Fifth Virginia Convention

The membership could be thought of as belonging to one of three groups: radicals from western Virginia, who had agitated for independence from Britain even before 1775; philosophers of the American Enlightenment; and wealthy planters, largely from the east.

The first was mainly made up of wealthy planters, who sought to continue their hold on local government as it had grown up during colonial Virginia's history.

These included Robert Carter Nicholas Sr., who opposed the Declaration of Independence from King George III.

This party likely ensured the continuation of slavery at a time when other states had already begun ending it with gradual emancipation.

The convention selected Patrick Henry as the first governor of the new Commonwealth of Virginia, and Henry was inaugurated as governor on June 29, 1776, allowing Virginia to establish a functioning republican constitution a few days before the Second Continental Congress declared their independence on July 4, 1776.

[7] The delegates to the Virginia Convention of 1776 – elected in 1776 (One hundred and thirty-two members, two from each county, and one each from the Boroughs of Jamestown, Williamsburg, Norfolk, and the College of William and Mary)[8]