Editing Virginia (section)

===Civil War===
{{Main|Virginia in the American Civil War}}
[[File:Crowe-Slaves Waiting for Sale - Richmond, Virginia.jpg|thumb|[[Eyre Crowe (painter)|Eyre Crowe]]'s 1853 portrait, ''Slaves Waiting for Sale: Richmond, Virginia'', which he completed after visiting [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]]'s slave markets, where thousands were sold annually<ref>{{cite web |url= https://dsl.richmond.edu/civilwar/slavemarket_essay.html |title= Visualizing the Richmond Slave Trade |first1= Scott |last1= Nesbit |first2= Robert K. |last2= Nelson |first3= Maurie |last3= McInnis |publisher= American Studies Association |location= San Antonio |date= November 2010 |access-date= August 30, 2022}}</ref>|alt=A family of eight women and children sit on a bench behind a cylindrical metal heater, while one adult male sits on his own to the right.]]
Between 1790 and 1860, the number of [[History of slavery in Virginia|slaves in Virginia]] rose from around 290&nbsp;thousand to over 490&nbsp;thousand, roughly one-third of the state population, and the number of slave owners rose to over 50 thousand. Both of these numbers represented the most in the U.S.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://faculty.weber.edu/kmackay/statistics_on_slavery.htm |title= Statistics on Slavery |first= Kathryn L. |last= MacKay |website= Weber State University |date= May 14, 2006 |access-date= July 23, 2022}}</ref>{{sfn|Morgan|1998|p=490}} The boom in [[Cotton Belt|Southern cotton production]] using [[cotton gin]]s increased the amount of labor needed for harvesting raw [[cotton]], but [[Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves|new federal laws]] prohibited the importation of slaves. Decades of [[monoculture]] tobacco farming had also [[Land degradation|degraded]] Virginia's [[agricultural productivity]].<ref name=fischer/> Virginia plantations increasingly turned to [[Slave trade in the United States|exporting slaves]], which broke up countless families and made the [[Slave breeding in the United States|breeding of slaves]], often through rape, a profitable business.{{sfn|Bryson|2011|pp=466-467}}{{sfn|Jordan|1995|pp=119–122}} Slaves in the [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]] area were also forced into industrial jobs, including mining and shipbuilding.{{sfn|Davis|2006|pp=125, 208–210}} The failed slave uprisings of [[Gabriel Prosser]] in 1800, [[George Boxley]] in 1815, and [[Nat Turner]] in 1831, however, marked the growing resistance to slavery. Afraid of further uprisings, Virginia's government in the 1830s encouraged free Blacks to migrate to [[Liberia]].<ref name=fischer>{{harvnb|Fischer|Kelly|2000|pp=202–208}}</ref>

On October 16, 1859, abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] led a [[John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry|raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia]], in an attempt to start a slave revolt across the southern states. The polarized national response to his raid, capture, trial, and execution that December marked a tipping point for many who believed slavery would need to be ended by force.<ref>{{cite magazine |url= https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2011/spring/brown.html |title= John Brown: America's First Terrorist? |magazine= Prologue Magazine |publisher= U.S. National Archives |date=Spring 2011 |volume= 43 |number= 1 |first= Paul |last= Finkelman |access-date= April 24, 2021}}</ref> [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s 1860 election further convinced many southern supporters of slavery that his opposition to its expansion would ultimately mean the end of slavery across the country. The [[Battle of Fort Sumter|seizure of Fort Sumter]] by [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] forces on April 14, 1861, prompted Lincoln to [[Proclamation 80|call for the federalization of 75,000 militiamen]].{{sfn|Jaffa|2000|pp=230-236, 357-358}}

[[File:Currier and Ives - The Fall of Richmond, Va. on the Night of April 2d. 1865 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|The [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] used [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]] as their capital from May 1861 till April 1865, when they abandoned the city and set fire to [[Shockoe Slip|its downtown]].|alt=A color drawing of a city skyline in flames as a steady stream of people on horses or in horse-drawn carriages cross a long bridge over a river.]]
The [[Virginia Secession Convention of 1861]] voted on April 17 [[Ordinance of Secession|to secede]] on the condition it was approved in a referendum the next month. The convention voted to join the Confederacy, which named [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]] its capital on May 20.<ref name=Robertson>{{harvnb|Robertson|1993|pp=8–12}}</ref> During the May 23 referendum, armed pro-Confederate groups prevented the casting and counting of votes from areas that opposed secession. Representatives from 27 of these northwestern counties instead began the [[Wheeling Convention]], which organized a government loyal to the [[Union (Civil War)|Union]] and led to the separation of [[West Virginia]] as a new state.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.wvgazettemail.com/west-by-secession-virginia-the-wheeling-conventions-legal-vs-illegal-separation/article_c29e90c7-1863-51bc-8fe8-ae5ccca42134.html |title= West (by secession!) Virginia: The Wheeling Conventions, legal vs. illegal separation |agency= Associated Press |date= June 22, 2011 |first= Greg |last= Carroll |newspaper= The Free Lance-Star |access-date= April 24, 2021}}</ref>

The armies of the Union and Confederacy first met on July 21, 1861, in [[First Battle of Bull Run|Battle of Bull Run]] near [[Manassas, Virginia]], a bloody Confederate victory. Union General [[George B. McClellan]] organized the [[Army of the Potomac]], which [[Peninsula campaign|landed on the Virginia Peninsula]] in March 1862 and reached the outskirts of Richmond that June. With Confederate General [[Joseph E. Johnston]] wounded in fighting outside the city, command of his [[Army of Northern Virginia]] fell to [[Robert E. Lee]]. Over the next month, Lee [[Seven Days Battles|drove the Union army back]], and starting that September led [[Maryland campaign|the first of several invasions]] into Union territory. During the next three years of war, more battles were fought in Virginia than anywhere else, including the battles of [[Battle of Fredericksburg|Fredericksburg]], [[Battle of Chancellorsville|Chancellorsville]], [[Battle of Spotsylvania Court House|Spotsylvania]], and the concluding [[Battle of Appomattox Court House]], where Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865.{{sfn|Goodwin|2012|pp=4}}