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Bermuda Hundred was the first
administrative division Administrative divisions (also administrative units, administrative regions, subnational entities, or constituent states, as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent sovereign state is divi ...
in the English colony of
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
. It was founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1613, six years after Jamestown. At the southwestern edge of the confluence of the Appomattox and James Rivers opposite City Point, annexed to
Hopewell, Virginia Hopewell is an independent city (United States), independent city surrounded by Prince George County, Virginia, Prince George County and the Appomattox River in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. At the 202 ...
in 1923, Bermuda Hundred was a port town for many years. The terminology "Bermuda Hundred" also included a large area adjacent to the town. In the colonial era, " hundreds" were large developments of many acres, arising from the English term to define an area which would support 100 homesteads. The port at the town of Bermuda Hundred was intended to serve other "hundreds" in addition to Bermuda Hundred. The area of the peninsula between the James and Appomattox Rivers on which Bermuda Hundred is located was part of the Bermuda Hundred Campaign of May 1864 during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
. No longer a shipping port, Bermuda Hundred is now a small community in the southeastern portion of
Chesterfield County, Virginia Chesterfield County is a County (United States), county located just south of Richmond, Virginia, Richmond in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. The county's borders are primarily defined by the James River to the north an ...
.


Mattica

Prior to English contact, the site was an
Appomattoc The Appomattoc (also spelled Appamatuck, Apamatic, and numerous other variants) were a historic tribe of Virginia Indians speaking an Algonquian language, and residing along the lower Appomattox River, in the area of what is now Petersburg, Co ...
village shown as "Mattica" on the 1608 Tindall map. On May 26, 1607,
Christopher Newport Christopher Newport ( – ) was an English seaman and privateer. During the war with Spain Newport was one of the most successful ' Elizabethan Sea Dogs' to venture to the Spanish Main, making large profits. Newport is best known as the c ...
led a party of 24 English colonists to Mattica. They were welcomed with food and tobacco. He noted the village was surrounded by cornfields, which the Indians cultivated. A ''weroansqua'' (female chieftain), '' Oppussoquionuske'', led the village. Their larger village nearby on the north bank of Wighwhippoc Creek, now called Swift Creek, was ruled by the '' weroance'' ''Coquonasum'', brother of ''Oppussoquionuske''. Anglo-Native relations deteriorated in 1609, culminating in the First Anglo-Powhatan War by 1610. In the summer of 1610 Opossunoquonuske invited fifteen settlers, who had been collecting water upriver from the settlement at Jamestown, to come to her town. Claiming that the women of the village would be afraid of their weapons, she persuaded the men to leave them in the boat; she then invited them to sit down for a meal, at which she had them ambushed. Her men killed all but one who managed to escape; the survivor, Thomas Dowse, managed to return to the boat and protect himself with the
rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...
. The men's manner of death is not recorded, nor is it noted if they were tortured. In retaliation, the colonists burned the town and killed several of its inhabitants. Opossunoquonuske herself was reported to have been mortally wounded and to have died that winter. John Smith, in his narrative of the colony, discusses the burning of the town but not the reason behind it, calling the motive only the "injurie done us by them of Apomatock". Around Christmas 1611, in reprisal for an Appomattoc ambush on a group of colonists a year before, Sir Thomas Dale seized Oppussoquionuske's village and the surrounding cultivated land. He renamed it "New Bermudas".


Establishment

The town of Bermuda Hundred was settled by English colonists in 1613 by Dale and was incorporated the following year. The town, described as a fishing village, was situated "on the peninsula at the confluence of the Appomattox and James Rivers, southeast of
Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...
, and northeast of Petersburg." Thomas Dale annexed to his New Bermuda plantation "many miles of champion and wood land ground in several hundreds by the names of Nether Hundred, Shirley Hundred" and so on. Sir Thomas Dale, who served as
Governor of Virginia The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. The Governor (United States), governor is head of the Government_of_Virginia#Executive_branch, executive branch ...
for about three months in 1611, and from 1614 to 1616, hoped to replace the settlement of Jamestown in a more suitable location a few miles from the town of Bermuda Hundred at
Henricus The "Citie of Henricus"—also known as Henricopolis, Henrico Town or Henrico—was a settlement in Virginia founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy and dangerous area around the original English settlement at James ...
. Governor Dale initially named the location across the Appomattox River from the town of Bermuda Hundred as "Bermuda Cittie" (sic). The latter was later renamed Charles City Point, and eventually just City Point, before it was annexed by the
independent city An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province). Historical precursors In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...
of Hopewell in 1923. Some sources indicate that Dale called the entire region "New Bermuda" after the island.


Source of name

Bermuda Hundred was named for
Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...
, which became part of the Virginia Colony for a few years after the shipwreck of the ill-starred ''
Sea Venture ''Sea Venture'' was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission flotilla to the Jamestown Colony in 1609. She was the 300 ton flagship of the London Company. During the voyage to Virginia, ''Sea Venture'' encount ...
'', the new
flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...
of the
Virginia Company of London The Virginia Company of London (sometimes called "London Company") was a Division (business), division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for British colonization of the Americas, colonizing the east coast of North America between 34th ...
. With most of the leaders and supplies aboard the ''Sea Venture'', it was leading the
Third Supply The Jamestown supply missions were a series of fleets (or sometimes individual ships) from 1607 to around 1611 that were dispatched from England by the London Company (also known as the Virginia Company of London) with the specific goal of initi ...
mission from England to Jamestown in 1609 when the eight ships ran into a major storm. What was thought to be a
hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...
separated them. The new caulking on the ''Sea Venture'' caused it to take on water. After the crew fought the storm and bailed water from the holds for three days, the
Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...
of the fleet, Sir George Somers, drove the foundering ship onto a reef of the uninhabited
archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...
known as Bermuda, saving the 150 passengers and crew (and one dog) aboard. Among these were the newly appointed Governor, future Governor Sir
George Yeardley Sir George Yeardley () was a Planter class, planter and colonial governor of the colony of Virginia. He was also among the first slaveowners in Colonial history of the United States, Colonial America. A survivor of the Virginia Company of London's ...
, Sir Thomas Gates, Vice-Admiral
Christopher Newport Christopher Newport ( – ) was an English seaman and privateer. During the war with Spain Newport was one of the most successful ' Elizabethan Sea Dogs' to venture to the Spanish Main, making large profits. Newport is best known as the c ...
, and future authors
William Strachey William Strachey (4 April 1572 – buried 16 August 1621) was an English writer whose works are among the primary sources for the early history of the English colonisation of North America. He is best remembered today as the eye-witness reporter ...
and Samuel Jordan, as well as
John Rolfe John Rolfe ( – March 1622) was an English explorer, farmer and merchant. He is best known for being the husband of Pocahontas and the first settler in the colony of Virginia to successfully cultivate a tobacco crop for export. He played a ...
, who would later marry
Pocahontas Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, also known as Matoaka and Rebecca Rolfe; 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. S ...
. The fate of the ''Sea Venture'' was unknown until the following year. The rest of the fleet sailed on to Jamestown, delivering hundreds of additional colonists. They had little in the way of food, supplies, or leaders, all of which had been principally carried on the ''Sea Venture''. Samuel Argall, the Captain of one of the other ships, delivered his passengers and what supplies he had, and hurried back to England to advise of the dire situation at Jamestown. In the meantime, the lack of food and supplies and a general Indian blockade on the settlement's ability to hunt, forage, and claim farmland into the interior, combined with the arrival of additional colonists, weak leadership, and several other factors to cause death of over 80% of the 500 colonists at Jamestown in the subsequent year. This period between the fall of 1609 and the spring of 1610, became known as "starving time", and indelibly shaped the community into the remainder of the 17th century as it strove to become more self-sufficient, chose a mixed use of crop, and caused the survivors and subsequent colonists to seek interlocking strategic points along the coasts to control
Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Ea ...
. Meanwhile, the survivors on Bermuda used salvaged parts of the shipwreck and native materials to build two new, smaller ships, the ''Deliverance'' and ''Patience''. Most set sail for Jamestown ten months later, leaving several men to establish English possession of Bermuda. It would remain permanently settled, and Virginia's boundaries were extended in 1612 to include Bermuda. In 1615, Bermuda, also known as the Somers Isles (after Admiral Somers), was transferred to a new company formed by the same shareholders, the
Somers Isles Company The Somers Isles Company (fully, the Company of the City of London for the Plantacion of The Somers Isles or the Company of The Somers Isles) was formed in 1615 to operate the English colony of the Somers Isles, also known as Bermuda, as a commer ...
, which oversaw it until 1684, when the Crown revoked the company's charter. Bermuda and Virginia continued to maintain close links, although there was no possibility of Bermuda joining Virginia and the other mainland colonies in their 1776 rebellion, and Bermuda remains an overseas territory of the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. Bermudians settled in North America in large numbers in the 17th and 18th centuries, and many places on the continent are named for the archipelago.


John Rolfe and tobacco

Among the colonists who survived the shipwreck of the ''Sea Venture'' at Bermuda and sailed to Virginia was
John Rolfe John Rolfe ( – March 1622) was an English explorer, farmer and merchant. He is best known for being the husband of Pocahontas and the first settler in the colony of Virginia to successfully cultivate a tobacco crop for export. He played a ...
. At Bermuda Hundred, he cultivated and exported several non-native strains of
tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
, providing the proprietary Colony with a crucial
cash crop A cash crop, also called profit crop, is an Agriculture, agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate a marketed crop from a staple crop ("subsi ...
to export. Bermuda Hundred became a major shipping point for hogsheads of tobacco grown on
plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...
s nearby. Rolfe became wealthy and lived at Bermuda Hundred for a time. He is believed to have been living at a plantation at or near Bermuda Hundred at the time of the great
Indian massacre of 1622 The Indian massacre of 1622 took place in the English Colony of Virginia on March 22, 1621/22 ( O.S./N.S.). The English explorer John Smith, though he was not an eyewitness, wrote in his ''History of Virginia'' that warriors of the Powhatan "cam ...
which along the murdering of much of the colony's population, destroyed
Henricus The "Citie of Henricus"—also known as Henricopolis, Henrico Town or Henrico—was a settlement in Virginia founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy and dangerous area around the original English settlement at James ...
and the
Falling Creek Ironworks Falling Creek Ironworks was the first iron production facility in North America. It was established by the Virginia Company of London in Henrico City (Virginia Company), Henrico Cittie (sic) on Falling Creek (James River tributary), Falling Cre ...
upstream on the James River. Although records indicate that he died in 1622, it is not known if he was a victim of the widespread coordinated attacks of the
Powhatan Confederacy Powhatan people () are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who belong to member tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy, or Tsenacommacah. They are Algonquian peoples whose historic territories were in eastern Virginia. Their Powha ...
, which committed the murder of one third of the colonists in several days or if he died by other means.


Early colonial period

With the subsequent victories in the Anglo-Powhatan wars, and other Indian campaigns, the Bermuda Hundred was able to expand and develop. The area at first was a combined settlement of a few mid-sized plantations, several smaller-sized farms, and the small port town which shipped their produce and needs. For most of the remaining two-thirds of the century, this mixed-use economy marked the Bermuda Hundred, thereby helping the community to grow. In turn, slowly the population recovered from the Indian attacks, and although outbreaks of Indian diseases continued to occur, new colonists arrived to keep the colony and Bermuda Hundred growing. However, starting in the second half of the 17th century and gaining momentum, a huge growth in demand first in sugar and then in tobacco occurred causing the countryside to slowly change crops despite earlier colonial policy. Additionally, the Indians were pushed back in several campaigns, allowing for the expansion in size of the plantation, and another growth of population which put additional pressures on land and small farms. Slowly, over the remaining century and into the early 18th century, the farms turned to the valuable but land-depleting
sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
and
tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
crops. As the soil depleted, requiring more and more land, large numbers of African slaves were brought into work the mortgaged land cheaply, thereby creating an economy of capital centralization. Consequently, most of the smaller surrounding
Yeoman Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of Serfdom, servants in an Peerage of England, English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in Kingdom of England, mid-1 ...
farms were absorbed into the plantations, their inhabitants falling into dependency to the
planter class The planter class was a Racial hierarchy, racial and socioeconomic class which emerged in the Americas during European colonization of the Americas, European colonization in the early modern period. Members of the class, most of whom were settle ...
, turning to the town, or moving westward for cheaper land.


Later colonial period

With this growth and evolving economy, the port and town also experienced expansion. Ironically, while originally serving both as a local tide-water port and an oceangoing port, as the cash crops pushed out the local consumption crops, thereby reducing the number of farms, and more slaves caused an increase in acreage and corresponding decrease in the number of plantations, the shippers required larger boats to carry the produce. Simultaneously, the growth in farmland starting increasing silt downriver into the port. Thus, as the port began silting up it was only maintained by dredging which required additional costs on the shippers already competing for capital to build larger boats. Nonetheless, despite this increased competition, the port retained a good number of merchants devoted to the tidewater trade and import and export trade with the Great Britain and Ireland. Additionally, its shippers served in transporting and off-loading the continually growing numbers of settlers migrating from Europe (primarily as
indentured servants Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract called an "indenture", may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid lump sum, as payment for some good or ser ...
) into the American colonies. Most of these migrants went on to settle further westward of the Tidewater, later into the
Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...
, and finally into the
Great Wagon Road The Great Wagon Road, also known as the Philadelphia Wagon Road, is a historic trail in the eastern United States that was first traveled by indigenous tribes, and later explorers, settlers, soldiers, and travelers. It extended from British Penn ...
, and the
Wilderness Road The Wilderness Road was one of two principal routes used by colonial and early national era settlers to reach Kentucky from the East. Although this road goes through the Cumberland Gap into southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee, the other ...
which led them further west. The combination of import and export trade, indenture transportation, slave importations, and the consequent requirements in parts and repair to maintain this small merchant fleet resulted in a flourishing mercantile community and an increase in the towns population. By the time of independence, the area had long ceased being the mixed economy of the 17th century and turned into becoming slow, easy going and peaceful area of a few rich plantations and a slowly declining port. Several of the original colonial families remained but had become a minority as indentured servants from Europe, arrived, intermingled with the original colonists, new settlers replaced those old families who left west, and finally large numbers of black indentured servants and then slaves pushed out most of the original middling and working settler classes.


French and Indian War and Pre-Revolutionary war period

By the 1760s, the threat of Indian violence and economic deprivation in the tidewater region including the Bermuda Hundreds had dissipated as a result of victory and integration between Virginia and other British colonies. Despite restrictions on trading with other parts colonies, the Tidewater had full participation in the British Atlantic World and many of its families were educated in Britain and Ireland. The merchant firms had developed deep and lasting relationships with other firms in the Empire and cash was readily available for capital improvement. The old colonial planters had developed into a strong
plantocracy A slavocracy (from ''slave'' + '' -ocracy'') is a society primarily ruled by a class of slaveholders, such as those in the southern United States and their confederacy during the American Civil War. The term was initially coined in the 1830s ...
noted for supporting additional colonial expansion westward. Indeed, many of the frontier families had come from older colonial settlers originally from the tidewater region and places like the Bermuda Hundreds. Many of the Tidewater's plantocracy's junior members and cadet branches had moved westward and played leading roles in establishing new settlements and networks thereby keeping the unity of colonial society. Thus, an economic, social, and political expansion had developed in which the Tidewater plantocracy played a key role in integrating the frontier with the Tidewater and henceforth with the larger British Empire. Indeed, many of the frontier families had come from older colonial settlers originally from the tidewater region and places like the Bermuda Hundreds. Many of the Tidewater's colonial junior members and cadet branches had moved westward and played leading roles in establishing new settlements and networks thereby keeping the unity of colonial society. Thus, the massive eruption of Indian violence and full-scale war on the frontier effected the Tidewater keenly despite not being directly attacked. The genocide of large numbers of the frontier families, the desperate battles in the forests, and sieges of the settler forts, recalled the days of the older Tidewater Indian wars which had almost destroyed the colony entirely. Now the battles and losses were even larger. The threat of a full-scale collapse of the frontier and the arrival of huge Franco-Indian armies presaged notions of annihilation. Consequently, with the outbreak of massive Indian wars on the frontiers and the involvement of large French armies, the Bermuda Hundreds was notably involved in supplying the arms, men, officers, and materials for the war effort. The war resulted in a severe check on the migration westward of new British settlers as well as colonial natives from the Hundreds. The horror of the losses gave pause to further expansion. More importantly, the Royal government had broken its obligations toward settlers, and thus with the Tidewater plantocracy when it refused to honor recent frontier treaties with the Proclamation of 1763. The proclamation was the result of secret negotiation between the Royal government and Indian tribes by which the frontier settlers were deprived of their land and property and any further expansion westward of British colonies was permanently halted. Economically, socially, and politically, the war, peace treaty and proclamation was decisive in changing the life of the Bermuda Hundreds. Indeed, it was a major check on the continued evolution of the
socio-economic Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analys ...
live of the area. Previously, the change from a mixed economy featured by small farmers and shippers to a commercial economy of planters and merchants had only occurred without widespread social upheaval through the growth of new opportunities westward. Land pressure was relieved, smaller yeoman farmers were able to maintain their existence by providing for the larger Tidewater region as well as the frontier, merchants were prosperous from supporting both, and the planter class maintained its wealth and position. However, the proclamation and halt to further expansion threatened this existence. More importantly, such perfidy by their own government caused a political upheaval in the Hundreds as middle-class locals and those frontier families being agitating against the presumed treason of the crown. Consequently, the planter classes debated how best to respond. Despite this continual economic growth and the increasing numbers of colonists arriving in the port, the consequence of a slave economy and globalism began to become apparent. Starting in the first quarter of the 18th century, the population of the colonial hundreds peaked. Slowly, a combination of capitalistic centralizing movements created by prevailing theories of
mercantilism Mercantilism is a economic nationalism, nationalist economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports of an economy. It seeks to maximize the accumulation of resources within the country and use those resources ...
and the use of slavery by Virginian planters, caused an actual reduction in the numbers of European colonists in the Hundreds, as the middling level of planters, farmers, merchants, and arts and craftsmen were driven out or turned westward for better opportunities. At first, they were replaced by indentured servants, and then as slavery became all powerful, they were replaced by cheap black slaves, thereby causing further pressures on the remaining colonial working classes to move elsewhere. Nonetheless, the area maintained a slight majority of European colonists despite the large numbers of African slaves until just prior to the Revolutionary period. Thus, by the time of independence, the area had long ceased being the mixed economy of the 17th century and had become interdependent with the wider British Empire. Rather than a mixed local economy, it was integrated with the much larger Virginia Colony, much of the remaining American colonies, and yet was still dependent upon Great Britain both socially, politically, and even economically. For the Bermuda Hundreds, the majority of the remaining planters and especially what remained of the yeoman and town folk the answer was clear. Secession from the British Empire and the Declaration of Independence despite whatever economic losses might occur. The French and Indian war had proven to become a decisively changing event in the direction of the colony.


Revolutionary war period

Therefore, from the 1750s to the 1780s, as a result of war on the frontier, war with independence, continual war with the Indians after independence, the loss of population was temporarily halted while the commercial activity and income producing of cash crops was disrupted. Meanwhile, the Bermuda Hundreds, had turned into becoming a slow, easy going and peaceful area of a few rich plantations and a slowly declining port. Several of the original colonial families remained but had become a minority as indentured servants from Ireland, England, and Scotland, arrived, intermingled with the original colonists, new settlers replaced those old families who left west, and finally large numbers of black indentured servants and then slaves pushed out much of the original middling and working settler classes. Nonetheless, many of those original colonial families which remained, maintained their grip on life in the Hundreds. Despite their ties to Great Britain and Ireland, within America, but outside of the Bermuda Hundreds and larger Tidewater region, the colonial planters, yeoman farmers, merchant families, and ship owners were part of a larger social, political and economic network which they were loyal too. As a result of independence, the large numbers of Americans which had begun increasing as a result of the backlog from moving westward joined the war effort. Bermuda Hundred planter families supplied officers in the Virginia and
Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...
. At first, no major British forces managed to invade the region. Nonetheless, British fleet operations succeeded in making landing raids throughout the Bermuda Hundreds lighting afire numerous houses presumed owned by patriots. Although most fought for Americans, there were several who fought for the Loyalists and as a result had their own plantations destroyed. These devastating but minor engagements were soon changed with the arrival of a combined British fleet and army operation under General
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805) was a British Army officer, Whig politician and colonial administrator. In the United States and United Kingdom, he is best known as one of the leading Britis ...
whose grand strategy of subduing the Americans was first setback in the Southern states, when his armies were defeated at Kings Mountain, only a day's march from Cornwallis and his army, and then his own army decisively defeated at Cowpens. With the southern campaign checked, Cornwallis received dispatches in
Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, eighth-most populous city in the st ...
informing him that another British army under Generals William Phillips and
Benedict Arnold Benedict Arnold (#Brandt, Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American-born British military officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of ...
had been sent to
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
. Believing that North Carolina could not be subdued unless its supply lines from Virginia were cut, he decided to join forces with Phillips and since his army was still strong enough to strike directly into Virginia's tidewater and the heart of the Patriot resistance. In March 1781, in response to the threat posed by Arnold and Phillips, General Washington had dispatched
Marquis de Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette (; 6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (), was a French military officer and politician who volunteered to join the Conti ...
to defend Virginia. The young Frenchman had 3,200 men at his command, but British troops in the state now totaled 7,200 and they soon quickly brushed aside the militia of the Bermuda Hundreds. Lafayette skirmished with Cornwallis, avoiding a decisive battle while gathering reinforcements. It was during this period that Cornwallis received orders from Clinton to choose a position on the Virginia Peninsula—referred to in contemporary letters as the "Williamsburg Neck"—and construct a fortified naval post to shelter
ships of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which involved the two column ...
. However, by marching down the Tidewater and eventually occupying the Bermuda Hundreds in complying with this order, Cornwallis put himself in a position to become trapped. Indeed, as a result of the rapidity and secrecy of movement by General
George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
from
New York City, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...
, and the arrival of the French fleet under the Comte de Grasse the combined French-American army, Cornwallis found himself cut off. After the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves was defeated by the French at the
Battle of the Chesapeake The Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes or simply the Battle of the Capes, was a crucial naval battle in the American Revolutionary War that took place near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on 5 September 1 ...
, and the French
siege train In military contexts, a train is the logistical transport elements accompanying a military force. Often called a supply train or baggage train, it has the job of providing materiel for their associated combat forces when in the field. When focus ...
arrived from
Newport, Rhode Island Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and nort ...
, to surround him in the Hundreds, his Cornwallis' position became untenable. He surrendered to General Washington and the French commander, the Comte de Rochambeau, on 19 October 1781.Unger, pp. 158–159 Cornwallis, apparently not wanting to face Washington, claimed to be ill on the day of the surrender, and sent Brigadier General Charles O'Hara in his place to surrender his sword formally. Washington had his second-in-command, Benjamin Lincoln, accept Cornwallis' sword.


American and Antebellum period

Whilst the
French and Indian Wars The French and Indian Wars were a series of conflicts that occurred in North America between 1688 and 1763, some of which indirectly were related to the European dynastic wars. The title ''French and Indian War'' in the singular is used in the U ...
and subsequent Proclamation of 1763 temporarily checked the irresistible move westwards, and thus slowed the decline of colonists leaving the Hundreds this changed with the gaining of independence. The subsequent decisive defeat of the Indians on the frontier, and the opening of the western roads, allowed more and more of the Hundreds' American inhabitants in moving westward to pursue opportunity in the West. Furthermore, the rural economy, already depleted of large numbers of its American rural class turning westward, saw additional losses as the planters, were now unable to sufficiently work the soil, both from losses of income as a result of the war as well as soil depletion. Additionally, many of the oldest and magnificent plantation houses were in ruins as a result of economic and wartime devastation. As their previous commercial ties with the British empire were broken, war debts were astronomical, and economic dislocation was widespread, specie was rare for the planters who struggled to recover their economic footing. Many of the oldest families were subsumed into their fellow planters, moved westward, and some even forced out for being
Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...
s. However, those which survived found an opportunity with the abolition of the slave trade. For, paradoxically, with slavery abolition, the value of slaves increased. Thus, while their land recovered, the planters began selling off their slave population excess to newer plantations westward and south-westward in the richer farmlands thereby managing to pay off their war debts, rebuilding some of the older plantation houses, and keeping their positions of privilege and economic dominance. Thus, despite these losses, the rural plantation economy managed to navigate the crisis and kept the community viable. In turn, tenant farmers and a few independent farmers filled in the niche providing needed food consumption to the regions consumers. Lastly, as income continued to recover, most of the remaining white rural and working class became employed as laborers, as plantation work overseers,
skilled worker A skilled worker is any worker who has special skill, training, or knowledge which they can then apply to their work. A skilled worker may have learned their skills through work experience, on-the-job training, an apprenticeship program or f ...
s and
servant A domestic worker is a person who works within a residence and performs a variety of household services for an individual, from providing cleaning and household maintenance, or cooking, laundry and ironing, or care for children and elderly ...
s, or as
county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of the government or other social institutions who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by investigating, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms gove ...
and
civil servants The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
such as Patrol constables, and Road agents, thereby gaining important cash from supporting the plantations and government. While the countryside sought to recover and found niche markets, the town and port was faced with a similar problem. The war had severely disrupted the economy that had developed in the 18th century. Much of the commerce which had existed with Great Britain and Ireland was destroyed as a result of the war and the independence of the country. Heavy trade restrictions which had not previously existed were placed upon the new American state. The
Napoleonic war {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
s further retarded international trade. Furthermore, British and Irish migration halted for most of the next thirty years, and what later did occur gravitated to ports elsewhere. The abolition of the American slave trade also wiped much of the commercial activity in the port. Simultaneously, the large plantations had severely depleted the soil, and crop production was severely limited, further eliminating commercial activity in the town. Yet, as the newly independent nation recovered from the disruptions in trade and replaced it with more domestic trade, the expanding economy began being felt further into the tidewater. The continued maintenance of the planter class and a few farming families continued demand for consumer and luxury goods in the area. Soon, the loss of shipping goods in the British Empire was being replaced by local and domestic shipping, especially with New England. These trade routes continued to favor smaller craft more easily built and maintained in small ports like in the Bermuda Hundreds. Furthermore, other parts of the great bay saw a renewal in farming and fishing which soon benefited the small port. Eventually, a careful economic balance was reached, as most of the remaining white rural community eked out pleasant existence as subsistence growers, selling their surplus crop to the local towns and plantations along the Tidewater, and working part-time on the plantations and in the towns for additional income and a place in society. Slowly, starting in the 1820s parts of the Hundreds began returning to crop production and a majority of the land was back in production by the 1850s. Consequently, although far from their early colonial magnificence, the planter families and what remained of the small yeoman class and small boat owners continued their generally tranquil and slightly prosperous lives into the ante-bellum period, supported by a small but well developed arts and crafts town class, small but prosperous merchant family firms, and a larger but almost poor white supervisory and working class which lived in the town, as well as the larger population of enslaved and free Blacks living in the countryside. Furthermore, although no longer the all powerful statutes they had held, unlike in the North, the Southern states, including the Tidewater regions such as the Bermuda Hundreds, continued to retain social and political status in their communities, thereby retaining power in the state of Virginia and the country as a whole. Indeed, at the time of the Civil War, planter classes such as in Bermuda and their cadet branches elsewhere throughout the south, provided upwards of sixty-five percent of the country's leading
strategist A strategist is a person with responsibility for the formulation and implementation of a strategy. Strategy generally involves setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy ...
s, military commanders, and political leaders.


Civil War Period

As the Civil War began, the Bermuda Hundred and surrounding countryside had mostly receded into a gracious backwater. Some of the original plantations had fallen into dilapidation and disrepair by the beginning of the war and remained as monuments to a long-ago past when the area was a center of the Virginia economy. Several country estates yet remained in the Bermuda Hundred including, Presquile, Mont Blanco, Rochedale, and Meadowville, as well as nearby Varina, Shirley, Curles Neck, Appomattox, and Weston Manor, the large plantations which continued to dominate the surrounding country life. A number of independent farmers, fresh with prosperity derived from supporting local consumption gained additional income with smaller production of cash crops. Smaller part-time farmers, overseers, and
tenant farmers A tenant farmer is a farmer or farmworker who resides and works on land owned by a landlord, while tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and mana ...
lived in the countryside as well, holding smaller but well built colonial brick homes. Other Virginians, employed as part-time laborers on the farms and plantations and in the larger towns also lived in their own communities in the countryside or town, while the large Black population lived a restricted life on the plantations themselves. Inside the town, the former heady days of merchant adventurers had long become a thing of the past, leaving the merchants more as factors and shipping agents for what remained of the agricultural community. These merchant families, nonetheless earned a prosperous income from trading the highly valued cotton, tobacco and other commercial crops both in the state, in the nation, and internationally thereby keeping an influence and intelligence of world affairs well above what their economic station would presume. Additionally, a community of fishermen continued to work the great
Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Ea ...
, alongside a small class of artisan, craftsmen, boat wrights, and small freight shippers working the traffic along the bay as well as trade further into New England. The war of independence was still fresh in the memories of these persons. The issues seemed very similar to them and most made valid arguments to the same themes as dominated the Revolutionary debates generations before. Believing that the coming northern Republican Party dominance were threats to the supremacy of the hearth and home, the right of independent yeoman farmer to be supreme in his property, and most importantly, that abolition was being discussed were greeted with consternation. Several families indeed still remained who had served and fought in the war, the grandchildren of their Revolutionary heroes now in command of the debate. Fortune had been sacrificed for their beliefs, and despite the overwhelming odds, the same families pledged their fortunes as well and were loyally greeted as their rightful leaders by the mass of working and farming class Americans in the South. With the coming of war the area was pressed entirely into the war effort. As the chaos of war spread its way south, and the Union navy put its blockade upon the port, much of the small shipping fleet was captured, destroyed, or lay in disrepair. Those that remained were pressed into being Union blockade runners. Furthermore, a trickle but worrisome number of slaves began escaping. More and more of the white population volunteered into the
Confederate Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fi ...
. Most of the planter class joined the officer corps of the Confederacy, with many killed in the subsequent campaigns. Soon, the old and young were put into defensive work, keeping the countryside clear of escaped slaves and Union raiding parties. Eventually, what remained of the white population was formed into a home guard militia supplemented by veterans from the campaigns in the North as a large Union invading army arrived at the area. Surviving on a barely prosperous plantation economy, the region was critically damaged in the subsequent Civil War campaigns, principally the Bermuda Hundred Campaign. The Bermuda Hundred Campaign was a series of battles fought in the vicinity of the town during May 1864, in the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
. Union Maj. Gen.
Benjamin Butler Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 – January 11, 1893) was an American major general (United States), major general of the Union Army, politician, lawyer, and businessman from Massachusetts. Born in New Hampshire and raised in Lowell, ...
, commanding the Army of the James, threatened Richmond from the east, but was stopped by Confederate forces under Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard. The Howlett Line from the James to the Appomattox effectively "bottled up" the northern army on the Bermuda Hundred peninsula. The Campaign was one of the last victories of the Confederacy and General
Benjamin Butler Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 – January 11, 1893) was an American major general (United States), major general of the Union Army, politician, lawyer, and businessman from Massachusetts. Born in New Hampshire and raised in Lowell, ...
was transferred elsewhere.


Reconstruction, Post-bellum era, modern times

The war and the campaign had ruined what remained of the planter class fortunes and a number of families both rich and poor had been wiped out. The battles had destroyed or heavily damaged much of the countryside's physical infrastructure and homes. The population of enslaved Blacks had declined heavily through escape during the war and the subsequent
emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure Economic, social and cultural rights, economic and social rights, civil and political rights, po ...
of slaves. The devastation of the plantation economy also wreaked havoc on the small white communities in the countryside. Most of these white laborers, as plantation work overseers,
skilled worker A skilled worker is any worker who has special skill, training, or knowledge which they can then apply to their work. A skilled worker may have learned their skills through work experience, on-the-job training, an apprenticeship program or f ...
s and
servant A domestic worker is a person who works within a residence and performs a variety of household services for an individual, from providing cleaning and household maintenance, or cooking, laundry and ironing, or care for children and elderly ...
s, or as
county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of the government or other social institutions who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by investigating, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms gove ...
and
civil servants The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
such as Patrol constables, and Road agents, gained important cash from supporting the plantations and government. Consequently, with the end of the antebellum economy and Reconstruction, aside from suffering losses to its male population in the war, these white families now faced an unemployable economy. As a result, along with much of what remained of the slave population they turned to sharecropping and became notoriously impoverished. Others turned to the small town or slowly drifted elsewhere across the country. The Hundreds never again recovered its early population level into the 21st century. Inside the town, the physical structures had been damaged as well. Most of the capital stock was seized by the Union Army, including the precious stock need for building and repairing boats or creating the arts and crafts for supporting the community in its
quality of life Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...
. With war's end, the town's population temporarily increased with the arrival of large numbers from the countryside putting massive pressure on the town. With the loss of much of the boats, the fishing and small freight trading businesses were wiped out permanently. Finally, without capital to stop silting or dredge, the port's ability to handle traffic further decreased. Unable to ship their commercial crops while the shipping businesses struggled to rebuild, the planter class endeavored to create other avenues of transportation and rebuild the economy through land infrastructure improvement, especially in railroads. Whilst losing their fortune, the planter and mercantile classes still retained their privileged positions in politics. Navigating the treacherous waterways of
Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...
, some managed to bring capital into the area for building up a new railway structure. After the American Civil War, the Brighthope Railway in Chesterfield county was rerouted from Osborne's Landing to Bermuda Hundred. It was extended west to Epps Falls on the
Appomattox River The Appomattox River is a tributary of the James River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 in central and eastern Virginia, named for the ...
and narrowed to be a
narrow gauge railroad A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curv ...
. The Brighthope Railway went bankrupt and was sold to become part of the
Farmville and Powhatan Railroad In 1886, Randolph Harrison, of the Virginia department of Agriculture, cited Cumberland Mining Company, stating that businessmen would soon open a hotel at Lithia Springs, Farmville, VA for people seeking the healing waters. The Brighthope railway ...
. The Farmville and Powhatan Railroad, later renamed the Tidewater and Western Railroad, ran to the headwaters of the Appomattox River at the town of
Farmville ''FarmVille'' is a series of agriculture-simulation social network games developed and published by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to '' Happy Farm'' and ''Farm Town''. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farmland management, such as plo ...
through
Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...
,
Powhatan Powhatan people () are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who belong to member tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy, or Tsenacommacah. They are Algonquian peoples whose historic territories were in eastern Virginia. Their Powh ...
. Although decisively helpful in keeping the agricultural community from total loss, especially in regards to bringing in valued
specie Specie may refer to: * Coins or other metal money in mass circulation * Bullion coins * Hard money (policy) * Commodity money * Specie Circular, 1836 executive order by US President Andrew Jackson regarding hard money * Specie Payment Resumption A ...
into the local economy, it nonetheless failed in fulfilling its wider aims of putting the planter class back into financial prosperity. The Great Depression of 1873, and subsequent farming depressions, and most importantly the growth of Egyptian cotton and Indian cotton pushed aside American cotton, which had previously provided the prosperity of the planter class. Although this decreased the demand and forced a change to crops such as corn, and wheat thereby restoring
soil health Soil health is a state of a soil meeting its range of ecosystem functions as appropriate to its environment. In more colloquial terms, the health of soil arises from favorable interactions of all soil components (living and non-living) that belong ...
, the new crops did not bring in enough wealth or traffic to the growers, merchant class, and railroad. Still, the growers experimented with multi-crop rotation, schemes at sharecropping and tenant farming, and eventually earned valuable income from tobacco in later decades. The number of plantations never recovered, yet, ironically several of the sharecroppers and tenant farmers managed to evolve into a yeoman farmers. However, the setbacks in economic markets and demand, domestic and foreign competition, all combined to keep the narrow gauge railroad from generating sufficient traffic and rebuilding the antebellum prosperity. Ironically, it did succeed in returning the area to its 17th-century period of mixed economy, thereby allowing the continued survival and slow economic growth of the region. Meanwhile in the town, much as in the countryside, the war caused at least a generational, if not two-generational, economic loss. By the time some of the planter class had restored their infrastructure, trading networks, and crop production back to their antebellum periods, the country and world had changed dramatically. They never recovered their former prosperity from the land and many lost or sold their land. As a result, despite every effort, the returns of the railroad and the merchant firms barely made a profit over a sixty-year period, while simultaneously depriving the town's waterway shipping business. In turn, the town never recovered its merchant sector instead slowly declining into a small fishing village and local tidewater harbor. Eventually, like another railway about 15 miles downstream at Claremont, the railroad and port facilities were largely abandoned by the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, turning the town into a pale shell of its former times. In modern times, the town of Bermuda Hundred is settled by approximately four families: the McWilliams, the Hewletts, the Johnsons, and a Gray. In the 1980s Phillip Morris opened a Tobacco Processing facility at Bermuda Hundred. This was soon followed by an Allied Signal plant, and an industrial facility operated by
Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British Chemical industry, chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. Its headquarters were at Millbank in London. ICI was listed on the London Stock Exchange ...
. In 1990 the Varina-Enon Bridge opened connecting the once rural area to Richmond via Interstate 295. As a result, by the end of the first decade of the 21st century most of the remaining farms, and former plantations in the Bermuda Hundred such as Presquile, Mount Blanco, Meadowville, and Rochedale had been sold for commercial or residential development. A portion of Presquile farm is preserved as the Presquile National Wildlife Refuge.


First Baptist Church Bermuda Hundred

Established circa 1850, the Baptist church was built in the
Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...
style with a symmetrical three-bay, gable-front facade on land that served as the market square of the town. The land on which the church sits was the Southside chapel of the 17th-century Varina Parish and the main church of Bristol Parish. Unlike many churches in the area, the church originally served both blacks and whites, and both rich and poor; this was likely due to a long-established presence of both emancipated and enslaved black families living in the area over several generations. However, the congregation remained segregated, requiring both enslaved and free blacks to sit in the balcony while whites sat in the lower area. Over time, an increasing number of poor and working-class white congregants forced some whites to sit in the balcony, causing substantial resentment within the church. Prior to the Civil War, several white congregants joined the
Southern Baptists The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist organization, the largest Protestant, and the second-largest Ch ...
, separating from the national association over the issue of slavery. These congregants left First Baptist to form what is presently known as Enon Baptist Church in nearby Chester, VA, leaving the historic congregation under the capable leadership of the thriving free black congregation. Several black Baptist congregations in Chesterfield County and Hopewell trace their roots to the free black congregation at First Baptist.


Town of Bermuda Hundred Historic District

The Town of Bermuda Hundred Historic District is a national
historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...
located on both sides of Bermuda Hundred and Allied Roads at
Chester, Virginia Chester is a census-designated place (CDP) in Chesterfield County, Virginia, Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States. Per the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 23,414. History Chester's original "downtown" was a st ...
. The district includes 14 contributing buildings, 1 contributing site, and 1 contributing objects. an
''Accompanying four photos''
an
''Accompanying map''
/ref> It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 2006.


See also

* Dale's Pale Archeological District


References


External links


Info Please: Bermuda Hundred


''Richmond Times Dispatch'' {{authority control Bermudian diaspora in the United States Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Chesterfield County, Virginia Buildings and structures in Chesterfield County, Virginia James River (Virginia) Populated places in colonial Virginia Unincorporated communities in Chesterfield County, Virginia History of Virginia History of Bermuda Populated places established in 1613 Unincorporated communities in Virginia 1613 establishments in the Colony of Virginia