Editing Southern Colonies (section)

==Virginia==
The '''Colony of [[Virginia]]''' (also known frequently as the '''Virginia Colony''' or the '''Province of Virginia''', and occasionally as the '''Dominion and Colony of Virginia''') was an [[English overseas possessions|English colony]] in [[North America]] which existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the [[American Revolution]] (as a [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] colony after 1707<ref>The Royal Government in Virginia, 1624-1775, Volume 84, Issue 1, Percy Scott Flippin, Wallace Everett Caldwell, p. 288</ref>). The name Virginia was first applied by [[Walter Raleigh|Sir Walter Raleigh]] and [[Elizabeth I|Queen Elizabeth I]] in 1584. '''[[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]]''' was the first town created by the Virginia colony. After the [[English Civil War]] in the mid 17th century, the Virginia Colony was nicknamed "The Old Dominion" by [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] for its perceived loyalty to the English monarchy during the era of the [[Commonwealth of England]].

While other colonies were being founded, Virginia continued to grow. Tobacco planters held the best land near the coast, so new settlers pushed inland. Sir William Berkeley, the colony's governor, sent explorers over the Blue Ridge Mountains to open up the back country of Virginia to settlement.

After independence from Great Britain in 1776 the Virginia Colony became the [[Virginia|Commonwealth of Virginia]], one of the original [[Thirteen Colonies|thirteen states]] of the United States, adopting as its official slogan "The Old Dominion". The states of [[West Virginia]], [[Kentucky]], [[Indiana]], [[Illinois]], and portions of [[Ohio]], were all later created from the territory encompassed earlier by the Colony of Virginia.