Virginia was established in 1788.
Virginia's GDP is 2.95 of the national economy.
West Virginia is one of two American states formed during the American Civil War (1861–1865), along with Nevada, and is the only state to form by seceding from a Confederate state.
West Virginia's GDP is 0.46 of the national economy.
COAL MINING IN CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, VIRGINIA (click here)
Nearly 300 years ago, French Huguenots wishing to escape religious persecution made their homes on an 8 million year old coalfield that would help shape not only the history of Chesterfield County, but also that of the New World.
The first commercially mined coal in this country came from Midlothian, where the fossil fuel is believed to have been discovered near the Huguenot settlement on the James River about 1701. It was dug for local and domestic use for several years before it was first commercially mined in the 1730s. William Byrd II, who purchased 344 acres of land over the coalfield noted in a 1709 diary entry that "the coaler found the coal mine very good and sufficient to furnish several generations."
By the end of the Revolutionary War, coal mined in Chesterfield was being shipped to Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Thomas Jefferson noted the mines in operation in his "Notes on Virginia" and said the coal produced there was of excellent quality. He also ordered coal from the Black Heath Mine in Midlothian for use in the White House....
