Category: History - American
None of the American colonies "will ever submit to the loss of those valuable rights and privileges which are essential to the happiness of every free state," George Washington wrote in October, 1774. Perhaps the British officer to whom he made this statement was startled to h...
None of the American colonies "will ever submit to the loss of those valuable rights and privileges which are essential to the happiness of every free state," George Washington...
2. CHAPTER IThree little vessels--the _Susan Constant_, the _Godspeed_, and the _Discovery_--left England in December, 1606, under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, to found a col...
3. CHAPTER IIWith the calling of the Assembly of 1627 Virginia entered a new epoch. The people no longer looked to a commercial company for instructions and the appointment of the Governor a...
4. CHAPTER IIIThe people of Jamestown in the years from 1626 to 1640, when they saw a vessel coming up the river, must have crowded around the landing place to ask sailors and passengers for...
5. CHAPTER IVIt was in August, 1641, that Charles I appointed Sir William Berkeley Governor of Virginia to succeed Sir Francis Wyatt. The King knew this young man well, for he had been a gen...
6. CHAPTER VSir William Berkeley was one of the best Governors in the history of colonial Virginia during his first administration; during his second he was one of the worst. The man who ha...
7. CHAPTER VIWhen the news of Bacon's Rebellion reached Charles II he thought it past belief that "so considerable a body of men, without the least grievance or oppression, should rise up in...
8. CHAPTER VIIThe Glorious Revolution completely changed the relations between the English people and the King. No sooner had James fled than a committee of the Commons drew up a "Declaration...
9. CHAPTER VIIIIt was James Blair who was chiefly responsible for the appointment of Francis Nicholson as Governor General of Virginia. Nicholson's hearty support for his plans to found a coll...
10. CHAPTER IXThough the members of the Council must have been surprised when Nicholson read Secretary Hedges' letter, they did not let it disturb them. They were rid of him, and that was wha...
11. CHAPTER XAlexander Spotswood arrived in Virginia June 20, 1710, aboard the warship _Deptford_, and spent the night at Green Spring, with his future enemy, Philip Ludwell. Two days later...
12. CHAPTER XIAs the first quarter of the eighteenth century was a period of bitter contention between the Governors of Virginia and the Council and Burgesses, so the second quarter was marke...
13. CHAPTER XIIWhen Robert Dinwiddie stepped ashore at Yorktown on November 20, 1751, he was greeted by Secretary Thomas Nelson and two members of the Council--Colonel William Fairfax and Will...
14. CHAPTER XIIIFrancis Fauquier, who succeeded Dinwiddie as Lieutenant Governor, is described as "a gentleman of most amiable disposition, generous, just, and mild, and possessed in an eminent...
15. CHAPTER XIVIt was in October, 1768, when news reached Virginia that Norborne Berkeley, Lord Botetourt, had kissed the King's hand as Governor General. The unrest in the colony had convince...