Virginia - The US Explained

Virginia. It’s where the North meets the South. It’s home to the wealthiest part of the United States - leafy suburbs of the nation’s capital where business is booming - as well as struggling coal mining towns in the hills and mountains of Appalachia. Tobacco is still grown in much of the state, on farmland where enslaved people once toiled and Civil War soldiers fought. You can still visit the site of the first permanent English colony in the mainland of the Americas, and find families who have lived in the state for hundreds of years, some descendants of the wealthy owners of slave plantations who dominated early American society and made up 7 of the first 12 US presidents. Home to beautiful mountain scenery, a large population, beach towns that draw millions of tourists, a major military presence, and a central role in US history, this is Episode 10 - Virginia