Interviewees:
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Maggie Creech
- Director of Education, Virginia Museum of History and Culture
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James Herrera-Brookes
- Melanie Trent De Schutter Senior Director of Research & Publications, Virginia Museum of History and Culture
Virginia’s leading figures—like Jefferson, Henry, and Washington—were unambiguously pro-independence by 1776. The colony was unusual in that Dunmore’s 1775 evacuation had already collapsed royal government and authority. By the time of the Declaration, Patriot-aligned officials had effectively filled every significant position. Virginia’s delegates to the Continental Congress had been explicitly instructed to vote for independence, requiring no last-minute consultation at home. Below the elite level, middling landholders and freemen pressured their representatives to support the Declaration and threatened to recall any who wavered, alarming gentry figures like Landon Carter. Some former British sympathizers navigated the transition successfully: Ralph Wormeley, briefly placed under house arrest after a compromising letter was intercepted in 1776, later served in Virginia’s state government, while John Wickham, originally from New York and enlisted in the British Army, moved to Richmond and practiced law within the new republic alongside noted Patriot John Marshall—illustrating how social capital could ease reintegration for the well-connected.
