A look at Query 1 of Notes on the State of Virginia: The Boundaries of Virginia

“In the beginning,” asserted William Byrd II, “all America was Virginia.” In this first chapter, Jefferson delineates a State of Virginia that is far and away the largest territory of the United States, encompassing Kentucky (a part of Virginia until 1790) and West Virginia (made a state in 1863). By itself, this undivided Virginia is “one third larger than the islands of Great Britain and Ireland,” and comprises two-fifths of the entire American Republic. Though a seaboard state, Jefferson’s Virginia is essentially a land of the west: “of 121525 square miles,…79650,” or more than 65 per cent, “lie westward of the Allegany mountains.” Jefferson’s account of Virginia’s borders acknowledges the state’s cession of its claims northwest of the Ohio River, completed on 1 March 1784; but his discussion of its features (especially its rivers) frequently extends to the state’s pre-cession borders (and beyond). This first Query is devoted to delimiting the boundaries of the state; much of the rest of Notes proceeds to blur those borders.