Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

In 1607 the V irginia C ompany of L ondon planted the first permanent English colony at J amestown . The company's charter was revoked by J ames i on 24 May 1624 and it was formally declared a royal colony on 13 May 1625. The P owhatan C onfederacy ceased to be a major threat after the two O pechan-canough wars . The headright system encouraged the importation of large numbers of indentured servants to work on PLANTATIONS. Tobacco dominated the economy after 1619, but falling prices (due to overproduction) resulted in a long agricultural depression from 1660 to 1715. Civil war briefly erupted in B acon's R ebellion in 1676. The number of slaves expanded greatly after 1680 and by 1720 they accounted for most unfree field workers. Settlement rapidly spread over the P iedmont after 1720. Always the most numerous colony, Va. contained 504,000 persons, or a fifth of the thirteen colonies ' population about 1775. Va. produced few T ories , but furnished 15 of the 80 Continental regiments at the height of the war; it was the site of 69 military actions on land and 11 at sea, including the decisive victory of Y orktown . It was the 10th state to ratify the C onstitution , on 25 June 1788. By 1792, having ceded its claims to the N orthwest T erritory and K entucky , Va. had been reduced to its modern boundaries plus W est V irginia . In 1800 it had 886,149 residents, still ... log in or subscribe to read full text