All Available Units
Becoming Free and Independent States: Virginia in the Revolutionary Era
Some historians have argued that the American Revolution, beyond being just a military action or a political break was an ideology that infused the nation and influenced all parts of life for the early citizens of the United States. The ideas of revolution were formed as the… more »
Forming a More Perfect Union: Virginia and the Debate over the U.S. Constitution
In the years following the American Revolution, crises faced the new nation that threatened to endanger the hard-won independence of the former British colonies. They centered on the structure and operation of the new American government. Not officially adopted until March 1… more »
Securing the Blessings of Liberty: Virginia and the Road to the U.S. Bill of Rights
During the American Revolution, Virginians produced some of the cardinal texts of American liberty and later made important contributions to the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights. Among the most important rights of Americans that received protection ar… more »
The Thirteenth Amendment
The first time that slavery is referred to explicitly in the United States Constitution is in the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished the practice. While the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery throughout the nation, it did not provide for the rights of the newly-freed Afri… more »
The Fourteenth Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was the second of the three so-called Reconstruction amendments to settle constitutional questions that the Civil War created. It was ratified in 1868, three years after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment and two years before… more »
The Fifteenth Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was the third of the three so-called Reconstruction amendments to settle constitutional questions that the Civil War had created. Ratified in 1870, five years after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and two y… more »
The Nineteenth Amendment
Women in the United States began agitating in the 1840s for the right to vote, long before all men in Virginia had gained the right to vote. The woman suffrage movement, which succeeded in 1920 with the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment, coincided with major national refo… more »