Cardinal News 250

In a drunken brawl in modern-day Powhatan County, John Chiswell drove a sword into Robert Routledge. Alcohol fueled their dispute, but so did indebtedness.

Enslaved men and white criminals worked side by side at the lead mines in Wythe County to produce ammunition.

Eastern tribes sided with American patriots while Western tribes backed the British.

Some 400 men marched in military fashion through the town to the home of a prominent merchant who had vowed to uphold the act. The men threatened to strip him shirtless, tie him to a cart and put him on public display.

South Carolina once tried to move his body, claiming Winchester didn’t respect his resting place. Now it does.

Men got the political attention but women, both free and enslaved, did the hard work of boycotting British goods and producing their own.

The newly elected Henry took advantage of light attendance to get the House of Burgesses on record against the Stamp Act.

Enslaved Virginians served in the state’s tiny navy. Many won their freedom.

The Roanoke-born son of the former governor is now a historian and prize-winning author of books about the American Revolution.

The slaughter, and the subsequent uprising against the colonial officials who tried to punish the killers, reflects how unpopular the king’s prohibition against western settlement is in Virginia.