Northern Virginia, A Brief History Of The Last Thirteen Thousand Years
Virginia started prior to the arrival of Europeans, with numerous native peoples, including the Powhatan. In 1607 The London Company developed the Colony of Virginia as the first long-term New World English colony. Slave labor and the land gotten from displaced Native American people each played a substantial part in the colony’s very early politics and plantation economic model.
Virginia was among the 13 Colonies in the American Revolution and signed up with the Confederates in the American Civil War, throughout which Richmond was made the Confederate capital and Virginia’s northwestern counties seceded to form the state of West Virginia. The Commonwealth was under conservative single-party influence for virtually a century following Reconstruction, both significant nationwide persuasions, Democrat and Republican, are competitive in contemporary Virginia.
Virginia’s topographical features, and certainly the Potomac, were essential in the development of the United States and its political infrastructure. Even the place where George Washington lived after leading the United States with the Revolutionary War was prominent in the ultimate placement of Washington D.C. as the Capital.
Lots of small stories and little known aspects of the history of Virginia can be found in Charles A Mills’ book, “Hidden History of Northern Virginia.”
One of the highlights of this book is that had General George Washington lived anywhere aside from Mount Vernon, Virginia, the entire Capital city of Washington, D.C., may not now exist. In this interesting collection of oft-unheard tales from Northern Virginia, author Charles Mills highlights the vital influence and role that this area played in our country’s history and formation from colonial to contemporary times. In it you can review the Rebel blockade of the Potomac River, the jailing of German POWs at super-secret Fort Hunt throughout much of World War II and the structure of the Pentagon on the exact same building-site and in the exact same setup as Civil War-era Fort Runyon.
In its earlier history, slaves in Alexandria were held in well-known slave pens. Suffragists were routinely dragged from the White House lawn and locked up in the Occoquan workhouse. Innumerable small yet personally intense and pained events and struggles were wound into other vibrant tales of individuals and occasions that left their imprints on Northern Virginia and the country.
No small number of us Americans often consider the history of Virginia as a story of a location where English-speaking Europeans initially showed up and from that point onward the record was a procession of events forming the emergence of the American identity and narrative. While this is largely true, Clovis points suggest residents from 13,000 years back. The European influence started well prior to Capt. John Smith showed up in Northern Virginia. A number of years previously, it is recorded that Spanish travelers made their journey to Virginia. Gov. Pedro Menendez of Florida authorized an exploratory team of 8 Jesuits in 1570.
At that time, it was widely believed that the Chesapeake Bay was a clear passage to China. Jesuit priests convinced the governor to explore the location for possible colonization. Eight Jesuit travelers made their way to Virginia under the leadership of Father Segura and eventually showed up in Northern Virginia in a location the Native Americans called Axacan. These Jesuits were accompanied by a Native American a former prince of this people, whom they perhaps presumptuously believed had fully converted to Christianity, but once reunited with his people, he led a team of armed warriors and dispatched the missionaries to their reward. One lone boy, the sole living survivor finally brought information of this catastrophe to the governor who soon cruised up the coast from Florida to set things aright. After a series of unproductive small scale conflicts, at some point this Spanish interest in Virginia and a Chesapeake “passage” fizzled out, devolving into a few recurring trading journeys down the river which the Native Americans called a word that translated, “they come and they go.” This name later on was transliterated to the “Potomac” River. When the colonials settled some decades later, the die was finally cast and Northern Virginia was to become the historic and political center of the United States. The Potomac River continued to be well-known from then until now, most recently making news when an extremely competent aviator, Sullenberger, safely and miraculously landed a jetliner, without power, in the river, preserving the lives of all on board
Real Estate in Northern Virginia.
It is provided without dispute that the area is rich in history and the heritage of our nation and correspondingly, real estate values are similarly rich. Valuable estates are found throughout the countryside in addition to homes in city centers such as Alexandria. Selling or purchasing homes in Loudoun County is representational of the exchange of values that go beyond the simple allocation of land but also the essence of history of the founding of a nation and it remains the Commonwealth in every sense of the word.