204-635: George Mathews (August 30, 1739 – August 30, 1812) was an American soldier and politician from the U.S. States of Virginia and Georgia . He was a brevet brigadier general in the Continental Army , the 20th and 24th Governor of Georgia , a U.S. Representative from Georgia, and the leading participant in the Patriot War of East Florida . Born in Augusta County in the Virginia Colony , Mathews
408-481: A charter for a new colony to the Virginia Company of London . The group financed an expedition under Christopher Newport that established a settlement named Jamestown in 1607. Though more settlers soon joined, many were ill-prepared for the dangers of the new settlement. As the colony's president, John Smith secured food for the colonists from nearby tribes, but after he left in 1609, this trade stopped and
612-655: A first language . Spanish is the next most commonly spoken language, with 7.5% (611,831) of Virginia households, though age is a factor; 8.7% (120,560) of Virginians under age eighteen speak Spanish. Of Spanish speakers, 60.6% reported speaking English "very well", but again, of those under age eighteen, 78.7% speak English "very well". Arabic was the third most commonly spoken language with around 0.8% of residents, followed by Chinese languages and Vietnamese each with over 0.7%, and then Korean and Tagalog , just under 0.7% and 0.6% respectively. Penal transportation Penal transportation (or simply transportation )
816-639: A group of Spanish Jesuits , explored the Chesapeake Bay during the 16th century. To help counter Spain's colonies in the Caribbean , Queen Elizabeth I of England supported Walter Raleigh 's 1584 expedition to the Atlantic coast of North America . The name "Virginia" was used by Captain Arthur Barlowe in the expedition's report, and may have been suggested by Raleigh or Elizabeth (perhaps noting her status as
1020-587: 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. New economic forces meanwhile industrialized the Commonwealth. Virginian James Albert Bonsack invented the tobacco cigarette rolling machine in 1880 leading to new large-scale production centered around Richmond. Railroad magnate Collis Potter Huntington founded Newport News Shipbuilding in 1886, which
1224-425: A raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia , in an attempt to start a slave revolt across the southern states. 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. Abraham Lincoln 's 1860 election further convinced many southern supporters of slavery that his opposition to its expansion would ultimately mean
1428-402: A series of ambush-style killings between colonists and natives under Chief Powhatan and his brother began, resulting in mass starvation in the colony that winter. By the end of the colony's first fourteen years, over eighty percent of the roughly eight thousand settlers transported there had died. Demand for exported tobacco , however, fueled the need for more workers. Starting in 1618,
1632-518: A vestryman from 1763 to 1768, high sheriff from 1770 to 1771, and justice of the peace from 1769 to 1770 and 1773 to 1775. He was appointed a captain of militia in 1766. Mathews first gained wider recognition for his role in the October 4, 1774, Battle of Point Pleasant . In the fall of 1774, Royal Governor Lord Dunmore assembled an invasion of Native American territory along the Ohio River , culling
1836-511: A "great share" of the trade in the region. Mathews was elected to the Augusta Parish vestry in 1763, joining his brother Sampson who had been a member since 1761. The brothers maintained their seats on the vestry until a shift in political population caused them to be ousted by the Presbyterian majority. The Mathews brothers were appointed trustees of Staunton in 1772. At this time, Staunton
2040-504: A bill was proposed to the House of Commons to allow the transporting of felons, and was followed by another bill presented to the Lords to allow the transportation of criminals convicted of felony within clergy or petty larceny. These bills failed, but it was clear that change was needed. Transportation was not a sentence in itself, but could be arranged by indirect means. The reading test, crucial for
2244-697: A bloody Confederate victory. Union General George B. McClellan organized the Army of the Potomac , which landed on the Virginia Peninsula in March 1862 and reached the outskirts of Richmond that June. With Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston wounded in fighting outside the city, command of his Army of Northern Virginia fell to Robert E. Lee . Over the next month, Lee drove the Union army back , and starting that September led
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#17328450708812448-465: A business: merchants chose from among the prisoners on the basis of the demand for labour and their likely profits. They obtained a contract from the sheriffs, and after the voyage to the colonies they sold the convicts as indentured servants . The payment they received also covered the jail fees, the fees for granting the pardon, the clerk's fees, and everything necessary to authorise the transportation. These arrangements for transportation continued until
2652-439: A century, at a magnitude of 5.8, struck central Virginia on August 23, 2011 . 35 million years ago, a bolide impacted what is now eastern Virginia. The resulting Chesapeake Bay impact crater may explain what earthquakes and subsidence the region does experience. A meteor impact is also theorized as the source of Lake Drummond , the largest of the two natural lakes in the state . The Commonwealth's carbonate rock
2856-546: A character recommendation in preparation for his removal from the country, to which Washington obliged. However, in 1797, Mathews, who had by this time remarried again to Mary Carpenter, instead turned to the Mississippi Territory , where his wife owned property. Mathews again returned to land speculation, buying stock in a land company the claimant of extensive acreage in the territory. He also lobbied friends in Congress for
3060-528: A family, and to contribute to the development of the colony. In England in the 17th and 18th centuries criminal justice was severe, later termed the Bloody Code . This was due to both the particularly large number of offences which were punishable by execution (usually by hanging), and to the limited choice of sentences available to judges for convicted criminals. With modifications to the traditional benefit of clergy , which originally exempted only clergymen from
3264-710: A free settlement was established and this settlement later accepted some convict transportation. Until the massive influx of immigrants during the Australian gold rushes of the 1850s, free settlers had been outnumbered by penal convicts and their descendants. However, compared to the British American colonies , Australia received a larger number of convicts. Convicts were generally treated harshly, forced to work against their will, often doing hard physical labour and dangerous jobs. In some cases they were cuffed and chained in work gangs. The majority of convicts were men, although
3468-531: A governor who ignored the assembly and sent him back to England against his will. William Berkeley was named governor in 1642, just as the turmoil of the English Civil War and Interregnum permitted the colony greater autonomy. As a supporter of the king, Berkeley welcomed other Cavaliers who fled to Virginia. He surrendered to Parliamentarians in 1652, but after the 1660 Restoration made him governor again, he blocked assembly elections and exacerbated
3672-531: A group of convict ships departed from England to establish the first colonial settlement in Australia, as a penal colony . The First Fleet included boats containing food and animals from London. The ships and boats of the fleet would explore the coast of Australia by sailing all around it looking for suitable farming land and resources. The fleet arrived at Botany Bay , Sydney on 18 January 1788, then moved to Sydney Cove (modern-day Circular Quay ) and established
3876-619: A hero of the Revolution. However, the tide of public opinion eventually changed, and in September, Mathews authorized 1200 Georgia militiamen, acting in conjunction with federal troops, to surround and isolate General Clarke's fortifications, leading to Clarke's surrender. The Georgia legislature sought to relieve its burden of its unprotected western lands by encouraging purchase offers from private land speculators. When representatives from four private groups sought to buy 35 million acres extending to
4080-608: A major urban business and shopping center in Tysons , Virginia's largest office market. Neighboring Prince William County , with over 450,000 residents, is Virginia's second-most populous county and home to Marine Corps Base Quantico , the FBI Academy , and Manassas National Battlefield Park . Arlington County is the smallest self-governing county in the U.S. by land area, and local politicians have proposed reorganizing it as an independent city due to its high density. Loudoun County
4284-600: A member of Mathews' staff, held the territory for 24 hours, and then turned it over to the United States. Mathews wrote to Madison of the mission's success, while also requesting additional U.S. military personnel in acknowledgment of the difficulty he had faced in galvanizing local support. Mathews also revealed to Madison his intention to similarly overthrow Spanish rule of the cities of Mobile and Pensacola in West Florida. By late 1811, James Madison had become convinced of
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#17328450708814488-437: A national park, but is protected by both state and federal legislation and the inter-state Chesapeake Bay Program . Virginia is divided into 95 counties and 38 independent cities , which the U.S. Census Bureau describes as county-equivalents . This general method of treating cities and counties on par with each other is unique to Virginia and stretches back to the influence of Williamsburg and Norfolk in
4692-503: A number of years. The American Revolution brought transportation to the North American mainland to an end. The remaining British colonies (in what is now Canada) were regarded as unsuitable for various reasons, including the possibility that transportation might increase dissatisfaction with British rule among settlers and/or the possibility of annexation by the United States – as well as the ease with which prisoners could escape across
4896-725: A political appointment in the territory. In 1798, he was appointed the first governor of the Mississippi Territory by President John Adams . However, Secretary of War James McHenry objected to the appointment, citing Mathews's financial stake in the territory. When Adams withdrew the nomination, Mathews was reported to have responded: "Sir, if you had known me, you wouldn't have taken the nomination back; if you didn't know me, you should not have nominated me to such an important office." In November 1810, George Mathews learned from West Florida Governor Don Vicente Folch that Folch might be willing to peacefully transfer West Florida to
5100-690: A popular veteran of the American Revolutionary War , illegally established the Trans-Oconee Republic as an independent state on western state hunting grounds reserved by the federal Treaty of New York (1790) for the Creek Indians . President Washington pressured Mathews to remove Clarke and his settlers from the Creek lands, but Mathews initially ignored the pressure, sympathizing with Clarke's aim and being aware of Clarke's local popularity as
5304-647: A proposal to release women who could not be transported, but this solution was considered absurd: this caused the Lords Justices to order that no distinction be made between men and women. Women were sent to the Leeward Islands , the only colony that accepted them, and the government had to pay to send them overseas. In 1696 Jamaica refused to welcome a group of prisoners because most of them were women; Barbados similarly accepted convicts but not "women, children nor other infirm persons". Thanks to transportation,
5508-540: A punishment since at least the 5th century BCE in Ancient Greece . The practice of penal transportation reached its height in the British Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries. Transportation removed the offender from society, mostly permanently, but was seen as more merciful than capital punishment . This method was used for criminals, debtors, military prisoners, and political prisoners. Penal transportation
5712-404: A real problem in the domestic penal system. There was also the hope that transported convicts could be rehabilitated and reformed by starting a new life in the colonies. In 1615, in the reign of James I , a committee of the council had already obtained the power to choose from the prisoners those that deserved pardon and, consequently, transportation to the colonies. Convicts were chosen carefully:
5916-568: A referendum and went into effect in 1971. In 1989, Douglas Wilder became the first African American elected as governor in the United States, and in 1992, Bobby Scott became the first Black congressman from Virginia since 1888. The expansion of federal government offices into Northern Virginia's suburbs during the Cold War boosted the region's population and economy. The Central Intelligence Agency outgrew their offices in Foggy Bottom during
6120-533: A result of his daring. He spent much of the remaining revolution as a prisoner of war , first held at Philadelphia , and later on a prison ship anchored in New York Harbor . The severity of Mathews's injuries caused a British surgeon to deem him "incurable." By 1779, however, Mathews recovered was granted a limited parole and permitted to live in New York City. He wrote to Governor Thomas Jefferson and to
6324-594: A result of the act. The Transportation, etc. Act 1784 ( 24 Geo. 3. Sess. 2 . c. 56) and the Transportation, etc. Act 1785 ( 25 Geo. 3 . c. 46) also resulted to help alleviate overcrowding. Both acts empowered the Crown to appoint certain places within his dominions, or outside them, as the destination for transported criminals; the acts would move convicts around the country as needed for labour, or where they could be utilized and accommodated. The overcrowding situation and
George Mathews (soldier) - Misplaced Pages Continue
6528-961: A scandal had broken in national newspapers about Madison's purchase of dirt on political opponents from a British secret agent in New England mere days before the news of Mathews' seizure of Fernandina broke in the papers. While Monroe in particular admitted "much cleverness" in Mathews's plan, and hoped to salvage his efforts, he and Madison agreed that the political costs of publicly supporting Mathews at present were too high. Madison publicly repudiated Mathews, relieving him of duty on April 4, 1812. Madison then assigned Georgia Governor David Mitchell as his new special agent in East Florida, tasked with keeping Mathews' Patriot army intact and preserving its military occupations. Mitchell quickly informed East Florida Governor Juan José de Estrada that any attempt to drive out
6732-590: A significant portion were women. Some were as young as 10 when convicted and transported to Australia. Most were guilty of relatively minor crimes like theft of food/clothes/small items, but some were convicted of serious crimes like rape or murder. Convict status was not inherited by children, and convicts were generally freed after serving their sentence, although many died during transportation or during their sentence. Convict assignment (sending convicts to work for private individuals) occurred in all penal colonies aside from Western Australia , and can be compared with
6936-553: A specific term. To provide confinement facilities, the general change in sentencing was passed in conjunction with the Convict Prisons Act 1853 ( 16 & 17 Vict. c. 121), long titled "An Act for providing Places of Confinement in England or Wales for Female Offenders under Sentence or Order of Transportation." The Penal Servitude Act 1857 ( 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3) ended the sentence of transportation in virtually all cases, with
7140-857: A strategy called " massive resistance ", and the General Assembly passed a package of laws in 1956 that cut off funding to local schools that desegregated , causing some to close. Courts ruled the strategy unconstitutional, and on February 2, 1959, Black students integrated schools in Arlington and Norfolk , where they were known as the Norfolk 17 . County leaders in Prince Edward, however, instead shut their school system in June 1959. The Supreme Court ordered them to reopen and integrate their public schools , which finally happened in September 1964. Federal passage of
7344-602: A strong effect on eastern and southeastern coastal areas, making the climate there warmer but also more constant. Most of Virginia's recorded extremes in temperature and precipitation have occurred in the Blue Ridge Mountains and areas west. Virginia receives an average of 43.47 inches (110 cm) of precipitation annually, with the Shenandoah Valley being the state's driest region. Virginia has around 35–45 days with thunderstorms annually, and storms are common in
7548-685: A thousand troops largely from the Virginia frontier. The Native Americans, under the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk , attacked Virginia militia, attempting to halt its advance into the Ohio Country . Rembert Patrick described the battle as "a typical Indian battle where every man found a tree, and military discipline in the English sense was unknown." Mathews, dressed in a hunting shirt and moccasins, killed 9 Indians while remaining uninjured himself. The tide of
7752-515: A total population of around 15,000 in 1607. Three-fourths of the native population in Virginia, however, died from smallpox and other Old World diseases during that century, disrupting their oral traditions and complicating research into earlier periods. 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. Several European expeditions, including
7956-584: Is Richmond and its most populous city is Virginia Beach . Its most populous subdivision is Fairfax County , part of Northern Virginia , where slightly over a third of Virginia's population of 8.7 million live. Eastern Virginia is part of the Atlantic Plain , and the Middle Peninsula forms the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay . Central Virginia lies predominantly in the Piedmont , the foothill region of
8160-550: Is called the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, named after the river of the same name that flows through it. The Cumberland Plateau and Cumberland Mountains are in the southwest corner of Virginia, south of the Allegheny Plateau . In this region, rivers flow northwest into the Ohio River basin. The Virginia Seismic Zone has not had a history of regular earthquake activity. Earthquakes are rarely above 4.5 in magnitude . The Commonwealth's largest earthquake in at least
8364-480: Is filled with more than 4,000 limestone caves , ten of which are open for tourism, including the popular Luray Caverns and Skyline Caverns . Virginia's iconic Natural Bridge is the remaining roof of a collapsed limestone cave. Coal mining takes place in the three mountainous regions. More than 72 million tons of other non-fuel resources, such as slate , kyanite , sand, or gravel, were mined in Virginia in 2020 . The largest known deposits of uranium in
George Mathews (soldier) - Misplaced Pages Continue
8568-641: Is now reasonably clear that the actions of Mathews and McKee in Florida and on the Gulf Coast between 1810 and 1812 departed far more from the policies of the [Madison] administration than they fairly reflected them," and additionally deems the Patriot War, "an embarrassing and shameful moment in the history of early American foreign policy." However, James G. Cusick, in The Other War of 1812 (2007), states, "[i]n truth,
8772-540: Is the fastest-growing county in the state. In western Virginia, Roanoke city and Montgomery County , part of the Blacksburg–Christiansburg metropolitan area , both have surpassed a population of 100,000 since 2018. On the western edge of the Tidewater region is Virginia's capital, Richmond , which has a population of around 230,000 in its city proper and over 1.3 million in its metropolitan area. On
8976-790: The American Revolution , and helped establish the new national government. 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
9180-619: The Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge , which marks the beginning of the Outer Banks . State agencies control about one-third of protected land in the state, and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation manages over 75,900 acres (307.2 km ) in forty Virginia state parks and 59,222 acres (239.7 km ) in 65 Natural Area Preserves , plus three undeveloped parks. Breaks Interstate Park crosses
9384-574: The Battle of Germantown . Mathews spent the next four years as a prisoner of war , including two years on a British prison ship . He was brevetted brigadier general at the end of the war. After the war, Mathews moved to the state of Georgia and was quickly elected governor of the state. He served two nonconsecutive terms, voted to ratify the United States Constitution , and served in the 1st United States Congress . His second term as governor
9588-614: The Blue Ridge Mountains , which cross the western and southwestern parts of the state. 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. Hampton Roads is also the site of the region's main seaport and Naval Station Norfolk , the world's largest naval base. Virginia's history begins with several Indigenous groups , including
9792-676: The Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965), and their later enforcement by the Justice Department , helped end racial segregation in Virginia and overturn Jim Crow laws . In 1967, the Supreme Court struck down the state's ban on interracial marriage with Loving v. Virginia . In 1968, Governor Mills Godwin called a commission to rewrite the state constitution. The new constitution, which banned discrimination and removed articles that now violated federal law, passed in
9996-555: The Committee of Nine . 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. Virginia adopted a constitution in 1868 which guaranteed political, civil, and voting rights , and provided for free public schools. However, with many railroad lines and other infrastructure destroyed during
10200-469: The Continental Congress urging a prisoner exchange . Jefferson wrote to Mathews to explain his decision to leave him in New York City as a parolee and instead exchange for others still suffering in much worse conditions on the prison ships. Mathews turned his attention toward the improvement of living conditions for fellow prisoners of war, securing money and provisions for this aim from Congress and
10404-724: The Criminal Law Act 1776 ( 16 Geo. 3 . c. 43). The practice was mandated in Scotland by an act of 1785, but was less used there than in England. Transportation on a large scale resumed with the departure of the First Fleet to Australia in 1787, and continued there until 1868 . Transportation was not used by Scotland before the Act of Union 1707 ; following union, the Transportation Act 1717 specifically excluded its use in Scotland. Under
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#173284507088110608-640: The Dreyfus Affair , and Dreyfus was fully exonerated in 1906. Unlike normal penal transportation, many Soviet people were transported as criminals in forms of deportation being proclaimed as enemies of people in a form of collective punishment . During the Second World War , the Soviet Union transported up to 1.9 million people from its western republics to Siberia and the Central Asian republics of
10812-400: The Home Counties . The "Felons' Act" (as the Transportation Act was called) was printed and distributed in 1718, and in April twenty-seven men and women were sentenced to transportation. The Act led to significant changes: both petty and grand larceny were punished by transportation (seven years), and the sentence for any non-capital offence was at the judge's discretion. In 1723 an Act
11016-447: The Indian Rebellion of 1857 . As the Indian independence movement swelled, so did the number of prisoners who were penally transported. The Cellular Jail in Port Blair , South Andaman Island , also called Kālā Pānī or Kalapani (Hindi for black waters), was constructed between 1896 and 1906 as a high-security prison with 698 individual cells for solitary confinement . Surviving prisoners were repatriated in 1937. The penal settlement
11220-492: The Korean War , and moved to Langley in 1961, in part due to a decision by the National Security Council that the agency relocate outside the District of Columbia. The Pentagon , built in Arlington during World War II as the headquarters of the Department of Defense, was struck by a hijacked plane in the September 11, 2001 attacks . Mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and in Virginia Beach in 2019 led to passage of gun control measures in 2020. Racial injustice and
11424-476: The Mississippi River at less than two cents per acre, Mathews initially rejected the proposal. However, the groups bribed many Georgia politicians to favor the bill, and this increased political pressure combined with waning popularity caused Mathews ultimately to accept and sign the Yazoo land bill. The public became outraged on learning the details of the bill, leading to protests to federal officials and Congressmen. Mathews, though he did not personally profit from
11628-404: The Myall Creek Massacre . In the Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars , a group of Irish convicts joined the Aboriginal coalition of Eora , Gandangara , Dharug and Tharawal nations in their fight against the colonists. Norfolk Island , east of the Australian mainland, was a convict penal settlement from 1788 to 1794, and again from 1824 to 1847. In 1803, Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania)
11832-493: The Nine Years' War ) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) adversely affected merchant shipping and hence transportation. In the post-war period there was more crime and hence potentially more executions, and something needed to be done. In the reigns of Queen Anne (1702–14) and George I (1714–27), transportation was not easily arranged, but imprisonment was not considered enough to punish hardened criminals or those who had committed capital offences, so transportation
12036-425: The Powhatan . In 1607, the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent English colony in the New World , leading to Virginia's nickname as the Old Dominion . Slaves from Africa and land from displaced native tribes fueled the growing plantation economy, but also fueled conflicts both inside and outside the colony. Virginians fought for the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in
12240-407: The Restoration , the penal transportation system and the number of people subjected to it, started to change inexorably between 1660 and 1720, with transportation replacing the simple discharge of clergyable felons after branding the thumb . Alternatively, under the second act dealing with Moss-trooper brigands on the Scottish border, offenders had their benefit of clergy taken away, or otherwise at
12444-418: The Southwest Mountains around Charlottesville . The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the Commonwealth, the tallest being Mount Rogers at 5,729 feet (1,746 m). The Ridge-and-Valley region is west of the mountains, carbonate rock based, and includes the Massanutten Mountain ridge and the Great Appalachian Valley , which
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#173284507088112648-530: The Torpedo Factory in Alexandria had over 5,050. High-school student Barbara Rose Johns started a strike in 1951 at her underfunded and segregated school in Prince Edward County . The protests led Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill to file a lawsuit against the county . Their case joined Brown v. Board of Education at the Supreme Court, which rejected the doctrine of " separate but equal " in 1954. The segregationist establishment, led by Senator Harry F. Byrd and his Byrd Organization , reacted with
12852-435: The Transportation, etc. Act 1785 ( 25 Geo. 3 . c. 46) the Parliament of Great Britain specifically extended the usage of transportation to Scotland. It remained little used under Scots Law until the early 19th century. In Australia, a convict who had served part of his time might apply for a ticket of leave , permitting some prescribed freedoms . This enabled some convicts to resume a more normal life, to marry and raise
13056-504: The Virginia Colony to Ann (Archer) and John Mathews. His parents immigrated to America during the early years of the Scotch-Irish on 1717–1775. His father was an early and notable member of the Augusta County community, serving as a militia captain and de facto public officer, as well as being a member of the Augusta Parish vestry. The Mathews were among the Anglican minority in the predominantly Presbeterian county. The young George Mathews had ten siblings; six brothers and four sisters. He
13260-552: The Virginia big-eared bat , the state mammal . The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial native to the United States and Canada, and the native Appalachian cottontail was recognized in 1992 as a distinct species of rabbit, one of three found in the state. Whales, dolphins, and porpoises have been recorded in Virginia's coastal waters, with bottlenose dolphins being the most frequent aquatic mammals . Virginia's bird fauna comprises 422 counted species, of which 359 are regularly occurring and 214 have bred in Virginia, while
13464-483: The benefit of clergy , was a fundamental feature of the penal system, but to prevent its abuse, this pardoning process was used more strictly. Prisoners were carefully selected for transportation based on information about their character and previous criminal record. It was arranged that they fail the reading test, but they were then reprieved and held in jail, without bail, to allow time for a royal pardon (subject to transportation) to be organised. Transportation became
13668-500: The breeding of slaves , often through rape, a profitable business. Slaves in the Richmond area were also forced into industrial jobs, including mining and shipbuilding. The failed slave uprisings of Gabriel Prosser in 1800, George Boxley in 1815, and Nat Turner in 1831, however, marked the growing resistance to slavery. Afraid of further uprisings, Virginia's government in the 1830s encouraged free Blacks to migrate to Liberia . On October 16, 1859, abolitionist John Brown led
13872-431: The class divide by disenfranchising and restricting the movement of indentured servants, who made up around eighty percent of the workforce. On the colony's frontier, tribes like the Tutelo and Doeg were being squeezed by Seneca raiders from the north, leading to more confrontations with colonists. In 1676, several hundred working-class followers of Nathaniel Bacon , upset by Berkeley's refusal to retaliate against
14076-549: The headright system tried to solve this by granting colonists farmland for their help attracting indentured servants . Enslaved Africans were first sold in Virginia in 1619. Though other Africans arrived as indentured servants and could be freed after four to seven years, the basis for lifelong slavery was developed in legal cases like those of John Punch in 1640 and John Casor in 1655. Laws passed in Jamestown defined slavery as race-based in 1661, as inherited maternally in 1662, and as enforceable by death in 1669. From
14280-462: The siege of Yorktown . His surrender on October 19, 1781, led to peace negotiations in Paris and secured the independence of the colonies. Virginians were instrumental in writing the United States Constitution : James Madison drafted the Virginia Plan in 1787 and the Bill of Rights in 1789. Virginia ratified the Constitution on June 25, 1788. The three-fifths compromise ensured that Virginia, with its large number of slaves, initially had
14484-446: The state fish . Downhill in the Piedmont, stripeback darter and Roanoke bass become common, as do swampfish , bluespotted sunfish , and pirate perch in the Tidewater . The Chesapeake Bay hosts clams, oysters, and 350 species of saltwater and estuarine fish , including the bay's most abundant finfish, the Bay anchovy , as well as the invasive blue catfish . An estimated 317 million Chesapeake blue crabs live in
14688-545: The "Virgin Queen" or that they viewed the land as being untouched) or related to an Algonquin phrase, Wingandacoa or Windgancon , or leader's name, Wingina , as heard by the expedition. The name initially applied to the entire coastal region from South Carolina in the south to Maine in the north, along with the island of Bermuda . Raleigh's colony failed, but the potential financial and strategic gains still captivated many English policymakers. In 1606, King James I issued
14892-510: The "soul-drivers" in Virginia who bought convict servants wholesale from British transport ships at port, and traveled along established routes selling the convicts to farmers, planters, and others. Lodine-Chaffey suggests that the brothers' treatment of both convict servants and slaves was suspect, due to the frequency in which the servants and slaves escaped them; the brothers reported three slaves missing in 1769, and ten convicts missing in 1773. In total, their dealings in all ventures accounted for
15096-580: The 1820s until the 1860s, convicts were sent to the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda (part of British North America ) to work on the construction of the Royal Naval Dockyard and other defence works, including at the East End of the archipelago, where they were accommodated aboard the hulk of HMS Thames at an area still known as " Convict Bay ", at St. George's town. In 1787, the First Fleet ,
15300-441: The 1930s to over one million by the 2010s. Native carnivorans include black bears , who have a population of around five to six thousand in the state, as well as bobcats , coyotes , both gray and red foxes , raccoons , weasels and skunks . Rodents include groundhogs , nutria , beavers , both gray squirrels and fox squirrels , chipmunks, and Allegheny woodrats , while the seventeen bat species include brown bats and
15504-416: The 2022–2023 winter season. Climate change in Virginia is leading to higher temperatures year-round as well as more heavy rain and flooding events. Urban heat islands can be found in many Virginia cities and suburbs, particularly in neighborhoods linked to historic redlining . The air in Virginia has statistically improved since 1998. The closure and conversion of coal power plants in Virginia and
15708-626: The Acts of the Privy Council showed that prisoners "for strength of bodie or other abilities shall be thought fit to be employed in foreign discoveries or other services beyond the Seas". During the Commonwealth , Oliver Cromwell overcame the popular prejudice against subjecting Christians to slavery or selling them into foreign parts, and initiated group transportation of military and civilian prisoners. With
15912-541: The American Presidency (1996) states: "I believe Mathews' admission that he could not achieve the seizure of East Florida without additional overt American military support pushed the administration over the edge. Months of silent acquiescence by the Madison White House came to an end." Rembert Patrick describes his appearance during an 1811 meeting with James Madison as thus: Several historical markers in
16116-589: The American army from rout. Following its victory, the British army set up camp in Germantown . On October 4, General Washington launched an attack on the British camp, initiating the Battle of Germantown . Mathews led a charge early in the day that resulted in the capture up to 100 British soldiers; however, as the day progressed Mathews penetrated so deeply into British lines that he became isolated from Washington's army and
16320-540: The Appalachian Mountains can lead to significant snowfalls across the state, such as the January 2016 blizzard , which created the state's highest recorded one-day snowfall of 36.6 inches (93 cm) near Bluemont . On average, cities in Virginia can receive between 5.8–12.3 inches (15–31 cm) of snow annually, but recent winters have seen below-average snowfalls, and much of Virginia had no measurable snow during
16524-549: The Australian population (about 7 million) had Irish ancestry – the highest percentage outside of Ireland – thanks partially to historical convict transportation. In British India – including the province of Burma (now Myanmar ) and the port of Karachi (now part of Pakistan ) – Indian independence activists were penally transported to the Andaman Islands . A penal colony was established there in 1857 with prisoners from
16728-828: The Black population was reduced by the Great Migration to northern industrial cities in the first half of the 20th century, since 1965 there has been a reverse migration of Blacks returning south . The Commonwealth has the highest number of Black-white interracial marriages in the US , and 8.2% of Virginians describe themselves as multiracial . More recent immigration since the late 20th century has resulted in new communities of Hispanics and Asians. As of 2020 , 10.5% of Virginia's total population describe themselves as Hispanic or Latino , and 8.8% as Asian . The state's Hispanic population rose by 92% from 2000 to 2010, with two-thirds of Hispanics in
16932-484: The British army of General Sir William Howe , was both the largest battle of the Revolution, with nearly 30,000 total belligerents, and the longest single-day battle of the war, with continuous fighting for 11 hours. The British defeated the Americans and forced them into a retreat that "nearly developed into a stampede." Mathews's regiment was one of the last to leave the field of battle, causing some to credit him for saving
17136-506: The Census Bureau recognizes several hundred unincorporated communities . 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 . Fairfax County , with more than 1.1 million residents, is Virginia's most populous jurisdiction, and has
17340-521: 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 . The Readjusters focused on building up schools, like Virginia Tech and Virginia State , and successfully forced West Virginia to share in
17544-479: The Crown to merchants contracted to take the convicts to America. The Transportation Act made returning from transportation a capital offence . The number of convicts transported to North America is not verified: John Dunmore Lang has estimated 50,000, and Thomas Keneally has proposed 120,000. Maryland received a larger felon quota than any other province. Many prisoners were taken in battle from Ireland or Scotland and sold into indentured servitude , usually for
17748-590: The Georgia legislature granted a divorce on February 3, 1797. On the strength of his military reputation, Mathews quickly ascended to the top of Georgia state politics. He was appointed a judge in Wilkes County, and a town commissioner for Washington, Georgia . Two years later, on January 2, 1787, he was elected a member of the Georgia General Assembly ; three days after that, he was elected 20th governor of
17952-738: The Great Dismal and Nottoway swamps. Other common trees include red spruce, Atlantic white cedar , tulip-poplar , and the flowering dogwood , the state tree and flower . Plants like milkweed , dandelions, daisies, ferns, and Virginia creeper , which is featured on the state flag , are also common. The Thompson Wildlife Area in Fauquier is known for having one of the largest populations of trillium wildflowers in North America. White-tailed deer , one of 75 mammal species found in Virginia, rebounded from an estimated population of as few as 25,000 in
18156-822: The Indians into the frontier settlement. On his father's death, Mathews was willed 300 acres (120 ha) of farm land By 1762, George and a brother, Sampson Mathews , began a mercantile enterprise in Staunton, Virginia , and soon had acquired extensive property along the western frontier as far west as the Greenbrier district . The brothers established several outposts along this stretch, where they sold both frontier necessities and specialty goods, importing goods through Atlantic trade markets. The brothers additionally dealt in forced labor, mostly through contracts for convict servants from Ireland, but also African slaves. The brothers were among
18360-709: The Iroquois, and other allied tribes on both sides. A militia from several British colonies, called the Virginia Regiment , was led by Major George Washington , himself one of the investors in the Ohio Company. In the decade following the French and Indian War , the British Parliament passed new taxes which were deeply unpopular in the colonies, and in the House of Burgesses ; opposition to taxation without representation
18564-455: The Kentucky border and is one of only two inter-state parks in the United States. Sustainable logging is allowed in 26 state forests managed by the Virginia Department of Forestry totaling 71,972 acres (291.3 km ), as is hunting in 44 Wildlife Management Areas run by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources covering over 205,000 acres (829.6 km ). The Chesapeake Bay is not
18768-470: The Madison administration's support of his plans in lieu of direct correspondence, and additionally proved beneficial to his recruiting efforts. By the end of 1811, he had filled leadership positions for his rebellion with wealthy Spanish planters and businessmen. Still, he had not found enough local interest to fill out a fighting force. Mathews therefore turned to the recruitment of volunteers from Georgia to play
18972-566: The May 23 referendum, armed pro-Confederate groups prevented the casting and counting of votes from areas that opposed secession. Representatives from 27 of these northwestern counties instead began the Wheeling Convention , which organized a government loyal to the Union and led to the separation of West Virginia as a new state. The armies of the Union and Confederacy first met on July 21, 1861, in Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia ,
19176-549: The Ohio Valley region has helped cut the amount of particulate matter in Virginia's air in half. Current plans call for 30% of the Commonwealth's electricity to be renewable by 2030 and for all to be carbon-free by 2050. Forests cover 62% of Virginia as of 2021 , of which 80% is considered hardwood forest, meaning that trees are primarily deciduous and broad-leaved . The other 20% is pine, with loblolly and shortleaf pine dominating much of central and eastern Virginia. In
19380-469: The Old Bailey and the man who gave important information about capital offenders to the cabinet. One reason for the success of this Act was that transportation was financially costly. The system of sponsorship by merchants had to be improved. Initially the government rejected Thomson's proposal to pay merchants to transport convicts, but three months after the first transportation sentences were pronounced at
19584-464: The Old Bailey, his suggestion was proposed again, and the Treasury contracted Jonathan Forward , a London merchant, for the transportation to the colonies. The business was entrusted to Forward in 1718: for each prisoner transported overseas, he was paid £3 (equivalent to £590 in 2023), rising to £5 in 1727 (equivalent to £940 in 2023). The Treasury also paid for the transportation of prisoners from
19788-451: The Patriot War (1952) observes that whatever Mathews' instructions, a letter from Mathews to Monroe, "written more than seven months before the invasion was actually attempted, fully disclosed General Mathews' revolutionary designs upon East Florida. Not to have checked the plan on such a notice made the government a party to them." Stephen F. Knott, in Secret and Sanctioned: Covert Operations and
19992-586: The Patriots would not be tolerated by the United States. Mathews, furious with the Madison administration's repudiation, set off to Washington, D.C. , where he'd "be damned if [he] didn't blow them all up." However, on the way he suffered from a recurrent malarial fever and was forced to stop in Augusta, Georgia . He died there on his 73rd birthday, and is buried in Saint Paul's Church . Historians have been divided over
20196-489: The State of Virginia. He was formally exchanged on December 5, 1781, at which point he was given command of the 3rd Virginia Regiment and went with Major General Nathaniel Greene into the southern theater , though he saw no further action in the war. Mathews was brevetted brigadier general at the end of the war; on September 30, 1783, Congress conferred a "general brevet" on the officers Continental Army, advancing all below
20400-649: The U.S. Census Bureau found that only 0.5% of Virginians were exclusively American Indian or Alaska Native , though 2.1% were in some combination with other ethnicities. The state government has extended recognition to eleven tribes. Seven tribes also have federal recognition. The Pamunkey and Mattaponi have reservations on tributaries of the York River in the Tidewater region . [REDACTED] American Community Survey five-year estimate According to U.S. Census data as of 2022 on Virginia residents aged five and older, 83% (6,805,548) speak English at home as
20604-412: The U.S. This act, now referred to as the Patriot War of East Florida , was denounced by Spain and its allies. Madison, under political pressure, disavowed Mathews's actions. The vagueness of Madison's instructions to Mathews have led to significant debate among historians as to whether Mathews acted outside of the purview of his mandate. George Mathews was born on August 30, 1739, in Augusta County in
20808-594: The U.S. are under Coles Hill, Virginia . Despite a challenge that reached the U.S. Supreme Court twice , the state has banned its mining since 1982 due to environmental and public health concerns. Virginia has a humid subtropical climate that transitions to humid continental west of the Blue Ridge Mountains . Seasonal extremes vary from average lows of 25 °F (−4 °C) in January to average highs of 86 °F (30 °C) in July. The Atlantic Ocean and Gulf Stream have
21012-406: The Union. Most were persons accused of treasonous collaboration with Nazi Germany, or of Anti-Soviet rebellion. Following death of Joseph Stalin , most of them were rehabilitated. Populations targeted included Volga Germans , Chechens , and Caucasian Turkic populations. The transportations had a twofold objective: to remove potential liabilities from the warfront, and to provide human capital for
21216-577: The United States are dedicated to George Mathews. The Battle of Point Pleasant monument and memorial in Mason County, West Virginia , lists him as a captain in the army of General Andrew Lewis. A marker stands at sight of his Georgia home, "Goose Pond", in Oglethorpe County, Georgia . Another marker, in Greene County, Georgia , stands at the sight of Fort Mathews, an outpost where Thomas Houghton wrote
21420-472: The United States as of 2020 . El Salvador is the most common foreign country of birth, with India , Mexico , South Korea , the Philippines , and Vietnam as other common birthplaces. The state's most populous racial group, non-Hispanic whites , has declined as a proportion of the population from 76% in 1990 to 58.6% in 2020. Immigrants from Britain and Ireland settled throughout the Commonwealth during
21624-632: The United States, on account of the weakening of the Spanish monarchy due to its involvement in the Napoleonic Wars . Mathews brought this to the attention of President James Madison , who wished to build on the expansionist policies of his predecessor, Thomas Jefferson. Madison, with ambitions raised, determined to annex both West and East Florida all at once. Madison and Mathews met in Washington, D.C. , in January 1811, to discuss strategy for carrying out
21828-482: The United States. Virginia has a total area of 42,774.2 square miles (110,784.7 km ), including 3,180.13 square miles (8,236.5 km ) of water, making it the 35th- largest state by area. It is bordered by Maryland and Washington, D.C. to the northeast; by the Atlantic Ocean to the east; by North Carolina to the south; by Tennessee to the southwest; by Kentucky to the west; and by West Virginia to
22032-519: The Virginia General Assembly proposed a new surveying commission in 1871. Representatives from Tennessee preferred to keep the less-straight 1803 line, and in 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for them against Virginia . One result is how the city of Bristol is divided in two between the states. The Chesapeake Bay separates the contiguous portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginia's Eastern Shore . The bay
22236-530: The administration did not explain, resulted in several misunderstandings with high-level officials throughout the Madison administration. Mathews became infected with malaria in the summer of 1811, and for weeks was beset to his house at St. Mary's, Georgia on the border of Georgia and Florida. Nevertheless, he wrote to Monroe in August 1811, stating his readiness to outfit a rebel force, and requesting supplies. Mathews' plans were leaked to Spanish authorities late in
22440-613: The administration's displeasure over an attack on East Florida rested on its timing and in the unfortunate publicity it received, not on the results." G. Melvin Herndon draws a similar conclusion. In George Mathews, Frontier Patriot (1969), he states, "[i]t is generally agreed that Mathews was the victim of a vacillating administration whose dictates he had served faithfully according to his own lights. He succeeded too well; and, under pressure from several sources, President Madison and Secretary Monroe deemed it necessary to sacrifice Mathews to quell
22644-682: The annexation. Madison gave Mathews "remarkably vague and general" directions to incite a rebellion among Spanish subjects, if necessary, and in turn to accept any territories controlled by these rebel forces into the domain of the United States. Neither men took any notes about this meeting, with even the specific day of the meeting still unknown. Madison formally assigned Mathews and Indian agent John McKee as secret agents soon after, and they promptly headed south. Mathews and McKee created an intelligence network throughout East Florida, with Mathews writing to Secretary of State James Monroe frequently. Monroe in turn encouraged Mathews to continue so long as
22848-669: 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. In response to threats from these other groups to their trade network, thirty or so Virginia Algonquian -speaking tribes consolidated during the 1570s under Wahunsenacawh, known in English as Chief Powhatan . Powhatan controlled more than 150 settlements that had
23052-578: The area held by the Seneca and their larger Iroquois Nation , and in 1748, a group of wealthy speculators, backed by the British monarchy, formed the Ohio Company to start English settlement and trade in the Ohio Country west of the Appalachian Mountains . France, which claimed this area as part of New France , viewed this as a threat, and in 1754 the French and Indian War engulfed England, France,
23256-649: The army and revolutionary militias. Virginia was the first colony to ratify the Articles of Confederation in December 1777. 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. British forces landed around Portsmouth in October 1780, and soldiers under Benedict Arnold raided Richmond in January 1781. The British army had over seven thousand soldiers and twenty-five warships stationed in Virginia at
23460-432: The battle turned when the militia enacted a flanking maneuver late in the day, initiating Cornstalk's retreat. Credit for this maneuver has typically been given either to Andrew Lewis or George Mathews. From his newfound celebrity, Mathews won a special election to what became the last session of the House of Burgesses in 1775. Mathews served alongside Samuel McDowell and succeeded Charles Lewis, who had died in battle before
23664-534: The bay as of 2024 . There are 34 native species of crayfish, like the Big Sandy . Amphibians found in Virginia include the Cumberland Plateau salamander and Eastern hellbender , while the northern watersnake is the most common of the 32 snake species. As of 2019 , roughly 16.2% of land in the Commonwealth is protected by federal, state, and local governments and non-profits. Federal lands account for
23868-553: The beginning of 1781, but General Charles Cornwallis and his superiors were indecisive, and maneuvers by the three thousand soldiers under the Marquis de Lafayette and twenty-nine allied French warships together managed to confine the British to a swampy area of the Virginia Peninsula in September. Around sixteen thousand soldiers under George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau quickly converged there and defeated Cornwallis in
24072-471: The bill, became its public face. Jared Irwin and U.S. Senator James Jackson led the reform efforts. Irwin was elected governor of Georgia to replace Mathews, and on February 13, 1796, less than two months after taking office, he signed a bill nullifying the Yazoo Act. Mathews never again held a public office. He thought for a time about leaving the United States, and even wrote to George Washington asking for
24276-578: The border. After the termination of transportation to North America, British prisons became overcrowded, and dilapidated ships moored in various ports were pressed into service as floating gaols known as "hulks". Following an 18th-century experiment in transporting convicted prisoners to Cape Coast Castle (modern Ghana) and the Gorée (Senegal) in West Africa, British authorities turned their attention to New South Wales (in what would become Australia). From
24480-406: The coast of Amelia Island. A rash of fighters defected to the Patriots, bringing their numbers to about 250, with about 59 being Spanish subjects. Mathews then began negotiations with Don Justo Lopez, commandant of the fort at Fernandina, for the surrender of the city. The Patriots gained control of Fernandina on March 16, without a shot fired. The Patriots raised a new flag of East Florida designed by
24684-520: The colonial period, when roughly three-fourths of immigrants came as indentured servants . The Appalachian mountains and Shenandoah Valley have many settlements that were populated by German and Scotch-Irish immigrants in the 18th and 19th centuries, often following the Great Wagon Road . Over ten percent of Virginians have German ancestry as of 2020 . The largest minority group in Virginia are Blacks and African Americans, about one-fifth of
24888-577: The colonial period. Only three other independent cities exist elsewhere in the US. The differences between counties and cities in Virginia are small and have to do with how each assess new taxes, whether a referendum is necessary to issue bonds, and with the application of Dillon's Rule , which limits the authority of cities and counties to countermand acts expressly allowed by the General Assembly . Counties can also have incorporated towns , and while there are no further administrative subdivisions ,
25092-471: The colony as free persons, and might obtain employment as jailers or other servants of the penal colony. England transported an estimated 50,000 to 120,000 convicts and political prisoners, as well as prisoners of war from Scotland and Ireland , to its overseas colonies in the Americas from the 1610s until early in the American Revolution in 1776, when transportation to America was temporarily suspended by
25296-499: 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. Unhappy with this arrangement, the monarchy revoked the company's charter and began directly naming governors and Council members in 1624. In 1635, colonists arrested
25500-504: The community, and who, by proper care and correction, might be reclaimed from their evil course"; they then passed the Criminal Law Act 1776 ( 16 Geo. 3 . c. 43) "An act to authorize ... the punishment by hard labour of offenders who, for certain crimes, are or shall become liable to be transported to any of his Majesty's colonies and plantations." For the ensuing decade, men were instead sentenced to hard labour and women were imprisoned. Finding alternative locations to send convicts
25704-512: The concentration of independent cities in the Tidewater region is that several rural counties there re-incorporated as cities or consolidated with existing cities to try to hold on to their new suburban neighborhoods that started booming in the 1950s , since cities like Norfolk and Portsmouth were able to annex land from adjoining counties until a moratorium in 1987. Others, like Poquoson , became cities to try to preserve racial segregation during
25908-510: The conditions of convicts in the colonies were inhumane. Although a concerted programme of prison building ensued, the Short Titles Act 1896 lists seven other laws relating to penal transportation in the first half of the 19th century. The system of criminal punishment by transportation, as it had developed over nearly 150 years, was officially ended in Britain in the 1850s, when that sentence
26112-438: The continent, would differentiate it from America, where the use of convicts was only a minor adjunct to its overall policy. In 1787, when transportation resumed to the chosen Australian colonies, the far greater distance added to the terrible experience of exile, and it was considered more severe than the methods of imprisonment employed for the previous decade. The Transportation Act 1790 ( 30 Geo. 3 . c. 47) officially enacted
26316-549: The criticism of their Florida policy. Similarly, Frank Owsley, in Filibusters and Expansionists: Jeffersonian Manifest Destiny, 1800-1821 states, "Mathews probably interpreted Madison's wishes accurately, and very likely had oral instructions from the government assuring him that his understanding of the orders was absolutely correct." Paul Kruse, in A Secret Agent in East Florida: General George Mathews and
26520-409: The desegregation era of the 1970s. The 2020 census found the state resident population was 8,631,393, a 7.9% increase since the 2010 census . Another 23,149 Virginians live overseas, giving the state a total population of 8,654,542. Virginia has the fourth-largest overseas population of U.S. states due to its federal employees and military personnel. The fertility rate in Virginia as of 2020
26724-575: The early 1600s until the American Revolution of 1776, the British colonies in North America received transported British criminals. Destinations were the island colonies of the West Indies and the mainland colonies that became the United States of America. In the 17th century transportation was carried out at the expense of the convicts or the shipowners. The Transportation Act 1717 allowed courts to sentence convicts to seven years' transportation to America. In 1720, an extension authorized payments by
26928-526: The eastern edge is the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, where over 1.7 million reside across six counties and nine cities, including the Commonwealth's three most populous independent cities: Virginia Beach , Chesapeake , and Norfolk . Neighboring Suffolk , which includes a portion of the Great Dismal Swamp , is the largest city by area at 429.1 square miles (1,111 km ). One reason for
27132-494: The end of slavery across the country. The seizure of Fort Sumter by Confederate forces on April 14, 1861, prompted Lincoln to call for a federal army of 75,000 men from state militias . The Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 voted on April 17 to secede on the condition it was approved in a referendum the next month. The convention voted to join the Confederacy, which named Richmond its capital on May 20. During
27336-423: The end of the 17th century and beyond, but they diminished in 1670 due to certain complications. The colonial opposition was one of the main obstacles: colonies were unwilling to collaborate in accepting prisoners: the convicts represented a danger to the colony and were unwelcome. Maryland and Virginia enacted laws to prohibit transportation in 1670, and the king was persuaded to respect these. The penal system
27540-571: The exception of those years, the Transportation Act led to a decrease in whipping of convicts, thus avoiding potentially inflammatory public displays. Clergyable discharge continued to be used when the accused could not be transported for reasons of age or infirmity. Penal transportation was not limited to men or even to adults. Men, women, and children were sentenced to transportation, but its implementation varied by sex and age. From 1660 to 1670, highway robbery, burglary , and horse theft were
27744-403: The first of several invasions into Union territory. During the next three years of war, more battles were fought in Virginia than anywhere else, including the battles of Fredericksburg , Chancellorsville , Spotsylvania , and the concluding Battle of Appomattox Court House , where Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865. Virginia was formally restored to the United States in 1870, due to the work of
27948-594: The first permanent European settlement in Australia. This marked the beginning of the European colonisation of Australia . Violent conflict on the Australian frontier between indigenous Australians and the colonists began only months after the First Fleet landed, lasting over a century. Convicts forced to work in the bush on the frontier were sometimes the victims of indigenous attacks, while convicts and ex-convicts also attacked indigenous people in some instances, such as
28152-422: The general criminal law, it developed into a legal fiction by which many common offenders of "clergyable" offences were extended the privilege to avoid execution. Many offenders were pardoned as it was considered unreasonable to execute them for relatively minor offences, but under the rule of law , it was equally unreasonable for them to escape punishment entirely. With the development of colonies, transportation
28356-508: The inevitability of war with Great Britain on the Canadian border (he would officially declare war with Britain in June 1812, setting off the War of 1812 ). On learning of Mathews' request for further U.S. military support in Florida, as well as Spain's outrage towards the mission, Madison worried about the possibility of provoking Spain and its allies, the British, to join forces against the U.S. Further,
28560-452: The judge's discretion, were to be transported to America, "there to remaine and not to returne". There were various influential agents of change: judges' discretionary powers influenced the law significantly, but the king's and Privy Council's opinions were decisive in granting a royal pardon from execution. The system changed one step at a time: in February 1663, after that first experiment,
28764-566: The land on Virginia's islands, which include Tangier Island in the bay and Chincoteague , one of 23 barrier islands on the Atlantic coast. The Tidewater is a coastal plain between the Atlantic coast and the fall line . It includes the Eastern Shore and major estuaries of Chesapeake Bay. The Piedmont is a series of sedimentary and igneous rock -based foothills east of the mountains. The region, known for its heavy clay soil, includes
28968-466: The largest bloc in the House of Representatives . Together with the Virginia dynasty of presidents, this gave the Commonwealth national importance. Virginia is called the "Mother of States" because of its role in being carved into states such as Kentucky , and for the numbers of American pioneers born in Virginia. Between 1790 and 1860, the number of slaves in Virginia rose from around 290 thousand to over 490 thousand, roughly one-third of
29172-440: The late afternoon and evenings between April and September. These months are also the most common for tornadoes , eight of which touched down in the Commonwealth in 2023. Hurricanes and tropical storms can occur from August to October. The deadliest natural disaster in Virginia was Hurricane Camille , which killed over 150 people in 1969 mainly in inland Nelson County . Between December and March, cold-air damming caused by
29376-545: The legacy of the Patriot War of East Florida. Some conclude that Mathews overstepped his authority and deliberately departed from Madison's intentions, while others believe Mathews fulfilled Madison's intentions, and that Madison repudiated Mathews for political reasons. These differences in analysis are exacerbated by the fact that Madison and Mathews left no notes of their meeting to discuss the campaign. J.C.A. Stagg, in George Mathews and John McKee, Revolutionizing East Florida, Mobile, and Pensacola in 1812 (2007), states, "[i]t
29580-643: The majority, with thirty National Park Service units, such as Great Falls Park and the Appalachian Trail , and one national park, Shenandoah . Almost forty percent of Shenandoah's total 199,173 acres (806 km ) area has been designated as wilderness under the National Wilderness Preservation System . The U.S. Forest Service administers the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests , which cover more than 1.6 million acres (6,500 km ) within Virginia's mountains, and continue into West Virginia and Kentucky . The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge also extends into North Carolina, as does
29784-544: The middle of the 20th century, are the focus of conservation efforts in the state and a reintroduction program in Shenandoah National Park . 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 ,
29988-642: The new Georgia frontier. There he and his wife, Ann Polly Paul, built a log cabin at Goose Pond. They had eight children: John, Charles Lewis, George , William, Ann, Jane, Margaret, and Rebecca. His wife Ann Polly died a few years after their arrival in Georgia. Mathews briefly returned to Staunton, Virginia, in 1790, where he married Margaret Reed, a widow. In 1793, Margaret went back to Virginia to visit friends and family, and when she later wrote to her husband to facilitate her return, he replied, "I didn't take you to Virginia, and I'm not going to trouble myself to go there and bring you back." The two never reconciled, and
30192-403: The north and drifted an additional 3.5 miles by the border's westernmost point . After Tennessee joined the U.S. in 1796, new surveyors worked in 1802 and 1803 to reset their border with Virginia as a line from the summit of White Top Mountain to the top of Tri-State Peak in the Cumberland Mountains . However, deviations in that border were identified when it was re-marked in 1856, and
30396-404: The northwest. That Virginia's boundary with Maryland and Washington, D.C. only extends to the low-water mark of the south shore of the Potomac River has been an issue for water rights over the years. . Virginia's southern border was defined in 1665 as 36°30' north latitude . Surveyors marking the border with North Carolina in the 18th century however started about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) to
30600-402: The novel Papillon , a semi-autobiographical novel of his incarceration in and escape from a penal colony in French Guiana . The most significant individual transported prisoner is probably French army officer Alfred Dreyfus , wrongly convicted of treason in a trial in 1894, held in an atmosphere of antisemitism . He was sent to Devil's Island. The case became a cause célèbre known as
30804-526: The number of men whipped and released diminished, but whipping and discharge were chosen more often for women. The reverse was true when women were sentenced for a capital offence, but actually served a lesser sentence due to a manipulation of the penal system: one advantage of this sentence was that they could be discharged thanks to benefit of clergy while men were whipped. Women with young children were also supported since transportation unavoidably separated them. The facts and numbers revealed how transportation
31008-466: The numbers needed to take St. Augustine. Fearing his window for a surprise attack was closing, he turned his attention to the lightly guarded city of Fernandina on Amelia Island , just across the river from St. Mary's. He would take Fernandina, call in U.S. troops, and move to St. Augustine from there. On the night of March 13, 1812, Mathews, with his Patriots and support from nine U.S. Navy gunboats , entered Florida, and quickly seized rural lands off
31212-473: The offences most often punishable with transportation for men. In those years, five of the nine women who were transported after being sentenced to death were guilty of simple larceny, an offence for which benefit of clergy was not available for women until 1692. Also, merchants preferred young and able-bodied men for whom there was a demand in the colonies. All these factors meant that most women and children were simply left in jail. Some magistrates supported
31416-513: The opportunity remained realistic. Over the weeks, however, Mathews would write many letters to Monroe that would receive no reply. Though unsettled, Mathews viewed this as an implicit endorsement of his plan, assuming the Madison administration was acting discreetly and desiring not to leave evidence of U.S. involvement. However, Madison historian J.C.A. Stagg suggests that the Madison administration followed an informal practice in which "silence implied not consent but its opposite." This practice, which
31620-588: The part of his rebel Patriots. By early 1812, Mathews' Patriots numbered about 125. To bolster his force, Mathews worked out a plan for 75 U.S. troops at the border to desert the U.S. army and enlist as Patriots, while Mathews would subsequently ensure their pardon and restoration to their prior military rank at the end of the mission. However, days before the Patriots were to cross into Florida, Major Jacint Laval—Mathews' housemate in St. Mary's -- discovered Mathews's plan to lure men of his division into desertion, and objected, raising alarm. Mathews then knew he did not have
31824-461: The population. Virginia was a major destination of the Atlantic slave trade . The Igbo ethnic group of what is now southern Nigeria were the largest African group among slaves in Virginia. Blacks in Virginia also have more European ancestry than those in other southern states, and DNA analysis shows many have asymmetrical male and female ancestry from before the Civil War, evidence of European fathers and African or Native American mothers. Though
32028-475: The practice of convict leasing in the United States. Transportation from Great Britain and Ireland ended at different times in different colonies, with the last being in 1868, although it had become uncommon several years earlier thanks to the loosening of laws in Britain, changing sentiment in Australia, and groups such as the Anti-Transportation League . In 2015, an estimated 20% of the Australian population had convict ancestry. In 2013, an estimated 30% of
32232-498: The pre-war debt. 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. 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. They passed Jim Crow laws that established
32436-405: The presence of Confederate monuments in Virginia have also led to large demonstrations, including in August 2017, when a white supremacist drove his car into protesters , killing one, and in June 2020, when protests that were part of the larger Black Lives Matter movement brought about the removal of Confederate statues . Virginia is located in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of
32640-495: The previous orders in council into law, stating "his Majesty hath declared and appointed... that the eastern coast of New South Wales, and the islands thereunto adjacent, should be the place or places beyond the seas to which certain felons, and other offenders, should be conveyed and transported ... or other places". The act also gave "authority to remit or shorten the time or term" of the sentence "in cases where it shall appear that such felons, or other offenders, are proper objects of
32844-527: The rank of major general by one rank. Mathews was an Original Member of the Society of the Cincinnati. During Mathews's military tour of the South, he had been impressed with the opportunities for political and financial gain on the Georgia frontier. When the 3rd Virginia Regiment was formally disbanded on January 1, 1783, he quickly petitioned the Georgia government for land, and received 1,900 acres (770 ha) in Wilkes County . He liquidated his property and settled his business affairs in Virginia and headed to
33048-551: The repeal of Jim Crow laws in the 1970s. Virginia's state legislature is the Virginia General Assembly , which was established in July 1619, making it the oldest current law-making body in North America . Unlike other states, cities and counties in Virginia function as equals, but the state government manages most local roads. It is also the only state where governors are prohibited from serving consecutive terms. Nomadic hunters are estimated to have arrived in Virginia around 17,000 years ago. Evidence from Daugherty's Cave shows it
33252-448: The report to George Mathews that led to the fall of the Trans-Oconee Republic. A marker in Elbert County, Georgia , acknowledges Mathews's role in settling of that county. Society of the Cincinnati Virginia Virginia , officially the Commonwealth of Virginia , is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains . The state's capital
33456-469: The rest are mostly winter residents or transients . Water birds include sandpipers, wood ducks, and Virginia rail , while common inland examples include warblers, woodpeckers, and cardinals, the state bird . Birds of prey include osprey, broad-winged hawks , and barred owls . There are no endemic bird species. Audubon recognizes 21 Important Bird Areas in the state. Peregrine falcons , whose numbers dramatically declined due to DDT poisoning in
33660-414: The resumption of transportation would be initially resolved by Orders in Council on 6 December 1786, by the decision to establish a penal colony in New South Wales , on land previously claimed for Britain in 1770, but as yet not settled by Britain or any other European power. The British policy toward Australia, specifically for use as a penal colony , within their overall plans to populate and colonise
33864-410: The royal mercy" At the beginning of the 19th century, transportation for life became the maximum penalty for several offences which had previously been punishable by death. With complaints starting in the 1830s, sentences of transportation became less common in 1840 since the system was perceived to be a failure: crime continued at high levels, people were not dissuaded from committing felonies, and
34068-430: The session began. He had already represented Augusta County in Virginia's first Revolutionary Convention in August 1774, alongside both Lewis and McDowell. However, Governor Dunmore dissolved the prorougued assembly before it convened in 1776. Mathews eagerly sought a military commission on the outbreak of the Revolutionary War . On the creation of the 9th Virginia Regiment in the Continental Army in January 1776, he
34272-418: The settlement and industrialization of the largely underpopulated eastern regions. The policy continued until February 1956, when Nikita Khrushchev in his speech, " On the Personality Cult and Its Consequences ", condemned the transportation as a violation of Leninist principles. Whilst the policy itself was rescinded, the transported populations did not begin to return to their original metropoles until after
34476-462: The state for a one-year term. Mathews's brief term as governor was a successful one; he attended the 1787 state convention in which he voted ratify the United States Constitution , and left with the state in a position of stability. He was then elected to the House of Representatives for the 1st United States Congress . His term in Congress has been called "lackluster," owing in part to his 'frontier sensibilities' that were out of place in Congress. He
34680-564: The state living in Northern Virginia . Northern Virginia also has a significant population of Vietnamese Americans , whose major wave of immigration followed the Vietnam War . Korean Americans have migrated there more recently, while about 45,000 Filipino Americans have settled in the Hampton Roads area. Tribal membership in Virginia is complicated by the legacy of the state's " pencil genocide " of intentionally categorizing Native Americans and Blacks together, and many tribal members do have African or European ancestry, or both. In 2020,
34884-532: The state population, and the number of slave owners rose to over 50 thousand. Both of these numbers represented the most in the U.S. The boom in Southern cotton production using cotton gins increased the amount of labor needed for harvesting raw cotton , but new federal laws prohibited the importation of slaves. Decades of monoculture tobacco farming had also degraded Virginia's agricultural productivity . Virginia plantations increasingly turned to exporting slaves , which broke up countless families and made
35088-421: The state than moving to it in 2021. This is largely credited to high home prices in Northern Virginia, which are driving residents there to relocate south; Raleigh is their top destination. Aside from Virginia, the top birth state for Virginians is New York , with the Northeast accounting for the largest number of domestic migrants into the state by region. About twelve percent of residents were born outside
35292-470: The summer, and the Spanish government wrote to Monroe urging him to disavow Mathews' actions and place him in arrest. Monroe instead responded with justifications for American rights to East Florida, arguing "the United States should have seized on that country [East Florida] long ago" as collateral from unpaid debts from Spain to the U.S. He took the further step to publish this rationale in an official Madison administration newspaper. This confirmed to Mathews
35496-473: The terms of sentence initially being of the same duration as transportation. While transport was greatly reduced following enactment of the 1857 act, the last convicts sentenced to transportation arrived in Western Australia in 1868. During the 80 years of its use to Australia, the number of transported convicts totalled about 162,000 men and women. Over time the alternative terms of imprisonment would be somewhat reduced from their terms of transportation. From
35700-432: The tribes, burned Jamestown. Bacon's Rebellion forced the signing of Bacon's Laws , which restored some of the colony's rights and sanctioned both attacks on native tribes and the enslavement of their people. The Treaty of 1677 further reduced the independence of the tribes that signed it, and aided the colony's assimilation of their land in the years that followed. Colonists in the 1700s were pushing westward into
35904-483: The western and mountainous parts of the Commonwealth, oak and hickory are most common, while lower altitudes are more likely to have small but dense stands of hemlocks and mosses in abundance. Spongy moth infestations in oak trees and the blight in chestnut trees have decreased both of their numbers, leaving more room for hickory and the invasive tree of heaven . In the lowland tidewater and Piedmont , yellow pines tend to dominate, with bald cypress wetland forests in
36108-424: Was "by far the crudest, most dynamic, energetic, colorful, and capable of the seven boys." He may have been educated at the local Augusta Academy, although whatever schooling he obtained, he remained mostly illiterate throughout his life. As a boy, George Mathews played and explored in the woods around his father's farm, and quickly gained experience with frontier dangers from local Indian tribes, rebuffing raids from
36312-419: Was 55.8 per 1,000 females between the ages of 15 and 44, and the median age as of 2021 was the same as the national average of 38.8 years old. The geographic center of population is located northwest of Richmond in Hanover County , as of 2020 . Though still growing naturally as births outnumber deaths, Virginia has had a negative net migration rate since 2013, with 8,995 more people leaving
36516-403: Was also influenced by economics: the profits obtained from convicts' labour boosted the economy of the colonies and, consequently, of England. Nevertheless, it could be argued that transportation was economically deleterious because the aim was to enlarge population, not diminish it; but the character of an individual convict was likely to harm the economy. King William's War (1688–1697) (part of
36720-513: Was also settled as a penal colony, followed by the Moreton Bay Settlement (modern Brisbane , Queensland ) in 1824. The other Australian colonies were established as "free settlements", as non-convict colonies were known. However, the Swan River Colony (Western Australia) accepted transportation from England and Ireland in 1851, to resolve a long-standing labour shortage . Two penal settlements were established near modern-day Melbourne in Victoria but both were abandoned shortly after. Later,
36924-418: Was also used as a method of colonization . For example, from the earliest days of English colonial schemes, new settlements beyond the seas were seen as a way to alleviate domestic social problems of criminals and the poor as well as to increase the colonial labour force, for the overall benefit of the realm. Initially based on the royal prerogative of mercy , and later under English law , transportation
37128-488: Was an alternative sentence imposed for a felony . It was typically imposed for offences for which death was deemed too severe. By 1670, as new felonies were defined, the option of being sentenced to transportation was allowed. Depending on the crime, the sentence was imposed for life or for a set period of years. If imposed for a period of years, the offender was permitted to return home after serving their time, but had to make their own way back. Many offenders thus stayed in
37332-518: Was an important trade center in the backcountry, and it along with other backcountry trade centers like Salisbury, North Carolina , contributed significantly to economic expansion in the colonies, including the development of port cities like Baltimore, Maryland , Norfolk, Virginia , and Alexandria, Virginia . This mid-18th century economic boom has been cited a major origin of the American Revolution . Mathews took an increasingly active role civic affairs during this period. In Augusta County he served as
37536-413: Was commissioned lieutenant colonel . The regiment joined General George Washington 's army in December 1776, in which it embarked on Washington's Philadelphia campaign . By February 1777, Mathews was promoted to colonel of the 9th Virginia Regiment. Mathews's regiment saw its first significant action during the September 11, 1777, Battle of Brandywine . The battle, fought between Washington's army and
37740-493: Was defeated for reelection in 1791, and launched a failed bid for the United States Senate the following year. However, by 1793, he had regained enough support to again be chosen the 24th governor of the state. His second administration was more tumultuous than his first. At this time, the State of Georgia struggled to defend its vast land claims in the western part of the state, and this led to notable controversies during Mathews's tenure. In February 1794, General Elijah Clarke ,
37944-404: Was engulfed by opposing troops. This resulted in the capture or death of his entire regiment, with Mathews claiming to have "bled from five wounds" during the ordeal. The given reasons for his capture vary; some claim he did not receive Washington's orders to retreat, while others claim his regiment became lost in the fog and smoke of battle. Nationally, he received acclaim and his reputation grew as
38148-400: Was formed from the drowned river valley of the ancient Susquehanna River . Many of Virginia's rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac , Rappahannock , York , and James , which create three peninsulas in the bay, traditionally referred to as "necks" named Northern Neck , Middle Peninsula , and the Virginia Peninsula from north to south. Sea level rise has eroded
38352-405: Was imposed on prisoners guilty of capital offences pardoned by the king. Returning from the colonies before the stated period was a capital offence. The bill was introduced by William Thomson , the Solicitor General , who was "the architect of the transportation policy". Thomson, a supporter of the Whigs, was Recorder of London and became a judge in 1729. He was a prominent sentencing officer at
38556-472: Was in early life a merchant and planter. As an officer in the colonial militia, he gained statewide fame for his role in the Battle of Point Pleasant of Dunmore's War . He was afterward elected to the House of Burgesses from Augusta County, but did not attend a session. On the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War , he served as colonel of the 9th Virginia Regiment in the Continental Army . He and his entire regiment were captured on October 4, 1777, in
38760-400: Was introduced as an alternative punishment, although legally it was considered a condition of a pardon, rather than a sentence in itself. Convicts who represented a menace to the community were sent away to distant lands. A secondary aim was to discourage crime for fear of being transported. Transportation continued to be described as a public exhibition of the king's mercy. It was a solution to
38964-435: Was introduced into the House of Commons in 1717 under the Whig government. It legitimised transportation as a direct sentence, thus simplifying the penal process. Non-capital convicts (clergyable felons usually destined for branding on the thumb, and petty larceny convicts usually destined for public whipping) were directly sentenced to transportation to the American colonies for seven years. A sentence of fourteen years
39168-506: Was led by Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee , among others. Virginians began to coordinate their actions with other colonies in 1773 and sent delegates to the Continental Congress the following year. After the House of Burgesses was dissolved in 1774 by the royal governor , Virginia's revolutionary leaders continued to govern via the Virginia Conventions . On May 15, 1776, the Convention declared Virginia's independence and adopted George Mason 's Virginia Declaration of Rights , which
39372-515: Was less frequently applied to women and children because they were usually guilty of minor crimes and they were considered a minimal threat to the community. The outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) halted transportation to America. Parliament claimed that "the transportation of convicts to his Majesty's colonies and plantations in America ... is found to be attended with various inconveniences, particularly by depriving this kingdom of many subjects whose labour might be useful to
39576-478: Was not easy, and the act was extended twice by the Criminal Law Act 1778 ( 18 Geo. 3 . c. 62) and the Criminal Law Act 1779 ( 19 Geo. 3 . c. 54). This resulted in a 1779 inquiry by a parliamentary committee on the entire subject of transportation and punishment; initially the Penitentiary Act 1779 was passed, introducing a policy of state prisons as a measure to reform the system of overcrowded prison hulks that had developed, but no prisons were ever built as
39780-462: Was overshadowed by his involvement in the Yazoo Land Fraud , which led to his political downfall. Mathews relocated to the Mississippi Territory and in 1810 was sent as a secret agent by President James Madison to annex the Spanish territory of East Florida for the United States. Mathews was unable to claim the territory peacefully, so he created an insurrectionist force that captured Ferninanda Beach and Amelia Island and turned them over to
39984-442: Was presented in Virginia to discourage transportation by establishing complex rules for the reception of prisoners, but the reluctance of colonies did not stop transportation. In a few cases before 1734, the court changed sentences of transportation to sentences of branding on the thumb or whipping, by convicting the accused for lesser crimes than those of which they were accused. This manipulation phase came to an end in 1734. With
40188-426: Was regularly used as a rock shelter by 9,800 years ago. During the late Woodland period (500–1000 CE ), tribes coalesced, and farming, first of corn and squash, began, with beans and tobacco arriving from the southwest and Mexico by the end of the period. Palisaded towns began to be built around 1200. The native population in the current boundaries of Virginia reached around 50,000 in the 1500s. Large groups in
40392-636: Was responsible for building 38 warships for the U.S. Navy between 1907 and 1923. During World War I , German submarines attacked ships outside the port, which was a major site for transportation of soldiers and supplies. 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 . The shipyard continued building warships in World War II , and quadrupled its pre-war labor force to 70,000 by 1943. The Radford Arsenal outside Blacksburg also employed 22,000 workers making explosives, while
40596-405: Was shut down in 1945. An estimated 80,000 political prisoners were transported to the Cellular Jail which became known for its harsh conditions, including forced labor; prisoners who went on hunger strikes were frequently force-fed . France transported convicts to Devil's Island and New Caledonia in the 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries. Devil's Island, a French penal colony in Guiana ,
40800-401: Was substituted by imprisonment with penal servitude , and intended to punish. The Penal Servitude Act 1853 ( 16 & 17 Vict. c. 99), long titled "An Act to substitute, in certain Cases, other Punishment in lieu of Transportation," enacted that with judicial discretion, lesser felonies, those subject to transportation for less than 14 years, could be sentenced to imprisonment with labour for
41004-420: Was the preferred punishment. There were several obstacles to the use of transportation. In 1706 the reading test for claiming benefit of clergy was abolished ( 6 Ann. c. 9). This allowed judges to sentence "clergyable" offenders to a workhouse or a house of correction . But the punishments that then applied were not enough of a disincentive to commit crime: another solution was needed. The Transportation Act
41208-431: Was the relocation of convicted criminals, or other persons regarded as undesirable, to a distant place, often a colony , for a specified term; later, specifically established penal colonies became their destination. While the prisoners may have been released once the sentences were served, they generally did not have the resources to return home. Banishment or forced exile from a polity or society has been used as
41412-402: Was then included in a new constitution that designated Virginia as a commonwealth . Another Virginian, Thomas Jefferson , drew upon Mason's work in drafting the national Declaration of Independence . After the American Revolutionary War began, George Washington was selected by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to head the Continental Army , and many Virginians joined
41616-420: Was used for transportation from 1852 to 1953. New Caledonia became a French penal colony from the 1860s until the end of the transportations in 1897; about 22,000 criminals and political prisoners (most notably Communards ) were sent to New Caledonia. Henri Charrière (16 November 1906 – 29 July 1973) was a French writer, convicted in 1931 as a murderer by the French courts and pardoned in 1970. He wrote
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