Virginia Vignettes

Nature has often shaped Virginia’s modern history; the Chestnut Blight of the early twentieth century offers one example. Prior to the blight, southern Virginian mountain communities gathered and sold chestnuts, included them in their diet, and used them as animal feed. They also used the trees, as environmental scholar Ralph Lutts has noted, “in log [...]

Actually, Virginia has many watersheds. All the land that drains to a particular body of water is called a watershed. A river’s watershed is made up of smaller watersheds as creeks and streams filter into larger ones before finally flowing into a single river. Virginia has 13 major watersheds, with the most dominant being the [...]

Yes, five major ones. A geological region is a specific land area, each differentiated by rock strata and elevation. The environmental character of Virginia’s regions has led to differences in agricultural planning, energy resource availability, and workforce and industrial opportunities.
The sand, silt, and clay of the Tidewater region on the coast of Virginia and the [...]

Virginia’s modern history has been shaped by its nonhuman natural environment. The state’s climate, geology, waterways, fisheries, wildlife population, flora and fauna, and soil content have provided the conditions for economic, cultural, and recreational possibilities across the state.
A review of the state’s bioregions reveals subtle examples of nature acting to shape Virginia’s modern history. Watersheds [...]

Indentured servants comprised some three-quarters or more of those making the overseas migration to Virginia in the early 1600s. Upon arrival, servants would be sold to a master for whom they would work off the debt of “transportation,” as the crossing was termed. The immigrants came from a range of social classes and backgrounds; [...]

Although Virginia’s balanced economy absorbed some of the shock of the crisis, the state was not “depression proof.” It was a time for rigid economizing on the farms. Many farmers stopped growing tobacco because it did not pay the fertilizer and marketing costs. Practically no agricultural machinery was purchased, and deterioration in buildings and equipment [...]

Populism was a broad-based farmers’ movement that attempted to address the problems of low commodity prices and unfair competition experienced by farmers in the late nineteenth century. Through the Grange and then the Farmers’ Alliance they created cooperatives and sought railroad rate regulation to reduce their costs and eliminate monopolistic practices. Failing to achieve these goals, [...]

Leaving their old plantations, the emancipated slaves went in search of families and jobs, experiencing the emotional release of being free. They legalized their marriages, seized control of their churches, and avidly pursued education through missionary and Freedmen’s Bureau schools. Despite white charges of idleness, freedpeople sought any kind of employment, many going to towns [...]