The dawn of 2019 will bring a number of 400-year observances to Virginia. Schoolchildren across the state once were taught that 1619 was the “red-letter year” in Virginia because three important things happened: women arrived; slaves arrived; the House of Burgesses began to meet and continues to meet as the Virginia General Assembly, one of the oldest representative legislative bodies in the world.

The House of Burgesses is something to celebrate. Women were bound to come to Jamestown sooner or later (a few had already lived and died in the colony).

The presence of slaves to provide labor for the growing colony was an early stain; the existence and growth of slavery became a continuing source of tension in the young country that came into being in 1776 by declaring that “all men are created equal.” The bloodshed of hundreds of thousands of soldiers from 1861-65 led to the abolition of slavery; however, Virginians and Americans are still grappling with aftereff...