Document Type
Report
Publication Date
4-2026
Pages
1-11 pp.
Abstract
Introduction to the Exhibit:
Today—exactly 250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence—many Americans trace the origins of the nation’s revolutionary sentiment to Boston, Massachusetts or Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We remember the violence of March 1770, when red-coated British soldiers fired into a crowded Boston street, massacring innocent colonists and igniting outrage. We recall the patriotic defiance of the Sons of Liberty, who boarded three East India Company ships and dumped chests of imported British tea into the Boston Harbor in December 1773. We can still hear, too, the reverberations of the “shot heard ’round the world,” when British regulars and colonial militiamen clashed at the battles of Lexington and Concord near Boston. And we look to Philadelphia, where, in the summer of 1776, delegates from across the colonies gathered to declare independence from the British Crown.
But revolutions are not born in a single city, nor do they unfold in isolation. Long before independence was declared in Philadelphia, and even as tensions flared in Boston, the seeds of rebellion also took root in places that rarely occupy center stage in the national story: Norfolk, Virginia.
As a thriving and bustling port, Norfolk stood at the center of the Atlantic world economy and, by the mid-eighteenth century, it was the largest city in Virginia and the sixth overall largest city in British North America. As a “Royal Colony” governed by the British crown since 1624, Norfolk was deeply affected by British trade and taxation polices. Colonial merchants, who depended on British trade, found themselves increasingly caught between economic necessity and political principle. At the same time, the port became a conduit for news, carrying reports of protests in other colonies and spreading a growing sense of shared grievance and colonial unity. What happened in Boston or Philadelphia did not stay in Boston or Philadelphia; news reverberated down the Chesapeake Bay, along the Atlantic seaboard, and up the Elizabeth River. In Norfolk, revolutionary resistance emerged gradually over the course of the eighteenth century and was shaped by economic necessity, agricultural success, political tradition, everyday life, and a sincere desire to reject to the rule of tyrants!
By: Tracy L. Barnett, Ph.D.
Original Publication Citation
Dillman, K., Dunham, A., Gary, K., Harris, O. M., Herrera, N. A., Holzgrefe, L., Lynch, R. J., Manis, A. M., Morgan, D., Pickard, L., Shaw, S. M., Swain, L., Wilcox, K., Wimberly, B. M., & Barnett, T. L. (2026). Delenda est Norfolk: The Tidewater Revolts! [PDF]. Old Dominion University.
Repository Citation
Dillman, K., Dunham, A., Gary, K., Harris, O. M., Herrera, N. A., Holzgrefe, L., Lynch, R. J., Manis, A. M., Morgan, D., Pickard, L., Shaw, S. M., Swain, L., Wilcox, K., Wimberly, B. M., & Barnett, T. L. (2026). Delenda est Norfolk: The Tidewater Revolts! [PDF]. Old Dominion University.
Compressed file for download
Included in
Cultural History Commons, Economic History Commons, Military History Commons, Political History Commons, Public History Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons
Comments
Commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this student-created exhibit explores the Tidewater’s Revolutionary Era resistance to British authority.
Discover the many ways Virginians shaped the struggle for American independence by visiting the exhibit - April 13th - July 6th in Perry Library’s Gallery area. Notably, Delenda est Norfolk: The Tidewater Revolts! was created by students in HIST 396: Topics in Today’s Public History.