Virginia Colony

At the time of the English colonization of Virginia, Native American people were living in what now is Virginia. Native American tribes in Virginia included the Cherokee, Chesepian, Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Meherrin, Monacan, Nansemond, Nottoway, Pamunkey, Powhatan, Rappahannock, Saponi and others. The natives are often divided into three groups, based to a large extent upon language differences. The largest group was known as the Algonquian led by Chief Powhatan. In 1607, the native Tidewater population was between 13,000 to 14,000. Powhatan controlled more than thirty tribes and over 150 settlements, speaking Virginia Algonquian. Two other large groups, the Nottoway and Meherrin, spoke dialects of Iroquois, and others in the piedmont used Sioux dialects.

In 1583, Queen Elizabeth I of England granted Sir Walter Raleigh a charter to explore and plant a colony north of Florida. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh explored the Atlantic coast of North America. Raleigh, or possibly the Queen herself, named the area "Virginia" after Queen Elizabeth, known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married. The name eventually applied to the whole coast from South Carolina to Maine, and included Bermuda. The London Virginia Company was incorporated as a joint stock company by the proprietary Charter of 1606, which granted land rights to this area. The Company financed the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Jamestown, named for King James I, was founded on May 13, 1607 by Captains Christopher Newport and John Smith. In 1609 many colonists died during the "starving time" after the loss of the Third Supply's flagship, the Sea Venture.

The House of Burgesses was established in 1619 as the colony's elected governance. During this early period Virginia's population grew with the introduction of settlers and servants into the burgeoning plantation economy. In 1619, African servants were first introduced, with slavery being codified in 1661. After 1618 the headright system led to more indentured servants from Europe. In this system, settlers received land for each servant they transported. Land from the Native Americans was appropriated by force and treaty, including the Treaty of 1677, which made the signatory tribes tributary states. The colonial capital was moved in 1699 to Williamsburg, where the College of William and Mary had been founded in 1693.

The House of Burgesses was temporarily dissolved in 1769 by the Royal governor Lord Botetourt, after Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee led speeches on the distresses of the British taxation without representation. In 1773, Henry and Lee formed a committee of correspondence, and in 1774 Virginia sent delegates to the Continental Congress. On May 15, 1776, the Virginia Convention declared independence from the British Empire. Shortly after, the Virginia Convention adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights written by George Mason, a document that influenced the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Then on June 29, 1776, the convention enacted a constitution, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, that formally declared Virginia as an independent commonwealth.

During the American Revolutionary War, the capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of Governor Thomas Jefferson, fearing Williamsburg's location made it vulnerable to British attack. In 1781, the combined action of Continental and French land and naval forces trapped the British on the Yorktown peninsula, where troops under George Washington and French Comte de Rochambeau defeated British General Cornwallis in the Battle of Yorktown. The British surrender on October 19, 1781 so shifted British public opinion that it led to the end of major hostilities and secured the independence of the colonies.