Effective: 2024-05-01

Course Description

The course outline below was developed as part of a statewide standardization process.

General Course Purpose

This course will examine how the topics of politics, economics, race, slavery, education, religion, revolution and reform, gender and sexuality impacted the lives of Virginians from before the founding of Jamestown to the present.

Course Objectives

• Critical Thinking
• Evaluate primary source documents within their historical context
• Connect the cultural, economic, political, and social history of Virginia to issues and questions that are part of contemporary society
• Connect the cultural, economic, political, and social history of Virginia to issues and questions that are part of contemporary society
• Written / Oral Communication
• Describe the key events, developments, and people which shaped Virginia history, especially from the seventeenth century to the present, in discussions and written activities.
• Describe the key events, developments, and people, from the 16th century through the late 19th century, that shaped Virginia history
• Explain how economics, gender, politics, race, reform, and religion impacted the development of Virginia and the history of the United States from the 16th-21st centuries, through written activities and discussions of primary source documents.
• Civic Engagement
• Demonstrate how the political, social, economic, and cultural history of the Commonwealth of Virginia shapes the Commonwealth in the present
• Demonstrate how historical understanding empowers citizens to understand and navigate contemporary politics

Major Topics to be Included

• Pre-Colonial Virginia
• Demonstrate a basic knowledge of the indigenous groups living in the area of modern Virginia and West Virginia before first contact
• Colonial Virginia
• Describe the importance of the Virginia Colony to the British Empire
• Describe how the enslavement of African peoples began and how it impacted the development of the Virginia Colony
• Identify how gender, race, and slavery shaped the development of Colonial Virginia and the role both free and enslaved played in the expansion of the British Empire
• Contextualize key concepts to Virginia and United States history, including how concepts like liberty and citizenship reflected racial and gender inequalities
• Describe the influence of different groups on religious freedom within the colony
• Revolutionary Virginia and the New Republic
• Analyze the role black (free and enslaved) and white Virginians played in conceiving and fighting in the American Revolution
• Explore how enslaved peoples, free blacks, and whites shaped the early Republic
• Antebellum Virginia, and the Plantocracy, and Resistance
• Explain how white Virginians in the eastern portion of the Commonwealth sought to create a position for themselves using education, internal improvements, and the arts and how this image was challenged by those not in authority
• Discuss the impact of slave revolts
• Analyze the different discussions put forth by Virginians on the issue of secession. Discuss how the national secession crisis led to the secession of western Virginia and the eventual formation of West Virginia
• Civil War
• Develop an understanding of how the Civil War impacted Virginians and their beliefs about their place in the Confederacy and in the United States based on gender, race, politics, and religion
• Explain how enslaved peoples and free blacks shaped the history of Virginia during the Civil War era
• Analyze how culture interplayed with identity. music and theater helped create an identity for white Confederates
• Reconstruction
• Differentiate the various constituent groups, which sought to define Virginia?s path after the Civil War
• Explain how the Commonwealth?s readmittance to the Union differed from other southern states
• Explore the issue of education and how it impacted individuals differently based on issues of race and gender
• Jim Crow and the New South
• Examine how political leaders from Virginia attempted to shape the national discourse in the first two decades of the 20th century
• Explore the impact of industry and transportation on Southside and Southwestern Virginia
• Describe how white Virginians used history and literature to define their identity and change the narrative of the American Civil War
• Describe how individuals and forces impacted groups differently based on issues of race and gender
• 1940 to the Present
• Analyze the different discussions put forth by black and white Virginians on the topics of education, the arts, gender, and race
• Identify the impact the Federal Government has had on the Commonwealth since the New Deal
• Discuss the origins and impact of Massive Resistance both regionally and locally
• Explore the increased diversity of Virginia over the past 50 years, not just in issues of race and gender, but also economically, socially, and culturally