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I) Virginia Before It Was Virginia –
A) Geographic Features
1) Bordered by five states and the District of Columbia
• MD, WV, KY, TN, NC
2) Regions: West to East
• Appalachian Plateau- ample amount of natural coal, rural
• Valley & Ridge- longest region in VA, also known , provides as “Virginia’s Breadbasket”
food to the rest of the state (historically)
• Blue Ridge- crossing mountains was difficult crucial to Virginia’s history,
• Piedmont- Largest area in VA, includes DC, 40mi in the North but 140mi in the South,
includes state capitol: Richmond
• Coastal Plain- stretches roughly 100mi inland from Chesapeake Bay,
3) Chesapeake Bay
• Almost all of Virginia’s rivers flow from West to East
• Allow access into interior of the state
• James and Potomac are the most important
4) River System ^^^ ^^^
B) Native Populations
1) Main groups in Virginia Algonquian peoples: mainly on the Coastal Plain. Siouan peoples: –
mainly in the Piedmont. Iroquoian peoples: mainly in the western part of the state
2) At the time of settlement, the main tribe was the Powhatan about 35,000 native Americans in …
Virginia at the time of Jamestown, 15,000 of which were in the Coastal Plain
a) Chief Powhatan (Wahunsunacock )
b) The Powhatan had recently consolidated their control over the region- “the Powhatan
Confederation”
C) European Context and Exploration
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1) Portugal and Spain led the way- most of efforts focused in Caribbean and South America beginning
in the 1400’s and into the 1500’s…They saw N. America as a waste because they found economic
products (sugar, silver, gold, etc.) in the South
2) Spanish Settlements and Exploration
a) Spain’s first permanent settlements in North America
b) Spanish explorers that reached Virginia
a. Juan Pardo’s Expedition to Saltville, 1567
b. Don Louise
3) England and Its Plans
• Spain was the superpower of the world in the 1500s, England does not want to
challenge Spain directly. Therefore, if the Spanish took the south of the New World,
England would take the north. This is how the English came to settle in VA.
a) England’s Tentative Start
b) Tensions with Spain
a. Core of these tensions had to do with religion
b. 1517: The Reformation- split from Catholicism (King Henry VIII can’t produce a male
heir)
c. Spanish monarchs: defenders of Catholicism vs. English: moving towards Protestantism
d. England pushes buttons of the Spanish
i. Queen Elizabeth: s ee below “First Attempt at Colonization”
c) Other factors in England influencing a move to colonization
a. Not everyone was happy with the Church of England
b. Pilgrims saw the Church of England as corrupt
c. Puritans wanted to purify the Church
d. Quakers
e. Church of Engl and doesn’t like the “splinter groups” and encouraged them to leave
f. Economic difficulty in England: inflation creates tension
II) First Attempt at Colonization Roanoke Island –
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1) Queen Elizabeth authorized Sir Walter Raleigh to explore and colonize an area north of Spanish
Florida in 1584
2) Initial attempt- Roanoke Island Colony and John White…over 100 people disappeared after John
White returned to England for supplies
III) Conclusions
I) Settlement of Jamestown
A) England Steps into Colonization Roanoke Island –
B) Planning for Settlement
1) King James I After Roanoke and Elizabeth, James was once again interested in colonization –
2) Charter for the Virginia Company given exclusive rights to settle in VA by King James I; James saw –
opportunity to settle in area mainly controlled by the Spanish
3) Supporters Richard Hakluyt (cartographer on voyage to the New World) –
4) Motivations wealth in the form of silver and gold, evangelism with the G– ospel, ‘Eastward Ho’ (I tell thee,
gold is more plentiful than copper is with us), widespread unemployment (seen as an opportunity to
work…first son inherited everything, the rest did not. Sons of nobles wanted a path to nobility), check
Spanish expansion (nationalis m)
C) Difficult Voyage -105 men and boys, 39 crewmen. Set sail from England on 3 ships (Discovery, Godspeed,
Susan Constant), December 1606- May 1607, Christopher Newport was Captain, first six weeks were stalled
due to the cessation of winds (ended up eating that amount of food), only one person died on the voyage, May
14th: Jamestown was picked as a location …this was a mistake
• Bugs and heat
• Supply of fresh water was limited and brackish
D) The First Year first thing they did was say a prayer together –
1) Constructing a Fort 60 miles inland, giving protection from the Spanish, located of a navigable river –
• Summer of 1607
2) Leadership
a. Was designated by King James
b. 7 men on a council who would select one leader for the colony
i. Bartholomew Gosnold
ii. George Kendall
iii. tin John Mar
iv. Christopher Newport*
v. John Ratcliffe*
vi. John Smith*
vii. Edward Wingfield*
c. These men did not necessarily like each other, John Smith was arrested
d. First governor was Edward Wingfield
i. Was removed by the council after 3 months on the grounds that he was hording food,
Wingfield returns to England
ii. Replaced by Ratcliffe, however John Smith was more so the power-holder
e. Seasoning period: when a person was subject to the new diseases in the new environment
i. If a person could survive the first year, their chances of survival increased dramatically
3) Trouble with the Indians
a. Jamestown was in an area controlled by the Powhatan
b. Powhatan thought there might be an alliance
a) Relations ran hot and cold, but there was always the danger of conflict.
b) Powhatan
c) Pocahontas
a. 11 years old, o ne of Chief’s daughters
b. helped get aid to the settlers
c. settlers had trouble farming, especially since they were delayed six weeks at the beginning of their
journey
d. by the fall of the first year, there was hunger in Jamestown
e. during this time, Pocahontas saved John Smith from execution…Smith develops a relationship
with Smith
4) Worst Killer Disease –
a. By late fall of 1607, 2/3 of the people had died…mostly starvation related disease
E) Touch and Go
• By January of 1608, only 20 remained
• Christopher Newport returns with new settlers and new supplies
• Returns again in September with orders that John Smith is to be made governor
1) Close to abandonment
2) John Smith’s role
•
• Smith injured in gunpowder accident, Ratcliffe takes over once again
3) 1609 -10 – The “Starving Time”
• 500 settlers to 60
• Ratcliffe was captured by natives, skinned alive and burned at the stake
• One colonist found guilty of cannibalism and executed
• 60 survivors leave and abandoned Jamestown
4) Survival
• New Governor, Thomas West
• Arrival of new settlers
• West instilled strict discipline in Jamestown, similar to John Smith
• The Laws Divine Moral and Martial –
• If you were caught swearing the first time, you were whipped…second time, a pin/nail was
driven through tongue…third time, execution
• John Rolfe (1614 marries Pocahontas)
• Widower, however brought peace to relationship between settlers and Powhatan
I) Virginia Endures
A) Becoming better established
• John Rolfe discovers that tobacco grows very well in VA, becomes VA’s gold
• Becomes a one-crop economy and is crucial to Virg inia’s survival and endurance
B) Major changes to the colony’s position
1) Expansion of the tobacco economy
a. King James was against smoking tobacco, many knew that smoking was harmful to the body
b. 1st year (1616): exported 2300 lbs
c. 1618: 50,000 lbs
d. 1630: 500,000 lbs
e. 1688: 18,000,000 lbs
f. tobacco becomes the basic commodity of exchange, also used as currency (people even tithed in
tobacco)
g. People began growing more tobacco than anything else, some were starving but had a lot of
tobacco
2) Changes in Governance
a) Great Charter of 1618
a. Extreme shortage of workers, not many people wanted to come to VA because of the high death
rates and strict laws
b. Created a new system for distributing land known as the Headright System
i. Gave 100 acres to any settler who had been a resident for seven years
ii. Gave 50 acres to anyone who paid his own way to VA after 1616
iii. Gave 50 acres to anyone who paid for another person’s passage
1. Creates a labor system called indentured servitude where agencies in England
send people to the new world in exchange for labor for a set period of time
(typically 7 years) not only farmers, but tutors, surgeons, gardners –
c. Created the first popular representative body in the colonies the General Assembly/House of –
Burgesses
i. Work with the governor to make laws
ii. 1619: elected delegates
1. 30 representatives in summer of 1619
2. met for 5 days
3. met in a church, but refused to start until they found an Anglican minister to
open in prayer
4. 3 critical decisions
a. Made it a law that all Virginians must attend church two times on
Sundays
b. Called for the establishment of a college, one of the first goals of the
Virginia company was to “Evangelize and Educate”
c. Made the Anglican Church (the Church of England) the official church
of the colony (remains a State Church of Virginia all the way through
the American Revolution)
i. The state church never had the power or control that the
Assembly envisioned
ii. Was dependent on the Church of England, in England, to
provide ministers in Virginia…there were never enough
iii. Being assigned to be a minister in VA was not seen as a good
thing
iv. Because of the lack of control of the Church, people began to
desire to worship on their own…leads to freedom of religion
sentiment
b) Change in relationship to England
a. King James grows in frustration with the Virginia Company, in 1624 revokes the Virginia
Company charter…Virginia becomes a royal colony
b. King James dies in 1625, King Charles acquires the throne…Charles was not very concerned with
the colony (1625-1640s, Charles pretty much left the colonies to themselves as he was
preoccupied with England itself)
i. Gives the General Assembly the final say over taxes
ii. 1640’s – English Civil War King Charles vs. Parliament
1. Supporters of Charles: Cavilers
2. Supporters of Parliament: Roundheads
3. Charles is arrested and executed in 1649
4. Before the Civil War, Charles appoints William Berkeley the governor of
Virginia the most influential governor in VA history –
c) Basic form of colonial government Governor, Council, The House of Burgesses –
Reconstruction in Virginia
o Major problems in Virginia
▪ Over 600,000 freed slaves needed to find work, shelter, and basic provisions.
• Virginia’s economy was in ruins.
o Thousands of Virginians remained dependent on union rations for survival.
o Little to no money in VA or the south.
o Confederate money had no value after losing the civil war.
o Most banks were closed
o Physical destruction in Virginia.
o Political Reconstruction efforts
▪ Initial Government efforts
• Freedman’s Bureau
o Supposed to help slaves and poor white adjust after the civil war.
o Mainly in schools
o Priority 1 getting family back together. –
o Priority 2 obtaining an education for their kids. –
o 5 years after civil war: 200 school and helped over 4,000 kids read and write.
• President Andrew Johnson
o Serves Lincolns second term
o Not a good president and does not achieve much.
o He was a southern but a unionist.
o Most northerners trust him.
o He was impeached
o Over the fight about reconstruction
• Francis Pierpont
o Governor of the state
• Radical Republicans
o Ultimately win.
o In order for reconstruction to occur they had a few conditions
o South had to accept 3 amendments to the constitution.
• 13th - prohibited slavery
• 14th - *arguably the most important amendment of constitution* guarantees
citizens' rights
• 15th - guarantees the right to vote.
o And had to accept military occupation.
o Formal Reconstruction
▪ Radical Republicans in Congress ultimately won the struggle.
▪ Required the readmitted states to accept these (below)
▪ Key provisions
• 3 Amendments laid foundation for modern civil rights–
▪ 13: ended slavery (passed by Congress 1865, ratified by President 1865)
▪ 14: guaranteed citizenship rights (passed 1866, ratified 1868)
▪ 15: guaranteed the right to vote (passed 1869, ratified 1870)
• Nothing in the Constitution prohibiting women from the right to vote
• Military Occupation (South divided into five military regions)
▪ General Schoefield was governor in VA
▪ Debate and Compromise in Virginia
• Elections
• (John C.) Underwood Constitution – Convention to rewrite Virginia’s constitution 1867-1868
▪ Key Provisions mainly a revision of original VA constitution–
• Universal manhood suffrage all men above age 21 could vote–
• Established a publically supported school system prior to this, VA did not have –
a public-school system
• Required a written, secret ballot
• Disenfranchised former Confederates (could not vote)
▪ Most Virginians were not happy
• Compromise
▪ Ulysses S. Grant becomes President in 1868/1869
• Wanted to get the southern states readmitted as quickly as possible so the
country can move on
• Grant was willing to compromise with each state
o Gov. Gilbert Walker
o Comes up with a solution to get VA to approve the Underwood
Constitution
o Let Virginians vote on the changes to the constitution
separately (referendums the people vote directly)–
o Guarantee that the first 3 points will pass, as long as Grant lets
the fourth fail, allowing most Virginians to vote
o Constitution was approved without the fourth condition
o Virginia can vote on its new government
▪ End of Political Reconstruction in Virginia
• Virginia elected a new governor and General Assembly (1869)
• The General Assembly approved the 14 and 15 Amendments.
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• Virginia re-admitted with full powers of every other state January 1870–
1. Reconstruction in VA (continued)
a. Economic and Social Reconstruction efforts (Freedman)
i. Economic
1. Farming 80% of Virginians made their living –
a. Most Virginians made their livings through farming well into the
20th century (1950)
b. The value of farms plunged because of the Civil War
i. Land before the Civil War ($150 per acre)
ii. Land after the Civil War ($2 per acre)
iii. Northerners use this time to invest in the land in the
South
c. By 1870, production was still below prewar levels
d. Growth of sharecropping and tenant farming: many slaves
actually continued to work on the same farms that they were
enslaved at
i. Sharecropping agreement between farmer and –
laborer where the laborer works for a share of the crop
(1/4-1/3)
ii. Tenant Farming – workers would “rent” the land
iii. Neither of them owned the land power resides with –
the landowners
iv. Problem
1. During Reconstruction period, farm prices
(tobacco, corn, wheat) declined in the process
of DEFLATION
a. This was great for consumers, but not
for farmers
2. Manufacturing
a. Manufacturing remained below 1860 levels through most of the
1870’s
i. Movement for a diversity of products
b. New South Movement
i. Henry Grady and Economic Diffusion
1. Encouraged southern states to develop in other
areas besides just agriculture
2. To do this, money was required from northern
investors
ii. Key Developments in Virginia beginning in
Reconstruction
1. Railroads
a. Civil war proved the importance of
railroads and the importance of the
transportation of people and goods
b. Industry because the railroads must be
built
c. Increase of 2,400 railroad miles
d. Not only encourages transportation,
but also other industries
i. Timber
ii. Steel
e. Links the state together (ample,
valuable coal in the western part of the
state)
f. Big Lick became Roanoke (1880):
railroad depot, drawing people to live
and work (1880 1,000 people, 1890 – –
25,000 people)
2. Cigarette manufacturing
a. The making of cigarettes becomes
mechanized in 1880s
b. James Buchanan DUKE
3. Coal Mining western part of the state –
4. Other industries
a. Flour mills
b. Textiles
3. Fiscal Issues
a. After the war and through the most of Reconstruction, VA was
desperately short on money
b. Largest Problem debt ($47 million) –
i. Funders favored paying the debt back (William –
Mahone, eventually switches to work with
Riddleberger)
1. Sell bonds to raise money to pay debt
a. Selling bonds means you are borrowing
more money
b. Set the interest rate too high (6%)
c. Legislation allowed for people to pay
taxes with bonds – the state isn’t
getting back actual money when
someone pays with a bond
ii. Re-adjusters wanted to change to plan to pay the debt –
off (Harrison Riddleberger first in House of Delegates, –
then governor)
1. Sell bonds but at 3% interest rate
2. Prohibit using bonds to pay taxes
3. Changed tax code
a. Raised and lowered certain taxes
b. One problem railroad corporations –
could assess their own more values
(they would understate their value, not
having to pay full tax). This loophole
was changed, the state assesses value.
iii. VA believed that they only owed 2/3 of debt, and said
that West Virginia owed 1/3 of debt
iv. VA sues WV and Supreme Court rules in favor of VA
ii. Education part of plan to fund the debt –
1. State couldn’t pay teachers by mid-1870s
2. William Ruffner – first state superintendent
3. Opened 2,900 public schools across the state, teaching 135,000
students
a. Five years later 185,000 students –
b. Most of these were one-room school houses
c. Virginia Tech (Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College)
d. Late 70s fiscal crisis causes government to cut spending –
i. Half of schools were closed
ii. Governor Holiday did not support public schools –
e. State Female Normal (Teacher’s College) School
i. Longwood University
ii. For White Students
f. Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute
i. Virginia State University
ii. For Black Students
b. Conclusions
I) Virginia in the Early 20 Century Progressive Era
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A) The Constitution of 1902
• Background
• Change of the Underwood constitution
• Goal was to remove blacks and poor from voting
• Try to get around the 15 amendment
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• Key players
• Constitutional Convention controlled by democrats
• 100 people selected for the convention
• 1 ?
• 11 Republicans
• 88 Democrats (dominate state government through the 1960s)
• Carter Glass
• “It was a crime to begin with and a wretched failure until the end” on black suffrage
• John Goode
• President of the convention
• John Daniel
• Key provisions
• Maintained basic political structure
• Prohibited the education of white and colored children in the same schools
• Required all voters to pay property tax could not do this if you did not own property (affects mostly –
blacks, but also affects the poor)
• Age limit becomes 21
• Sets poll tax
• Literacy test (left up to registrar to determine whether or not someone can read)
• Results
• The total number of Virginianas that could vote dropped by half
• The number of black voters dropped even more
• Does not prohibit the right to vote, but severely inhibits it
• Thought this would eliminate corruption
B) Progressive issues moves made by women –
• Women’s Suffrage and Virginia – 1920, 19 Amendment guarantees women the rigt to vote. Virginia does
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not officially ratify this amendment until 1952
a) Women and some men participated actively in Virginia for Suffrage for women.
a. Ellen Glasgow
b. Lila Meade Valentine
b) Equal Suffrage League of Virginia
• Public Education VA education was – just “okay
• Average school year was only 4 months
• 23% of Virginians were illiterate
• Attendennce was not mandatory
a) Poor quality of Virginia’s schools
• Only 75 high schools, only 10 had 4-year cirriculums
• Public education segregated by law, black schools were inferior than white schools
b) In 1906, the General Assembly voted to overhaul the public education system.
• Gov. Andrew “Jack” Montague
• Pushed for tremendous education reform
• Attorny General a few years earlier, pushed for limiting blacks in educational and
policial matters
• More money given to public schools and colleges/universities
• Prohibition
• Virginia leads the way in prohibition
• Pushed for by women, many problems for them linked to alcohol consumption
• Wasteful spending
• Alcohol abuse
• Domestic abuse
• Anti-Saloon League
• Virginia prohibits alcohol before the nation does
• 60% voted to prohibit alcohol in 1914, implemented in 1916
• In Virginia, the manufacturing of alcohol for sale was illegal
• Can still drink, up to a certain amount per month
• Can cross state lines to purchase alcohol
a) Leadership
b) Debate
c) In 1916, the General Assembly passed legislation to implement the referendum vote.
d) 18
In 1919, the country ratified the th Amendment.
a. Prohibits alcohol across the country
b. Lasts for less than 15 years
C) International Issues and Virginia
1) World War I
a. Worst war in human history up until that point (The Great War) (The War to End All Wars), about
9 million killed in this war
b. Brings Progressive Era to a close
c. War began in Europe, 1914
i. U.S. Neutrality, eventually enters the war in April 1917
ii. U.S. institutes a draft, all males 18-35 must register for the draft
1. 500,000 Virginians had to do this
2. 300,000 Virginians served in the military, mostly the Army
iii. Virginia
1. Camp Lee, now Fort Lee
2. Training at Quantico
3. Norfolk Naval Base (1917) plays an important part in transporting troops to –
Europe
a. Largest employers in the state
4. 4,000 died
2) The 1918 influenza devastated the world, including Virginia (Spanish Flu)
a. One of the wost pandemics in world history
b. Linked to the war, so many people so close together allowing for the spread
c. Ultimately kills 20 million people
d. Virginia
i. 500 soldiers at Camp Lee die (Sept. 1918)
ii. Richmond closed all churches, schools, and theaters for an entire month (Oct. 1918)
iii. 75 people died in 9 days (Nov. 1918)
iv. In total, 12,000 Virginians died from the flu in 1918
D) Conclusions
Virginia was dominated by the Democratic Party, or a political machine (politicians cotrol everything that goes on)
I) Machine Politics, Harry Byrd, and the Great Depression
A) Machine Politics was not all bad, but expected loyalty in return for the duties that it served –
1) Background
2) Emergence of Party Machinery (1880s to 1970s)
• Democratic Party, if you wanted to be elected, you must be a Democrat and must have the support
of the Party Boss
• Thomas Martin created the Democratic Prty Machine in VA, Party Boss until death in 1919 –
o Served as U.S Senator
o Dies and is replaced by Carter Glass
B) Harry Floyd Byrd
1) Background
• Grew up in Winchestor, VA family was in the newspaper business –
o Thought family would go bankrupt, drops out of school at age 15 to help with family
paper
o Rebuilds Winchestor Star into a profitable newspaper, gains him significant political
influence at a time where newspaper was the main media outlet
o Uses the newspaper throughout his time in office
o Always feared debt and too much spending (from family bankrupcy) and carries those
principles into office
▪ “Spend as You Go”
• 1915 – elected State Senator at age 28, 10 years
o became Party Chairman of Democrats
• 1935 – elected governor before age 40
• mid-1920s to mid- nothing happened in VA (politically) without the support of Byrd 19-60s –
o Democratic votes across the board, with a few exceptions
• 1928 Presidential Election
o Al Smith vs. Herbert Hoover
▪ Byrd puts democratic party behind republican candidate (Hoover)
• 1923 – needed a State issue to get his name in lights
o chooses a new technology, the automobile (a product for the rich previously, but by this
point, most Americans could afford a car)
▪ allows for people to travel with individual mobility
▪ “front porch dating” changes
o The presence of cars called for the need for infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.)
▪ Who would pay for infrastucture? Federal, State, or Local?
▪ State and Local would pay, but needed more money
• Where would this money come from?
• Needed new revenue streams
• Auto Club of America devalued VA roads
o Call for a response State would sell bonds to pay for the –
roads
o General Assembly uses referendum for decision
▪ Byrd Campaigns against the sale of bonds because he is so opposed to debt; he
succeeds
• Proposes a “Gas Tax” to pay for the roads so the State doesn’t have to
borrow through the sale of bonds
• This issue puts Byrd on the map
• Is a fiscal conservative; if you’re going to spend it, make sure you have
the money
2) Political Career as head of the Byrd Machine
a) Time as governor runs for governor in 1925, comes to office in 1926; serves one term –
1) Goal pay as you go/efficiency –
2) Amendments to the state constitution reduced the number of elected officials (from 10 to 3), gives –
governor authority the power to remove governemnt agencies that were inefficient
3) Race relations was a product of the racist nation he grew up in –
• Support of racist policies
• Massive resistence to desegragation
• Disparity in funding for schools; VA paid about 4x more for white students than they did for black
students
o 408 high schools in VA 400 white schools, 8 black schools –
o VA Population
▪ 1.6 million whites
▪ 700,000 blacks
▪ roughly 1/3 of high schools SHOULD have been for black students under the
Plessy v. Fergueson “separate but equal”
• this was never what actually what happened
• Segragation made illegal under Brown v. Board of Education
• With Byrd’s support, VA passes the first law in any state to pass the Public Assemble Act,
requiring all public meetings to be segragated
• Opposed to violence, supported the anti-lynching law of 1928 which explicitly made lynchings
illegal (first in the country)
4) Consolidated his power as head of democratic party, people that were elected to state positions owed –
their positions to him, they did not oppose him…reorganizes the executive branch of the state government, cuts any
unnessecary expenses
b) Senator FDR comes to Presidency; Byrd is appointed in 1933 and holds position to 1965, where he –
dominates VA politics
C) Great Depression in Virginia 1929 triggers the worst economic downturn in American History (25% of –
Americans unemployed)
1) Governors during the Depression John Pollard (1930-34), George Perry (1934-1938) –
• Virginia suffered during the Depression, but less than most states
o Slower descent into depression, and comes out faster
• Military and Government facilities that were stable institutions and provided stable jobs
2) Virginia’s Initial Experience
• Diverse economy w South movement after Civil War that diversified the economy (coal – Ne
mining, railroads, agriculture, etc.)
3) Hardships in Virginia
• Between 1929-1932 VA production declines 30% (typically includes decline in workforce)
• VA unemployment 19% at worst poi nt
• HOWEVER; Cigarette industry helped VA weather the storm, VA was leading producer of
cigarettes in the world, this inductry actually expanded during the depression
• Hobo stereotypes travelling on railcars
• Hoovervilles
• People became dependent on soup kitchens and food pantries for survival
4) The state’s response – the people need to take care of themselves, limited government involvement
a) Virginia’s gov’t believed in fiscal conservatism – sn’t limited spending, strings being pulled by Byrd; doe
expand spending
b) Ending Prohibition widely supported to prohibition earlier, but was a way to raise taxes during the Great –
Depression
c) Home grown response Barter Theatre; 40 cents or trade –
• Actors and actresses are out of work, so they come up with their own way to survive
5) New Deal in Virginia (elected 1932, serves until 1945) expansion of federal spending FDR’s –
a) Public Works Administration funding of states for projects –
• Construction of Alderman Library at UVA, 1937
• Blue Ridge Parkway
b) Civilian Conservation Corps funding to employ young men to plant trees, hang telephone lines, and –
construct group. Most popular program from ages 18-25. Men went and lived on site to construct state parks.
c) Agricultural Adjustment Act
• Federal purchase of livestock and payment to farmers to not plant in order to reduce surplus,
ultimatly boosting agricultural prices
d) Works Progress Administration (1935)
• Employs over 100,000 Virginians, 66 million dollars in wages
I) World War II
A) Background US involvement 1939-1945, 50 million people killed in WWII, 400,000 Americans –
1) Underlying issues –
• Dictators came to power by taking advantage of economic issues; Adolf Hitler came to power
legally; Nazi Party promised work, food, and equality
• Japan and Germany began to act aggressively
2) Specific events
• U.S. neutrality until Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941; U.S. favored the countries fighting the aggressors
B) Virginia’s Role in the war – 300,000 Virginians serve, 11,000 die
1) Virginia’s location guaranteed that it would play a significant role.
2) Virginians serving in the military
• Gen. George Marshall
o Becomes Chief of Army during the war, answers only to Roosevelt
• Gen. Alexander Vandergrift
• Gen. Leonard Gerow
o Commanded 29th Division (D-Day)
3) Military installations in the state
a) Virginia’s fifty military installations were more than in any other state.
• Pentagon center of U.S. defense –
• Hampton Roads shipbuilding –
b) Key military installations
• Norfolk Naval Base was main base for naval fleet
• Radford Munitions Plant make ammunition for war, employed over 22,000 people –
• Camp Lee
• Trainong at Fort A.P. Hill
4) At Home during the War
a) Colgate Darden (1 942-1946)
• Set an example for the people of Virginia by participating in rationing
b) Major population changes
• 17 million in US Army, government must provide for them
c) Support of the War at home
• Rationing over 300 items –
o Rubber
o Gasoline
o Sugar
o Bicycles
o Beer cans
o Toothpaste tubes
• Recycling Drives
o Scrap drives where people would donate metal to be melted and repurposed for military
use
o VA donates over 75,000 tons of scrap metal, Lynchburg donated the most
o No new cars produced, many people donated the bumpers off of cars
• Civil Defense help prepare the state in case it was attacked –
o Built a fake airport
5) Direct Axis involvement
• German U-Boat attacks
o “Happy Hunting Ground”
▪ U-Boats would attack merchant ships off the Atlantic coast
▪ People on the coast had to black out at night
▪ Early 1942 one ship per day was sunk off the coast –
• Prisoners of War
o 100,000 German and Italian prisoners came through VA and were then shipped out to
different camps
o VA had 27 different POW camps
o Many of these people returned to the US after the war
o Could sometime work outside the camp if they had good behavior, could earn passes to
go into the cities
▪ Could go into shops/restaurants…but blacks still couldn’t due to segragation
6) Bedford’s Special Importance
• Suffered more casualties per capita on D-Day than any other town in America
• 35 went ashore, 19 were killed
