Category: Virginia history
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RVA 5X5: Enrichmond and the City’s Radio Silence
by Jon Baliles I won’t do a “Top Stories of 2022” list for this newsletter, but if I did, one of them would surely be the collapse of the Enrichmond Foundation and the radio silence on all fronts concerning its finances, the groups that depended on it, their assets, and the two historic Black cemeteries…
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A Powerful Defense of Thomas Jefferson
In this interview with Jean Yarbrough, author of American Virtues: Thomas Jefferson on the Character of a Free People, Douglas Murray explores Thomas Jefferson’s life and legacy, and dissects the modern-day assault on Jefferson’s reputation.
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Virginia Board of Education: Stay the Course
Standards and Curriculum Framework are Both Needed – Not One Without the Other by Kathleen Smith In November, the Board of Education put off the approval of the Virginia History and Social Science Standards again. The Board members seemed quite perplexed as they were asked to approve only the Standards without the Curriculum Framework –-…
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The Curious Case of Anthony Johnson
by James A. Bacon The man who would come to be known by the English name of Anthony Johnson was born in the Angola region of southern Africa, enslaved by the Portuguese, and transported to Virginia for sale. There he was sold to a colonist, and then resold to a merchant planter by the name…
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Virginia’s Monuments War
In Charlottesville and Richmond, the fate of historical statuary hangs in the balance. by Catesby Leigh Charlottesville’s public spaces suffered major degradation after George Floyd’s killing, thanks to the removal of five noteworthy statuary works erected between 1909 and 1924: a Confederate sentinel known as Johnny Reb perched on an elaborate pedestal flanked by two…
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Those History and Social Studies Learning Standards: Another Perspective
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Predictably, the Youngkin administration’s proposed Standards of Learning for History and Social Studies have created controversy. Being able to compare the administration’s proposal with the Standards developed by the previous Board of Education that were ready for consideration and adoption, but put on hold by the Superintendent of Instruction, would add some…
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Teaching History as the Struggle for a “More Perfect Union”
The Youngkin administration has published a document, “The Guiding Principles for Virginia’s 2022 History and Social Science Standards Revisions,” which lays out the thinking behind revisions to the history and social-science Standards of Learning standards. The document does not dictate what teachers will teach. To the contrary, it states explicitly that the goal is to…
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Statue Preservationists, Find Better Ground!
by Donald Smith God, give me the strength to change what I can, the serenity to accept what I cannot, and the wisdom to know the difference. That’s the “Serenity Prayer,” and those of us who want to see Virginia’s Confederate heritage respected (or at least tolerated) need to say it. Often specifically, we need…
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Jamestown Settlement – A Flawless Weaving of American History
by James C. Sherlock Sunday, on a brilliant fall day in Hampton Roads, my wife and I went on an outing. Despite having lived in Virginia for many decades, neither of us had ever been to Jamestown. We all know the outlines of the story. Jamestown was founded in 1607 as a commercial venture by…
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The War on Virginia’s History
by Scott S. Powell and Ann McLean The United States is under a cultural and ideological attack that threatens its continuity and survival more than at any previous time in the 239-year history of the nation. And since the leaders of this attack think strategically, it should come as no surprise that Virginia would be…
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How to Think About Monuments
by James A. Bacon The conservative movement in Virginia faces a huge dilemma: how to build a “big tent” political coalition that is welcoming to African Americans and other minorities while resisting the cultural cleansing of everyone associated, however remotely, with the Civil War, slaveholding or segregation — including founding fathers of the republic such…
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It’s a Memorial, Not a Racist Ideology
by Carol J. Bova Accounts from lawyers, reporters, pundits and other outsiders have severely distorted the debate over the Confederate memorial in Mathews County. To The Washington Post, the controversy is about the ”enduring power of the Civil War’s legacy.” To the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs and Wilkie, Farr &…
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The Robert E. Lee of Appomattox
by Kenneth G. Everett Adversity is the first path to truth. Lord Byron, DON JUAN, Canto XII, Stanza 50 Few things in life reveal more clearly the true character of a man than his response to the circumstances of defeat and failure. The deepest impulses of the soul emerge when cherished hopes collapse and undertakings…
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Some Things Never Change
I am reading a recent biography of Patrick Henry and I came across a quote that just begs to be shared on this blog. One of Henry’s neighbors and friends in 1759 was Thomas Johnson, a member of the House of Burgesses from Louisa County. In the journal of the House, Johnson is recorded as…
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Of Monocans and Manumissions
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s history is endlessly fascinating. A study of the state’s past illuminates many issues that still confound us today. Such is the case with a monograph that reader Kemp Dolliver has brought to my attention: “Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and the Natural Bridge of Virginia.” This article, written in 1997 by…