This Week in Virginia History

George Wythe came down the stairs of his Richmond home to have some breakfast. Suddenly Wythe’s stomach cramped. His fingers and toes tingled. His heart palpitated. Wythe knew this wasn’t a regular illness. He had been poisoned!

This week in 1958... It was a classic love story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. They get married. But in this story, the girl was Mildred Jeter, a Black woman. And her new husband was a white man named Richard Loving. This was in highly segregated Caroline County and interracial marriage was illegal in Virginia.

This week in 1878... Little Luther Robinson knew he had a bright future before him. Smiles grew on people’s faces as they threw pennies his way. Pennies for dancing in front of a Richmond theatre. Or the beer garden. Or most anywhere he performed. After changing his name to Bill, he moved to Washington, DC, then to New York City. But that was just the beginning...

This week in 1861... Civil War loomed in in America. South Carolina troops had fired on Charleston’s Fort Sumter. President Abraham Lincoln sent reinforcements to Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia and put Major General Benjamin Butler in charge. When three enslaved Virginia men escaped and showed up at the fort to take refuge, Gen. Butler wasn't sure what to do at first. He ended up making "Freedom's Fortress."

This week in 1607... A fleet of three ships carrying about 100 intrepid men sailed up the James River. The settlers were part of the Virginia Company chartered by King James I. Their mission: establish the first permanent English settlement in North America. And find some gold. And a water route to the Pacific.

Fitzhugh Lee boarded the last boat from Havana to Florida. The US was about to declare war on Spain. Americans speculated that Lee, a former Confederate cavalry officer and later governor of Virginia, would be put in command of the forces to liberate Cuba. Which didn’t exactly happen. Though he did command an occupying force after the Spanish-American war.

This week in 1870… Hundreds of men crowded into the Supreme Court of Appeals, which was about to announce the verdict of the Richmond Mayoralty Case. The sagging floor of the second floor balcony was far from people’s minds that day. Suddenly a loud crack sounded under their feet.

This week in 1861.. Robert E. Lee paced the room. Events proceeded quickly. And he knew his next decision would change everything for him, his family, and history.

A week ago, Confederates attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina. President Lincoln issued a proclamation and called for a 75,000-man militia to quell the insurrection. Lincoln even asked Virginia to send men and asked Robert E. Lee to take command of the Union Army.

And this is how Lee came to this moment of pensive pacing at Arlington House.

Nat Turner’s Rebellion in 1831 sparked a wave of anti-slavery advocacy in Virginia. At UVA, the Jefferson Society elected Merritt Robinson to deliver a speech at the Founder’s Day celebration in the Rotunda in 1832. Robinson used his speech to argue for the emancipation of slaves in Virginia. He made the case that slavery was a moral wrong by quoting Washington, Jefferson, and other founding fathers. The faculty was outraged.

This week in 1858… John Augustine Washington III paced the halls of Mount Vernon. What was he going to do with this place? The house was falling apart around him. And historical tourism income was not enough to keep up the house.

The next evening, a steam ship chugged up the Potomac. Passenger Louisa Cunningham gazed at Mount Vernon as it slipped by. She was horrified by what she saw and resolved to do something about it.