Honorable Delegates, I respectfully object to HB 1371. This is another anti Virginia heritage effort that is motivated by the mistaken belief that Virginia's secession in 1861 was motivated by the preservation of slavery. The truth is it was President Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops to invade the cotton states. Two votes were taken in April 1861 regarding secession. The first vote on April 4th defeated secession. Two weeks later on April 17th that vote was reversed. Certainly the status of slavery did not change, what changed was the call to invade the cotton states by Lincoln. At the time Virginia seceded there were as many slave states in the Union as in the Confederacy. Neither side went to war to end slavery as evidenced by both the Corwin Amendment and Crittenden-Johnson Resolution. It's also true that slavery continued in the Union after the last Virginia forces surrendered.
Honorable Delegates, I respectfully object to HB 1371. This is another anti Virginia heritage effort that is motivated by the mistaken belief that Virginia's secession in 1861 was motivated by the preservation of slavery. The truth is it was President Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops to invade the cotton states. Two votes were taken in April 1861 regarding secession. The first vote on April 4th defeated secession. Two weeks later on April 17th that vote was reversed. Certainly the status of slavery did not change, what changed was the call to invade the cotton states by Lincoln. At the time Virginia seceded there were as many slave states in the Union as in the Confederacy. Neither side went to war to end slavery as evidenced by both the Corwin Amendment and Crittenden-Johnson Resolution. It's also true that slavery continued in the Union after the last Virginia forces surrendered.