Early Virginia History.

From the era of Reconstruction to the time of World War 1, Virginia experienced monumental changes. Black Americans were now free from slavery. History was made in Reconstruction from Congressional seats earned by African Americans to new laws protecting the rights of black Americans. Yet, the white racist backlash in Virginia would cause Jim Crow, violence against black people, and other forms of discriminatory policies. Industrialization grew in Virginia during this time, and reality set in that Virginia would exist without West Virginia forever. The end of this era saw a nightmare for many Virginia, while the privileged wealthy elites gained a large amount of financial power. African Americans formed the Colored Monitor Union Club to fight for the rights of citizenship for black Americans. It was created on April 4, 1865. Black people in Hampton founded a Union League in March 1865, and Williamsburg residents founded a Colored Union League in May. Richmond leaders did the same on May 9, 1865 to create the Colored Men’s Equal Rights League of Richmond, which was an affiliate of the National Equal Rights League (that existed on 1864). Black men fought for the right to vote as north as Alexandria, Virginia too. In Virginia, sharecropping was commonplace. This was when freedmen who were black people and poor white farmers rented land from landowners by promising to pay the owners with a share of the crops. The problem was that landowners didn’t pay the workers sufficient money, and some landowners lied about contracts. 

Virginia during Reconstruction saw devastation as a product of the U.S. Civil War. The Confederacy was defeated once and for all. That was great. Also, Virginian infrastructure was in ruins (like railroads). Plantations were burned out. Many people were without homes and without jobs or foods. Supplies were scared. That is why the Union Army came into Virginia to help reconstruct the state. The Freedmen’s Bureau helped to newly freed African Americans. Many black people learned to read, had educational services, and other means of developing their own lives. African American men lobbied to have full rights as citizens. In Norfolk, VA by May of 1865, some black men cast their votes for the first time. Local electoral boards refused to count them. Their votes were counted by the time of the Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868. They elected African Americans. Some black Americans were elected to the General Assembly in 1869, mostly as Republicans and later as part of the biracial Readjuster Party. Black politicians advocated civil rights, access to free public school, and a financial reform of the state’s large antebellum debt. African American women were leaders in the fight for black civil rights as well.

The historian Mary Farmer-Kaiser reported that white landowners lied and said that freedwomen were lazy and were unwilling to work in the fields. They wanted the Bureau to force them to sign labor contracts. Later, many Bureau officials condemned the withdrawal of freedwomen from work force as well as husbands who allowed it. The truth is that freedwomen have every right to decide for themselves their own destinies period. While the Bureau did not force freedwomen to work, it did force freedmen to work or be arrested as vagrants. Furthermore, agents urged poor unmarried mothers to give their older children up as apprentices to work for white landowners. Farmer-Kaiser concludes that "Freedwomen found both an ally and an enemy in the bureau." Virginia saw Reconstruction in three phases. They were: wartime, presidential, and congressional. Immediately after the war, President Andrew Johnson recognized the Francis Harrison Pierpont government as legitimate and restored local government. The Virginia legislature passed the Black Codes. The Black Codes restricted the Freedmen’s mobility and rights. Black people had only limited rights, and were not considered citizens. Black people couldn’t vote in 1865. The state ratified the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery. They revoked the 1861 ordinance of secession. Johnson believed that Reconstruction was complete, which was a lie. Other Republicans in Congress refused to seat the newly elected state delegation; the Radicals wanted better evidence that slavery and similar methods of serfdom had been abolished, and the freedmen given rights to citizens. They also were concerned that Virginia leaders had not renounced Confederate nationalism. After winning large majorities in the 1866 national election, the Radical Republicans gained power in Congress. They put Virginia (and nine other ex-Confederate states) under military rule. Virginia was administered as the "First Military District" in 1867–69 under General John Schofield. Meanwhile, the Freedmen became politically active by joining the pro-Republican Union League, holding conventions, and demanding universal male suffrage and equal treatment under the law, as well as demanding disfranchisement of ex-Confederates and the seizure of their plantations. Schofield was criticized by the conservative whites for supporting the Radical Republican cause. He was criticized by Radical Republicans for thinking that black suffrage was premature. There were splits in the Republican Party. The moderates existed. The other progressive Republicans wanted to disfranchise a person if he was a private in the Confederate army or had sold food to the Confederate government. They wanted land reform. About 20,000 former Confederates were denied the right to vote in the 1867 election.

In 1867, radical Republican James Hunnicutt (1814–1880), a white preacher, editor and Scalawag (white Southerners supporting Reconstruction) mobilized the black Republican vote by calling for the confiscation of all plantations and turning the land over to Freedmen and poor whites. The moderate Republicans, led by former Whigs, businessmen and planters, while supportive of black suffrage, drew the line at property confiscation. A compromise was reached calling for confiscation if the planters tried to intimidate black voters. Hunnicutt's coalition took control of the Republican Party, and began to demand the permanent disfranchisement of all whites who had supported the Confederacy. The Virginia Republican party became permanently split, and many moderate Republicans switched to the opposition "Conservatives.”  The Radical Republicans won the 1867 election for delegates to a constitutional convention. The 1868 constitutional convention included 33 white Conservatives, and 72 Radicals (of whom 24 were Black Americans, 23 Scalawag, and 21 Carpetbaggers) It was called the "Underwood Constitution" after the presiding officer, the main accomplishment was to reform the tax system, and create a system of free public schools for the first time in Virginia. After heated debates over disfranchising Confederates, the Virginia legislature approved a Constitution that excluded ex-Confederates from holding office, but allowed them to vote in state and federal elections. 

Under pressure from national Republicans to be more moderate, General Schofield continued to administer the state through the Army. He appointed a personal friend, Henry H. Wells as provisional governor. Wells was a Carpetbagger and a former Union general. Schofield and Wells fought and defeated Hunnicutt and the Scalawag Republicans. They took away contracts for state printing orders from Hunnicutt's newspaper. The national government ordered elections in 1869 that included a vote on the new Underwood constitution, a separate one on its two disfranchisement clauses that would have permanently stripped the vote from most former rebels, and a separate vote for state officials. The Army enrolled the Freedmen (ex-slaves) as voters but would not allow some 20,000 prominent whites to vote or hold office. The Republicans nominated Wells for governor, as Hunnicutt and most Scalawags went over to the opposition. The moderate Republicans were headed by the ex-Confederate William Mahone. He was once a Confederate general. He wanted Conservatives to win races. He worked with some ex-Democrats and others to form the Conservative Party. He wanted to allow ex-Confederates to vote. Later, there was the new legislature that ratified the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Virginia saw the end to Reconstruction by January of 1870. The Radical Republicans were ousted. Virginia was the only southern state that did not elect a civilian government that represented more Radical Republican principles. Many people had a hard time to adjust to new realities. The Radical Republicans were defeated because of the massive racism of white citizens and the resistance to true black liberation. People couldn’t stand former slaves being in positions of political power. The all-white Constitutional Convention of 1901-1902 destroyed African American political activity in Virginia for decades. It ended democratic reforms in the black community. It reintroduced the poll tax. Black voters reduced their numbers as voters in Virginia as a product of these draconian measures. Republican voters fell to 35 percent of voters in 1904. The Democrats back then were dominated by white supremacists who dominated both houses of the General Assembly.

By the late 19th century with the Gilded Age, railroad and industrial growth was common in Virginia. New railroads continued to be developed after the Civil War. Collis P. Huntington was a railroad baron who in 1868 allowed the Virginia Central Railroad to be merged and transformed into the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. By 1870, many railroads were merged to form the Atlantic, Mississippi, and Ohio Railroad later to be renamed Norfolk and Western. The towpath of the now defunct James River and Kanawha canal was transformed into the Richmond and Allegheny Railroad. Within a decade, it would merge into the Chesapeake and Ohio. Other railroads would be the following: the Southern Railroad, the Seaboard Air Line, and the Atlantic Coast Line; still others would eventually reach into Virginia, including the Baltimore & Ohio and the Pennsylvania Railroad. The rebuilt Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad eventually was linked to Washington, D.C. During the 1880’s, the Pocahontas Coalfield opened up in the far southwest Virginia. Others came in the region too. It provided more demand for railroad transportation. The Virginian Railway in 1909 opened more express action of hauling coal from the mountains in West Virginia to the ports at Hampton Roads. The expansion of railroads caused the creation of new towns and the rapid growth of others like Clifton Forge, Roanoke, Crew, and Victoria. There were railroad crashes like the Wreck of Old 97 near Danville, Virginia in 1903, which was immortalized later by a popular ballad).  With the invention of the cigarette rolling machine, and the great increase in smoking in the early 20th century, cigarettes and other tobacco products became a major industry in Richmond and Petersburg. Tobacco magnates such as Lewis Ginter funded a number of public institutions.

Virginian politicians were divided by the time of the Progressive Era. There were those who wanted a reduction of Virginia’s pre-war debt called the Readjusters and those who opposed those who felt Virginia should repay its entire debt plus interest called Funders. Virginia's pre-war debt was primarily for infrastructure improvements overseen by the Virginia Board of Public Works, much of which were destroyed during the war or in the new State of West Virginia. Former Confederate General and railroad executive William Mahone didn’t win the Democratic nomination for governor. He was the leader of the Readjusters. This was coalition of conservative Democrats including some white plus black Republicans. The Readjusters wanted to stop the power of wealth and privilege. They wanted to invest in public education. They wanted to readjust the state debt in order to protect funding for newly established public education and allocate a fair share to the new state of West Virginia. It proposed to repeal the poll tax and increase funding for schools and other public facilities. This plan attracted biracial and cross party support. Candidate William E. Cameron was governor of Virginia from 1882 to 1886. He was part of the Readjuster Party. Mahone was in the U.S. Senator. Harrison H. Riddleberger was in the Senator too as a Readjuster. Democrat Fitzhugh Lee was governor in 1885. In 1888, the exception to Readjuster and Democratic control was John Mercer Langston, who was elected to Congress from the Petersburg area on the Republican ticket. He was the first black man elected to Congress from the state, and the last for nearly a century. He served one term. A talented and vigorous politician, he was an Oberlin College graduate. He had long been active in the abolitionist cause in Ohio before the Civil War, had been president of the National Equal Rights League from 1864 to 1868, and had headed and created the law department at Howard University, and acted as president of the college. When elected, he was president of what became Virginia State University.

While the Readjuster Party faded, the goal of public education remained strong, with institutions established for the education of schoolteachers. In 1884, the state acquired a bankrupt women's college at Farmville and opened it as a normal school. Growth of public education led to the need for additional teachers. In 1908, two additional normal schools were established, one at Fredericksburg and one at Harrisonburg, and in 1910, one at Radford. After the Readjuster Party disappeared, Virginia Democrats rapidly passed legislation and constitutional amendments that effectively disfranchised African Americans and many poor whites, through the use of poll taxes and literacy tests. They created white, one-party rule under the Democratic Party for the next 80 years. White state legislators passed statutes that restored white supremacy through imposition of Jim Crow segregation. In 1902, Virginia passed a new constitution that reduced voter registration.

The Progressive Era was the paradox of more reforms to modern Virginia along with Jim Crow oppressing the lives of Black Americans. Reformers in the Progressive movement wanted to modernize the state, increase efficiency, use scientific methods, promote education, and eliminate waste plus corruption. The Democratic Governor Claude Swanson (1906-1910) had a coalition of reformers. They were in the legislature. They build schools and highways. Teachers’ salaries increased and new standards were promoted in education. Virginia’s public health programs grew and funding for prisons persisted. Swanson fought against child labor, lowered railroad rates, and raised corporate taxes. Modern management techniques and systematizing state services developed. A new network of roads was done by black convicts in chain gangs which was very demoralizing for many black people. After Swanson moved to the U.S. Senate in 1910 he promoted Progressivism at the national level as a supporter of President Woodrow Wilson, who had been born in Virginia. Swanson, as a power on naval affairs, promoted the Norfolk Navy Yard and Newport News Ship Building and Drydock Corporation. Swanson's statewide organization evolved into the "Byrd Organization." The SCC or the State Corporation Commission was formed as part of the 1902 Constitution over the opposition of the railroads to regulate railroad policies and rates. The SCC was independent of parties, courts, and big businesses. It was designed to maximize the public interest. It became an effective agency, which especially pleased local merchants by keeping rates low. 

Agricultural reformers existed in Virginia. The Progressive Era saw the rural areas dealt with many reforms. Rural areas had declining populations, illiteracy, poor framing techniques, and debilitating diseases among farm animals and human beings. Reformers wanted to upgrade the quality of elementary education. There was federal help. This caused a county agent system called the Virginia Cooperative Extension today. It taught farmers about the latest scientific methods to deal with tobacco and other crops. Farm house wives learned how to maximize their efficiency in the kitchen and nursery. There were upper class women like Lila Meade Valentine of Richmond, Virginia who promote many progressive reforms like kindergartens, teacher education, nursing programs, and vocation education for black people including white people. The Prohibition movement was dominated by middle class white women too. The women suffrage movement existed and it had racial issues. Many white women were reluctant to allow black women the black the right to vote. It was unable to broaden its base beyond middle class whites mainly in Virginia. Virginia got the policy changed allowing women the right to vote in 1920 as a result of a national constitutional amendment. In higher education, the key leader was Edwin A. Alderman, president of the University of Virginia, 1904–31. His goal was the transformation of the southern university into a force for state service and intellectual leadership and educational utility. Alderman successfully professionalized and modernized the state's system of higher education. He promoted international standards of scholarship, and a statewide network of extension services. Joined by other college presidents, he promoted the Virginia Education Commission, created in 1910. Alderman's crusade encountered some resistance from traditionalists, and never challenged the Jim Crow system of segregated schooling.

Progressives promoted reforms. Also, some want to deal with the heritage and traditions of old Virginia. There was the aristocratic First Families of Virginia (FFV). The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA), founded in Williamsburg in 1889, emphasized patriotism in the name of Virginia's 18th-century Founding Fathers. In 1907, the Jamestown Exposition was held near Norfolk to celebrate the tricentennial of the arrival of the first English colonists and the founding of Jamestown. Attended by numerous federal dignitaries, and serving as the launch point for the Great White Fleet, the Jamestown Exposition also spurred interest in the military potential of the area. The site of the exposition would later become, in 1917, the location of the Norfolk Naval Station. The proximity to Washington, D.C., the moderate climate, and strategic location of a large harbor at the center of the Atlantic seaboard made Virginia a key location during World War I for new military installations. These included Fort Story, the Army Signal Corps station at Langley, Quantico Marine Base in Prince William County, Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County, Fort Lee near Petersburg and Fort Eustis, in Warwick County (now Newport News). At the same time, heavy shipping traffic made the area a target for U-boats, and a number of merchant vessels were attacked or sunk off the Virginia coast.



By Timothy