Browse Items (224 total)

In 1848, Spain ceded a vast western territory to the United States as part of the Treaty of Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War. This included California, home to about 6,500 Californios of Mexican descent, 700 Americans, and 150,000…

The 1896 US Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that established the so-called "separate but equal" doctrine gave rise to segregation laws throughout the southern United States. Often called Jim Crow laws, these laws mandated the separation…

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention approved a new constitution for the United States on September 17, 1787. But before it could be adopted, nine states had to ratify the document. Despite it having the support of America's brightest statesman…

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention approved a new constitution for the United States on September 17, 1787. But before it could be adopted, nine states had to ratify the document. It had the support of some of America's brightest statesman…

English expansion into Indigenous territories led to several violent eruptions of conflict in the first decades of settlement in Virginia. A series of wars called the Anglo-Powhatan Wars ended in 1646 with the death of Opechancanough, brother of…

Cockacoeske was a significant figure in the history of the Pamunkey tribe in Virginia. She was a descendant of Opechancanough, the brother of Powhatan, who had been the paramount chief of the Powhatan Confederacy. Cockacoeske became weroansqua, or…

Abraham Skipwith was the first Black man documented as a property owner in Richmond’s historic Jackson Ward district. Skipwith became a wealthy landowner after emancipating himself in the years following the American Revolution. His story illustrates…

During World War II, Black Americans took the opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of engaging in a war effort to save democracy abroad while maintaining segregation laws at home. Spurred by the national newspaper, Chicago Defender, the Black…

The Battle of Great Bridge, fought in December 1775, was Virginia’s first large-scale battle in the American Revolution. The Virginia militia fought against British regular troops and Loyalist militia that included a unit of Black soldiers. The…

In March 1775, the American colonies appeared to be on a path to war with Britain. Tensions increased over British treatment of Bostonians after Parliament passed the Coercive Acts (also known as the Intolerable Acts) in 1774. In Virginia, Governor…