Virginia's place in American history was assured nearly 400 years ago when the first permanent English settlement in North America was established on its shores. Just 12 years later, in 1619, Jamestown was the meeting place of the first representative assembly in the New World and the harbor for the first African Americans--indentured servants, like many of the early white settlers, who were trying to earn their way in the New World. At about the same time the colony's destiny as a settlement for families, rather than a military outpost, was shaped when the Virginia Company of London sent several shipments of mail-order brides in return for payment in tobacco for the women's passage.
Two of the greatest conflicts fought on United States soil came to a close in Virginia. The American Revolution virtually ended at Yorktown when Lord Cornwallis surrendered his British army to General Washington. Less than a hundred years later, the great Virginian commander of the Confederate forces, Gen. Robert E. Lee, presented his sword to the Union commander Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox--thus ending the American Civil War. Some of that war's bloodiest battles--Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville--were fought within the state. The capital of Virginia since 1779, Richmond served as the capital of the Confederacy and became one of the chief targets of the Union Army. In addition to Lee, several other Virginia-born generals won wide respect for their military leadership--the Confederates Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, Jubal Early, Joseph E. Johnston, and George Pickett, and the Union's George Thomas.
. In 1926 Virginia was the first Southern state to adopt an antilynching law, but politically the state remained strongly segregationist. As recently as the 1960s, for example, Prince Edward County schools remained closed for five years as a part of a strategy of avoiding racial integration. Nevertheless, in 1990 Virginia became the ultimate turnaround symbol of the civil rights movement when L. Douglas Wilder, the grandson of Richmond-area slaves, became the first black to be elected governor in the United States.
Virginia was named for the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I of England. Its nickname of Old Dominion dates back to about 1660, when Charles II of England placed the arms of Virginia on the royal shield. This gave the American colony equal rank with the other dominions--England, Scotland, France, and Ireland. Another nickname, the Cavalier State, comes from the name given to supporters of King Charles I, many of whom came to the colony for refuge during England's Civil War of the 1640s. Virginia is known as the Mother of States, as well as the Mother of Presidents, because six other states were created from part of its original land.
Part of the Old South, the Old Dominion is in the southeastern part of the United States. It is shaped roughly like a triangle with its southern boundary as the base. Virginia is bordered on the east by the Atlantic Ocean for 112 miles (180 kilometers). Two of its eastern counties--Northampton and Accomack--are on the Delmarva Peninsula. The name of the peninsula was formed from letters of the three states that occupy the area (Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia). This region is separated from the main body of the state by Chesapeake Bay. On the northeast Virginia is separated from Maryland and the District of Columbia by the Potomac River. To the northwest and west are West Virginia and Kentucky. Tennessee and North Carolina are the border states to the south of Virginia. Virginia's greatest length (east to west) is 440 miles (708 kilometers) along its southern border. The state's greatest width (north to south) is 196 miles (315 kilometers). The total area is 40,767 square miles (105,586 square kilometers), including 1,063 square miles (2,753 square kilometers) of inland water surface.
