This came at the beginning of the Civil War, a conflict between southern states that wanted to pull out of the Union including Virginia and the states in the North. But in 1861 Virginia seceded, or withdrew from the Union, what was then the United States.

And in 1788, following the Revolutionary War, Virginia became the tenth U.S. In 1776 another famous Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration of Independence. (Though historians think this story is unlikely to have happened.) According to Smith, he was about to be killed when Pocahontas, the chief’s daughter, threw herself in front of him to save his life. One of the Jamestown settlers, John Smith, was captured by the Powhatans. In 1607, Jamestown-the first English colony in what would become the United States-was founded in Virginia. Thousands of years later Native American tribes such as the Powhatan, Cherokee, Croatoan, and Tuscarora lived on the land. Experts think the first people to live in what is now Virginia arrived as many as 18,000 years ago. This waterway touches four of the five regions of the Old Dominion, from its beginning as a trickling stream in the mountain regions to the Fall Line to the meandering, murky water of the Coastal Plains region.

While they loosely correspond with the Virginia Studies curriculum (VS. The passages are written approximately at an end-of-4th-grade level. One way to experience a lot of Virginia is to take a trip down the James River. Students can read about topics related to the geography of Virginia and answer corresponding questions.Four informational text passages are included. How did the early settlers shape Virginia? Settlement Patterns includes the following topics: Each group added to the culture and history that all Virginians share today. In the 1600s people came from other continents to build new settlements across the land England claimed as a colony. The First Americans have lived for thousands of years in the area we now call Virginia. ĭid you know that Virginia has had three different capital cities in its 400-year history? Chester takes a look at the choices and goals that put the colony’s government first in swampy Jamestown, then at the Middle Plantation area renamed Williamsburg, then on the Fall Line city we now call Richmond …ģ Capitals includes the following topics: Chester takes to the skies in his Piper Crab plane to get the best view of all five regions. There is even a small plateau tucked in the corner. Each of these regions has common physical characteristics. It is a state whose geography spreads from low, coastal land up to very old mountains. 5 Geographic Regions of Virginia Virginia is divided up into 5 geographic regions. There are five different kinds of land areas in Virginia. Geography is the study of the physical surface of an area and its animals, climate, and resources. One winter there was cannibalism! Trace the struggle that changed the Old Dominion from a deathtrap into the most powerful of the 13 colonies and home of many of America’s Founding Fathers in this funny, colorful graphic novel that will excite reluctant readers, prepare students for standardized tests in history and help homeschooling parents!Ĭomic sample page #1: Why are those mountains blue?Ĭomic sample page #2: Where did Africans settle Virginia? But Jamestown was a killer – the swampy land carried diseases that killed thousands of colonists. The first permanent British settlement in North America was also the first capital of Virginia.

Virginia geography tests