Peopling the Shenandoah Valley

"Staunton, Va. / drawn from nature by Ed. Beyer" print by Woldemar Rau, 1857

Library of Congress

The Shenandoah Valley supported human settlement for thousands of years that continues today. Virginia's colonial land policies meant both opportunity for colonists but danger for those human buffers against colonial conflicts. Not all settlement was voluntary; enslaved inhabitants shaped the Valley's history too.