NewsThe Cotton Gin of the Midwest
Many are familiar with the legacy of the cotton gin, the first machine to separate cotton seeds from cotton fiber, patented by Ely Whitney in 1794. The cotton gin made the widespread cultivation of short-staple cotton profitable just as the removal of Indians from vast swaths of the southeast opened up new farming territory for […]
NewsVirginia Tribal Communities Tell Their Own Stories
In Encyclopedia Virginia
The question of how Indigenous stories are told—and by whom—is part of a long-overdue reckoning with the mainstream historical narrative in VA…
NewsThe Missed Opportunity of the Emancipation Monument
Our new entry on Archer Alexander, the formerly enslaved man who served as the model for the Emancipation Monument dedicated on the eleventh anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, touches on the controversy the monument generated, both when it was dedicated in 1876 and more recently when a replica of the monument was removed from […]
NewsLiberty is Sweet: A Conversation with Woody Holton
Encyclopedia Virginia is thrilled to welcome Woody Holton for a virtual conversation about his much-anticipated new book Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution on Friday, October 29, at 12 PM. In this sweeping reassessment of the American Revolution, Holton shows how the founders were influenced by overlooked Americans—women, Native Americans, African Americans, and religious […]
EventLiberty is Sweet: A Conversation with Woody Holton
Join Encyclopedia Virginia editor Patricia Miller in conversation with Woody Holton about his much-anticipated new book Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution. In this sweeping reassessment of the American …
NewsEmancipation and Freedom Monument
On September 22, the Virginia Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Commission unveiled the latest addition to Virginia’s commemorative landscape: the Emancipation and Freedom Monument on Brown’s Island in Richmond. The monument, which features two bronze statues representing a man and a woman and an infant newly freed from slavery, is dedicated to the contributions of […]
NewsThe Economics of Slavery
Three new entries in EV shed light on some surprising aspects of the economics of slavery. Doug Sanford illuminates a little-understood aspect of slavery: the Hiring Out of the Enslaved. As he notes, “While less well-known than other facets of institutional slavery, hiring out of the enslaved was a common and long-standing arrangement throughout the […]
NewsVirginia Estelle Randolph
Virginia Humanities grantee Elvatrice Belsches’ research into the life of this educator, community leader, and social activist is changing the historical landscape.
NewsHow Washington Outflanked Smallpox
With full FDA approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, the Pentagon has announced that all active-duty troops will be required to receive the vaccine as soon as possible—a mandate to protect the health and readiness of the military that stretches back to the very first commander-in-chief, George Washington. His decision to inoculate the Continental Army against smallpox […]
NewsThe Woman Who Refused to “Obey”
Sarah Harrison Blair offers a tantalizing glimpse of unlikely female agency in colonial Virginia. She was the daughter of wealthy Surry County tobacco planter, trader, and land speculator Benjamin Harrison II. By the time of Sarah’s birth in 1670, the Harrisons were already a political dynasty in the making. Her father served in the House of […]
News“Like Reaching for the Moon”
Before Greta Thunberg, before Emma González, before Malala Yousafzai, there was Barbara Johns. Johns kickstarted America’s student-led movement for civil rights in education in 1951, when she launched a walkout of her fellow students at the all-Black Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville. She was sixteen at the time. She planned the walkout to […]
NewsThe Ledger and the Chain with Joshua Rothman
On June 29, our Encyclopedia Virginia presented this conversation with Joshua Rothman, author of The Ledger and the Chain: How the Domestic Slave Trade Shaped America, and Patti Miller, editor …
