Why did West Virgina seperate from Virgina in the first place???

  • Thread starter Thread starter ~Carolynn~
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West Virginia was overrun by Union troops in 1861. These were some of the few significant Union victories in the first two years of the Civil War. Since there was no cotton crop in West Virgina, slave labor was not especially useful and there were few slaves. B/c there was no cotton crop and few slaves, people in West Virginia had no good reason to align thmselves with the ideals of the Confederacy. When the troops of General George McClellen defeated the hapless Rebels in western Virginia in 1861 (just after the war had begun), it looked to the people of western VA that the Confederacy were going to be the ultimate losers, and that the benefits of remaining part of the rich and prosperous Union were obvious. It was a no-brainer.
 
There was a cultural difference between Virginia and West Virginia. Virginia favored big plantations and the slave trade. The western counties stuck to small farms and had few slaves. They also had mines.

When the Civil War happened, Virginia chose to secede and the western counties opposed it. Many of their folk fought on the side of the Union. Before the end of the war, the state of West Virginia was admitted to the Union because (1) the western counties wanted their freedom from the state government that didn't fairly deal with them and (2) it was a political victory for the Union. It encouraged other areas in rebellion against the Confederacy (not the Union) to fight to rejoin the Union.
 
Western Virginia was not happy with a multitude of things that the central Virginia government on the east side of the mountains had done. They disliked the taxes and rules being imposed upon them. Numerous politicians took advantage of the Succession of Virginia from the Union to create an alternative government that ratified and approved the split, creating the new state.

This is the best, straight-forward answer on the net.
 
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