and the new British government offered peace in April The Treaty of Paris of officially ended the war. Victory in the Revolution brought peace and prosperity to the new state, as export markets in Europe reopened for its tobacco.
While the old local elites were content with the status quo, younger veterans of the war had developed a national identity. Madison proposed the Virginia Plan , which would give representation in Congress according to total population, including a proportion of slaves. Only white men who owned a certain amount of property could vote. Ratification was bitterly contested; the pro-Constitution forces prevailed only after promising to add a Bill of Rights.
The Virginia Ratifying Convention approved the Constitution by a vote of 89—79 on June 25, , making it the tenth state to enter the Union. Madison played a central role in the new Congress, while Washington was the unanimous choice as first president. He was followed by the Virginia Dynasty, including Thomas Jefferson, Madison, and James Monroe, giving the state four of the first five presidents. The Revolution meant change and sometimes political freedom for enslaved African Americans, too. Tens of thousands of slaves from southern states, particularly in Georgia and South Carolina, escaped to British lines and freedom during the war.
Thousands left with the British for resettlement in their colonies of Nova Scotia and Jamaica; others went to England; others disappeared into rural and frontier areas or the North. Inspired by the Revolution and evangelical preachers, numerous slaveholders in the Chesapeake region manumitted some or all of their slaves, during their lifetimes or by will.
From 1, persons in , the total population of free blacks in Virginia increased to 12, 4. George Washington freed all of his slaves at his death. Many free blacks migrated from rural areas to towns such as Petersburg , Richmond, and Charlottesville for jobs and community; others migrated with their families to the frontier where social strictures were more relaxed. Each congregation moved into the city and built churches by the early 19th century. Twice slave rebellions broke out in Virginia: Gabriel's Rebellion in , and Nat Turner's Rebellion in White reaction was swift and harsh, and militias killed many innocent free blacks and black slaves as well as those directly involved in the rebellions.
After the second rebellion, the legislature passed laws restricting the rights of free people of color: As bearing arms and serving in the militia were considered obligations of free citizens, free blacks came under severe constraints after Nat Turner's rebellion. As the new nation of the United States of America experienced growing pains and began to speak of Manifest Destiny , Virginia, too, found its role in the young republic to be changing and challenging.
For one, the vast lands of the Virginia Colony were subdivided into other US states and territories. This Wilderness Road became the principal route used by settlers for more than fifty years to reach Kentucky from the East. In , three western counties split off to form Kentucky. Virginia's heavy farming of tobacco for years had depleted its soils.
The Louisiana Purchase only accelerated the westward movement of Virginians out of their native state. Many of the Virginians whose grandparents had created the Virginia Establishment began to emigrate and settle westward. Famous Virginian-born Americans affected not only the destiny of the state of Virginia, but the rapidly developing American Old West. Virginians Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were influential in their famous expedition to explore the Missouri River and possible connections to the Pacific Ocean. Notable names such as Stephen F. John Shackelford were famous Texan pioneers from Virginia.
Even eventual Civil War general Robert E. Lee distinguished himself as a military leader in Texas during the —48 Mexican—American War. Historians estimate that one million Virginians left the commonwealth between the Revolution and the Civil War. At the same time, with Virginians settling so much of the west, they brought their cultural habits with them. Today, many cultural features of the American South can be attributed to Virginians who migrated west. As the western reaches of Virginia were developed in the first half of the 19th century, the vast differences in the agricultural basis, cultural, and transportation needs of the area became a major issue for the Virginia General Assembly.
In the older, eastern portion, slavery contributed to the economy. While planters were moving away from labor-intensive tobacco to mixed crops, they still held numerous slaves and their leasing out or sales was also part of their economic prospect. Slavery had become an economic institution upon which planters depended. Watersheds on most of this area eventually drained to the Atlantic Ocean.
In the western reaches, families farmed smaller homesteads, mostly without enslaved or hired labor. Settlers were expanding the exploitation of resources: The land drained into the Ohio River Valley , and trade followed the rivers. Representation in the state legislature was heavily skewed in favor of the more populous eastern areas and the historic planter elite.
This was compounded by the partial allowance for slaves when counting population; as neither the slaves nor women had the vote, this gave more power to white men. The legislature's efforts to mediate the disparities ended without meaningful resolution, although the state held a constitutional convention on representation issues. Thus, at the outset of the American Civil War, Virginia was caught not only in national crisis, but in a long-standing controversy within its own boundaries.
While other border states had similar regional differences, Virginia had a long history of east-west tensions which finally came to a head; it was the only state to divide into two separate states during the War. After the Revolution, various infrastructure projects began to be developed, including the Dismal Swamp Canal , the James River and Kanawha Canal , and various turnpikes.
Virginia was home to the first of all Federal infrastructure projects under the new Constitution, the Cape Henry Light of , located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Following the War of , several Federal national defense projects were undertaken in Virginia.
Drydock Number One was constructed in Portsmouth in the In the s, railroads began to be built in Virginia. In , the Chesterfield Railroad began hauling coal from the mines in Midlothian to docks at Manchester near Richmond , powered by gravity and draft animals. The first railroad in Virginia to be powered by locomotives was the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad , chartered in , with the intent to connect with steamboat lines at Aquia Landing running to Washington, D.
Soon after, others with equally descriptive names followed: Petersburg became a manufacturing center, as well as a city where free black artisans and craftsmen could make a living. In , half its population was black and of that, one-third were free blacks, the largest such population in the state. With extensive iron deposits, especially in the western counties, Virginia was a pioneer in the iron industry. The first ironworks in the new world was established at Falling Creek in , though it was destroyed in There would eventually grow to be 80 ironworks, charcoal furnaces and forges with 7, hands at any one time, about 70 percent of them slaves.
Ironmasters hired slaves from local slave owners because they were cheaper than white workers, easier to control, and could not switch to a better employer. But the work ethic was weak, because the wages went to the owner, not to the workers, who were forced to work hard, were poorly fed and clothed, and were separated from their families. Virginia's industry increasingly fell behind Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio, which relied on free labor. Bradford recounts the many complaints about slave laborers and argues the over-reliance upon slaves contributed to the failure of the ironmasters to adopt improved methods of production for fear the slaves would sabotage them.
Most of the blacks were unskilled manual laborers, although Lewis reports that some were in skilled positions. Virginia at first refused to join the Confederacy, but did so after President Lincoln on April 15 called for troops from all states; that meant Federal troops crossing Virginia on the way south to subdue South Carolina. On April 17, the convention voted to secede, and voters ratified the decision on May Immediately the Union army moved into northern Virginia and captured Alexandria without a fight, and controlled it for the remainder of the war.
The Wheeling area had opposed secession and remained strong for the Union. Because of its strategic significance, the Confederacy relocated its capital to Richmond. Richmond was at the end of a long supply line and as the highly symbolic capital of the Confederacy became the main target of round after round of invasion attempts. The city was the site of numerous army hospitals. Libby Prison for captured Union officers gained an infamous reputation for the overcrowded and harsh conditions, with a high death rate.
Saltville was a primary source of Confederate salt critical for food preservation during the war, leading to the two Battles of Saltville. The first major battle of the Civil War occurred on July 21, Union forces attempted to take control of the railroad junction at Manassas , but the Confederate Army reached it first and won the First Battle of Manassas known as "Bull Run" in Northern naming convention. Both sides mobilized for war; the year went on without another major fight.
Regarded as the first "English masterpiece written for children" [9]: Slaves were welcome at the services and many became Baptists at this time. At the end of the Victorian era and leading into the Edwardian era, Beatrix Potter was an author and illustrator, best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters. Wells was a Carpetbagger and a former Union general. As musicians depended more and more on public support, public concerts became increasingly popular and helped supplement performers' and composers' incomes. From Aboriginal Origins to Modern Times by leigh. Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are in and Louise Fitzhugh 's Harriet the Spy in are often considered the first stories published in this new age of realism.
Men from all economic and social levels, both slaveholders and nonslaveholders, as well as former Unionists, enlisted in great numbers on both sides. Areas, especially in the west and along the border, that sent few men to the Confederacy were characterized by few slaves, poor economies, and a history of reinal antagonism to the Tidewater. The western counties could not tolerate the Confederacy. Breaking away, they first formed the Union state of Virginia recognized by Washington ; it is called the Restored government of Virginia and was based in Alexandria, across the river from Washington.
The Restored government did little except give its permission for Congress to form the new state of West Virginia in It declared Virginia was still in the Union but that the state offices were vacant and elected a new governor, Francis H. Pierpont ; this body gained formal recognition by the Lincoln administration on July 4. The vote was in favor of a new state—West Virginia—which was distinct from the Pierpont government, which persisted until the end of the war. In effect there were now three states: The state and national governments in Richmond did not recognize the new state, and Confederates did not vote there.
The Confederate government in Richmond sent in Robert E. But Lee found little local support and was defeated by Union forces from Ohio. Union victories in drove the Confederate forces out of the Monongahela and Kanawha valleys, and throughout the remainder of the war the Union held the region west of the Alleghenies and controlled the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the north. The new state was not subject to Reconstruction. For the remainder of the war, many major battles were fought across Virginia, including the Seven Days Battles , the Battle of Fredericksburg , the Battle of Chancellorsville , the Battle of Brandy Station.
Over the course of the War, despite occasional tactical victories and spectacular counter-stroke raids, Confederate control of many regions of Virginia was gradually lost to Federal advance. By October the northern 9th and 10th Congressional districts along the Potomac were under Union control. Other regions, such as the Piedmont and Shenandoah Valley, regularly changed hands through numerous campaigns. In , the Union Army planned to attack Richmond by a direct overland approach through Overland Campaign and the Battle of the Wilderness , culminating in the Siege of Petersburg which lasted from the summer of to April By November 6, , Confederate forces controlled only four of Virginia's 16 congressional districts in the region of Richmond-Petersburg and their Southside counties.
The Confederate government fled south, pausing in Danville for a few days. Virginia had been devastated by the war, with the infrastructure such as railroads in ruins; many plantations burned out; and large numbers of refugees without jobs, food or supplies beyond rations provided by the Union Army, especially its Freedmen's Bureau. Historian Mary Farmer-Kaiser reports that white landowners complained to the Bureau about unwillingness of freedwomen to work in the fields as evidence of their laziness, and asked the Bureau to force them to sign labor contracts.
In response, many Bureau officials "readily condemned the withdrawal of freedwomen from the work force as well as the 'hen pecked' husbands who allowed it. Furthermore, agents urged poor unmarried mothers to give their older children up as apprentices to work for white masters. Farmer-Kaiser concludes that "Freedwomen found both an ally and an enemy in the bureau.
There were three phases in Virginia's Reconstruction era: The Virginia legislature passed Black Codes that severely restricted Freedmen's mobility and rights; they had only limited rights and were not considered citizens, nor could they vote. The state ratified the 13th amendment to abolish slavery and revoked the ordnance of secession. Johnson was satisfied that Reconstruction was complete. Other Republicans in Congress refused to seat the newly elected state delegation; the Radicals wanted better evidence that slavery and similar methods of serfdom had been abolished, and the freedmen given rights of citizens.
They also were concerned that Virginia leaders had not renounced Confederate nationalism. After winning large majorities in the national election, the Radical Republicans gained power in Congress. They put Virginia and nine other ex-Confederate states under military rule. Virginia was administered as the " First Military District " in —69 under General John Schofield Meanwhile, the Freedmen became politically active by joining the pro-Republican Union League , holding conventions, and demanding universal male suffrage and equal treatment under the law, as well as demanding disfranchisement of ex-Confederates and the seizure of their plantations.
McDonough, finding that Schofield was criticized by conservative whites for supporting the Radical cause on the one hand, and attacked on the other by Radicals for thinking black suffrage was premature on the other, concludes that "he performed admirably' by following a middle course between extremes. Increasingly a deep split opened up in the republican ranks. The moderate element had national support and called itself "True Republicans. About 20, former Confederates were denied the right to vote in the election.
The "True Republicans" the moderates , led by former Whigs, businessmen and planters, while supportive of black suffrage, drew the line at property confiscation. A compromise was reached calling for confiscation if the planters tried to intimidate black voters. The Virginia Republican party became permanently split, and many moderate Republicans switched to the opposition "Conservatives".
The constitutional convention included 33 white Conservatives, and 72 Radicals of whom 24 were Blacks, 23 Scalawag, and 21 Carpetbaggers. Under pressure from national Republicans to be more moderate, General Schofield continued to administer the state through the Army. He appointed a personal friend, Henry H.
Wells as provisional governor. Wells was a Carpetbagger and a former Union general. Schofield and Wells fought and defeated Hunnicutt and the Scalawag Republicans. They took away contracts for state printing orders from Hunnicutt's newspaper. The national government ordered elections in that included a vote on the new Underwood constitution, a separate one on its two disfranchisement clauses that would have permanently stripped the vote from most former rebels, and a separate vote for state officials.
The Army enrolled the Freedmen ex-slaves as voters but would not allow some 20, prominent whites to vote or hold office. The Republicans nominated Wells for governor, as Hunnicutt and most Scalawags went over to the opposition. The leader of the moderate Republicans, calling themselves "True Republicans," was William Mahone — , a railroad president and former Confederate general. He formed a coalition of white Scalawag Republicans, some blacks, and ex-Democrats who formed the Conservative Party. Mahone recommended that whites had to accept the results of the war, including civil rights and the vote for Freedmen.
Mahone convinced the Conservative Party to drop its own candidate and endorse Gilbert C. Walker , Mahone's candidate for governor. In return, Mahone's people endorsed Conservatives for the legislative races. Mahone's plan worked, as the voters in elected Walker and defeated the proposed disfranchisement of ex-Confederates. When the new legislature ratified the 14th and 15th amendments to the U. Constitution, Congress seated its delegation, and Virginia Reconstruction came to an end in January The Radical Republicans had been ousted in a non-violent election. Suffering from widespread destruction and difficulties in adapting to free labor, white Virginians generally came to share the postwar bitterness typical of the southern attitudes.
In addition to those that were rebuilt, new railroads developed after the Civil War. In , under railroad baron Collis P. In the s, the Pocahontas Coalfield opened up in far southwest Virginia, with others to follow, in turn providing more demand for railroads transportation. In , the Virginian Railway opened, built for the express purpose of hauling coal from the mountains of West Virginia to the ports at Hampton Roads. The growth of railroads resulted in the creation of new towns and rapid growth of others, including Clifton Forge , Roanoke , Crewe and Victoria.
The railroad boom was not without incident: With the invention of the cigarette rolling machine, and the great increase in smoking in the early 20th century, cigarettes and other tobacco products became a major industry in Richmond and Petersburg. Tobacco magnates such as Lewis Ginter funded a number of public institutions.
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A division among Virginia politicians occurred in the s, when those who supported a reduction of Virginia's pre-war debt "Readjusters" opposed those who felt Virginia should repay its entire debt plus interest "Funders". Virginia's pre-war debt was primarily for infrastructure improvements overseen by the Virginia Board of Public Works , much of which were destroyed during the war or in the new State of West Virginia.
After his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for governor in , former confederate General and railroad executive William Mahone became the leader of the "Readjusters", forming a coalition of conservative Democrats and white and black Republicans. The so-called Readjusters aspired "to break the power of wealth and established privilege" and to promote public education. The party promised to "readjust" the state debt in order to protect funding for newly established public education, and allocate a fair share to the new State of West Virginia. Its proposal to repeal the poll tax and increase funding for schools and other public facilities attracted biracial and cross-party support.
The Readjuster Party was successful in electing its candidate, William E. Cameron as governor, and he served from to Mahone served as a Senator in the U. Congress from to , as well as fellow Readjustor Harrison H. Riddleberger , who served in the U. Senate from to Readjusters' effective control of Virginia politics lasted until , when they lost majority control in the state legislature, followed by the election of Democrat Fitzhugh Lee as governor in The Virginia legislature replaced both Mahone and Riddleberger in the U.
In , the exception to Readjustor and Democratic control was John Mercer Langston , who was elected to Congress from the Petersburg area on the Republican ticket. He was the first black elected to Congress from the state, and the last for nearly a century.
He served one term. A talented and vigorous politician, he was an Oberlin College graduate. He had long been active in the abolitionist cause in Ohio before the Civil War, had been president of the National Equal Rights League from to , and had headed and created the law department at Howard University , and acted as president of the college. When elected, he was president of what became Virginia State University.
While the Readjustor Party faded, the goal of public education remained strong, with institutions established for the education of schoolteachers. In , the state acquired a bankrupt women's college at Farmville and opened it as a normal school. Growth of public education led to the need for additional teachers. In , two additional normal schools were established, one at Fredericksburg and one at Harrisonburg , and in , one at Radford. After the Readjuster Party disappeared, Virginia Democrats rapidly passed legislation and constitutional amendments that effectively disfranchised African Americans and many poor whites, through the use of poll taxes and literacy tests.
They created white, one-party rule under the Democratic Party for the next 80 years. White state legislators passed statutes that restored white supremacy through imposition of Jim Crow segregation. In , Virginia passed a new constitution that reduced voter registration. The Progressive Era after brought numerous reforms, designed to modernize the state, increase efficiency, apply scientific methods, promote education and eliminate waste and corruption.
A key leader was Governor Claude Swanson —10 , a Democrat who left machine politics behind to win office using the new primary law.