VIRGINIA, the largest and most central state in the American Union, perhaps the most varied in its productions, and the richest in natural resources, blessed with a happy climate and a fruitful soil, exhibiting a pleasant interchange of the most romantic and lovely scenes. The state borders upon the Atlantic ocean and the river Ohio, extending from 75° 10' to 83° 25' W. Long., having Maryland on the east, and Ohio and Kentucky on the west: on the north are Maryland and Pennsylvania, and on the south Tennessee and North Carolina. Its general breadth from north to [7:21:658]south is about 200 miles. Its length in the southern part is from 400 to 430 miles, and, north of 38°, about half that extent; its area is about 70,000 square miles, being but little inferior to Scotland and England united.

With the exception of Pennsylvania, Virginia is the only state that extends quite across the great Appalachian chains, and it is traversed from north to south by several well-defined mountain ranges. Our knowledge of the course and connections of these chains, which have not been accurately laid down in maps, is yet very imperfect, but some of them have been traced with tolerable precision. The Blue Ridge, although pierced by the Potomac, James, and Staunton rivers, constitutes a well-marked and continuous chain of 260 miles in length. In general it forms rounded, swelling masses, about 2000 feet above the level of the sea, or about 1500 feet above the valleys at its eastern base; but the Peaks of Otter shoot up in projecting summits to the height of 4260 feet. The prolongation of the Kittutinny mountain of Pennsylvania, enters the state in Morgan county, under the name of the Great Ridge, or North mountain, and passes into North Carolina under the name of the Iron mountain. Its height is generally from 2100 to 2500 feet, but the White Top peak reaches the height of 6000 feet. The Great valley, which lies between these two ridges, sometimes called the German valley, is a continuation of the Cumberland and Tulpehocken valleys of Pennsylvania. Through this ridge the New river passes westward, and the James and Potomac eastward. West of this are numerous mountain masses, which are probably prolongations of those which traverse central Pennsylvania.

Every portion of Virginia is traversed by fine rivers and streams, useful either as channels of navigation or for manufacturing purposes. The chief of these is the main trunk of the Potomac, which has already been described under the article Maryland. Its principal tributaries are from this state. The Rappahannock rises on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge, and is navigable for small vessels to Fredericksburg, 110 miles. James river is by far the largest and most important of the streams which have their whole course in Virginia, and is not inferior to the Potomac and the Kanhawa in utility and the varied beauties of its scenery. Rising in the Alleghany mountain. It first bears the name of Jackson’s river, and after having received the Cow Pasture river, a considerable stream. It takes the name of King James, passes through the Kittutinny, and several other mountain chains, enters the great valley, and, gathering the waters of that fruitful region, emerges from the Blue Ridge over the Irish Falls. Above Richmond it descends by a fall of seventy feet, in the distance of eight miles, into the low country. Below Richmond it gradually becomes wider and deeper, and in the lower part of its course expands into a long, spacious bay, with sufficient depth for the largest ships. Vessels of 600 tons ascend to City Point, seventy-five miles from the bay, although there are some bars and shoals which obstruct the navigation; and vessels drawing fifteen feet of water proceed thirty miles higher, to Warwick, which is within five miles of Richmond, the capital of the state. The Blackwater, Nottoway, and Meherrin, unite in North Carolina to form the Chowan, which enters Albemarle sound. They are all navigable for small coasting vessels. The Great Renawha, and the other rivers of the western section, all reach the Ohio.

The geological formations of this vast region have as yet been but very partially explored. The mineral wealth of Virginia is almost boundless; gold, copper, lead, iron, coal, salt, limestone, marls, gypsum, magnesian, copperas, and alum earths, excellent marbles, granites, soapstones, freestones, &c., are among its subterraneous treasures. The first coalfield is that of the primary region, the extent of which has not been determined, but indications of coal have been traced from the South Anna, near its mouth, to Prince Edward, south of the Appomattax. The thickness of the coal-seams is very variable, ranging from four or five to thirty, forty, and even sixty feet; the coal is bituminous, and of an excellent quality. On the north branch of the Potomac there is a remarkable bituminous coalfield. Upon a stratum of valuable iron-ore, not less than fifteen feet in thickness, there rests a bed of sandstone, upon which reposes a coal-seam three feet thick; upon this, another bed of sandstone, then a two feet vein of coal; next sandstone, then another coal-seam of four feet; again a stratum of sandstone, and over it a seven feet vein of coal; over this a heavy bed of iron-ore, and crowning the series an enormous coal-seam from fifteen to twenty feet in thickness. West of the Alleghany, there are some of the most extensive and valuable deposits of coal in the world. At Wheeling, on the Ohio, and for fourteen miles down the river, the bank presents an uninterrupted bed of highly bituminous coal, upwards of sixteen feet thick. Salt springs occur in various places. But the most important works are on the Great and Little Kanawha. Gold is at present the most important of the metallic minerals of Virginia. It occurs throughout a belt on the western side of the primary district, stretching from beyond the Rappahannock to the Appomattax. Most of the gold hitherto obtained has been procured by washings from the deposit-mines, but several veins have yielded rich returns. In 1803, at Reid’s mine, a negro found one lump that weighed twenty-eight pounds avoirdupois, worth eight thousand dollars. The largest piece of gold in one mass, ever found in Europe, weighed only twenty-two ounces; and this was found in Wicklow in Ireland. But the mines in Virginia are neither extensively worked, nor fully developed. For several years they have been left to the enterprise of the farmers, or owners of the soil, who occupy themselves with mining when not engaged on their farms; and it is calculated that the product of the mines in this section of the country, will amount to about L.80,000 annually.

Iron will probably at some future day prove to be a more precious deposit; but, although the ore of several varieties is lavished in profusion on different sections of the state, it is at present but little worked. Copper-ores are found among the altered rocks cast of the Blue Ridge; and numerous openings have been made in Orange, Amherst, Campbell, and Buckingham, for procuring the cupreous rock, which at an early period was ground on the spot, and sent to England to be smelted. Lead occurs in the southwestern part of the state, in the forms of the sulphuret (galena) and carbonate, both of which are wrought, yielding a large per centage of valuable metal.

A continuous line of railway is nearly completed across the state, from the Potomac to the Roanoke. The Richmond and Potomac railroad extends from Potomac creek in Stafford, through Fredericksburg, to Richmond, seventy miles, having been completed in 1836. Railroads and canals cross the state in every direction, affording ready and convenient means of communication for all purposes.

Agriculture has always been the chief occupation of the inhabitants, but not to the exclusion of other branches of industry. “There is a great diversity in the agriculture of the state, but it is seldom well managed. On both sides of the Blue Ridge, maize, or Indian corn, wheat, rye, oats, and buckwheat, are the principal grain crops. Tobacco is the principal staple of most of eastern Virginia, but in the valley it is cultivated only in the southern portion, and not at all beyond the Alleghany. In the eastern and southern counties cotton is planted to a considerable extent. On the shores of the Chesapeake, barley and the castor oil bean are cultivated; and on some of the best lands above tide-water, hemp is raised to advantage. The Trans-Alleghany county, being exceedingly mountainous and remote[7:21:659] from market, is chiefly devoted to raising live stock. No more grain is raised than is sufficient to supply the county itself. The culture of tobacco was begun as early as 1616, and that plant soon formed the staple production of the colony. During the latter half of the last century, the annual export amounted to 60,000 or 70,000 hogsheads; of late years the amount produced in eastern Virginia has fallen off considerably, on account of the exhaustion of much of the land suited to this crop; but its cultivation has been much extended beyond the Blue Ridge. The manufactures of Virginia are by no means inconsiderable in value and extent, but they are not in general of the class which involves the nicer and more complicated processes of art, consisting rather of those simpler operations, which convert the native growth of the forest, the products of the mineral kingdom, or the fruits of agricultural labour, into articles of home consumption or commerce. The forests and the coal-beds furnish a cheap and easy supply of fuel, and the numerous water-falls offer an almost unlimited motive power for economical purposes; and within the last few years several cotton mills have been erected for spinning and weaving, in which white operatives have sought employment. The exports of Virginia consist chiefly of agricultural products; lumber, salt, castor oil, ginseng, coal, gold, some furs, &c. The value of the direct exports to foreign countries in 1836, was 6,192,040 dollars, but the internal American trade must exceed that sum. The imports from foreign ports amounted in the same year to only 1,106,814; but Virginia receives her supplies of manufactured goods and foreign productions chiefly from northern ports. The fisheries of the Chesapeake and its tributaries are valuable. The shipping owned in the state amounts to 50,000 tons.”

The first white settlers in Virginia were English; and the emigration from England continued to be pretty active during a great part of the seventeenth century, particularly from the time of the civil wars to the Restoration, in 1660, and toward the close of the century, both before and after the Revolution. Many victims of the political disturbances of those periods were also sent to Virginia as servants; and the captives at Worcester, the followers of Penruddoc, the Irish catholics, and the soldiers of the duke of Monmouth, were sold into servitude in the colony. In the following century, many German emigrants, chiefly from Maryland and Pennsylvania, occupied the valley in the rear of the Blue Ridge, which thence received the name of the German Valley; and in the more western part of the state, great numbers of Irish settlers fixed themselves; and some felons were transported to Virginia, as to other colonies. Negroes and mulattose constitute a large proportion of the population of Virginia, and these are mostly field in slavery. The first negroes were brought into the harbours of the Chesapeake by a Dutch ship in 1620, when twenty were sold to the colonists; but the importation was for a long time so inconsiderable, that at the end of fifty years their number was only 2000. The inhabitants indeed endeavoured to discourage the traffic, and the Assembly made repeated attempts to prevent the further introduction of negroes, but failed in obtaining the requisite sanction of the crown; and up to the time of the revolution-war, from 5000 to 6000 were annually brought into the province by the English slave-traders. It is one of the grievances recited in the constitution of 1776, and reaffirmed in the new instrument adopted in 1830, that George III. had prompted the rising in arms of “those very negroes whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he had refused us permission to exclude by law ;” and in 1778 the new state prohibited their importation under heavy penalties. The existing black population of Virginia is probably altogether native.

Population ar different periods.
[table]

Besides the loss of population, occasioned by the removal of free labourers and of planters with their forces, the sale and exportation of slaves to other states have been a constant drain to this class of the population, especially during the last ten years. Virginia has the unenviable distinction of being a slave-breeding state, not only supporting slavery within its own limits, but contributing to extend it in other states of the Union. This unnatural and disgusting trade must infallibly demoralize both the white and coloured population; and as a proof of the suffering which it entails upon its wretched victims, no less a sum than 14,412 dollars is stated in the account of the public expenditure of the state for 1833 for transported and executed slaves; while the next item, the public guard, amounts only to 19,225 dollars.

A few families of Indians of the Nottoway tribe, a branch of the great Iroquois family, are still found on the river of that name, but they have lost the language of their fathers, and have become much mixed with negroes. Of the thirty Powhatan clans found here by the first colonists, not one is believed to survive.

Richmond, the capital of the state, and its principal city, is pleasantly situated on the left bank of the James, below the lower falls, standing on several eminences, which command fine views of the surrounding country, and give to the city an air of singular beauty. Richmond was declared the capital of the state in 1779, and incorporated as a city in 1782, when however it was merely a small village. In 1800 the population was 5,737, and in 1830 it was 16,060, more than one half blacks; at present, inclusive of Manchester, which is united with it by a bridge, it exceeds 20,000. Richmond is 110 miles from the mouth of the river, which carries fourteen feet of water to Warwick, five miles below the city, and is navigable for boats 220 miles above the falls.

Such was the state of education in the colony, that one of the early governors thanked God that there were no free schools or printing in Virginia. In 1796, an act was passed for the establishment of primary schools; but in 1809 the governor complained that the law had in no instance been complied with. In that year a literary fund was created by the appropriation of fines, escheats, and forfeitures, to this object; and the money received by the state from the federal government in 1816, for military services rendered during the late war, was afterwards appropriated to the same purpose. In 1833 the fund amounted to 1,551,837 dollars, and the income to 78,340 dollars. In 1817 a permanent appropriation was made of 45,000 dollars a-year from this revenue, to be distributed among the several counties and towns, in proportion to their free white population, for the instruction of poor children, and an additional sum was granted for the same object in 1836. In 1833, by returns from one hundred counties, there were 2833 common schools, attended by 17,081 poor children. In order to extend the benefits of this system to all classes of whites, the school-commissioners of any county are authorised to lay off the county into school-districts, and, whenever any district shall have raised three-fifths of the [7:21:660]sum necessary to build a school-house, to contribute the remaining two-fifths. They are also empowered to pay a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars towards a teacher’s salary, provided the inhabitants of the district contribute an equal sum towards the same object; and every white child in such district is to be gratuitously taught in such school. There are about fifty-five academies in the state. The higher educational institutions are the university of Virginia at Charlottesville; the college of William and Mary at Williamsburg; Washington college at Lexington, Bockbridge county; Hampden-Sydney college in Prince Edward county; Randolph-Macon college at Boydton, Mecklenburg county; the Union theological seminary in Prince Edward county; the Episcopal theological seminary near Alexandria; and the Virginia Baptist seminary near Richmond. In 1839 there were fifty-two newspapers published in Virginia.

The legislature, styled the General Assembly, consists of two houses; a house of delegates of 134 members, chosen annually; and a senate of thirty-two members, chosen for the term of thirty-four years. Senators and delegates must be resident freeholders; the latter of the age of twenty-five years, the former of thirty. All laws must originate in the house of delegates. The governor and the council of state, of three members, are chosen by the joint vote of both houses of the assembly, for the term of three years, the senior councillor being lieutenant-governor. The superior judges are chosen by the same bodies, and hold office during good behaviour. The justices of the peace are appointed by the governor on nomination, by the existing justices of the respective counties, and one of their number performs the duties of sheriff. A small property qualification is required to confer the right of suffrage on white male citizens; and at all elections “the votes must be given openly, or viva voce, and not by ballot.”

The revenue of the state for the year 1834, was 403,335 dollars, of which 291,581 dollars were derived from taxes on land, slaves, horses, and carriages, and 101,283 from licences, making, with the balance of 185,221 dollars in the treasury at the close of 1833, a total of 588,556 dollars. The expenditure, during the same year, amounted to 472,337 dollars; some of the principal items, exclusive of payments from literary and other funds, being as follows:

General assembly...90,141

Officers’ salaries .78,815

Judiciary 22,625

Criminal charges....32,240

Revolutionary half-pay officers...12,166

Transported and executed slaves...14,412

Public guard 19,225

Penitentiaries 23,911

Lunatic asylum 34,500

General appropriations...24,417