Virginia

Virginia rises from sea level (Atlantic Ocean) to 5,729’ (Mt. Rogers).

Virginia is 7.4% water.

From early days, tensions were high between eastern and western landowners for several reasons:  (1) many coastal planters became rich and lived in luxury while Piedmont and mountain planters had smaller, less productive farms and didn’t rely on slaves; (2) when tobacco crops exhausted the soil in the east, coastal farmers planted cotton was planted and relied even more heavily on slavery; meanwhile, western farmers grew wheat and corn as well as cotton, raised sheep and hogs, and worried about Indian raids; (3) coastal planters, who looked down on the westerners, controlled the government and raised the taxes of westerners and refused to help protect them from the raids.

West Virginia officially split from VA and became a separate state in 1863.

More than half the battles of the Civil War were fought in Virginia, leaving the state in ruins, with harbors, roads, railroads, cities and farms destroyed.

Richmond after the Civil War 

VA has the highest concentration of black/white interracial marriages in the U.S.

Hispanics in VA have higher income and education levels than the general VA population.

VA operates under its 7^th constitution, adopted in 1971, which undid the Jim Crow laws enshrined in the previous version.  

Judges and justices are elected by the General Assembly, rather than directly by voters.  The governor can’t be elected to a 2^nd consecutive term.

Rockingham turkey

VA has the highest concentration and the 4^th highest number of technical workers in the U.S.  

Rockingham County is the 2^nd largest turkey producer in the U.S.  

Kyanite, used to make bricks, is mined only in VA.

Barter Theater, now the State Theater of VA, is the longest running professional repertory theater in the U.S.

The VA Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond was the 1^st state-supported art museum in the U.S.  The Hermitage Foundation Museum in Norfolk has the U.S.’s largest private collection of Asian art.

VA has an official state boat (Chesapeake Bay deadrise).

Chesapeake Bay deadrise