Virginia

The fertile Shenandoah Valley fosters the state's most productive agricultural counties, while the economy in Northern Virginia is driven by technology companies and U.S. federal government agencies.

During the American Civil War, the state government in Richmond joined the Confederacy, while many northwestern counties remained loyal to the Union, which led to the separation of West Virginia in 1863.

Although the state was under one-party rule for nearly a century following the Reconstruction era, both major political parties have been competitive in Virginia since the repeal of Jim Crow laws in the 1970s.

[7] Large groups in the area at that time included the Algonquian in the Tidewater region, which they referred to as Tsenacommacah, the Iroquoian-speaking Nottoway and Meherrin to the north and south, and the Tutelo, who spoke Siouan, to the west.

[9] Three-fourths of the native population in Virginia, however, died from smallpox and other Old World diseases during that century,[10] disrupting their oral traditions and complicating research into earlier periods.

[11] Additionally, many primary sources, including those that mention Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas, were created by Europeans, who may have held biases or misunderstood native social structures and customs.

[25] From the colony's start, residents agitated for greater local control, and in 1619, certain male colonists began electing representatives to an assembly, later called the House of Burgesses, that negotiated issues with the governing council appointed by the London Company.

[42] In April 1780, the capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of Governor Thomas Jefferson, who feared that Williamsburg's coastal location would make it vulnerable to British attack.

The polarized national response to his raid, capture, trial, and execution that December marked a tipping point for many who believed slavery would need to be ended by force.

[60] During the post-war Reconstruction era, African Americans were able to unite in communities, particularly around Richmond, Danville, and the Tidewater region, and take a greater role in Virginia society; many achieved some land ownership during the 1870s.

[63] However, with many railroad lines and other infrastructure destroyed during the Civil War, the Commonwealth was deeply in debt, and in the late 1870s redirected money from public schools to pay bondholders.

The Readjuster Party formed in 1877 and won legislative power in 1879 by uniting Black and white Virginians behind a shared opposition to debt payments and the perceived plantation elites.

[65] But in 1883, they were divided by a proposed repeal of anti-miscegenation laws, and days before that year's election, a riot in Danville, involving armed policemen, left four Black men and one white man dead.

[66] These events motivated a push by white supremacists to seize political power through voter suppression, and segregationists in the Democratic Party won the legislature that year and maintained control for decades.

[67] They passed Jim Crow laws that established a racially segregated society, and in 1902 rewrote the state constitution to include a poll tax and other voter registration measures that effectively disenfranchised most African Americans and many poor whites.

[59] After the war, a homecoming parade to honor African-American troops was attacked in July 1919 by the city's police as part of a renewed white-supremacy movement, known as Red Summer.

[134][135] Native carnivorans include black bears, who have a population of around five to six thousand in the state,[136] as well as bobcats, coyotes, both gray and red foxes, raccoons, weasels and skunks.

[142] Peregrine falcons, whose numbers dramatically declined due to DDT poisoning in the middle of the 20th century, are the focus of conservation efforts in the state and a reintroduction program in Shenandoah National Park.

[143] Virginia has 226 species of freshwater fish from 25 families, a diversity attributable to the area's varied and humid climate, topography, interconnected river system, and lack of Pleistocene glaciers.

Common examples on the Cumberland Plateau and higher-elevation regions include Eastern blacknose dace, sculpin, smallmouth bass, redhorse sucker, Kanawha darter, and brook trout, the state fish.

Over three million people, 35% of Virginians, live in the twenty jurisdictions collectively defined as Northern Virginia, part of the larger Washington metropolitan area and the Northeast megalopolis.

American Community Survey five-year estimate According to U.S. Census data as of 2022[update] on Virginia residents aged five and older, 83% (6,805,548) speak English at home as a first language.

[242] Oxfam America however ranked Virginia in 2024[update] as only the 26th-best state to work in, with pluses for worker protections from sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination, but negatives for laws on organized labor and the low tipped employee minimum wage of $2.13.

[276] A warm winter and a dry summer made the 2023 wine harvest one of the best for vineyards in the Northern Neck and along the Blue Ridge Mountains, which also attract 2.6 million tourists annually.

[291] James Branch Cabell wrote extensively about the changing position of gentry in the Reconstruction era, and challenged its moral code with Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice.

[349] Enforcement of federal civil rights legislation passed in the mid-1960s helped overturn the state's Jim Crow laws that effectively disfranchised African Americans.

[351] The Voting Rights Act of Virginia was passed in 2021, requiring preclearance from the state Attorney General for local election changes that could result in disenfranchisement, including closing or moving polling sites.

[402] Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, a teaching institution of Eastern Virginia Medical School, was the site of the first successful U.S. in-vitro fertilization program, and around 2.5% of births in the state are due to IVF.

The average commute time of 28.7 minutes is the eighth-longest among U.S. states, and the Washington Metropolitan Area, which includes Northern Virginia, has the second-worst rate of traffic congestion among U.S.

The reasons for this include the lack of any dominant city or market within the state and the proximity of teams in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Charlotte, and Raleigh, as well as a reluctance to publicly finance stadiums.

A simple drawing of a young dark-haired Native American woman speaking to two men in armor from the early 1600s. Several Native Americans look on from the right.
The story of Pocahontas was simplified and romanticized by later artists and authors, including Smith himself, and promoted by her descendants, some of whom married into elite colonial families . [ 5 ]
A three-story red brick colonial-style hall and its left and right wings during summer.
In 1699, after the statehouse in Jamestown was destroyed by fire, the Colony of Virginia 's capitol was moved to Williamsburg , where the College of William & Mary was founded six years earlier. [ 26 ]
Upper-class middle-aged man dressed in a bright red cloak speaks before an assembly of other angry men. The subject's right hand is raise high in gesture toward the balcony.
In 1765, Patrick Henry led a protest of the unpopular Stamp Act in the House of Burgesses , later depicted in this portrait by Peter F. Rothermel .
A family of eight women and children sit on a bench behind a cylindrical metal heater, while one adult male sits on his own to the right.
Eyre Crowe 's 1853 portrait, Slaves Waiting for Sale: Richmond, Virginia , which he completed after visiting Richmond 's slave markets, where thousands were sold annually [ 48 ]
A color drawing of a city skyline in flames as a steady stream of people on horses or in horse-drawn carriages cross a long bridge over a river.
The Confederacy used Richmond as their capital from May 1861 till April 1865, when they abandoned the city and set fire to its downtown .
Several World War I ships line a port crowded with warehouses, with a city skyline behind them.
With nearly 800,000 soldiers passing through, Hampton Roads was the second-largest port of embarkation during World War I . [ 59 ]
A bronze statue of a man riding a horse on a tall pedestal that is covered in colorful graffiti.
Protests in 2020 focused on Confederate monuments in the state .
A topographic map of Virginia, with text identifying cities and natural features.
Virginia is shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains , the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed, and the parallel 36°30′ north .
Rapids in a wide, rocky river under blue sky with clouds colored purple by the sunset.
Great Falls is on the fall line of the Potomac River , and its rocks date to the late Precambrian . [ 94 ]
A red-brown colored deer with antlers stands in a meadow with high grasses.
Up to 7,000 white-tailed deer , also known as Virginia deer, live in Shenandoah National Park . [ 129 ]
A gray and white bird of prey on the edge of a large nest with water in the distance.
Osprey nest at False Cape State Park on a wooden platform designed to encourage their return to the area
Five mountain ridges in shades of dark blue below an orange and yellow sunset.
Oak trees produce a haze of isoprene , which helps give the Blue Ridge Mountains their signature color. [ 151 ]
Map of Virginia counties colored by population density, ranging from pale yellow, to green, to dark blue.
The population density of Virginia counties and cities as of 2020
Dozens of adults sit in auditorium rows, many waving small American flags
New citizens attend a naturalization ceremony in Northern Virginia , where 25% of residents are foreign-born, almost twice the overall state average. [ 189 ]
An older white man in a dark blue blazer smiles as he is presented with a dead deer hanging upside down held by two men in contemporary Native American attire.
Governor Glenn Youngkin receiving a ceremonial tribute from representatives of the Mattaponi and Pamunkey tribes, a Thanksgiving tradition since 1677. [ 206 ]
A recording of a resident of Tangier Island who was born in the late 1800s, showcasing the island's unique accent
An outdoor auditorium with seated guests lined with neoclassical columns and a closed archway on one side and banners hanging inside the arch.
Since 1927, Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County has hosted an annual nondenominational sunrise service every Easter. [ 224 ]
Map of Virginia counties colored by median household income, ranging from gray, to blue, to darker green.
Counties and cities by median household income between 2015 and 2019
Aerial view of the huge five-sided building and its multiple rings. Parking lots and highways stretch away from it.
The U.S. Department of Defense is headquartered in Arlington County at the Pentagon .
High-rise hotels line the ocean front covered with colorful beach-goers.
Ocean tourism is an important sector of Virginia Beach's economy.
Two adult men in green and red baseball caps work with their hands while crouching down in a field of wide green leaves.
Rockingham County in the Shenandoah Valley accounts for twenty percent of Virginia's agricultural sales as of 2017 , with the valley as a whole being the state's most productive region. [ 270 ]
A map of Virginia colored green to blue based on how much property tax was paid, from $200 to $4,000+.
Counties and cities by median property tax paid in 2019
Five women dressed in long colonial style clothing sit on the stairs of tan and beige buildings talking. In front of them is a wooden wheelbarrow full of wicker baskets.
Colonial Virginian culture, language, and style are reenacted in Williamsburg .
Five male musicians perform on stage in front of a standing audience, behind them a dozen lights project blue lines upward.
The Steel Wheels , an Americana roots folk rock band, plays at Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville in February 2019.
Dozens of brown and white ponies surge out of the shallow water onto a grassy shore crowded with onlookers.
The annual Pony Penning features more than 200 wild ponies swimming across the Assateague Channel into Chincoteague . [ 310 ]
An all white Neoclassical building with pediment and six columns rises on a grassy hill with a large American elm tree in the left foreground. Two boxier, but similarly styled wings are attached at the building's rear.
The Virginia State Capitol in Richmond , designed by Thomas Jefferson and Charles-Louis Clérisseau , is home to the Virginia General Assembly .
A seven-story sandstone building faced with ionic columns on a city street corner.
Unlike the federal judiciary system , justices of the Virginia Supreme Court have term limits, a mandatory retirement age, and select their own Chief Justice.
People stroll in a wooded area decorated with American flags.
Mirroring Virginia's political transition, the annual Shad Planking event in Wakefield has evolved from a vestige of the Byrd era into a regular stop for many state campaigns. [ 345 ]
2024 U.S. presidential election results by county in Virginia
Democratic
Republican
Two older white men in suits address a group of teenagers assembled on the steps of the U.S. Capitol
U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine , both former governors , meet with students on the steps of the U.S. Capitol .
Five middle school students work together at a table using a soldering iron
Middle school students in Albemarle County participate in an engineering program in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution .
The University of Virginia guarantees full tuition scholarships to all in-state Virginia students with family incomes of $80,000 or less. [ 391 ]
Two medical professionals, one holding a clipboard, in blue scrubs and facemasks stand outside the window of a dark blue car parked in front of a brick building.
Patients are screened for COVID-19 outside Naval Medical Center Portsmouth , the Navy 's oldest continuously operating hospital. [ 401 ]
Two geometric all glass towers connected by a central atrium stand in front of a grassy walkway and under a dark and cloudy sky
USA Today , one of the nation's largest circulation newspapers , is headquartered in McLean .
A train station built over a busy intersection in front of several skyscrapers at sunset.
The Silver Line extension of the Washington Metro system opened in Tysons in 2014
A large crowd of runners in brightly colored shirts race down a wide street bordered by autumnal trees.
The annual Monument Avenue 10K in Richmond , one of the ten largest timed long-distance running races in the U.S. [ 448 ]
A college basketball player dressed in white with orange and blue bordering prepares to shoot a free throw.
Mike Scott and Joe Harris of the Virginia Cavaliers battle Cadarian Raines of the Virginia Tech Hokies for a rebound in a college basketball game at Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg .
A large rectangular metal sign, mostly black, with the words "Welcome To Virginia" and "Virginia is for lovers" with a red heart symbol on the left stands to the right of a rural road through green hills.
The state slogan, " Virginia Is for Lovers ", has been used since 1969 and is featured on state welcome signs. [ 472 ]