The strategic economic importance of Cape Henry, at the juncture between the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay, was recognized early on in the American colonies with a recommendation that building a lighthouse at that location would be “of great Advantage to the Trade of this Bay.”[1] It took almost half of a century to […]
Friday, June 19, 2020, proved an interesting day in Virginia. The governor, two days prior, issued an executive order declaring June 19, “Juneteenth” a state holiday in honor of the end of slavery in the State of Texas when Federal troops landed at Galveston and issued and executive order freeing all slaves in that state […]
Lord Dunmore, John Murray, the 4th Earl of Dunmore (1730-1809) and Royal Governor of Virginia (1771-1776),[1] was an important political and military figure during the early stages of the American Revolution. One of Dunmore’s most controversial actions involved issuing a proclamation to free all slaves and indentured servants of rebels who would rally to the […]
November 10, 1775 was an important day in both Great Britain and America. Lord George Germain assumed duties as the Secretary of State for the American Department—“he was virtually War minister in the British cabinet”—and the Continental Congress authorized two battalions of marines, giving birth to the United States Marine Corps.[1] Two hundred and forty-three […]
