25 things you didn't know about Virginia and the American Revolution
The Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Virginia Museum of History & Culture present "America, Made in Virginia," a series uncovering 25 things you may not know about Virginia’s role in the American Revolution. The series will run every day from June 10 through July 4.
(23) updates to this series since Updated
How legal raiders helped win American independence.
The Declaration of Independence came together faster than many people realize.
George Mason rarely left home, but his words traveled far in the fight to define American liberty.
Before the Constitution, the Articles of Confederation kept 13 states united. Their flaws were real, but so was their impact.
Did you know Patrick Henry’s most famous line may have borrowed from his favorite play?
He claimed he didn’t want the job, so why did he wear his military uniform on the day of the vote?
The future first, First Lady chose to care for the soldiers every winter of the war.
George Washington faced more than British opposition. A failed plot sought to replace him with Horatio Gates during the Revolution.
Virginia’s capital wasn’t always Richmond. A British threat helped prompt the move from Williamsburg in 1779.
Did you know one of the most crucial spies of the American Revolution was an enslaved man who outsmarted a British general?
Boston wasn’t the only colony to protest British tea. Yorktown made its own stand in 1774.
The American Revolution was more than colonies versus Britain. France, Spain and the Dutch Republic all played key roles in the Patriot cause.
The chance for liberty looked different for enslaved Virginians, and often wore a red coat.
How did ideas travel before social media and the telephone?
Why were Virginians in the 1780s giving their children a French name?
Did you know Virginia's most fashionable women once gave up their looks for a greater cause?
Did you know the pamphlet that rallied Americans to independence was written by a man who’d been here only a year?
Benedict Arnold’s raid showed how vulnerable Virginia remained even with a new capital.
Jack Jouett rode 40 miles through the dark to warn Thomas Jefferson.
Did you know the printer who helped launch Thomas Jefferson's political career was a widow?
The Commonwealth did not wait for Philadelphia to declare independence.
Most Native nations sided with Britain, but not in Virginia.
Congress voted for independence on July 2, but bureaucracy takes time.
The Supreme Court of Virginia has appointed a three-judge panel to decide if multiple legal challenges to the state's new assault weapons ban should be consolidated.
