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• Reconstruction ended in Virginia with a compromise whereby blacks were granted the vote. Black
gains continued until about 1885.
• After Confederate veterans gained control of Virginia politics, black gains were gradually reversed,
and the vote was effectively lost by 1902. Poor whites were also disfranchised, and a closed political system came into operation that lasted until the 1960s.
• After the Civil War, Virginians embraced economic development and technological change. With
equal fervor Virginians resisted political, social, and especially racial change.
• As Virginia went forward in many ways and living standards improved for most people, society was
rigidly segregated by race. In response, African Virginians established their own parallel institutions--churches,
clubs, businesses, and schools.
• Not all Virginians shared equally in the rising prosperity. New technologies coexisted with
ancient handicraft traditions.
• The coming of the Industrial Revolution to Virginia meant that many Virginians lost their
economic independence and became wage or salary employees.
• Men continued their monopoly of politics and near-monopoly of business, but women
carved out spheres of action in social welfare, philanthropy, and the arts.
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