Civil Rights in Virginia has always been very prevalent all the way since back in the
1620s. Some would even say that it is still prevalent in the state and I cant disagree. It has been a
continuous issue with the state going through so many changes throughout the years. The state of
Virginia has been through the institution of slavery during the 17th century all the way to civil
rights movements in present day. The things that went on throughout the decades still seem to
linger over the state as civil rights are still an ongoing problem. Although there has been some
progress made throughout the decades, their have far to many setbacks that have caused the issue
of civil rights to stick around.
The institution of slavery was one of the first challenges of civil rights in the state of
Virginia. “Black slavery took root in the American colonies slowly. Historians now know that
small numbers of Africans lived in Virginia before 1619, the year a Dutch ship sold some twenty
blacks (probably from the West Indies) to the colonists. But it was not until the 1680s that black
slavery became the dominant labor system on plantations there. As late as 1640, there were
probably only 150 blacks in Virginia and in 1650, 300. But by 1680, the number had risen to
3,000 and by 1704, to 10,000.”1 As we can see, it didn’t take long for the state of Virginia to
become a big part of the transatlantic slave trade. During the colonial era, slavery played a big
role in society and the economy. There were so many setbacks that slaves faced. When the Bill
of Rights was enacted, it gave rights to everyone but slaves, women, and Natives. Many wars
were fought over the period in which slavery was around and African Americans fought in those
wars. When the wars were finished, those who were slaves went back to the plantations. As we
can see, African American slaves went through so much but that did not stop them from
rebelling back and fighting for their equal rights. These efforts to fight for equal rights have been
1 Digital History. “Slavery Takes Root in Colonial Virginia”.(2021).
https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?psid=3576&smtID=2
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going on for decades and were even going on during the colonial era. Nat Turner led a rebellion
in 1831 against the intuition of slavery. In 1861, the state decided to secede the Union. The
efforts of Nat Turners rebellion made this possible and throughout the next few years, things
would start to get better for slaves in Virginia. In 1865, the abolition of slavery happened across
the United States and this was due to the efforts that many African Americans went through to
make it possible.
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Bibliography
The bibliography must list in alphabetical order the sources you consulted. All sources used must
be scholarly sources, as outlined in the syllabus. See the bibliography examples in the Research
Paper Assignment Resources lists for how to format different types of sources. The bibliography
should be on its own page, which does not count toward the total length of the essay.
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