History of Norfolk, Virginia
The city was burned by orders of the outgoing Virginia governor Lord Dunmore in 1776 during the second year of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), although it was soon rebuilt.
By the late 19th century, the Norfolk and Western Railway with its line to the west established the community as a major coal ore exporting port and built a large trans-loading facility at Lambert's Point.
Princess Anne and Norfolk counties would become leaders in truck farming, producing over half of all greens and potatoes consumed on the East Coast.
After Virginia passed a new post-war state constitution, African Americans were essentially disfranchised for more than 60 years until their leadership and activism won passage of federal civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s.
As a result of its publicity and visits by high-ranking officials during the exposition (in which the Great White Fleet, of 26th President Theodore Roosevelt with the rebuilt United States Navy after the Spanish–American War of 1898 was launched from Hampton Roads harbor), it became the later location of the Norfolk Naval Station.
Today, the city of Norfolk is a major American naval and world shipping hub, as well as the center of the Hampton Roads region, both on the southside and the peninsula to the north of the extensive harbor between the James and York Rivers, with the railroad terminus and ship construction port of Newport News from the 19th century on the west shore and Hampton on the south and east sides, dating back to its founding in the colonial era as Virginia's original port.
[citation needed] In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh led an expedition in search of a suitable place to establish a permanent English settlement in North America.
Arthur Barlowe, one of Raleigh's commanders, kept a journal which states the area was inhabited by a tribe of Native Americans called the Chesepian.
In 1622, Adam Thoroughgood (1604–1640) of King's Lynn, Norfolk, England, became one of the earliest Englishmen to settle in the area that was to become South Hampton Roads, when at the age of 18 he became an indentured servant to pay for passage to the Virginia Colony.
On the Eastern Branch Elizabeth River 5 miles (8.0 km) from Norfolk, they built a manor house with Dutch-style gambrel roof which later became known as Rolleston Hall.
[citation needed] It was a major shipbuilding center and an important trans-shipment point for the export of goods such as tobacco, corn, cotton, and timber from Virginia and North Carolina, to Europe and beyond.
In turn, goods from the West Indies such as rum and sugar, and finished manufactured products from Europe, were imported back through Norfolk and shipped to the rest of the lower colonies.
The rebels were quite happy to see a largely Loyalist city destroyed, happier still to be able to blame it on the British, and over the next two days they encouraged the spread of fires, while looting unburned houses.
Virginia considered ideas to either phase out slavery through law (see Thomas Jefferson Randolph's 1832 resolution) or to "repatriate" blacks by sending them to Africa to establish a colony at Liberia.
At its peak, the epidemic was claiming more than 100 lives a day, and Norfolk did not recover its population fully until after the end of the American Civil War.
The capture of the shipyard allowed a tremendous amount of war material to fall into Confederate hands including the remains of the burned and scuttled naval frigate USS Merrimac.
[14] On May 6, while the Union Army under General George B. McClellan was fighting the Peninsula Campaign, President Abraham Lincoln visited Fort Monroe across Hampton Roads.
Mayor Lamb did manage to successfully hide the city's colonial era silver mace underneath a fireplace hearth to avoid having it confiscated or melted down by union troops.
Gradually they were restricted from office and voting by the whites' paramilitary violence and intimidation, and increasingly discriminatory legislation, including Jim Crow Laws to control work, segregated public facilities and transportation, and other aspects of life.
Commemorating the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, the exposition brought many prominent people including President Theodore Roosevelt, congressmen, senators, and diplomats from 21 countries.
Similarly, the Norfolk & Virginia Beach Railway inaugurated rail service in 1883[20] to the rural community of Seatack located on the Atlantic Ocean in Princess Anne County.
As attendance boomed, in both instances, the steam-powered services between downtown Norfolk and the beaches at Ocean View and Seatack were later replaced by electric-powered trolley cars.
Virginia Beach became an incorporated town in 1906, and an independent city of the second class in 1952, sharing courts and some constitutional officers with Princess Anne County.
[22] In 1923, the city limits were expanded to include Sewell's Point, Willoughby Spit, the town of Campostella, and Ocean View, adding the naval base and miles of beach property fronting on Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay.
[28] Following the opening of this expressway, many more people began to move to the neighboring city of Virginia Beach and commute back to work in Norfolk.
In Norfolk, the state action had the impact of locking ten thousand children out of school, which raised outcry by the public to a high level.
Governor Almond capitulated about ten days later and asked the sitting General Assembly to rescind several "Massive Resistance" laws.
Similarly, the advent of newer suburban shopping destinations spelled demise for the fortunes of downtown's Granby Street commercial corridor, located just a few blocks inland from the waterfront.
Granby Street traditionally played the role as the premiere shopping and gathering spot in the Hampton Roads region and numerous department stores such as Smith & Welton (1898–1988), Rice's (1918–1985) and Ames and Brownley (1898–1973), hotels and theaters once lined its sidewalks.
The mall was named the MacArthur Center, in honor of the five-star World War II General whose tomb was located across the street from the proposed site.
