Richmond, Virginia

         After our visit to Raleigh, Rob and I traveled across Virginia to visit various relatives before driving down to Richmond to continue researching for The 50 Capitals Project. By this time, we had been on the road for 11 weeks since we started the trip in the end of August, and we were exhausted. Despite feeling incredibly blessed to have this opportunity, 11 weeks of travel wears on even the hardiest of souls, and we were definitely ready to be home for a few months.

 It was the week of Thanksgiving when we arrived in Richmond, and the town was desolate. Downtown was practically empty, because the students from Virginia Commonwealth University were away visiting their families. Given our level of fatigue, we were grateful that there wouldn’t be too much chaos during this particular visit. We checked in to the hotel Wednesday evening, and settled down.

The next day was Thanksgiving, and we traveled to a relative’s house to celebrate the holiday. My feelings about Thanksgiving are always mixed. Although I love the idea of coming together around a meal to be thankful for what we have, the premise of the celebration for many people now seems to be overshadowed by their expectations that the rest of the weekend will be spent in the frenzy of holiday shopping. Many stores that year even began their sales on Thanksgiving Day! I understand the reasons behind Black Friday sales, but I am concerned that if we lose the true spirit of Thanksgiving, we will also lose sight of less materialistic past times.

After a wonderful meal with many members of my family, we returned to Richmond in the early evening to prepare for the next day of research. I may have mixed feelings about Thanksgiving, but I have very clear feelings about Black Friday, namely hatred. I will not anywhere near any retail store for any reason on Black Friday, so it was a great day to visit the Capitol. I was excited to see this one in particular because Virginia is such an important piece of our American puzzle. Virginia was a major economic and political power in our nation’s early history. Four of the first five Presidents were Virginians, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Virginians also played a critical role in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitutional Convention, and the formation of the Bill of Rights. Many decades later, Virginia was the largest state to join the Confederacy during the Civil War. Along with Pennsylvania, Virginia was one of the most influential colonies in the time of our country’s founding, so in that sense, it is one of the most important states in my journey.

We parked several blocks away from the Capitol building because there were very few available spaces, despite the fact that there were few people downtown. The front of the building was obscured by two sets of bleachers, obviously in preparation for an event. After taking pictures of the grounds and exterior, I walked down to the Visitor’s Entrance by the street, which takes one through an underground extension to the Capitol. The addition housed the security, front desk, gift shop, and café along with several offices. Virginia’s Capitol is one of the older, smaller buildings, and I think that the underground addition made sense in order to preserve the integrity of the exterior. We had arrived just before the beginning of the tour, and there was a rather large group of international visitors waiting down the hall. The tour began by the statue of Thomas Jefferson, who designed the building with French architect Charles-Louis Clérisseau. The statue, completed in 2012, was in the center of a circular room that served as the atrium between the addition and the passageway to the current Capitol. One of Jefferson’s quotes was carved into the wall, “The most sacred of the duties of government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.” After the guide gave us a short overview of the building, the group continued up a staircase that wrapped around the curved wall, and as we walked through the hallways, the view through the windows emerged above the ground, and we could see how the extension was connected to the Capitol.

Before heading upstairs, the guide paused by an antique elevator shaft, which the multi-level staircase wrapped around. It was empty, and if one stood inside the shaft and gazed skyward, you could get an interesting perspective of the building that spanned several floors. The guide told us that the elevator was used in the early part of the 20th century, but was eventually closed up by the legislature and promptly forgotten. When the Capitol was undergoing the construction of the extension and the restoration of the building, the shaft was discovered, and they decided to open it up because it made such an interesting spectacle. The group marveled for a few more moments before following the guide up to the second floor.

Rather than build an entirely separate legislative building when the Capitol got crowded, the Virginia General Assembly decided to add to their current structure. The Capitol, which was completed in 1798, lacked large enough chambers and adequate office space, like many other Capitols built around that same time. The legislature added the Senate and House of Delegates wings in 1906, and the underground extension was completed in 2007, providing additional office space while preserving the Jeffersonian exterior. The guide began the tour of this floor in the Old Senate Chamber, which is now used for various meetings and other events. In the front of the room there are two portraits, one of Captain John Smith and another of Pocahontas.

Thestory of Pocahontas has been morphed through is popularization and its depiction by Disney, particularly the portion about John Smith. As the story goes, relations between the English settlers and the Powhatan were deteriorating as cultures clashed. Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas’ father, was going to execute John Smith by smashing his head in when Pocahontas placed herself between Smith and the executioner. Out of love for his daughter and her desire not to harm the Englishmen, the Chief released Smith and sent gifts to the settlers as a peacemaking gesture. Contrary to Disney’s version, Pocahontas did not marry John Smith, nor did she necessarily save him out of love.

Women in Powhatan society were able to choose who they married (rather than having their husband chosen for them by their father), and Pocahontas married twice in her life. The first time, the lucky groom was a native man named Kocoum, who did not hold a position of high status in the tribe. Since Pocahontas was the daughter of the Chief, this would indicate that she married for love. Several years later, when she was captured by the English to leverage negotiations with her father, Pocahontas was educated in the English language, traditions, and lifestyle. During her captivity, Pocahontas met John Rolfe, and the two fell in love. There was a form of divorce in Powhatan society, and once Chief Powhatan received word that Pocahontas wanted to marry another, the tribe would have considered her and Kocoum divorced. In 1614, Pocahontas converted to Christianity, was baptized “Rebecca,” and married John Rolfe. They had a child together, Thomas, and moved to England before Pocahontas’ death from illness at the age of 21.

The relationship between the Powhatan and the British settlers was the mostly peaceful during Pocahontas and Rolfe’s marriage, but after she died, things began to deteriorate. The portraits in the Old Senate Chamber of Pocahontas and John Smith symbolized the early relationship between the settlers and the natives in the land that is now the Commonwealth of Virginia, though one could argue that a portrait of John Rolfe above that of his wife would be more fitting.

The tour continued across the hall to the Jefferson Room, which was the mirror image of the Old Senate Chamber. We paused to admire the original model of the Capitol, which was commissioned by Jefferson and built by Jean-Pierre Fouquet, and take a look at an 18^th century clock gifted to the Commonwealth by Lady Astor. Next, we moved on to the rotunda. This Capitol is fairly unusual in the fact that it is one of twelve Capitols that do not have an exterior dome (Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio and Tennessee).

The rotunda was beautiful and I felt that it was among the nicest of the oldest Capitols, although it did not have a lot of natural light. In the center was a statue of George Washington, which is said to be a perfect likeness. Jean Antoine-Houdon carved the marble figure after visiting Washington at Mount Vernon. There he took many precise measurements and a plaster mold of Washington’s face before creating the wonderful masterpiece. The statue is  the pride and joy of the Capitol, reserving the place of honor at the center of the rotunda. There were busts of all the Presidents that were born in Virginia in alcoves in the rotunda walls, making the space a true testament to the founding fathers.

The official tour ended in the old House of Delegates Chamber, where a larger-than-life bronze statue stands in the spot where Robert E. Lee, at age 54, accepted command of the armed forces of Virginia from Governor John Letcher on April 23, 1861. Lee was originally offered control of the Union forces, but he declined, saying that he could never place his loyalty anywhere else but with his home state of Virginia. This building also served as the second Capitol of the Confederacy, and along with being the largest state to enter the Confederacy, one could argue that Virginia is one of the most important states in the Civil War saga.

In 1870, as the South was just picking itself up from the destruction of the Civil War, the Courtroom above the House of Delegates Chamber was packed with a boisterous audience. The floor had become structurally unsound over the years as the building aged and architects of dubious ability made their adjustments to the support of the room. Without warning, the floor of the courtroom collapsed and hundreds of people crashed onto the House of Delegate’s floor. Sixty people were killed and over 150 were wounded. Luckily, the House of Delegates below was empty and structurally sound, so the carnage was less severe than it otherwise might have been.

The guide, who was wonderfully well-informed and pleased to answer all of our questions, announced the formal end of the tour. On her way out, she offered to open the current House of Delegates Chamber for any who were interested, but warned us that it wasn’t as interesting as the historical rooms. The modern space was large and comfortable, with plenty of space for all of the Delegates and electronic voting boards, which the historic rooms did not have. After taking a look, Rob and I left the Capitol and returned to the hotel for the evening, pondering all that we had learned.

Virginia has been an integral part of United States history since the first permanent British colony in Jamestown in 1607. Pocahontas’ relationship with the British eased relations between the native Powhatan and the colonists. Virginia was a key state in our founding, with important Virginians shaping the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Virginia was the largest state to enter the Confederacy, the home state of General Robert E. Lee, and the Capitol of the Confederacy. Virginia has played a crucial part in the two most influential conflicts in our nation’s history, the Revolution and the Civil War, and its history is deeply entwined in the fundamental cultural origins of our nation.

The next day, we packed up our belongings and headed toward Annapolis, Maryland.