1.
Isle of Wight
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The Isle of Wight /ˈaɪl əv ˈwaɪt/ is a county and the largest and second-most populous island in England. It is located in the English Channel, about 4 miles off the coast of Hampshire, the island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of fields, downland and chines. The island has been home to the poets Swinburne and Tennyson and to Queen Victoria and it has a maritime and industrial tradition including boat building, sail making, the manufacture of flying boats, the hovercraft, and Britains space rockets. The island hosts annual festivals including the Isle of Wight Festival. It has well-conserved wildlife and some of the richest cliffs and quarries for dinosaur fossils in Europe, the Isle was owned by a Norman family until 1293 and was earlier a kingdom in its own right. Rural for most of its history, its Victorian fashionability and the affordability of holidays led to significant urban development during the late 19th. The island was part of Hampshire until 1890 when it became its own administrative county, apart from a shared police force, there is now no administrative link with Hampshire, although a combined local authority with Portsmouth and Southampton is being considered. Until 1995 the island had a governor, the quickest public transport link to the mainland is the hovercraft from Ryde to Southsea, while three ferry and two catamaran services cross the Solent to Southampton, Lymington and Portsmouth. During the Ice Age, sea levels were lower and the Solent was part of a river flowing south east from current day Poole Harbour towards mid-Channel. As sea levels rose, the valley became flooded. The first inhabitants are assumed to have been hunter-gatherers migrating by land during the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age period, as the ice age began to recede. From the Neolithic era onwards, there are indications that the island had wide trading links, with a port at Bouldnor, evidence of Bronze Age tin trading, caesar reported that the Belgae took the Isle of Wight in about 85 BC and gave its name as Vectis. The Roman historian Suetonius mentions that the island was captured by the commander Vespasian, the Romans built no towns or roads on the island, but the remains of at least seven Roman villas have been found, indicating the prosperity of local agriculture. During the Dark Ages the island was settled by Jutes as the kingdom of Wihtwara under King Arwald. In 685 it was invaded by Caedwalla, who tried to replace the inhabitants with his own followers and it suffered especially from Viking raids, and was often used as a winter base by Viking raiders when they were unable to reach Normandy. Later, both Earl Tostig and his brother Harold Godwinson held manors on the island, the Norman Conquest of 1066 created the position of Lord of the Isle of Wight, the island being given by William the Conqueror to his kinsman William FitzOsbern. Carisbrooke Priory and the fort of Carisbrooke Castle were then founded, allegiance was sworn to FitzOsbern rather than the king, the Lordship was subsequently granted to the de Redvers family by Henry I, after his succession in 1100. For nearly 200 years the island was a semi-independent feudal fiefdom, the final private owner was the Countess Isabella de Fortibus, who, on her deathbed in 1293, was persuaded to sell it to Edward I
2.
Virginia
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Virginia is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, as well as in the historic Southeast. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, the capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond, Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealths estimated population as of 2014 is over 8.3 million, the areas history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony, slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colonys early politics and plantation economy. Although the Commonwealth was under one-party rule for nearly a century following Reconstruction, the Virginia General Assembly is the oldest continuous law-making body in the New World. The state government was ranked most effective by the Pew Center on the States in both 2005 and 2008 and it is unique in how it treats cities and counties equally, manages local roads, and prohibits its governors from serving consecutive terms. Virginias economy changed from agricultural to industrial during the 1960s and 1970s. Virginia has an area of 42,774.2 square miles, including 3,180.13 square miles of water. Virginias boundary with Maryland and Washington, D. C. extends to the mark of the south shore of the Potomac River. The southern border is defined as the 36° 30′ parallel north, the border with Tennessee was not settled until 1893, when their dispute was brought to the U. S. Supreme Court. The Chesapeake Bay separates the portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginias Eastern Shore. The bay was formed from the river valleys of the Susquehanna River. Many of Virginias rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James, the Tidewater is a coastal plain between the Atlantic coast and the fall line. It includes the Eastern Shore and major estuaries of Chesapeake Bay, the Piedmont is a series of sedimentary and igneous rock-based foothills east of the mountains which were formed in the Mesozoic era. The region, known for its clay soil, includes the Southwest Mountains around Charlottesville. The Blue Ridge Mountains are a province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the state. The Ridge and Valley region is west of the mountains and includes the Great Appalachian Valley, the region is carbonate rock based and includes Massanutten Mountain. The Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland Mountains are in the southwest corner of Virginia, in this region, rivers flow northwest, with a dendritic drainage system, into the Ohio River basin
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
County seat
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A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is used in the United States, Canada, Romania, China, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, county towns have a similar function. In the United States, counties are the subdivisions of a state. Depending on the state, counties may provide services to the public, impose taxes. Some types of subdivisions, such as townships, may be incorporated or unincorporated. The city, town, or populated place that houses county government is known as the seat of its respective county, a county seat is usually, but not always, an incorporated municipality. The exceptions include the county seats of counties that have no incorporated municipalities within their borders, such as Arlington County, Virginia, likewise, some county seats may not be incorporated in their own right, but are located within incorporated municipalities. For example, Cape May Court House, New Jersey, though unincorporated, is a section of Middle Township, in some of the colonial states, county seats include or formerly included Court House as part of their name. Most counties have only one county seat, an example is Harrison County, Mississippi, which lists both Biloxi and Gulfport as county seats. The practice of multiple county seat towns dates from the days when travel was difficult, there have been few efforts to eliminate the two-seat arrangement, since a county seat is a source of pride for the towns involved. There are 36 counties with multiple county seats in 11 states, Coffee County, for example, the official county seat is Greensboro, but an additional courthouse has been located in nearby High Point since 1938. For example, Clearwater is the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, in New England, the town, not the county, is the primary division of local government. Historically, counties in this region have served mainly as dividing lines for the judicial systems. Connecticut and Rhode Island have no county level of government and thus no county seats, in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Maine the county seats are legally designated shire towns. County government consists only of a Superior Court and Sheriff, both located in the shire town. Bennington County has two towns, but the Sheriff is located in Bennington. In Massachusetts, most government functions which would otherwise be performed by county governments in other states are performed by town governments. As such, Massachusetts has dissolved many of its county governments, two counties in South Dakota have their county seat and government services centered in a neighboring county
5.
Smithfield, Virginia
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Smithfield is a town in Isle of Wight County, in the South Hampton Roads subregion of the Hampton Roads region of Virginia in the United States. The population was 8,089 at the 2010 census, the town is most famous for the curing and production of the Smithfield ham. The Virginia General Assembly passed a statute defining Smithfield ham by law in 1926, currently, Smithfield Foods, a Fortune 500 Company that owns Smithfield Packing Company and others, is the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer. The company, based in Smithfield, raises 12 million and processes 20 million hogs annually, Smithfield, first colonized in 1634, is located on the Pagan River, not far from Jamestown. The Native Americans knew this area as Warascoyak, also spelled Warrosquoyacke, meaning “point of land. ”Warrosquyoake Shire was officially formed in 1634 in the Virginia colony and it was renamed Isle of Wight County in 1637. In 1730, the Tobacco Inspection Act of 1730 established Warricksqueak Bay, the town was established in 1752 by Arthur Smith IV as a seaport. The original survey and plat of the Town of Smithfield was made by Jordan Thomas, as a river town, its life and growth were dependent on the river. “Wharf Hill” was the waterfront location of the beginning of the industries of Smithfield, a County Justice and Postmaster of Smithfield during his lifetime, purchased Lots 4 &5 of the original plat of the Town of Smithfield in 1763. Purdies neighbor, Captain Mallory Todd, built the business of curing and shipping the hams that has made Smithfield world-famous, there were both Revolutionary and Civil War actions in and around the town, mostly due to its proximity to the James River. Wharf Hill was used as a harbor for receiving arms and supplies for revolutionary patriots. Its dock has welcomed the fictional drama of the real “Show Boat”, Thomas literally wrote the book on St. Lukes Church, “The Old Brick Church Near Smithfield, Virginia, ” specifically to champion its 1632 date and legacy. He presented it before the Virginia Historical Society on December 22,1891, “It is my object to prove that this Church was built in 1632, and I shall prove it,1. By the existence at that date, of such strong, religious sentiment. By lately existing records, and –4, by the bricks and mortar of the Church itself. ”Today, Smithfield is a small town community striving to preserve its southern charm. Currently Smithfield has a population of 8,100 and is approximately 10.1 square miles in size, the ham production operation was purchased by a Chinese firm in 2014. Smithfield is located at 36°58′44″N 76°37′7″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 10.4 square miles, of which 9.5 square miles is land and 0.9 square miles is water. As of the census of 2010, there were 8,089 people,2,438 households, the population density is 851.5 people per square mile. In 2000 there were 2,552 housing units at a density of 267.9 per square mile
6.
United States Census Bureau
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The United States Census Bureau is a principal agency of the U. S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureaus primary mission is conducting the U. S. Census every ten years, in addition to the decennial census, the Census Bureau continually conducts dozens of other censuses and surveys, including the American Community Survey, the U. S. Economic Census, and the Current Population Survey, furthermore, economic and foreign trade indicators released by the federal government typically contain data produced by the Census Bureau. The Bureaus various censuses and surveys help allocate over $400 billion in federal funds every year and help states, local communities, the Census Bureau is part of the U. S. Department of Commerce and its director is appointed by the President of the United States. The Census Bureau now conducts a population count every 10 years in years ending with a 0. Between censuses, the Census Bureau makes population estimates and projections, the Census Bureau is mandated with fulfilling these obligations, the collecting of statistics about the nation, its people, and economy. The Census Bureaus legal authority is codified in Title 13 of the United States Code, the Census Bureau also conducts surveys on behalf of various federal government and local government agencies on topics such as employment, crime, health, consumer expenditures, and housing. Within the bureau, these are known as surveys and are conducted perpetually between and during decennial population counts. The Census Bureau also conducts surveys of manufacturing, retail, service. Between 1790 and 1840, the census was taken by marshals of the judicial districts, the Census Act of 1840 established a central office which became known as the Census Office. Several acts followed that revised and authorized new censuses, typically at the 10-year intervals, in 1902, the temporary Census Office was moved under the Department of Interior, and in 1903 it was renamed the Census Bureau under the new Department of Commerce and Labor. The department was intended to consolidate overlapping statistical agencies, but Census Bureau officials were hindered by their role in the department. An act in 1920 changed the date and authorized manufacturing censuses every 2 years, in 1929, a bill was passed mandating the House of Representatives be reapportioned based on the results of the 1930 Census. In 1954, various acts were codified into Title 13 of the US Code, by law, the Census Bureau must count everyone and submit state population totals to the U. S. President by December 31 of any year ending in a zero. States within the Union receive the results in the spring of the following year, the United States Census Bureau defines four statistical regions, with nine divisions. The Census Bureau regions are widely used. for data collection, the Census Bureau definition is pervasive. Title 13 of the U. S. Code establishes penalties for the disclosure of this information, all Census employees must sign an affidavit of non-disclosure prior to employment. The Bureau cannot share responses, addresses or personal information with anyone including United States or foreign government, only after 72 years does the information collected become available to other agencies or the general public
7.
Virginia's 3rd congressional district
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Virginias third congressional district is a United States congressional district in the Commonwealth of Virginia, serving most of the majority-black precincts in the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas. The current representative is Robert C. Scott, the Virginia Legislatures 2012 redistricting was found unconstitutional and replaced with a court-ordered redistricting on January 16,2016 for the 2016 elections. One reason for the redistricting is the racial gerrymandering, in 1788 Virginias 3rd Congressional District consisted of all of modern Virginia including and west of the counties of Carroll, Floyd, Roanoke, Botetourt, Augusta and Rockingham. It also included what is today Pendleton County, West Virginia and this area that is today about 48 counties and 13 independent cities was in 1788 only nine counties. In the 1790 census this area had a population of 66,045, for the 1792 congressional elections the number of congressional districts in Virginia rose from 10 to 19. The only county that remained in the district was Pendleton County. Harrison, Randolph, Hardy, Hampshire, Monongalia and Ohio Counties and this was all of northern West Virginia except the far eastern panhandle area. The new districts 1790 population was 30,145, the 1800 Census lead to another increase in Virginias congressional districts in 1802. The new 3rd district had a population of 38,767 in 1800, for most of the time from the end of the Civil War to 1993, the 3rd District was a relatively compact district centered on Richmond. The districts current configuration dates to 1993, when the Justice Department ordered Virginia to create a majority-minority district, at that time, portions of the old 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th districts were combined to create a new 3rd District. As of 2016, the 3rd district has been ruled unconstitutional, new districts have been drawn leaving Virginia with only one majority-minority district. Virginias congressional districts List of United States congressional districts Martis, Kenneth C, the Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts, Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
8.
Time in the United States
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The time zone boundaries and DST observance are regulated by the Department of Transportation. The clocks run by these services are synchronized with each other as well as with those of other international timekeeping organizations. It is the combination of the zone and daylight saving rules, along with the timekeeping services. The use of solar time became increasingly awkward as railways. American railroads maintained many different time zones during the late 1800s, each train station set its own clock making it difficult to coordinate train schedules and confusing passengers. Time calculation became a problem for people travelling by train. Every city in the United States used a different time standard so there were more than 300 local sun times to choose from, Time zones were therefore a compromise, relaxing the complex geographic dependence while still allowing local time to be approximate with mean solar time. Railroad managers tried to address the problem by establishing 100 railroad time zones, operators of the new railroad lines needed a new time plan that would offer a uniform train schedule for departures and arrivals. Four standard time zones for the continental United States were introduced at noon on November 18,1883, the conference therefore established the Greenwich Meridian as the prime meridian and Greenwich Mean Time as the worlds time standard. The US time-zone system grew from this, in all zones referred back to GMT on the prime meridian. It is, within about 1 second, mean time at 0°. It does not observe daylight saving time and it is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, standard time zones in the United States are currently defined at the federal level by law 15 USC §260. The federal law establishes the transition dates and times at which daylight saving time occurs. As of August 9,2007, the time zones are defined in terms of hourly offsets from UTC. Prior to this they were based upon the solar time at several meridians 15° apart west of Greenwich. Only the full-time zone names listed below are official, abbreviations are by common use conventions, the United States uses nine standard time zones. The Central standard time zone, which comprises roughly the Gulf Coast, Mississippi Valley, the Mountain standard time zone, which comprises roughly the states that include the Rocky Mountains
9.
Eastern Time Zone
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Places that use Eastern Standard Time when observing standard time are 5 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. Eastern Daylight Time, when observing daylight saving time DST is 4 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, in the northern parts of the time zone, on the second Sunday in March, at 2,00 a. m. EST, clocks are advanced to 3,00 a. m. EDT leaving a one-hour gap, on the first Sunday in November, at 2,00 a. m. EDT, clocks are moved back to 1,00 a. m, southern parts of the zone do not observe daylight saving time. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 ruled that daylight saving time would run from the last Sunday of April until the last Sunday in October in the United States, the act was amended to make the first Sunday in April the beginning of daylight saving time as of 1987. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended daylight saving time in the United States beginning in 2007. So local times change at 2,00 a. m. EST to 3,00 a. m. EDT on the second Sunday in March, in Canada, the time changes as it does in the United States. However, a handful of communities unofficially observe Eastern Time because they are part of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area – Phenix City, Smiths Station, Lanett, and Valley. Florida, All of Florida is in the Eastern Time zone except for the portion of the Florida Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River, as the Eastern–Central zone boundary approaches the Gulf of Mexico, it follows the Bay/Gulf county line. Indiana, All of Indiana observes Eastern Time except for six counties in the Chicago metropolitan area. Kentucky, Roughly, the half of the state, including all of metropolitan Louisville, is in the Eastern Time Zone. Historically the entire state observed Central Time, when daylight saving time was first introduced, the Lower Peninsula remained on DST after it formally ended, effectively re-aligning itself into the Eastern Time Zone. The Upper Peninsula continued to observe Central Time until 1972, when all, Tennessee, Most of the eastern third of Tennessee is legally on Eastern Time. Eastern Time is also used somewhat as a de facto official time for all of the United States, since it includes the capital and the largest city. Major professional sports leagues also post all game times in Eastern time, for example, a game time between two teams from Pacific Time Zone will still be posted in Eastern time. Most cable television and national broadcast networks advertise airing times in Eastern time, national broadcast networks generally have two primary feeds, an eastern feed for Eastern and Central time zones, and a tape-delayed western feed for the Pacific Time Zone. The prime time is set on Eastern and Pacific at 8,00 p. m. with the Central time zone stations receiving the eastern feed at 7,00 p. m. local time. Mountain Time Zone stations receive a separate feed at 7,00 p. m. local time, as Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, during the summer months, it has its own feed at 7,00 p. m. local time
10.
Coordinated Universal Time
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Coordinated Universal Time, abbreviated to UTC, is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean time at 0° longitude. It is one of closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, the first Coordinated Universal Time was informally adopted on 1 January 1960. This change also adopted leap seconds to simplify future adjustments, a number of proposals have been made to replace UTC with a new system that would eliminate leap seconds, but no consensus has yet been reached. Leap seconds are inserted as necessary to keep UTC within 0.9 seconds of universal time, see the Current number of leap seconds section for the number of leap seconds inserted to date. The official abbreviation for Coordinated Universal Time is UTC and this abbreviation arose from a desire by the International Telecommunication Union and the International Astronomical Union to use the same abbreviation in all languages. English speakers originally proposed CUT, while French speakers proposed TUC, the compromise that emerged was UTC, which conforms to the pattern for the abbreviations of the variants of Universal Time. Time zones around the world are expressed using positive or negative offsets from UTC, the westernmost time zone uses UTC−12, being twelve hours behind UTC, the easternmost time zone, theoretically, uses UTC+12, being twelve hours ahead of UTC. In 1995, the nation of Kiribati moved those of its atolls in the Line Islands from UTC-10 to UTC+14 so that the country would all be on the same day. UTC is used in internet and World Wide Web standards. The Network Time Protocol, designed to synchronise the clocks of computers over the internet, computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC as it is more specific than GMT. If only limited precision is needed, clients can obtain the current UTC from a number of official internet UTC servers, for sub-microsecond precision, clients can obtain the time from satellite signals. UTC is also the standard used in aviation, e. g. for flight plans. Weather forecasts and maps all use UTC to avoid confusion about time zones, the International Space Station also uses UTC as a time standard. Amateur radio operators often schedule their radio contacts in UTC, because transmissions on some frequencies can be picked up by many time zones, UTC is also used in digital tachographs used on large goods vehicles under EU and AETR rules. UTC divides time into days, hours, minutes and seconds, days are conventionally identified using the Gregorian calendar, but Julian day numbers can also be used. Each day contains 24 hours and each hour contains 60 minutes, the number of seconds in a minute is usually 60, but with an occasional leap second, it may be 61 or 59 instead
11.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
12.
County (United States)
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In the United States, an administrative or political sub-division of a state is a county, which is a region having specific boundaries and usually some level of governmental authority. The term county is used in 48 U. S. states, while Louisiana and Alaska have functionally equivalent subdivisions called parishes, most counties have subdivisions which may include municipalities and unincorporated areas. Others have no divisions, or may serve as a singular consolidated city-county. Some municipalities are in multiple counties, New York City is uniquely partitioned into multiple counties/boroughs, the U. S. federal government uses the term county equivalent to describe non-county administrative or statistical areas that are comparable to counties. Alaskas Unorganized Borough is divided into 11 census areas that are equivalent to counties. As of 2013, the United States has 3,007 counties and 137 county equivalents for a total of 3,144 counties, the number of counties per state ranges from the 3 counties of Delaware to the 254 counties of Texas. Counties have significant governmental functions in all states except Rhode Island and Connecticut, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has removed most government functions from eight of its 14 counties. The county with the largest population, Los Angeles County, counties were among the earliest units of local government established in the Thirteen Colonies that would become the United States. Virginia created the first counties in order to ease the workload in Jamestown. Americas oldest intact county court records can be found at Eastville, Virginia, in Northampton County, maryland established its first county, St. Marys, in 1637, and Massachusetts followed in 1643. When independence came, the framers of the Constitution did not provide for local governments, rather, they left the matter to the states. Subsequently, early state constitutions generally conceptualized county government as an arm of the state, in some states, these powers are partly or mostly devolved to the counties smaller divisions usually called townships, though in New York, New England and Wisconsin they are called towns. The county may or may not be able to override its townships on certain matters, the newest county in the United States is the city and county of Broomfield, Colorado, established in 2001 as a consolidated city-county. The newest county-equivalents are the Alaskan boroughs of Skagway established in 2007, Wrangell established in 2008, there are 40 consolidated city-counties in the U. S. Similarly, some of Alaskas boroughs have merged with their principal cities creating unified city-boroughs. Some such consolidations and mergers have created cities that rank among the geographically largest cities in the world, see also, #County names, regarding Louisiana. Independent cities, These are cities that legally belong to no county, Washington, D. C. outside the jurisdiction of any state, has a special status. The city of Washington comprises the entirety of the District of Columbia, when founded in 1801, the District consisted of two counties and three cities. In 1846, Alexandria County – including the then–City of Alexandria – was given back to Virginia, in 1871, the three remaining entities – the City of Washington, Georgetown City, and Washington County – were merged into a consolidated government by an act of Congress
13.
Hampton Roads
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Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in Virginia and the surrounding metropolitan region in Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina, United States. The body of known as Hampton Roads is one of the worlds largest natural harbors. It incorporates the mouths of the Elizabeth River, Nansemond River, the land area includes a collection of cities, counties and towns on the Virginia Peninsula and in South Hampton Roads. Some of the areas further from the harbor may or may not be included as part of Hampton Roads. The Combined Statistical Area includes four counties in North Carolina, pushing the regional population to over 1.8 million residents. The area is steeped in 400 years of American history, with hundreds of historical sites, the harbor was the key to Hampton Roads growth, both on land and in water-related activities and events. While the harbor and its tributaries were important transportation conduits, at the time they presented obstacles to land-based commerce. Creating and maintaining adequate infrastructure has long been a major challenge, the term Hampton Roads is a centuries-old designation that originated when the region was a struggling English outpost nearly four hundred years ago. The origin of the two words is noteworthy, the word Hampton honors one of the founders of the Virginia Company of London and a great supporter of the colonization of Virginia, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. The early administrative center of the new colony was known as Elizabeth Cittie, named for Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of King James I, the town at the center of Elizabeth Cittie became known as Hampton, and a nearby waterway was designated Hampton Creek. Other references to the Earl include the area to the north across the bay became known as Northampton. As with Hampton, both of these remain in use today. The term Roads indicates the safety of a port, as applied to a body of water, examples of other roadsteads are Castle Roads, in another of the Virginia Companys settlements, Bermuda, and Lahaina Roads, in Hawaii. In 1755, the Virginia General Assembly recorded the name Hampton Roads as the channel linking the James, Elizabeth, and Nansemond rivers with the Chesapeake Bay. Hampton Roads has become known as the worlds largest natural harbor, the U. S. Postal Service changed the areas postmark from Tidewater Virginia to Hampton Roads, Virginia beginning in 1983. While the borders of what locals call Hampton Roads may not perfectly align with the definition of the MSA, Virginia Beach–Norfolk–Newport News, VA–NC MSA is a U. S. According to the 2010 Census, its population is 1,676,822, since a state constitutional change in 1871, all cities in Virginia are independent cities and they are not legally located in a county. The OMB considers these independent cities to be county-equivalents for the purpose of defining MSAs in Virginia, each MSA is listed by its counties, then cities, in alphabetical order and not by size
14.
U.S. state
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A U. S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States of America. There are 50 states, which are together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a geographic territory. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders. States range in population from just under 600,000 to over 39 million, four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, State governments are allocated power by the people through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in principles, and each provides for a government. States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a debate over states rights, which concerns the extent and nature of the states powers and sovereignty in relation to the federal government. States and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a legislature consisting of the Senate. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, and is guaranteed at least one Representative in the House, members of the House are elected from single-member districts. Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census, the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50, alaska and Hawaii are the most recent states admitted, both in 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of states have the power to secede from the Union. Shortly after the Civil War, the U. S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, as a result, while the governments of the various states share many similar features, they often vary greatly with regard to form and substance
15.
English Channel
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The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is the body of water that separates southern England from northern France, and links the southern part of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 560 km long and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 33.3 km in the Strait of Dover and it is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as follows, a line joining Isle Vierge to Lands End. The southwestern limit of the North Sea, the IHO defines the southwestern limit of the North Sea as a line joining the Walde Lighthouse and Leathercoat Point. The Walde Lighthouse is 6 km east of Calais, and Leathercoat Point is at the end of St Margarets Bay. The Strait of Dover, at the Channels eastern end, is its narrowest point and it is relatively shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part, reducing to a depth of about 45 m between Dover and Calais. Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m in the Broad Fourteens where it lies over the watershed of the land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries. It reaches a depth of 180 m in the submerged valley of Hurds Deep,48 km west-northwest of Guernsey. The eastern region along the French coast between Cherbourg and the mouth of the Seine river at Le Havre is frequently referred to as the Bay of the Seine. There are several islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off the English coast. The coastline, particularly on the French shore, is indented, several small islands close to the coastline, including Chausey. The Cotentin Peninsula in France juts out into the Channel, whilst on the English side there is a parallel channel known as the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel, the time difference of about six hours between high water at the eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance. It was never defined as a border and the names were more or less descriptive. It was not considered as the property of a nation, strangely, before the development of the modern nations, British scholars very often referred to it as Gaulish and the French one as British or English. The name English Channel has been used since the early 18th century. In modern Dutch, however, it is known as Het Kanaal, later, it has also been known as the British Channel or the British Sea having been called the Oceanus Britannicus by the 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy. The same name is used on an Italian map of about 1450, the Anglo-Saxon texts often call it Sūð-sǣ as opposed to Norð-sǣ
16.
2010 United States Census
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The 2010 United States Census, is the twenty-third and currently most recent United States national census. National Census Day, the day used for the census, was April 1,2010. As part of a drive to increase the accuracy,635,000 temporary enumerators were hired. The population of the United States was counted as 308,745,538, as required by the United States Constitution, the U. S. census has been conducted every 10 years since 1790. The 2000 U. S. Census was the previous census completed, participation in the U. S. Census is required by law in Title 13 of the United States Code. On January 25,2010, Census Bureau Director Robert Groves personally inaugurated the 2010 Census enumeration by counting World War II veteran Clifton Jackson, more than 120 million census forms were delivered by the U. S. Post Office beginning March 15,2010, the number of forms mailed out or hand-delivered by the Census Bureau was approximately 134 million on April 1,2010. The 2010 Census national mail participation rate was 74%, from April through July 2010, census takers visited households that did not return a form, an operation called non-response follow-up. In December 2010, the Census Bureau delivered population information to the president for apportionment, personally identifiable information will be available in 2082. The Census Bureau did not use a form for the 2010 Census. In several previous censuses, one in six households received this long form, the 2010 Census used only a short form asking ten basic questions, How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1,2010. Were there any additional people staying here on April 1,2010 that you did not include in Question 1, mark all that apply, Is this house, apartment, or mobile home – What is your telephone number. What is Person 1s age and Person 1s date of birth, is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin. Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else, the form included space to repeat some or all of these questions for up to twelve residents total. In contrast to the 2000 census, an Internet response option was not offered, detailed socioeconomic information collected during past censuses will continue to be collected through the American Community Survey. The survey provides data about communities in the United States on a 1-year or 3-year cycle, depending on the size of the community, rather than once every 10 years. A small percentage of the population on a basis will receive the survey each year. In June 2009, the U. S. Census Bureau announced that it would count same-sex married couples, however, the final form did not contain a separate same-sex married couple option
17.
Virginia Beach, Virginia
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Virginia Beach is an independent city located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 437,994, in 2015, the population was estimated to be 452,745. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city in Virginia, despite being larger, Virginia Beach is generally considered to be a suburb of Norfolk. Located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia Beach is a resort city with miles of beaches and hundreds of hotels, motels, and restaurants along its oceanfront. Every year the city hosts the East Coast Surfing Championships as well as the North American Sand Soccer Championship, a beach soccer tournament. Near the point where the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet, Cape Henry was the site of the first landing of the English colonists, the city is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the longest pleasure beach in the world. It is located at the end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. The Chesepian were the indigenous people of the area now known as Tidewater in Virginia at the time of European encounter. Little is known about them but archeological evidence suggests they may have related to the Carolina Algonquian. They would have one of the Algonquian languages. These were common among the tribes of the coastal area. The Chesepian occupied an area which is now defined as the independent cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and they named it Cape Henry, after Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King James I of England. They created their first permanent settlement on the side of the James River at Jamestown. Adam Thoroughgood of Kings Lynn, Norfolk, England is one of the earliest Englishmen to settle in this area, at the age of 18, he had contracted as an indentured servant to pay for passage to the Virginia Colony in the hopes of bettering his life. He earned his freedom after several years and became a citizen of the area. In 1629, he was elected to the House of Burgesses for Elizabeth Cittie, in 1634, the Colony was divided into the original eight shires of Virginia, soon renamed as counties. Thoroughgood is credited using the name of his home in England when helping name New Norfolk County in 1637. The following year, New Norfolk County was split into Upper Norfolk County, Thoroughgood resided after 1634 was along the Lynnhaven River, named for his home in England
18.
Norfolk, Virginia
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Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. At the 2010 census, the population was 242,803, in 2015, Norfolk is located at the core of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, named for the large natural harbor of the same name located at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. It is one of nine cities and seven counties that constitute the Hampton Roads metro area, officially known as the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, the city is bordered to the west by the Elizabeth River and to the north by the Chesapeake Bay. It also shares borders with the independent cities of Chesapeake to its south. Norfolk is one of the oldest cities in Hampton Roads, and is considered to be the historic, urban, financial, the city has a long history as a strategic military and transportation point. The largest Navy base in the world, Naval Station Norfolk, is located in Norfolk along with one of NATOs two Strategic Command headquarters. As the city is bordered by multiple bodies of water, Norfolk has many miles of riverfront and bayfront property, including beaches on the Chesapeake Bay. It is linked to its neighbors by a network of Interstate highways, bridges, tunnels. In 1619, the Governor of the Virginia Colony, Sir George Yeardley incorporated four jurisdictions, termed citties and these formed the basis for colonial representative government in the newly minted House of Burgesses. What would become Norfolk was put under the Elizabeth Cittie incorporation, in 1634 King Charles I reorganized the colony into a system of shires. The former Elizabeth Cittie became Elizabeth City Shire, after persuading 105 people to settle in the colony, Adam Thoroughgood was granted a large land holding, through the head rights system, along the Lynnhaven River in 1636. When the South Hampton Roads portion of the shire was separated, one year later, it was split into two counties, Upper Norfolk and Lower Norfolk, chiefly on Thoroughgoods recommendation. This area of Virginia became known as the place of entrepreneurs, the House of Burgesses established the Towne of Lower Norfolk County in 1680. In 1691, a final county subdivision took place when Lower Norfolk County split to form Norfolk County, in 1730, a tobacco inspection site was located here. By 1775, Norfolk developed into what contemporary observers argued was the most prosperous city in Virginia and it was an important port for exporting goods to the British Isles and beyond. In part because of its merchants numerous trading ties with other parts of the British Empire, after fleeing the colonial capital of Williamsburg, Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, tried to reestablish control of the colony from Norfolk. Dunmore secured small victories at Norfolk but was forced into exile by the American rebels and his departure brought an end to more than 168 years of British colonial rule in Virginia. On New Years Day,1776, Lord Dunmores fleet of three ships shelled the city of Norfolk for more than eight hours, the damage from the shells and fires started by the British and spread by the patriots destroyed over 800 buildings, almost two-thirds of the city
19.
Newport News, Virginia
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Newport News is an independent city located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 180,719, in 2013, the population was estimated to be 183,412, making it the fifth-most populous city in Virginia. Newport News is included in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, the area now known as Newport News was once a part of Warwick County. Warwick County was one of the eight original shires of Virginia, formed by the House of Burgesses in the British Colony of Virginia by order of King Charles I, the county was largely composed of farms and undeveloped land until almost 250 years later. In 1881,15 years of development began under the leadership of Collis P. With the new railroad came a terminal and coal piers where the colliers were loaded, within a few years, Huntington and his associates also built a large shipyard. In 1896, the new incorporated town of Newport News, which had briefly replaced Denbigh as the county seat of Warwick County, had a population of 9,000. In 1958, by mutual consent by referendum, Newport News was consolidated with the former Warwick County, the more widely known name of Newport News was selected as they formed what was then Virginias third largest independent city in population. The location on the harbor and along the James River facilitates a large boating industry which can take advantage of its miles of waterfront. Newport News also serves as a junction between the rails and the sea with the Newport News Marine Terminals located at the East End of the city. Served by major east-west Interstate Highway 64, it is linked to others of the cities of Hampton Roads by the circumferential Hampton Roads Beltway, part of the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport is in the city limits. The original area near the mouth of the James River was first referred to as Newportes Newes as early as 1621, the source of the name Newport News is not known with certainty. Several versions are recorded, and it is the subject of popular speculation locally, the new governor ordered them to turn around, and return to Jamestown. Under this theory, the community was named for Newports good news, another possibility is that the community may have derived its name from an old English word news meaning new town. At least one source claims that the New arose from the settlements being rebuilt after a fire. Another source gave the name as New Port Newce, named for a person with the name Newce. The namesake, Sir William Newce, was an English soldier, there he had established Newcestown near Bandon, County Cork. He sailed to Virginia with Sir Francis Wyatt in October 1621 and was granted 2,500 acres of land and his brother, Capt. Thomas Newce, was given 600 acres at Kequatan, now called Elizabeth Cittie
20.
North Carolina
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North Carolina is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west, Virginia to the north, North Carolina is the 28th most extensive and the 9th most populous of the U. S. states. The state is divided into 100 counties, the most populous municipality is Charlotte, which is the second largest banking center in the United States after New York City. The state has a range of elevations, from sea level on the coast to 6,684 feet at Mount Mitchell. The climate of the plains is strongly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the falls in the humid subtropical climate zone. More than 300 miles from the coast, the western, mountainous part of the state has a highland climate. North Carolina is bordered by South Carolina on the south, Georgia on the southwest, Tennessee on the west, Virginia on the north, the United States Census Bureau places North Carolina in the South Atlantic division of the southern region. So many ships have been lost off Cape Hatteras that the area is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, the most famous of these is the Queen Annes Revenge, which went aground in Beaufort Inlet in 1718. The coastal plain transitions to the Piedmont region along the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, the Piedmont region of central North Carolina is the states most populous region, containing the six largest cities in the state by population. It consists of rolling countryside frequently broken by hills or low mountain ridges. The Piedmont ranges from about 300 feet in elevation in the east to about 1,500 feet in the west, the western section of the state is part of the Appalachian Mountain range. Among the subranges of the Appalachians located in the state are the Great Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains, the Black Mountains are the highest in the eastern United States, and culminate in Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet, the highest point east of the Mississippi River. North Carolina has 17 major river basins, the five basins west of the Blue Ridge Mountains flow to the Gulf of Mexico, while the remainder flow to the Atlantic Ocean. Of the 17 basins,11 originate within the state of North Carolina, but only four are contained entirely within the states border – the Cape Fear, the Neuse, the White Oak, and the Tar-Pamlico basin. Elevation above sea level is most responsible for temperature change across the state, the climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream, especially in the coastal plain. These influences tend to cause warmer winter temperatures along the coast, the coastal plain averages around 1 inch of snow or ice annually, and in many years, there may be no snow or ice at all. North Carolina experiences severe weather in summer and winter, with summer bringing threat of hurricanes, tropical storms, heavy rain
21.
Old Isle of Wight Courthouse
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The Old Isle of Wight Courthouse was built in 1750-51 and was used as the main courthouse for Isle of Wight County, Virginia until a new courthouse was built at Isle of Wight, Virginia in 1800. It is located in the Historic District in the town of Smithfield, during its 50 years of use as the county courthouse, it was considered the center of life in Isle of Wight and in the town of Smithfield, which was incorporated in 1752. It was constructed by William Rand, and featured a distinctive semi-circular apse and conical roof found in many English churches of the period and echoing the Colonial Capitol in Williamsburg. An adjacent clerks office was constructed in 1799, although it was only in use for its purpose for a year. The old Smithfield courthouse was later modified into a family residence, to do so, the arcade was blocked and the roof converted to a gable. The courthouse and clerks office were acquired by Preservation Virginia in 1938, the building is one of four remaining examples of arcaded colonial courthouses. In 2013, ownership passed from Preservation Virginia to the non-profit Historic Smithfield
22.
William Rand Tavern
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William Rand Tavern, also known as Rectory of the Christ Episcopal Church, Sykes Inn, and Smithfield Inn, is a historic inn and tavern located at Smithfield, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. It was built about 1752, and is a two-story, five bay, Georgian style brick and it has a standing-seam metal hipped roof with parged brick chimneys at the building ends. A rear addition was built in 1922-1923 and it opened as a tavern in 1759, and operated as such until 1854, when the Vestry of Christ Church purchased it. The church sold the property in 1892, and it resumed use as an inn in 1922 and it is now operated as a bed and breakfast. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 and it is located in the Smithfield Historic District
23.
Boykin's Tavern
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Boykins Tavern is a historic inn and tavern located at Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. The original structure was built about 1790, and expanded to two stories with a 1 1/2-story gambrel-roofed wing in the early 19th century, a two-story wing and two-story porch were added in 1900-1902. It has four brick external end chimneys and a standing seam gable roof. The interior reflects the transition between the Colonial and Federal styles and it is the only surviving structure associated with the Isle of Wight Courthouse of 1800. The building is occupied by a history museum. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974
24.
Jamestown, Virginia
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The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. William Kelso writes that Jamestown is where the British Empire began, Jamestown was established by the Virginia Company of London as James Fort on May 4,1607, and was considered permanent after brief abandonment in 1610. It followed several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke, Jamestown served as the capital of the colony of Virginia for 83 years, from 1616 until 1699. The settlement was located within the country of Tsenacommacah, which was ruled by the Powhatan Confederacy, the natives initially welcomed and provided crucial provisions and support for the colonists, who were not agriculturally inclined. Relations with the newcomers soured fairly early on, leading to the annihilation of the Paspahegh in warfare within 3 years. Mortality at Jamestown itself was very high due to disease and starvation, the Second Supply also brought the first two European women to the settlement. They most likely worked in the fields as indentured servants. The modern conception of slavery in the future United States was formalized in 1640 and was entrenched in Virginia by 1660. In 1676, the town was burned during Bacons Rebellion. In 1699, the capital was relocated from Jamestown to what is today Williamsburg, after which Jamestown ceased to exist as a settlement, existing today only as an archaeological site. Today, Jamestown is one of three locations comprising the Historic Triangle of Colonial Virginia, along with Williamsburg and Yorktown, with two primary heritage sites, Historic Jamestowne, the archaeological site on Jamestown Island, is a cooperative effort by Jamestown National Historic Site and Preservation Virginia. Jamestown Settlement, a living history site, is operated by the Jamestown Yorktown Foundation. Spain, Portugal, and France moved quickly to establish a presence in the New World, the English did not attempt to found colonies until many decades after the explorations of John Cabot, and early efforts were failures—most notably the Roanoke Colony which vanished about 1590. Late in 1606, English entrepreneurs set sail with a charter from the London Company to establish a colony in the New World, the fleet consisted of the ships Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed, all under the leadership of Captain Christopher Newport. They made a long voyage of four months, including a stop in Puerto Rico. The expedition made landfall on April 26,1607 at a place which they named Cape Henry, Captain Edward Maria Wingfield was elected president of the governing council on April 25,1607. On May 14, he selected a piece of land on a peninsula some 40 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean as a prime location for a fortified settlement. Perhaps the most favorable fact about the location was that it was not inhabited by nearby Virginia Indian tribes, the island was swampy and isolated, and it offered limited space, was plagued by mosquitoes, and afforded only brackish tidal river water unsuitable for drinking
25.
John Smith (explorer)
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Captain John Smith, Admiral of New England, was an English soldier, explorer, and author. He was knighted for his services to Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania and he was considered to have played an important part in the establishment of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony between September 1608 and August 1609, and led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and he was the first English explorer to map the Chesapeake Bay area and New England. His books and maps were important in encouraging and supporting English colonization of the New World and he gave the name New England to the region and noted, Here every man may be master and owner of his owne labour and land. If he have nothing but his hands, he may. by industries quickly grow rich, when Jamestown was Englands first permanent settlement in the New World, Smith trained the settlers to farm and work, thus saving the colony from early devastation. He publicly stated He that will not work, shall not eat, quoting from the Bible, harsh weather, lack of water, living in a swampy wilderness and attacks from the Powhatan Indians almost destroyed the colony. The Jamestown settlement survived and so did Smith, but he had to return to England after being injured by an explosion of gunpowder in a boat. John Smith was baptized on 6 January 1580 at Willoughby near Alford, Lincolnshire and he claimed descent from the ancient Smith family of Cuerdley, Lancashire, and was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth from 1592–1595. After his father died, Smith left home at the age of sixteen and he served as a mercenary in the army of Henry IV of France against the Spaniards, fighting for Dutch independence from Spanish King Phillip II. He then set off for the Mediterranean, there he engaged in both trade and piracy, and later fought against the Ottoman Turks in the Long Turkish War. Smith was promoted to a captain while fighting for the Austrian Habsburgs in Hungary in the campaign of Michael the Brave in 1600 and 1601. After the death of Michael the Brave, he fought for Radu Șerban in Wallachia against Ottoman vassal Ieremia Movilă, however, in 1602, he was wounded in a skirmish with the Tartars, captured, and sold as a slave. As Smith describes it, we all sold for slaves, like beasts in a market, Smith claimed that his master, a Turkish nobleman, sent him as a gift to his Greek mistress in Constantinople, who fell in love with Smith. In 1606, Smith became involved with the Virginia Company of Londons plan to colonize Virginia for profit, it had granted a charter by King James. The expedition set sail in three ships, the Discovery, the Susan Constant, and the Godspeed, on 20 December 1606. His page was a 12-year-old boy named Samuel Collier, during the voyage, Smith was charged with mutiny, and Captain Christopher Newport had planned to execute him. The English arrived at Jamestown in April 1607 and, by the summer of that year, the search for a suitable site ended on 14 May 1607 when Captain Edward Maria Wingfield, president of the council, chose the Jamestown site as the location for the colony. After the four-month ocean trip, their stores were sufficient only for each to have a cup or two of grain-meal per day
26.
James River
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The James River is a river in the U. S. state of Virginia. It is 348 miles long, extending to 444 miles if one includes the Jackson River, the James River drains a catchment comprising 10,432 square miles. The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million people and it is the 12th longest river in the United States that remains entirely within a single state. Tidal waters extend west to Richmond, the capital of Virginia, larger tributaries draining to the tidal portion include the Appomattox River, Chickahominy River, Warwick River, Pagan River, and the Nansemond River. At its mouth near Newport News Point, the Elizabeth River, many boats pass through this river to import and export Virginia products. The navigable portion of the river was the highway of the Colony of Virginia during its first 15 years, facilitating supply ships delivering supplies. However, for the first five years, despite many hopes of gold and riches, in 1612, businessman John Rolfe successfully cultivated a non-native strain of tobacco which proved popular in England. Soon, the became the primary means of exporting the large hogsheads of this cash crop from an ever-growing number of plantations with wharfs along its banks. This development made the efforts of the Virginia Company of London successful financially, spurring even more development, investments. The upper reaches of the river above the head of navigation at the line were explored by fur trading parties sent by Abraham Wood during the late 17th century. Although ocean-going ships were unable to navigate beyond present-day Richmond, portage of products, produce from the Piedmont and Great Valley regions traveled down the river to seaports at Richmond and Manchester through such port towns as Lynchburg, Scottsville, Columbia and Buchanan. The James River was considered as a route for transport of produce from the Ohio Valley, the James River and Kanawha Canal was built for this purpose, to provide a navigable portion of the Kanawha River, a tributary of the Ohio River. For the most mountainous section between the two points, the James River and Kanawha Turnpike was built to provide a link via wagons. However, before the canal could be completed, in the mid-19th century, railroads emerged as a more practical technology. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was completed between Richmond and the Ohio River at the new city of Huntington, West Virginia by 1873, dooming the canals economic prospects. In the 1880s, the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad was laid along the portion of the canals towpath. In modern times, this line is used primarily in transporting West Virginia coal to export coal piers at Newport News. The James River contains numerous parks and other recreational attractions, canoeing, fishing, kayaking, hiking, and swimming are some of the activities that people enjoy along the river during the summer
27.
Native Americans in the United States
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In the United States, Native Americans are people descended from the Pre-Columbian indigenous population of the land within the countrys modern boundaries. These peoples were composed of distinct tribes, bands, and ethnic groups. Most Native American groups had historically preserved their histories by oral traditions and artwork, at the time of first contact, the indigenous cultures were quite different from those of the proto-industrial and mostly Christian immigrants. Some of the Northeastern and Southwestern cultures in particular were matrilineal, the majority of Indigenous American tribes maintained their hunting grounds and agricultural lands for use of the entire tribe. Europeans at that time had patriarchal cultures and had developed concepts of property rights with respect to land that were extremely different. Assimilation became a consistent policy through American administrations, during the 19th century, the ideology of manifest destiny became integral to the American nationalist movement. Expansion of European-American populations to the west after the American Revolution resulted in increasing pressure on Native American lands and this resulted in the ethnic cleansing of many tribes, with the brutal, forced marches coming to be known as The Trail of Tears. As American expansion reached into the West, settler and miner migrants came into increasing conflict with the Great Basin, Great Plains and these were complex nomadic cultures based on horse culture and seasonal bison hunting. Over time, the United States forced a series of treaties and land cessions by the tribes, in 1924, Native Americans who were not already U. S. citizens were granted citizenship by Congress. Contemporary Native Americans have a relationship with the United States because they may be members of nations, tribes. The terms used to refer to Native Americans have at times been controversial, by comparison, the indigenous peoples of Canada are generally known as First Nations. It is not definitively known how or when the Native Americans first settled the Americas and these early inhabitants, called Paleoamericans, soon diversified into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes. The archaeological periods used are the classifications of archaeological periods and cultures established in Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips 1958 book Method and they divided the archaeological record in the Americas into five phases, see Archaeology of the Americas. The Clovis culture, a hunting culture, is primarily identified by use of fluted spear points. Artifacts from this culture were first excavated in 1932 near Clovis, the Clovis culture ranged over much of North America and also appeared in South America. The culture is identified by the distinctive Clovis point, a flaked flint spear-point with a notched flute, dating of Clovis materials has been by association with animal bones and by the use of carbon dating methods. Recent reexaminations of Clovis materials using improved carbon-dating methods produced results of 11,050 and 10,800 radiocarbon years B. P, other tribes have stories that recount migrations across long tracts of land and a great river, believed to be the Mississippi River. Genetic and linguistic data connect the people of this continent with ancient northeast Asians
28.
Powhatan
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The Powhatan are a Native American people in Virginia. It may also refer to a leader of those tribes. It is estimated there were about 14, 000–21,000 Powhatan people in eastern Virginia when the English settled Jamestown in 1607. They were also known as Virginia Algonquians, as they spoke a language known as Powhatan or Virginia Algonquian. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a mamanatowick named Wahunsunacawh, created an organization by affiliating 30 tributary peoples. Wahunsunacawh came to be known by the English as Powhatan, each of the tribes within this organization had its own weroance, but all paid tribute to Powhatan. After Powhatans death in 1618, hostilities with colonists escalated under the chiefdom of his brother, Opechancanough and his large-scale attacks in 1622 and 1644 met strong reprisals by the English, resulting in the near elimination of the tribe. By 1646, what is called the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom by modern historians had been decimated, the Native Americans did not have any immunity to these, which had been endemic in Europe and Asia for centuries. The wholesale deaths greatly weakened and hollowed out the Native American societies, by the mid-17th century, the leaders of the colony were desperate for labor to develop the land. Almost half of the English and European immigrants arrived as indentured servants, as settlement continued, the colonists imported growing numbers of enslaved Africans for labor. By 1700, the colonies had about 6,000 black slaves and it was common for black slaves to escape and join the surrounding Powhatan, some white servants were also noted to have joined the Indians. Africans and whites worked and lived together, some also intermarried with them. After Bacons Rebellion in 1676, the colony enslaved Indians for control, in 1691, the House of Burgesses abolished Indian slavery, however, many Powhatan were held in servitude well into the 18th century. In the 21st century, eight Indian tribes are recognized by Virginia as having ancestral ties to the Powhatan confederation. The Pamunkey and Mattaponi are the two peoples who have retained reservation lands from the 17th century. The Powhatan Renape Nation has been recognized by the state of New Jersey, the competing cultures of the Powhatan and English settlers were united through unions and marriages of members, of which the most well known was that of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. Their son Thomas Rolfe was the ancestor of many Virginians, many of the First Families of Virginia have both English and Virginia Indian ancestry, the name Powhatan is the name of the native village or town of Wahunsunacawh. The title Chief or King Powhatan, used by the English is believed to have derived from the name of this site
29.
Indian massacre of 1622
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The Indian Massacre of 1622 took place in the English Colony of Virginia, in what now belongs to the United States, on Friday,22 March 1622. The Powhatan grabbed any tools or weapons available and killed all English settlers they found, Chief Opechancanough led a coordinated series of surprise attacks by the Powhatan Confederacy that killed 347 people, a quarter of the English population of Jamestown. Jamestown, founded in 1607, was the site of the first successful English settlement in North America and its tobacco economy led to constant expansion and seizure of Powhatan lands, which ultimately provoked a violent reaction. Although Jamestown was spared due to a timely warning, the Powhatan also attacked and destroyed many smaller settlements along the James River. In addition to killing settlers, the Powhatan burned houses and crops, the English abandoned many of the smaller settlements after the attacks. At first, the natives were glad to trade provisions to the colonists for metal tools and this earned the colonists a bad reputation among the Native Americans and precipitated conflict. They isolated the Native Americans, burned houses, and stole their food supplies. The English violence alienated the natives further and they laid siege to the Jamestown fort for several months, unable to secure more food supplies, many colonists died during the starving time in 1609–10. The London Companys primary concern was the survival of the colony, in Englands best interest, the colonists would have to maintain civil relations with the Powhatan. The Powhatan and the English realized that they could benefit from each other through trade once peace was restored. In exchange for food, the chief asked the colonists to provide him with metal hatchets, the English wanted more, they wanted control over the land. When Gates arrived at Jamestown in 1610, he decided to evacuate the settlement because he thought the plan was not feasible. As the colonists were about to leave the Bay and head out into the open sea, taking command as governor, de la Warre ordered the fort reoccupied. He plotted conquest of the surrounding tribes, in July 1610 he sent Gates against the Kecoughtan. “Gates lured the Indians into the open by means of music-and-dance act by his drummer and this was the First Anglo-Powhatan War. The English, led by Samuel Argall captured Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, “English demanded that all Powhatan captives be released, return all English weapons taken by his warriors, and agree upon a lasting peace”. It was while Pocahontas was held by the English that she met John Rolfe, while in captivity, Pocahontas was taught the English language, manners and religion. She was baptized as a Christian and took the name Rebecca
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Plantations in the American South
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A plantation is an area of land or water where one crop is specifically planted for widespread commercial sale. The crops grown include cotton, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar cane, sisal, oil seeds, oil palms, rubber trees, protectionist policies and natural comparative advantage have sometimes contributed to determining where plantations were located. Among the earliest examples of plantations were the latifundia of the Roman Empire, Plantation agriculture grew rapidly with the increase in international trade and the development of a worldwide economy that followed the expansion of European colonial empires. Like every economic activity, it has changed over time, Industrial plantations are established to produce a high volume of wood in a short period of time. Plantations are grown by state forestry authorities and/or the paper and wood industries, christmas trees are often grown on plantations as well. In southern and southeastern Asia, teak plantations have replaced the natural forest. Industrial plantations are managed for the commercial production of forest products. Individual blocks are usually even-aged and often consist of just one or two species and these species can be exotic or indigenous. Forest genetic resources are the basis for genetic alteration, selected individuals grown in seed orchards are a good source for seeds to develop adequate planting material. Wood production on a plantation is generally higher than that of natural forests. In 2000, while plantations accounted for 5% of global forest, in the first year, the ground is prepared usually by the combination of burning, herbicide spraying, and/or cultivation and then saplings are planted by human crew or by machine. The saplings are usually obtained in bulk from industrial nurseries, which may specialize in breeding in order to produce fast growing disease-. In the first few years until the canopy closes, the saplings are looked after, after the canopy closes, with the tree crowns touching each other, the plantation is becoming dense and crowded, and tree growth is slowing due to competition. This stage is termed pole stage, when competition becomes too intense, it is time to thin out the section. There are several methods for thinning, but where topography permits, the most popular is row-thinning, many trees are removed, leaving regular clear lanes through the section so that the remaining trees have room to expand again. The removed trees are delimbed, forwarded to the forest road, loaded onto trucks, a typical pole stage plantation tree is 7–30 cm in diameter at breast height. Such trees are not suitable for timber, but are used as pulp for paper and particleboard. As the trees grow and become dense and crowded again, the process is repeated
31.
Puritans
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Puritanism in this sense was founded as an activist movement within the Church of England. The founders, clergy exiled under Mary I, returned to England shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, Puritanism played a significant role in English history during the first half of the 17th century. One of the most effective stokers of anti-Catholic feeling was John Pym, Puritans were blocked from changing the established church from within and were severely restricted in England by laws controlling the practice of religion. They took on distinctive beliefs about clerical dress and in opposition to the episcopal system and they largely adopted Sabbatarianism in the 17th century, and were influenced by millennialism. Consequently, they became a political force in England and came to power as a result of the First English Civil War. Almost all Puritan clergy left the Church of England after the Restoration of 1660, the nature of the movement in England changed radically, although it retained its character for a much longer period in New England. Puritans by definition were dissatisfied with the extent of the English Reformation. They formed and identified with various groups advocating greater purity of worship and doctrine, as well as personal. Puritans adopted a Reformed theology and, in sense, were Calvinists. In church polity, some advocated separation from all other established Christian denominations in favor of autonomous gathered churches. The Puritans were never a formally defined sect or religious division within Protestantism, the Congregationalist tradition, widely considered to be a part of the Reformed tradition, claims descent from the Puritans. Historically, the word Puritan was considered a term that characterized Protestant groups as extremists. According to Thomas Fuller in his Church History, the dates to 1564. Archbishop Matthew Parker of that used it and precisian with the sense of the modern stickler. In modern times, the word puritan is often used to mean against pleasure, in this sense, the term Puritan was coined in the 1560s, when it first appeared as a term of abuse for those who found the Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559 inadequate. The term Puritan, therefore, was not intended to refer to strict morality, a common modern misunderstanding, the word Puritan was applied unevenly to a number of Protestant churches from the late 16th century onwards. Puritans did not originally use the term for themselves, the practitioners knew themselves as members of particular churches or movements, and not by a single term. Precise men and Precisians were other early derogatory terms for Puritans, seventeenth century English Puritan preacher Thomas Watson used the godly to describe Puritans in the title of one of his more famous works The Godly Mans Picture
32.
Richard Bennett (Governor)
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Richard Bennett was an English Governor of the Colony of Virginia. Born in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, Bennett served as governor from 30 April 1652 and he was a member of the Governor Francis Wyatts Council in 1639–42. In 1648, he fled to Anne Arundel, Maryland, though little is known about his time as governor, it is believed that he was popular with the colonists. He helped ensure Puritan control over the colony of Maryland, then on 30 March 1655, voluntarily abandoned his office and left for England to see Cromwell. On 30 November 1657, Bennett, having returned to the colonies, signed the treaty with Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, which recognised the latters claim to Maryland. He returned to the governors Council, and also became a major-general, in 1672, George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement, visited the Virginia Puritans in Nansemond and succeeded in converting most of them to his faith, including Bennett. Richard Bennett is thought to be a son of Thomas Bennett, in 1666, Secretary Thomas Ludwell wrote to Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington that Richard Bennett seemed to be of the same family, sharing the same coat of arms. By 1642, Richard Bennett married Mary Ann Longworth, their children were and her second marriage was to Col. St. Leger Codd, and they had one son, also named St. Leger Codd
33.
Colony of Virginia
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The Colony of Virginia was the first permanently settled English colony in North America. Newfoundland, with settlements, had been established as a colony by Royal Charter in 1583. American archaeologist William Kelso says Virginia is where the British Empire began and this was the first colony in the British Empire. The colony existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the American Revolution, the name Virginia was first applied by Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth I in 1584. In 1607, members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company founded Jamestown, tobacco became Virginias first profitable export, the production of which had a significant impact on the society and settlement patterns. In 1624, the Virginia Companys charter was revoked by King James I, from 1619 to 1776, the legislature of the Virginia was the House of Burgesses, which governed in conjunction with a colonial governor. Jamestown remained the capital of the Virginia colony until 1699, from 1699 until its dissolution the capital was in Williamsburg and it experienced its first major political turmoil with Bacons Rebellion of 1676. The name Virginia is the oldest designation for English claims in North America, the latter word may have inspired the Queen to name the colony Virginia, noting her status as the Virgin Queen. in Carolina Algonquian, and was not the name of the country as previously misunderstood. Virginia was originally a term used to refer to North Americas entire eastern coast from the 34th parallel north to 48th parallel and this area included a large section of Canada and the shores of Acadia. In gratitude for Virginians loyalty to the crown during the English Civil War, Charles II gave it the title of Old Dominion, Virginia maintains Old Dominion as its state nickname. Accordingly, the University of Virginias athletic teams use Cavaliers as one of their nicknames, earlier attempts had been made by the Spanish in what is now Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, and by the French in South Carolina. Farther south, the Spanish colony of Spanish Florida, centered on St. Augustine, was established in 1565, while to the north, in 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh sent his first colonization mission to the island of Roanoke. This was the first English settlement, although it did not survive and it was a military research expedition with a very narrow focus. In 1587, Raleigh sent another group to attempt to establish a permanent settlement. The first English child born in the New World was named Virginia Dare, the expedition leader, John White returned to England for supplies that same year, but was unable to return to the colony due to war between England and Spain. When he finally did return in 1590, he found the colony abandoned, the houses were intact, but the colonists had completely disappeared. Although there are a number of theories about the fate of the colony, Dare County was named in honor of the baby Virginia Dare, who was among those whose fate is unknown. The word Croatoan was found carved into a tree, the name of a tribe on a nearby island, following the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, King James I ascended to the throne
34.
Shire
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A shire is a traditional term for a division of land, found in the United Kingdom and some other English speaking countries. It was first used in Wessex from the beginning of Anglo-Saxon settlement, in some rural parts of Australia, a shire is a local government area, however, in Australia it is not synonymous with a county, which is a lands administrative division. The word derives from the Old English scir, itself a derivative of the Proto-Germanic skizo, in Britain, shire is the original term for what is usually known now as a county, the word county having been introduced at the Norman Conquest of England. Although in modern British usage counties are referred to as shires mainly in poetic contexts, Shire also remains a common part of many county names. In regions with so-called rhotic pronunciation such as Scotland, the shire is pronounced /ˈʃaɪr/ or /ˈʃaɪər/. In non-rhotic areas the final R is silent unless the word begins in a vowel. In many words, the vowel is normally reduced all the way to a single schwa, as in for instance Leicestershire /ˈlɛstəʃə/ or Berkshire /ˈbɑːkʃə/. Outside the UK, and especially in the USA, it is common for shire as part of a placename to be pronounced identically to the full word. The system was first used in Wessex from the beginning of Anglo-Saxon settlement, in Domesday the city of York was divided into shires. The first shires of Scotland were created in English-settled areas such as Lothian, King David I more consistently created shires and appointed sheriffs across lowland shores of Scotland. The shire in early days was governed by an Ealdorman and in the later Anglo-Saxon period by royal official known as a reeve or sheriff. The shires were divided into hundreds or wapentakes, although less common sub-divisions existed. An alternative name for a shire was a sheriffdom until sheriff court reforms separated the two concepts, the phrase shire county applies, unofficially, to non-metropolitan counties in England, specifically those that are not local Unitary authority areas. In Scotland the word county was not adopted for the shires, although county appears in some texts, shire was the normal name until counties for statutory purposes were created in the nineteenth century. Shire is the most common word in Australia for rural local government areas, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory use the term Shire for this unit, the territories of Christmas Island and Cocos Island are also shires. In contrast, South Australia uses district and region for its rural LGA units, shires are generally functionally indistinguishable from towns, borough, municipalities, or cities. These counties are named after their county town. The suffix -shire is attached to most of the names of English, Scottish and Welsh counties and it tends not to be found in the names of shires that were pre-existing divisions
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St. Luke's Church (Smithfield, Virginia)
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It is the oldest church in Virginia and oldest church in British North America of brick construction. According to local tradition the structure was built in 1632, but other points to a date of 1682. On October 15,1966, St. Lukes was designated a National Historic Landmark and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its historic and architectural distinction. In 1957 President Dwight D. Eisenhower designated the site a National Shrine in concert with the 350th anniversary of Jamestown, Historic St. Lukes does not receive any federal, state, or municipal funding. All sourcing comes from private corporations, foundations, and individuals, once known as Old Brick Church, St. Other examples of architecture include Bacons Castle in nearby Surry County, Virginia. St. Peters Church in New Kent, Virginia is a later, the plan is that of a single room with a twenty-foot-square tower at the west end. The walls are laid in a rough Flemish bond, the buttresses with sloping set-offs project prominently from three bays of the north and south walls. At both the east and west end of the church are crow-stepped gables, while unadorned turrets, corbelled slightly at their bases, the artisan mannerism style of the building combines several architectural styles without attribution to a specific architect or stylistic movement. This form of provincial American architecture is more builder-driven and designed than architect, the original windows were replaced in the 19th century. Those Victorian windows remain in place today, the stained glass windows above the altar were produced in Germany. The current doors were added in the 1950s, Newport Parish dates from the formation of Warrosquyoake plantation. Unlike the English Gothic church characterized by separate wings containing the nave, aisles and chancel, all Virginia vernacular churches employ this room structure. In the case of Newport Parish, a form of a rood screen. In fact, in this edifice, the oldest Anglican church in the state and they are, Rectangular building General ratio of 2,1 length to width Oriented east-west Main entrance via west door Southeast vestry door Single story sidewall elevation East window. The church itself is 60 1⁄2 feet east-west and 24 1⁄4 feet north-south in the clear, the church is laid in Flemish bond in water tables, walls, and tower. Unlike any other standing Virginia colonial church, there are two water tables each nine bricks high, the transitions from the water tables are accomplished using beveled bricks. There are no glazed headers in the walls that are 36 inches wide at the foundations,26 inches thick in the walls, and 30 inches thick in the tower
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National Historic Landmark
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A National Historic Landmark is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Of over 85,000 places listed on the countrys National Register of Historic Places, a National Historic Landmark District may include contributing properties that are buildings, structures, sites or objects, and it may include non-contributing properties. Contributing properties may or may not also be separately listed, prior to 1935, efforts to preserve cultural heritage of national importance were made by piecemeal efforts of the United States Congress. The first National Historic Site designation was made for the Salem Maritime National Historic Site on March 17,1938. In 1960, the National Park Service took on the administration of the data gathered under this legislation. Because listings often triggered local preservation laws, legislation in 1980 amended the procedures to require owner agreement to the designations. On October 9,1960,92 properties were announced as designated NHLs by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton, more than 2,500 NHLs have been designated. Most, but not all, are in the United States, there are NHLs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Three states account for nearly 25 percent of the nations NHLs, three cities within these states all separately have more NHLs than 40 of the 50 states. In fact, New York City alone has more NHLs than all but five states, Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, there are 74 NHLs in the District of Columbia. Some NHLs are in U. S. commonwealths and territories, associated states, and foreign states. There are 15 in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other U. S. commonwealths and territories,5 in U. S. -associated states such as Micronesia, over 100 ships or shipwrecks have been designated as NHLs. About half of the National Historic Landmarks are privately owned, the National Historic Landmarks Program relies on suggestions for new designations from the National Park Service, which also assists in maintaining the landmarks. A friends group of owners and managers, the National Historic Landmark Stewards Association, works to preserve, protect, if not already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, an NHL is automatically added to the Register upon designation. About three percent of Register listings are NHLs, american Water Landmark List of U. S
37.
Brunswick County, Virginia
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Brunswick County is a United States county located on the Southern border of the Commonwealth of Virginia. This rural county is known as one the claimants to be the namesake of Brunswick stew, Brunswick County was created in 1720, and its lands were taken from parts of Prince George, Surry and Isle of Wight counties. The county was named for the former Duchy of Brunswick-Lunenburg, which was a British possession in the 18th century. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 17,434, the Brunswick county seat is Lawrenceville. The first English settlers in what became Brunswick County swarmed into the protected lands near Fort Christanna during its 4 years of operation. Among them were indentured servants, including men deported from Scotland in 1716 after being convicted by the Crown in the Jacobite Rebellion and they were required to work under indenture to pay the Crown back for their ship passage. Gradually the colonists pushed many of the Native Americans out of the area, an example of such a Scots rebel who started in the colony as a convict was James Pittillo. He survived his indenture and in 1726 was granted 242 acres on Wagua Creek and he gradually became a major landowner in the area. Brunswick County was established in 1720 from Prince George County, the county is named for the former Duchy of Brunswick-Lunenburg in Germany. One of the titles carried by Britains Hanoverian kings was Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburg, in 1732 the county received more land from parts of Surry and Isle of Wight counties. In 1780, during the American Revolutionary War, Greensville County was formed part of Brunswicks eastern side. In 1787 the countys border was finalized with a minor adjustment. Today Brunswick County is bisected by Interstate 85, U. S.1 and U. S. Highway 58, planters originally cultivated the land for tobacco by slave labor in colonial times. As tobacco exhausted the soil and the markets changed, planters and smaller farmers diversified the mostly rural economy by raising mixed crops, as a result of these changes, slaveholders in the Upper South had surplus slaves, many sold them in the domestic slave trade. It fed the development of plantations in the Deep South. Altogether, more than one million enslaved African Americans were sold South in the years in this forced migration. Saint Pauls College, Virginia was established in this county in association with the church, in the early 21st century, the county has a campus of Southside Virginia Community College. The Fort Pickett Army National Guard base is partly in the county, according to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 569 square miles, of which 566 square miles is land and 3.2 square miles is water
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Southampton County, Virginia
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Southampton County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 18,570, during the 17th century, shortly after establishment of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, English settlers explored and began settling the areas adjacent to Hampton Roads. In 1634, the English colony of Virginia was divided into eight shires with a population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants. Most of Southampton County was originally part of Warrosquyoake Shire, the shires were soon to be called counties. Warrosquyoake Shire was renamed Isle of Wight County in 1637, in 1749, the portion of Isle of Wight County west of the Blackwater River became Southampton County. Later, part of Nansemond County, which is now the Independent City of Suffolk, was added to Southampton County, in August 1831, enslaved Nat Turner led a slave rebellion of Black slaves in Southampton County against local Whites. When the rebellion was crushed, Turner and his rebels were executed. In the response to the uprising, white militias and mobs lynched approximately 200 blacks in Southampton County. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 602 square miles. Southampton County is bounded by the Blackwater River on the east, the Nottoway River flows through the center of the county. All three rivers are tributaries of the Chowan River, which flows south into Albemarle Sound, North Carolina, the Blackwater River separates Southampton County from Isle of Wight County, and the Meherrin River separates it from Greensville County. US58 US258 US460 SR35 SR186 SR189 As of the census of 2010, there were 18,570 people,6,279 households, the population density was 29 people per square mile. There were 7,058 housing units at a density of 12 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 60. 4% White,37. 2% Black or African American,0. 3% Native American,0. 2% Asian,0. 0% Pacific Islander,0. 3% from other races, and 1. 4% from two or more races. 1. 1% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,24. 90% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the family size was 3.02. In the county, the population was out with 22. 70% under the age of 18,8. 80% from 18 to 24,29. 20% from 25 to 44,25. 00% from 45 to 64. The median age was 39 years, for every 100 females there were 111.70 males
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American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
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61st Virginia Infantry
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The 61st Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment raised in Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia, the core of what would become the 61st Virginia was organized in Norfolk, Virginia in summer 1861 as the 7th Battalion, Virginia Reserves with eight companies. It served as artillery in the Portsmouth and Norfolk area. However, when cities were evacuated, the unit was transferred to the infantry and merged into the 61st Regiment being formed in Petersburg. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel M. Wilson was placed in command, the men of the 61st Virginia were from Portsmouth, and the counties of Norfolk, Isle of Wight, and Greensville. It was assigned to General Mahones Brigade and which became General Weisingers Brigade, the 61st participated in many battles from Sharpsburg to Cold Harbor, endured the hardships of the Petersburg trenches south of the James River, and ended the war at Appomattox. It reported 1 wounded at Fredericksburg, had 4 killed and 28 wounded at Chancellorsville, the regiment surrendered 10 officers and 107 men. Its field officers were Colonels Virginius D. Groner and Samuel M. Wilson, Lieutenant Colonels William F. Niemeyer and William H. Stewart, company F was known as the Isle of Wight Avengers. The battle flag of the regiment is currently displayed in the center at Appomattox Court House. List of Virginia Civil War units This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government document Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, National Park Service
41.
Confederate States Army
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The Confederate States Army was the military ground force of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. S. Military Academy and colonel of a regiment during the Mexican War. In March 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress established a more permanent Confederate States Army, the better estimates of the number of individual Confederate soldiers are between 750,000 and 1,000,000 men. This does not include a number of slaves who were pressed into performing various tasks for the army, such as construction of fortifications. Since these figures include estimates of the number of individual soldiers who served at any time during the war. These numbers do not include men who served in Confederate naval forces, although most of the soldiers who fought in the American Civil War were volunteers, both sides by 1862 resorted to conscription, primarily as a means to force men to register and to volunteer. In the absence of records, estimates of the percentage of Confederate soldiers who were draftees are about double the 6 percent of Union soldiers who were conscripts. Confederate casualty figures also are incomplete and unreliable, one estimate of Confederate wounded, which is considered incomplete, is 194,026. These numbers do not include men who died from causes such as accidents. Other Confederate forces surrendered between April 16,1865 and June 28,1865, by the end of the war, more than 100,000 Confederate soldiers had deserted. The Confederacys government effectively dissolved when it fled Richmond in April, by the time Abraham Lincoln took office as President of the United States on March 4,1861, the seven seceding slave states had formed the Confederate States. The Confederacy seized federal property, including nearly all U. S. Army forts, Lincoln was determined to hold the forts remaining under U. S. control when he took office, especially Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Under orders from Confederate President Jefferson Davis, C. S. troops under the command of General P. G. T, Beauregard bombarded Fort Sumter on April 12–13,1861, forcing its capitulation on April 14. The Northern states were outraged by the Confederacys attack and demanded war and it rallied behind Lincolns call on April 15, for all the states to send troops to recapture the forts from the secessionists, to put down the rebellion and to preserve the Union intact. Four more slave states joined the Confederacy. The Confederate Congress provided for a Confederate army patterned after the United States Army and it was to consist of a large provisional force to exist only in time of war and a small permanent regular army. Although the two forces were to exist concurrently, very little was done to organize the Confederate regular army, the Provisional Army of the Confederate States began organizing on April 27. Virtually all regular, volunteer, and conscripted men preferred to enter this organization since officers could achieve a rank in the Provisional Army than they could in the Regular Army
42.
Blackwater River (Virginia)
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The Blackwater River of southeastern Virginia flows from its source near the city of Petersburg, Virginia for about 105 miles through the Inner Coastal Plain region of Virginia. The Blackwater joins the Nottoway River to form the Chowan River, the Blackwater-Nottoway confluence forms the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina. The Blackwater River is a blackwater river. Its water is clear, dark, slightly acidic, and tannin stained and its drainage basin contains many swamps. The rivers flood plain is mostly forested and swampy, including bald cypress, the upper Blackwater River is called Blackwater Swamp. In contrast, some of the wetlands are not streams. The Blackwater River was a route in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was one of the few rivers of colonial Virginia that did not empty into Chesapeake Bay yet lay close to the colonys oldest settlements on the James River, Settlements in the Blackwaters drainage basin were founded very early in Virginias history. Todays usual definition of Southside differs somewhat from that of colonial times, the Blackwater River originates in several swamps within, or just south of, the city of Petersburg. It flows southeast through Prince George County, where it is called Blackwater Swamp and it then forms part of the border between Surry County and Sussex County, where its name becomes Blackwater River. It collects tributaries called Warwick Swamp, Otterdam Swamp, Coppahaunk Swamp, in southern Surry County, the Blackwater River turns south and forms the border between Isle of Wight County and Southampton County. It collects tributaries called Terrapin Swamp, Antioch Swamp, Seacock Swamp, Corrowaugh Swamp, the city of Franklin lies on its west bank at the rivers head of navigation. While canoes and other small boats plied the Blackwater upstream of Franklin in colonial times, in the steamboat era, South of Franklin, the Blackwater River forms the border between Southampton County and Suffolk. The boundary between Virginia and North Carolina runs west from the Atlantic Ocean, striking the Blackwater River about a mile north of the confluence with the Nottoway River. From there the line follows the Blackwater River south to the confluence. The Blackwater River is, as its name implies, a blackwater river — its waters are clear, dark, acidic, low in nutrients, several environmental factors cause the blackwater condition. The many forested wetlands along the river include Streamhead Pocosins and Bald Cypress, the Blackwater is known for its pocosins, including the rare type called streamhead pocosin. The only two streamhead pocosins known in Virginia are on the Blackwater River, Bald Cypress and Tupelo Swamps occur along many streams of the Atlantic Coastal Plain
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Swamp
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A swamp is a wetland that is forested. Many swamps occur along rivers where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations. Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes, some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation. The two main types of swamp are true or swamp forests and transitional or shrub swamps, in the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more correctly termed a bog or muskeg. The water of a swamp may be water, brackish water or seawater. Some of the worlds largest swamps are found along rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi. Swamps are characterized by slow-moving to stagnant waters and they are usually associated with adjacent rivers or lakes. Swamps are features of areas with very low topographic relief, historically, humans have drained swamps to provide additional land for agriculture and to reduce the threat of diseases borne by swamp insects and similar animals. Many swamps have also undergone intensive logging, requiring the construction of drainage ditches and these ditches and canals contributed to drainage and, along the coast, allowed salt water to intrude, converting swamps to marsh or even to open water. Large areas of swamp were therefore lost or degraded, louisiana provides a classic example of wetland loss from these combined factors. Europe has probably lost nearly half its wetlands, New Zealand lost 90 percent of its wetlands over a period of 150 years. Ecologists recognise that swamps provide valuable ecological services including flood control, fish production, water purification, carbon storage, in many parts of the world authorities protect swamps. In parts of Europe and North America, swamp restoration projects are becoming widespread, often the simplest steps to restoring swamps involve plugging drainage ditches and removing levees. Swamps and other wetlands have traditionally held a very low property value compared to fields, prairies and they have a reputation for being unproductive land that cannot easily be utilized for human activities, other than perhaps hunting and trapping. Farmers, for example, typically drained swamps next to their fields so as to more land usable for planting crops. Many societies now realize that swamps are important to providing fresh water and oxygen to all life. Indeed, floodplain swamps are important in fish production. Government environmental agencies are taking steps to protect and preserve swamps, in Europe, major effort is being invested in the restoration of swamp forests along rivers
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Pocosin
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Pocosin is a term for a type of palustrine wetland with deep, acidic, sandy, peat soils. Groundwater saturates the soil except during brief seasonal dry spells and during prolonged droughts, Pocosin soils are nutrient-deficient, especially in phosphorus. Pocosins occur in the portions of the Atlantic coastal plain of North America, spanning from southeastern Virginia, through North Carolina. However, the majority of pocosins are found in North Carolina and they occupy poorly drained higher ground between streams and floodplains. There are often perched water tables underlying pocosins, pocosins are sometimes called shrub bogs. Pond pines dominate pocosin forests, but loblolly pine and longleaf pine are also associated with pocosins, additionally, pocosins are home to rare and threatened plant species including Venus flytrap and sweet pitcher plant. Where soil saturation is less frequent and peat depths shallower, pocosins transition into pine flatwoods, a loose definition of pocosin can include all shrub and forest bogs, as well as stands of Atlantic White Cedar and loblolly pine on the Atlantic coastal plain. A stricter definition restricts pocosins to shrubby short pocosins and pond pine-forested tall pocosins, pocosins are formed by the accumulation of organic matter, resembling black muck, that is built up over thousands of years. This accumulation of material causes the area to be highly acidic, the thickness of the organic buildup varies depending on ones location within the pocosin. Near the edges the buildup can be several inches thick but toward the center it can be up to several feet thick, Vegetation on the pocosin varies throughout. At the edges more pond pine is found with an abundance of titi, zenobia, closer to the center thin, stunted trees are typically found however fewer shrubs and vines are present. Pocosins are very important for birds living in cold climates during the winter months, the abundance of various types of available berries draws birds from colder areas. Pond pines exhibit serotiny, such that wildfire can create a pond pine seedbed in the soil, wildfires in pocosins tend to be intense, sometimes burning deep into the peat, resulting in small lakes and ponds. Wildfires occurring about once a decade tend to cause pond pines to dominate over other trees, more frequent fires result in a pyrophytic shrub understory. Annual fires prevent shrub growth and thin the pond pine forest cover, creating a flooded savanna with grass, sedge, the word pocosin comes from an Eastern Algonquian word meaning swamp-on-a-hill, however, a more accurate description of a pocosin would be a “raised bog”. The city of Poquoson, Virginia, located in the plain of Virginia. Detailed Ecological Description of Basin Pocosin Communities Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, rapid Assessment Reference Condition Model, Potential Natural Vegetation Group, Pocosin
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Suffolk, Virginia
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Suffolk is an independent city located in the U. S. state of Virginia. As of the 2014 census, the population was 86,806 It is the largest city in Virginia by area as well as the 14th largest in the country. With miles of waterfront property on the Nansemond and James River, present day Suffolk was formed in 1974 after consolidating with Nansemond County, the current mayor is Linda T. Johnson. Suffolk was founded by English colonists in 1742 as a town on the Nansemond River in the Virginia Colony. Originally known as Constants Warehouse, for John Constant, Suffolk was renamed after Royal Governor William Goochs home of Suffolk, before European contact, indigenous American tribes lived in the region for thousands of years. At the time of English settlement, the Nansemond Indians lived along the river, in the early colonial years, the English cultivated tobacco as a commodity crop, but later turned to mixed farming. It became the county seat of Nansemond County in 1750, early in its history, Suffolk became a land transportation gateway to the areas east of it in South Hampton Roads. Other railroads and later major highways followed after the war, Suffolk became an incorporated town in 1808. In 1910, it incorporated as a city and separated from Nansemond County, however, it remained the seat of Nansemond County until 1972, when its former county became the independent city of Nansemond. In 1974, the independent cities of Suffolk and Nansemond merged under Suffolks name, Peanuts grown in the surrounding areas became a major industry for Suffolk. Notably, Planters Peanuts was established in Suffolk beginning in 1912, Suffolk was the birthplace of Mr. Peanut, the mascot of Planters Peanuts. For many years, the call-letters of local AM radio station WLPM stood for Worlds Largest Peanut Market, Suffolk is located at 36°44′29″N 76°36′36″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 429 square miles. It is the largest city in Virginia by land area and second-largest by total area, part of the Great Dismal Swamp is located in Suffolk. As of the census of 2010, there were 84,585 people,23,283 households, the population density was 159.2 people per square mile. There were 24,704 housing units at a density of 61.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 50. 1% White,42. 7% Black or African American,0. 3% Native American,1. 6% Asian,0. 1% Pacific Islander,0. 8% from other races, and 2. 3% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 2. 9% of the population,20. 2% of all households were made up of individuals and 8. 1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older
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Franklin, Virginia
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Franklin is an independent city in Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 8,582, the Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Franklin with Southampton County for statistical purposes. The city of Franklin had its beginnings in the 1830s as a stop along the Blackwater River. During this era, the river was used to transport goods to, in 1862, the Civil War came to Franklin, in what was referred to as the Joint Expedition against Franklin. As several U. S. Navy flag steamships, led by the USS Commodore Perry, tried to pass through Franklin on the Blackwater River, a band of local Confederates opened fire on the ships. As stated by an officer aboard one of the ships, The fighting was the same—Here and there high banks with dense foliage, in all, the battle yielded five naval casualties killed in action and 16 wounded. As the naval vessels retreated, the Confederates tried to block the narrow Blackwater River by felling trees across it. In the end, the Confederate attempts failed, as no soldiers were captured, a total of seven Medals of Honor were awarded to individual seamen for their distinguished service. It was not until 1887 that Franklin began to see significant growth, six brothers from the Camp family, with local roots, took possession of a local sawmill. At the end of period, after a bout with near-bankruptcy, World War I brought the Camp family back to financial success. By 1918, Tiny Franklin had become a booming wartime village, by 1955, the Camp Corporations annual sales reached $28 million, much of which they spread throughout the city of Franklin. The Camp family, with a sense of family and community, gave much back to the city of Franklin through above average wages. On May 29,1956, the residents of Franklin were informed that the Local Camp Manufacturing Corporation had just negotiated a merger with the Union Bag and this merger formed the Union Camp Corporation. The city continued to grow along with Union Camp, and was incorporated as an independent city in 1961, Union Camp thrived in Franklin until 1999 when it was acquired by International Paper. Though Union Camp no longer exists in Franklin, the Camp family name lives on and their legacy is most notable in the community, with Paul D. Camp Community College, the James L Camp Jr. YMCA, the Texie Camp Marks Childrens Center, modern Franklin has two major industrial sectors, agriculture and manufacturing. Franklin is listed as being the 13th-most profitable and 12th-largest farming community in the state, with the high agricultural profile of Franklin and the surrounding areas, it was only with the opening of the Camp Lumber Mill in 1887 that the manufacturing sector began to expand. The Camp Lumber Mill became the Union Camp Corporation, which was bought by International Paper
Isle of Wight County, Virginia
