Could the Shenandoah Valley have become a separate U.S. state from the rest of Virginia?
Perhaps at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the settlers of the Shenandoah Valley could proclaim their independence as a separate government, similar to the Vermont Republic. The narrow entrances to the Shenandoah Valley could have been defended with a few forts. Charging for passage along the Great Wagon Road could have provided an income source for the small republic during its brief time of independence.
After the American Revolutionary War is over, the Shenandoah Republic would soon join the United States, but distinct from Virginia, similar to Vermont's separation from New York.
How would a Shenandoah state affect the development of the United States interior? And if it had been independent as a largely Quaker-Mennonite-yeoman farmer settled area, would the Shenandoah Valley side with the Union in the American Civil War?
Perhaps at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the settlers of the Shenandoah Valley could proclaim their independence as a separate government, similar to the Vermont Republic. The narrow entrances to the Shenandoah Valley could have been defended with a few forts. Charging for passage along the Great Wagon Road could have provided an income source for the small republic during its brief time of independence.
After the American Revolutionary War is over, the Shenandoah Republic would soon join the United States, but distinct from Virginia, similar to Vermont's separation from New York.
How would a Shenandoah state affect the development of the United States interior? And if it had been independent as a largely Quaker-Mennonite-yeoman farmer settled area, would the Shenandoah Valley side with the Union in the American Civil War?