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The history of Norfolk, Virginia as a modern settlement begins in 1636. The city formally was incorporated in 1736. The city was burned by orders of the outgoing colonial governor in 1776, though was rebuilt. The 19th century proved to be a time of numerous travails for the both the city of Norfolk, and the region as whole. War, epidemics, fires, and economic depression reduced the development of the city. The city grew into the region's economic hub. By the late 19th century, the Norfolk and Western Railway established the community as a major coal export port and built a large trans-loading facility at Lambert's Point. It became the terminus for numerous railroads, linking its ports to inland regions of Virginia and North Carolina, and at the turn of the 20th century the coal mining regions of Appalachia. . Princess Anne and Norfolk Counties would become leaders in truck farming, producing over half of all greens and potatoes consumed on the east coast. Lynnhaven oysters also became a major export. The region's African Americans achieved full emancipation following the Civil War, only to be faced with severe discrimination through white legislators' later imposition of Jim Crow Laws. After Virginia passed a new constitution, African Americans were essentially disfranchised for more than 60 years until their leadership and activism won passage of federal civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s. In 1907, it was host to the Jamestown Exposition commemorating the tercennary of the settlement at Jamestown, the only world's fair to ever be held in Virginia. As a result of its publicity and visits by high-ranking officials during the exposition (in which the Great White Fleet was launched), it became the location of Norfolk Naval Station. Today, Norfolk is a major naval and shipping hub, as well as the center of the Hampton Roads region. ==Pre-colonial== The first evidence of humans inhabiting Virginia is from 9,500 BC. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh led an expedition in search of a suitable place to establish a permanent English settlement in North America. By mid-July of that year, two of his ships had landed on Roanoke Island (now a part of Dare County). Arthur Barlowe, one of Raleigh's commanders, kept a journal which states the area was inhabited by a tribe of Native Americans called the Chesepian. According to Barlowe, the local Chesepians claimed that a nearby city called Skicoak was the Chesepians' greatest city. However, the exact location of ''Skicoak'' has remained undetermined. When Jamestown settlers arrived at Cape Henry (in present-day Virginia Beach) almost 23 years later in April 1607, they found no traces of ''Skicoak''. According to William Strachey's ''The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britanica'' (1612), the Chesepians had been wiped out by Chief Wahunsunacock (better known as Chief Powhatan), the head of the Virginia Peninsula-based Powhatan Confederacy in the intervening years. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Norfolk, Virginia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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