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The Virginia Colony was founded at Jamestown in 1607. It was the first English colony in the New World. Disease, conflicts with Indians, and hunger almost destroyed Jamestown but new settlers arrived in 1610 with supplies and the colony began to thrive.
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The Virginia Colony's first export was tobacco.
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In 1624 the Virginia Colony was made a royal colony.
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Major cities in the Virginia Colony included Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Richmond.
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The Virginia Colony was not dominated by a specific religion like in the English Colonies. Several religions were practiced freely in the Virginia Colony including Anglicans and Baptists, among others.
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The Virginia Colony's landscape included coastal plains, valleys, and mountains.
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The Virginia Colony was located in the Southern Colony, which was the warmest of the three colonies and due to its climate the spread of disease was higher than in the colder colonies to its north.
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The warmer climate and the land meant that it was possible to grow crops throughout the entire year.
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The Virginia Colony had many natural resources including forests, fish, and agricultural land.
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The Virginia Colony's trade and export included tobacco, cotton, livestock, fruit, grain, and vegetables.
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Plantations were common in the Virginia Colony, where cotton and tobacco were often grown in large quantities.
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The Virginia Colony was the home to many important political figures in America's history including four of America's first five presidents. They were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe.
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Nicknames given to the Virginia Colony over the years include Old Dominion, Mother of Presidents, Mother of States, the Cavalier State, and Mother of Statesman.
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The Southern Colonies had the largest slave populations of all of the colonies. The slaves worked on the plantations that grew cotton, tobacco, sugar, rice, and indigo (a dye), among others.
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Many of the crops on plantations were traded for items that could not be grown such as farming tools, shoes, and household goods such as dishes and pots and pans.
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The Virginia Colony declared its independence from Great Britain in 1775. It then became the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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The Virginia Colony became a state on June 25th, 1788.
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After the United States was formed, the Virginia Colony's territory would eventually be divided into several other states. States that once existed within the Virginia Colony's territory include Kentucky, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, and past of Western Pennsylvania and Ohio.
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Slavery was finally abolished in Virginia in 1865, at the end of the American Civil War.
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