This Week in Virginia History

Virginia officially became part of the United States when it ratified the Constitution in 1788. For the next 200 years, only men represented Virginia’s citizens in the U.S. Congress. Until this week in 1993 when Leslie Byrnes became the first woman from Virginia elected to Congress.

This week in 1811... The day after Christmas began with merriment. The Richmond Theatre scheduled two full-length plays to delight the city’s residents. But the theatre was a disaster waiting to happen.

Edith Maxwell came home late one night to find her angry father waiting up. A scuffle ensued. Edith struck her father with her high heeled slipper and he died. She was arrested for murder and became a national sensation overnight.

Martha Washington sat at the end of the curtained bed. She watched the labored breathing of her husband. In the hallway three doctors discussed George’s serious condition in muffled voices. They didn’t think he would last much longer.

This week in 1861... On the eve of the Civil War, the University of Virginia was a Confederate cradle. Even before Virginia left the Union, students broke into the Rotunda to raise the Confederate flag. Students rushed to join the various volunteer regiments that sprang up on grounds. One of these groups became Company G of the 59th Virginia Infantry Regiment. But things didn't go so well.

This week in 1790... The end of the American Revolution brought forth a freedom fervor, but slavery was heavily entrenched in Commonwealth. Plans for outright abolition fell flat. Enter Ferdinando Fairfax, one of the largest slaveholders in his county, who wrote and promoted a plan for gradual emancipation.

He was the terror of the colonial coastline. Better known as the pirate Blackbeard, Edward Teach attacked ships from Virginia to Jamaica. And Virginia Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood was tired of it. So when the pirate set up a hideout around North Carolina’s Okracoke Island, Spotswood decided to act.

It started as a typical workday for William Breedlove and William Chandler. The free Black men operated a ferry boat across the Rappahannock River. One day, they ferried a black man who turned out to be an escaped slave. And according to Virginia law the penalty for helping a slave escape was to be sold into slavery.

This week in 1828... Virginia-born former slave Lott Cary had saved up and bought his freedom. He felt it was his mission in life to preach the Gospel to Africans. So when the American Colonization Society established the colony of Liberia, Cary emigrated there with other Black families from Virginia.

A decade after the Civil War, a new party formed in Virginia: the Readjuster Party. With both black and white members, the Readjusters worked to reduce state debt, support public education for African-Americans, and end the poll tax.

Some white Virginians felt threatened... and they used a violent incident to subvert the Readjusters' power.