Why Virginia Split Into Two States 🇺🇸🤯 Union vs Confederacy

America has several “twin” states: two Dakotas, two Virginias and two Carolinas 🇺🇸 Each of these pairs was once united, but Virginia and West Virginia were divided because of slavery during the American Civil War. Virginia was founded in 1606 as the first permanent English colony in North America and later became part of the United States. When the Civil War split America between the Union in the North and the Confederacy in the South, Virginia joined the Confederacy and Richmond became its capital. But the mountainous western counties refused to leave the Union ⛰️ This region had more mines and small farms and far fewer plantations and enslaved people, so its residents saw little reason to fight for slavery. In the middle of the Civil War, western Virginia broke away, formed its own government and stayed with the Union. In 1863, it officially became the new U.S. state of West Virginia, which remains separate from Virginia to this day. #virginia #westvirginia #americanhistory #ushistory #union #confederacy #states #border #weirdborders #virginiaborder #virginiahistory #usa #unitedstates #learn #maps #learning #history #geography #map