Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia (IPA: /IPA chart for English/) is a South Atlantic state historically considered part of the southern region of the United States of America. Named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, who was known as the Virgin Queen, this commonwealth was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. Virginia was the first part of the Americas to be continuously inhabited by British colonists from its founding as a European colony up to the American Revolution. It included area explored by the 1584 expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh along the coast of North America, and at one time it also included Bermuda (or Virgineola). The London Virginia Company became incorporated as a joint stock company by a proprietary charter drawn up on April 10, 1606. The charter granted lands stretching from approximately the 34th parallel (North Carolina) north to approximately the 45th parallel (New York) and from the Atlantic Ocean westward (although the Third Charter of 1612 extended its boundaries far enough across the Atlantic to incorporate Bermuda, which the company had been in possession of since 1609). The capital is Richmond and the most populous city is Virginia Beach.

Virginia is known as the "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson), exceeded by no other state. Most of the United States' early presidents were from the state. Virginia has also been known as the "Mother of States" (sometimes "Mother States and Statesmen"), because portions of the original Colony subsequently became Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and West Virginia as well as some portions of Ohio. Additionally, most of what is now Wisconsin and Michigan was also briefly claimed by Virginia during the Revolutionary War.

Geography
Virginia is bordered by West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia (across the Potomac River) to the north; by Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the east; by North Carolina and Tennessee to the south; and by Kentucky and West Virginia to the west.

The Chesapeake Bay divides the commonwealth, with Virginia's Eastern Shore, a part of the Delmarva Peninsula, completely separate (an exclave) from the rest of the Commonwealth. Geographically, Virginia is divided into the following six regions:
 * Ridge and Valley&mdash;between the Appalachian Plateau and Allegheny Plateau to the west and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east. Sometimes referred to as Valley and Ridge.
 * Shenandoah Valley&mdash;located within the Ridge and Valley Region; it is referred to geographically&mdash;and culturally&mdash; as its own region.
 * Blue Ridge Mountains&mdash;between the Ridge and Valley Region to the west and the Piedmont region to the east.
 * Foothills&mdash;area now recognized directly between the Piedmont and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Pertaining to the counties of Madison, Green, Albemarle, and Nelson. Denotes a region just west of the Carters Mountain range and north of the James river subject to its own unique microclimate.
 * Piedmont&mdash;between the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west and the Tidewater region to the east.
 * Tidewater&mdash;between the fall line to the west and the Atlantic coast to the east; it includes the Eastern Shore.

Virginia's long east-west axis means that metropolitan northern Virginia lies as close to New York City and New England as to its own rural western panhandle. Conversely, Lee County, at the tip of the panhandle, is closer to eight other state capitals than it is to Richmond, Virginia's own capital.

Virginia has a number of National Park Service units, including one national park, the Shenandoah National Park. For a list of all areas managed by the National Park Service within Virginia, see: List of areas in the National Park System of the United States in Virginia.

For Virginia state parks, see: List of Virginia state parks.

Climate
The climate is considered mild compared to other areas of the United States. Most of the state east of the Blue Ridge, plus the southern part of the Shenandoah Valley, has a humid subtropical climate (Koppen climate classification Cfa). In the mountainous areas west of the Blue Ridge, the climate becomes humid continental (Koppen Dfa).

However, substantial variations occur because of the state's significant relief. Elevations in Virginia vary from sea level to Mount Rogers at 5,729 ft (1,746 m) above sea level with major gradations occurring at the edges of the Atlantic Ocean, the end of the Piedmont, and the Blue Ridge and Allegheny chains of the Appalachian Mountains. The usually moderating influence of the ocean from the east, powered by the Gulf Stream, is interspersed with brief moments of danger due to the potential for hurricanes near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. On the other hand, cold air masses arrive over the mountains, especially in winter, leading to significant snowfalls. However, in something of an anomaly, much of the state south of Northern Virginia has not had over one foot of snow in a single storm since the Blizzard of 1996. The interaction of these elements with the state's topography create micro-climates in the Shenandoah Valley, the mountainous southwest, and the coastal plains that are slightly but noticeably distinct from each other. An additional element in recent years is the expansion of the southern suburbs of Washington into Northern Virginia, creating an urban heat island due to the increased energy output of the city. However, aside from the urban stations, no global warming effects have been noted by Virginia weather stations by 2001.

Severe weather is occasionally a concern in Virginia. As mentioned above, hurricanes make the coastal area of Virginia somewhat vulnerable, although it is rare for a major hurricane to threaten the Virginia coast as hurricanes this far north tend to become somewhat weakened. More often, Virginia is struck with the remnants of systems which hit further south bringing torrential rain to the state. Thunderstorms are an occasional concern with the state averaging anywhere from 30-50 days of thunderstorm activity annually, with the highest area of occurrence going towards the west. Conversely, eastern Virginia has a lower rate of tornadoes, and the state averages around 2 tornadoes per year. The last tornado that Virginia experienced was around November 2006.

Faults and quakes
Virginia has not had a history of major seismic activity: earthquakes here are rarely above 4.5 on the Richter magnitude scale. There is no volcanic activity in the state, and it is located centrally on the North American Plate—where the Earth's crust is thicker than at the edges—which leads to fewer strong earthquakes.

Indigenous Americans
At the time of the English colonization of Virginia, Native American people living in what now is Virginia were the Cherokee, Chesapeake, Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Meherrin, Moobs, Nansemond, Nottaway, Pamunkey, Povic, Powhatan, Occoneechees, Rappahannock, Saponites and others.

Spanish failure
A Spanish exploration party had come to the lower Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia 1565 and met the Native Americans living on the Virginia Peninsula. A 17-year old teenage Powhatan boy from the village of Chiskiack (located on the lands of the present-day U.S. Naval Weapons Station Yorktown), who was the son of a chief, agreed to leave with them. He was baptized and renamed Don Luis, in honor of his sponsor, Luis de Velasco. Don Luis was educated in Mexico and Madrid, Spain.

In the fall of 1570, the native-convert Don Luis returned to Virginia to help as a guide and translator in the establishment of the Jesuit's planned Ajacan Mission to be named for St. Mary on the lower peninsula. Shortly after they were dropped off by a Spanish ship, Don Luis abandoned the group, returning to his people, where he became a Weroance. The following February, Don Luis and a group of Powhatans returned and killed the 8 Jesuit missionaries, stealing their clothes and possessions, sparing only the life of a Spanish servant boy named Alonzo. This young boy escaped and made his way to a rival tribe, where he stayed until later rescued by another Spanish ship bringing supplies.

When told of the events by young Alonzo, in the early part of 1572, the Spanish Governor of Florida, Pedro Menendez de Aviles, returned to Virginia to retaliate. The Spanish ultimately captured and hanged some of the Indians believed responsible for the massacre, but they were unable to locate Don Luis. While this marked the end of Spanish efforts to colonize the area which became Virginia, some historians believe that Don Luis and Opechancanough, who was later Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy, may have been the same individual. The name Opechancanough meant "He whose Soul is White" in the Algonquin language used by the Powhatan people.

Virginia colony: 1607–1776


At the end of the 16th century, when England began to colonize North America, Queen Elizabeth I of England (who was known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married) gave the name "Virginia" to the whole area explored by the 1584 expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh along the coast of North America. The name eventually applied to the whole coast from South Carolina to Maine. The London Virginia Company became incorporated as a joint stock company by a proprietary charter drawn up on April 10, 1606. The charter granted lands stretching from approximately the 34th parallel (North Carolina) north to approximately the 45th parallel (U.S.-Canada border) and from the Atlantic Ocean westward. It swiftly financed the first permanent English settlement in the New World, which was at Jamestown, named in honor of King James I, in the Virginia Colony, in 1607. The settlement was founded by Captain Christopher Newport and Captain John Smith. Its Second Charter was officially ratified on May 23, 1609. The Virginia Company was also left in control of Bermuda from 1609, when its flagship was wrecked there en route to Jamestown. Its Royal Charter was extended to include the Islands of Bermuda, alias The Somers Isles (sometimes known as Virgineola), in 1612. Bermuda remained part of Virginia until 1614, when its administration was handed to the Crown (although a spin-off of the Virginia Company, the Somers Isles Company, would oversee it from 1615 to 1684).

Jamestown was the original capital of the Virginia Colony, and remained so until the State House burned (for the fourth time) in 1698. After the fire, the colonial capital was moved to nearby Middle Plantation, which was renamed Williamsburg in honor of William of Orange, King William III. Virginia was given its nickname, "The Old Dominion", by King Charles II of England at the time of The Restoration, because it had remained loyal to the crown during the English Civil War.

Independent commonwealth
Virginia sent delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, beginning in 1774. On June 12, 1776, the Virginia Convention adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights written by George Mason, a document that influenced the Bill of Rights added later to the United States Constitution. Then on June 29, 1776, the convention adopted a constitution that established Virginia as a commonwealth independent of the British Empire.

Patrick Henry served as the first Governor of the new commonwealth from 1776 to 1779, and again from 1784 to 1786. In 1780, the capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of then-Governor Thomas Jefferson, who was afraid that Williamsburg's location made it vulnerable to a British attack during the American Revolutionary War.

In the autumn of 1781, the combined action of Continental and French land and naval forces trapped the British on the Yorktown peninsula. Troops under George Washington and French Comte de Rochambeau defeated British General Cornwallis in the crucial Battle of Yorktown. The British surrender on October 19, 1781 ended the major hostilities and secured the independence of the former colonies, though sporadic fighting continued for another two years.

In 1790, both Virginia and Maryland ceded territory to form the new District of Columbia, but in an Act of the U.S. Congress dated July 9, 1846, the area south of the Potomac that had been ceded by Virginia was retroceded to Virginia effective 1847, and is now Arlington County and part of the City of Alexandria.

American Civil War
Virginia is one of the states that seceded from the Union (on April 17, 1861) and operated independently until it joined the Confederacy during the Civil War when it turned over its military on June 8 and ratified the Constitution of the Confederate States on June 19. In 1863, during the Civil War, 48 counties remaining loyal to the Union in the northwest of the state separated from Virginia to form the State Kanawha (later renamed West Virginia), an act which was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1870. More battles were fought on Virginia soil than anywhere else in America during the Civil War. A famous one is the Battle of Bull Run. The city of Richmond served as the capital of the Confederacy during the war. Virginia formally rejoined the union on January 26, 1870, after a period of post-war military rule.

Demographics
The center of population of Virginia is located in Goochland County.

Ethnicity
The five largest reported ancestry groups in Virginia are: African (19.6%), German (11.7%), American (11.2%), English (11.1%), Irish (9.8%).

Historically, as the largest and wealthiest colony and state and the birthplace of Southern and American culture, a large proportion (about half) of Virginia's population was made up of black slaves who worked its tobacco, cotton, and hemp plantations. Initially, these slaves came from west central Africa, primarily Angola. During the eighteenth century, however, about half of them derived from various ethnicities located in the Niger Delta region of modern day Nigeria. The twentieth century Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the urban North reduced Virginia's black population to about 20%.

Religion
The religious affiliations of the people of Virginia are: Virginia is prominently Protestant; Baptists account as the largest single group with 32.1% of the population being members. Roman Catholics are the second-largest group, and also the third fastest growing. Islam, the second fastest growing group, accounts for 0.99% of the population. Buddhism and Hinduism combined form the fastest group, and largest of the "Other Religions" shown above, accounting for 1.00% of the population. About 50% of those practicing non-Christian faiths come from India, 6% from China, 4% from the Middle East, 2% from Guyana, and 38% from other nations.
 * Christian – 76%
 * Protestant – 49%
 * Baptist – 30%
 * Methodist – 7%
 * Episcopal – 3%
 * Presbyterian – 3%
 * Lutheran – 2%
 * Pentecostal – 2%
 * Other Protestant or general Protestant – 2%
 * Roman Catholic – 14%
 * Other Christian – 13%
 * Jewish – 1%
 * Muslim – 1%
 * Other religions 4%
 * Non-religious – 12%

Economy
Virginia, arguably the wealthiest southern state before the Civil War, recovered from the Civil War and the Great Depression much faster than the rest of the South. Today, Virginia is one of the wealthiest states in the South.

Federal Government
Well-known government agencies headquartered in the state include the National Science Foundation, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense. Northern Virginia is a bastion of federal spending, particularly with regards to defense contracting. The Hampton Roads area has the largest concentration of military bases and facilities of any metropolitan area in the world, the largest of these being Naval Station Norfolk. The Hampton Roads area also is home to Air Force and NASA facilities. In addition to the Pentagon, US military bases at Fort Belvoir, Arlington, Norfolk, and Quantico make Virginia the home of more active duty military personnel than any other state.

Technology
According to the American Electronics Association, Virginia has the highest concentration of technology workers of any state. Computer chips became the state's highest-grossing export in 2006, surpassing its traditional top exports of coal and cigarettes, combined. ==Transportation==

Virginia has four major airports.

Virginia is served by a network of Interstate Highways, arterial highways, several limited-access tollways, railroads, ferries, rapid transit, bridges, tunnels and even bridge-tunnels.

The Virginia Department of Transportation operates several free ferries throughout Virginia, the most notable being the Jamestown-Scotland ferry which crosses the James River between historic Jamestown and the community of Scotland in Surry County.

Law and government
The current governor of Virginia is Tim Kaine. The State Capitol building in Richmond was designed by Thomas Jefferson, and the cornerstone was laid by Governor Patrick Henry in 1785.

In colonial Virginia, the lower house of the legislature was called the House of Burgesses. Together with the Governor's Council, the House of Burgesses made up the General Assembly. The Governor's Council was composed of 12 men appointed by the British Monarch to advise the Governor. The Council also served as the General Court of the colony, a colonial equivalent of a Supreme Court. Members of the House of Burgesses were chosen by all those who could vote in the colony. Each county chose two people or burgesses to represent it, while the College of William and Mary and the cities of Norfolk, Williamsburg, and Jamestown each chose one burgess. The Burgesses met to make laws for the colony and set the direction for its future growth; the Council would then review the laws and either approve or disapprove them. The approval of the Burgesses, the Council, and the governor was needed to pass a law. The idea of electing burgesses was important and new. It gave Virginians a chance to control their own government for the first time. At first, the burgesses were elected by all free men in the colony. Women, indentured servants, and Native Americans could not vote. Later the rules for voting changed, making it necessary for men to own at least fifty acres (200,000 m²) of land in order to vote. Founded in 1619, the Virginia General Assembly is still in existence as the oldest legislature in the New World. Today, the General Assembly is made up of the Senate and the House of Delegates.

Like many other states, by the 1850s Virginia featured a state legislature, several executive officers, and an independent judiciary. By the time of the Constitution of 1901, which lasted longer than any other state constitution, the General Assembly continued as the legislature, the Supreme Court of Appeals acted as the judiciary, and the eight elected executive officers were the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of the Commonwealth, State Treasurer, Auditor of Public Accounts, Superintendent of Public Instruction and Commissioner of Agriculture and Immigration. The Constitution of 1901 was amended many times, notably in the 1930s and 1950s, before it was abandoned in favor of more modern government, with fewer elected officials, reformed local governments and a more streamlined judiciary.

Virginia currently functions under the 1971 Constitution of Virginia. It is the Commonwealth's ninth constitution. Under the Constitution, the government is composed of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.

Virginia is one of only five states that elects its state officials in odd numbered years (The others are Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Jersey). Virginia holds elections for these offices every 4 years in the years following Presidential election years. Thus, the last year when Virginia elected a Governor was 2005; the next gubernatorial election will occur in 2009, with future gubernatorial elections to take place in 2013, 2017, 2021, etc.

The legislative branch or state legislature is the Virginia General Assembly, a bicameral body whose 140 members make all laws of the Commonwealth. Members of the Virginia House of Delegates serve two-year terms, while members of the Virginia Senate serve four-year terms. The General Assembly also selects the Commonwealth's Auditor of Public Accounts. The statutory law enacted by the General Assembly is codified in the Code of Virginia.

The executive branch comprises the Governor of Virginia, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, and the Attorney General of Virginia. All three officers are separately elected to four-year terms in years following Presidential elections (1997, 2001, 2005, etc) and take office in January of the following year.

The governor serves as chief executive officer of the Commonwealth and as commander-in-chief of its militia. Virginia law forbids any governor from serving consecutive terms (although a governor may serve multiple non-consecutive terms). The lieutenant governor, who is not elected on the same ticket as the governor, serves as president of the Senate of Virginia and is first in the line of succession to the governor. The attorney general is chief legal advisor to the governor and the General Assembly, chief lawyer of the Commonwealth and the head of the Department of Law. The attorney general is second in the line of succession to the governor. Whenever there is a vacancy in all three executive offices of governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, then the Speaker of the House of the Virginia House of Delegates becomes governor.

The Office of the Governor's Secretaries helps manage the Governor's Cabinet, comprised of the following individuals, all appointed by the governor:
 * Governor's Chief of Staff
 * Secretary of Administration
 * Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry
 * Secretary of Commerce and Trade
 * Secretary of the Commonwealth
 * Secretary of Education
 * Secretary of Finance
 * Secretary of Health and Human Resources
 * Secretary of Natural Resources
 * Secretary of Public Safety
 * Secretary of Technology
 * Secretary of Transportation
 * Assistant to the Governor for Commonwealth Preparedness
 * Counselor to the Governor

The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Virginia Court of Appeals, the General District Courts and the Circuit Courts. The Virginia Supreme Court, composed of the chief justice and six other judges is the highest court in the Commonwealth (although, as with all the states, the U.S. Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over decisions by the Virginia Supreme Court involving substantial questions of U.S. Constitution law or constitutional rights). The Chief Justice and the Virginia Supreme Court also serve as the administrative body for the entire Virginia court system.

The 95 counties and the 39 independent cities all have their own governments, usually a county board of supervisors or city council which choose a city manager or county administrator to serve as a professional, non-political chief administrator under the council-manager form of government. There are exceptions, notably Richmond, which has a popularly-elected mayor who serves as chief executive separate from the city council.

Politics
After William Mahone and the Readjuster Party lost control of Virginia politics around 1883, the Democratic Party held a nearly unchallenged majority position of state and most federal offices through the middle of the 20th century. The Byrd Organization headed by Harry F. Byrd Sr. largely controlled statewide politics. In 1970, Republican A. Linwood Holton Jr. became the first Republican governor in the 20th century effectively ending the influence of the Byrd Organization.

Important cities and towns
Under the laws in effect in Virginia, all municipalities incorporated as cities are independent of any county. As of 2006, 39 of the 42 independent cities in the United States are in Virginia. For a complete list of Virginia independent cities, see: List of cities in Virginia.

Richmond is the capital of Virginia, and the Greater Richmond Region has a population of over 1.2 million people. Richmond, Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia are the most populated areas of the state.

Because Richmond is home to both a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and a Federal Reserve bank, as well as offices for international firms such as Hunton & Williams, LLP, McGuireWoods LLP, Troutman Sanders LLP, CapitalOne, Philip Morris USA, and numerous other banks and brokerages, Richmond is the only city in Virginia cited as having evidence of being a Global city.

Norfolk is home to the world's largest naval base.

Virginia Beach is the most populous city in the commonwealth, with Norfolk and Chesapeake second and third, respectively. Norfolk forms the urban core of this metropolitan area, which is home to over 1.6 million people.

Although it is not incorporated as a city, Fairfax County is the most populous locality in Virginia, estimated in 2005 to have slightly over one million residents. Fairfax has a major urban business and shopping center in Tysons Corner. It and its western neighbor, Loudoun County are ranked as two of the most affluent counties in the nation. Loudoun County also ranked as the fastest-growing county in the United States.

Some other municipalities are incorporated towns, which are not independent of a county but are located within one of the 95 counties in Virginia. For a complete list of Virginia incorporated towns, see: List of towns in Virginia.

Arlington County, which lies across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. and originally part of the District, is an urban community; it is much like a city but remains organized as a county, and has no towns within its borders. It is the smallest self-governing county in the United States, by land area.

Virginia does not have any political subdivisions, such as villages or townships, for areas of counties that are not within the boundaries of incorporated towns.

There are also hundreds of other unincorporated communities (sometimes informally called towns) in Virginia. For a list of important Virginia unincorporated communities, see: List of unincorporated towns in Virginia.

Public, elementary, and secondary schools
See List of school divisions in Virginia

Colleges and universities
According to the popular U.S. News and World Report annual college rankings, two of the top 10 public national universities in the United States are located in Virginia. Only the state of California can claim more public universities ranked in the top 10. The University of Virginia, a World Heritage Site founded by Thomas Jefferson, is ranked #2 and the College of William and Mary, the oldest chartered college in America, is ranked #7. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) is Virginia's Land-grant university. James Madison University is perennially named the #1 master's level university in The South. Virginia is also home to the Virginia Military Institute, the oldest state military college in the United States and the Nation's #1 public liberal arts college for six consecutive years. The largest university in the state in terms of student population is Virginia Commonwealth University.

Trivia

 * When Douglas Wilder became governor of Virginia on January 13, 1990, he became the first African-American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since Reconstruction.


 * Virginia is one of only two states (the other is New Jersey) that elect their governors in years immediately following U.S. presidential election years.


 * Due to a peculiarity of Virginia's original charter, its northern boundary with Maryland does not extend past the low-water mark of the southern shore of the Potomac River, meaning Maryland possesses the whole width of the river rather than it being split between them.


 * Ten ships have been christened USS Virginia in honor of the state.


 * The James Reasoner Civil War Series is a ten-volume set of historical novels set in Culpeper, Virginia.


 * In addition to being the birthplace of eight U.S. Presidents, Virginia is also the birthplace of Sam Houston, a Governor of Tennessee, later a President (1st and 3rd of four) of the Republic of Texas, and still later a U.S. Senator from and a Governor of the state of Texas. This also made him the only person in U.S. history to be a governor of two different states.

State symbols

 * State motto: "Sic semper tyrannis" (Thus always to tyrants)
 * State bird: Cardinal
 * State dog: American Foxhound
 * State nickname: Old Dominion
 * State flower: Dogwood
 * State tree: Dogwood
 * State insect: Tiger swallowtail
 * State bat: Virginia Big-Eared Bat
 * State song: none; the former state song, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny/Virginia", was retired in 1997
 * State dance: Square Dance
 * State boat: Chesapeake Bay deadrise
 * State fish: Brook trout
 * State shell: Oyster
 * State fossil: Chesapecten jeffersonius
 * State beverage: milk
 * State flag: Flag of the Commonwealth
 * State bird: Cardinal

"The flag of the Commonwealth shall hereafter be made of bunting or merino. It shall be a deep blue field, with a circular white centre of the same material. Upon this circle shall be painted or embroidered, to show on both sides alike, the coat of arms of the Commonwealth, as described in § 7.1-26 for the obverse of the great seal of the Commonwealth; and there shall be a white silk fringe on the outer edge, furthest from the flagstaff. This shall be known and respected as the flag of Virginia.(Code 1950, § 7-32; 1966, c. 102.)" The great seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia shall consist of two metallic discs, two and one-fourth inches in diameter, with an ornamental border one fourth of an inch wide, with such words and figures engraved thereon as will, when used, produce impressions to be described as follows: On the obverse, Virtus, the genius of the Commonwealth, dressed as an Amazon, resting on a spear in her right hand, point downward, touching the earth; and holding in her left hand, a sheathed sword, or parazonium, pointing upward; her head erect and face upturned; her left foot on the form of Tyranny represented by the prostrate body of a man, with his head to her left, his fallen crown nearby, a broken chain in his left hand, and a scourge in his right. Above the group and within the border conforming therewith, shall be the word "Virginia", and, in the space below, on a curved line, shall be the motto, "Sic Semper Tyrannis." On the reverse, shall be placed a group consisting of Libertas, holding a wand and pileus in her right hand; on her right, Aeternitas, with a globe and phoenix in her right hand; on the left of Libertas, Ceres, with a cornucopia in her left hand, and an ear of wheat in her right; over this device, in a curved line, the word "Perseverando." (Code 1950, § 7-26; 1966, c. 102.)
 * State seal: The Great Seal.