Education at LVA

On June 4, 1781, British cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton raided Charlottesville, the temporary meeting site of the General Assembly. Members had been warned by Captain Jack Jouett who rode all night from Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa County to spread the alarm, and the assembly adjourned to Staunton. Jouett also wanted Governor Thomas Jefferson who barely escaped capture. Do you teach about the American Revolution? Learn more about the story of Jack Jouett's ride in our online classroom resource Document Bank of Virginia: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/educator-resources/dbva/items/show/346



Image: Illustration of men in 18th-century attire, gathered in a room with a central figure in a high-backed chair and one man gesturing, published in Mary Tucker Magill's History of Virginia: For the Use of Schools (1888).

in 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia that racial segregation in interstate travel was unconstitutional. The case arose from a 1944 incident when Irene Morgan was arrested and fined for refusing to sit in the back of a bus en route from Gloucester County to Baltimore, Maryland. On appeal, her attorneys successfully argued that a Virginia law requiring racially separate seating did not apply to interstate commerce. The court's ruling was not enforced and it took many more years for bus transportation to be desegregated. Learn more about Irene Morgan our online classroom resource Virginia Changemakers: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/educator-resources/changemakers/items/show/44

Image: excerpt of an article printed in the Portsmouth Star on June 3, 1946, with the headline Supreme Court Rules Against Segregation on Interstate Buses.

On May 29, 1677, Cockacoeske, “Queen of the Pamunkey,” was one of four Indigenous leaders who signed the Treaty of Middle Plantation. This treaty of peace with the king’s royal commissioners followed Bacon’s Rebellion, during which Nathaniel Bacon’s men attacked tribes allied with the colony’s government. Through this treaty Cockacoeske sought to reunite several tribes of the former Powhatan Confederacy under her leadership. Do you teach about Virginia's Indigenous history? Learn more about this treaty in our online classroom resource Document Bank of Virginia: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/educator-resources/dbva/items/show/329

Image: Statue of Cockacoeske pointing to her signature on the Treaty of Middle Plantation, Virginia Women's Monument, Capitol Square, Richmond.

Do you use maps in the classroom? Check out some of the Library of Virginia's digital map collections.

Are you a major map geek? Browse through nine subcollections within the Library's digitized maps collection — everything from Colonial period maps to state, county and city maps, as well as nautical charts from the 18th and 19th centuries. Dive in at https://bit.ly/lvamaps

In May 1787, delegates began meeting at a convention in Philadelphia to discuss strengthening the powers of the national government. Virginians were key participants. George Washington was elected the convention's president on May 25. James Madison devised the Virginia Plan for a new central government. The Virginia Plan ultimately provided the framework of what—after much debate and compromise by the framers—became the Constitution of the United States. Learn more about this pivotal moment in American history in our online classroom resource Shaping the Constitution: https://edu.lva.virginia.gov/oc/stc/units/forming-a-more-perfect-union

Image: engraving of George Washington presiding at the 1787 convention printed in Charles A. Goodrich's History of the United States of America (1823).

After three enslaved men, Frank Baker, James Townsend, and Shepard Mallory, reached Fort Monroe at Hampton, U.S. Army Major General Benjamin F. Butler refused on May 24, 1861, to return them to their Confederate enslaver. He declared them "contraband of war" and in effect liberated them. Congress validated Butler's decree in August 1861 when it approved an act that prohibited the return of escaped or captured slaves who had been used in the Confederate war effort. Do you teach about the Civil War and the end of slavery? Learn more in our online classroom resource Shaping the Constitution: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/educator-resources/online-classroom/stc/entries/the-(fort)-monroe-doctrine-cartoon-1861

Image: report of the enslaved men and Butler's decree printed in Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, May 28, 1861 (view online: https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=DI18610528.1.3)

By this deed of manumission Norfolk resident Thomas Newton freed Francis Drake on May 23, 1791. Drake was allowed to work as a barber and had likely earned enough money to purchase his freedom with Newton’s assistance. The deed mentions "An Act to Authorize the Manumission of Slaves," which the General Assembly had passed in 1782 to allow enslavers to free people they enslaved without having to obtain a special act from the Assembly. Do you teach about slavery and freedom in Virginia? Learn more in our online classroom resource Shaping the Constitution: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/educator-resources/online-classroom/stc/entries/deed-of-manumission-for-francis-drake-may-23-1791 05-23-1791_05-0521-01.jpg

Image: section of the handwritten manumission of Francis Drake dated May 23, 1791, Norfolk City Deed Book 1, 1784–1791, Library of Virginia.

After the English settlers had landed at Jamestown in 1607, Captain Christopher Newport led an expedition up the James River beginning on May 21. The group included John Smith, who later spent three months exploring the Chesapeake Bay and its adjacent waterways. In addition to his travels, Smith relied on Indigenous peoples who lived in the region for information that he incorporated into the map that he produced in 1608, thereby preserving Indigenous knowledge of the land and the people living there. Do you use Smith's map in the classroom? Take a look at our Document Bank of Virginia entry that includes a link to our video on Indigenous Reflections on Smith's Map and the Recovery of Tribal Pasts: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/educator-resources/dbva/items/show/53

Image: portion of John Smith's map showing the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia tributaries with a vignette of Powhatan with his council in the top left corner and a standing figure of an Indigenous person on the right side.

Deadline extended! You still have time to submit an application for the Library of Virginia’s Anne & Ryland Brown Teacher Research Fellowships for summer 2026. We are seeking two fellows eager to explore the power of archives in documenting the diverse American experience in creating our democracy. Stipends are $3,000. Applications are due May 25. Learn more & apply here: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/services/education/brown-fellowship

Image: A man giving a presentation in a classroom while standing in front of a digital scree

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education struck down the separate-but-equal racial doctrine and declared that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The court considered five cases in making its decision, including Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, which had been initiated by the 1951 student strike at Farmville's Robert R. Moton High School. Do you teach about school desegregation? Check out our recently added lesson plan on School Desegregation and the Voices Not Heard in our online classroom resource Document Bank of Virginia: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/educator-resources/dbva/items/show/294

Image: Excerpt from the May 18, 1954 issue of the Farmville Herald and Farmer-Leader's reporting on the Brown v. Board decision. View online at Virginia Chronicle: https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=TFHFL19540518.1.1