Hampton

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Hampton is an independent city in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of southeastern Virginia, situated on the Chesapeake Bay and the north shore of Hampton Roads, opposite Norfolk. Hampton lies on the Chesapeake Bay and the north shore of the Hampton Roads natural roadstead, opposite Norfolk, to which it is linked by the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. One of the oldest continuously occupied English settlements in the United States, Hampton possesses a layered history spanning Indigenous habitation, colonial founding, Revolutionary and Civil War action, the rise of Hampton University, and the birth of American aerospace science. Hampton Roads contains seven independent cities, including Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Suffolk, and Williamsburg. For visitors traveling from Virginia Beach, Hampton is easily reached via the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and serves as an essential destination within the broader region.

Early History and Colonial Founding

For thousands of years, native peoples relied on the abundance of seafood, game, and crops harvested from the region's rich natural resources. The Native American settlement of Kecoughtan was one of the jewels in the crown of Powhatan's powerful confederacy on the eve of Europeans' arrival.

During the first days of English exploration, the colonists identified the site of Old Point Comfort as a strategic defensive location at the entrance to the body of water that became known as Hampton Roads. This is formed by the confluence of the Elizabeth, Nansemond, and James rivers, the latter being the longest river in Virginia. On May 14, 1607, they established the first permanent English settlement in the present-day United States about 25 miles further inland from the Bay.

Captain John Smith and the Virginia Company built Fort Algernon on what is now Fort Monroe in 1609. By 1610, English settlers had firmly established themselves in the area. St. John's Episcopal Church was established in 1610, when English settlers from Jamestown established a community and church on the tip of the Virginia Peninsula on July 9, 1610, one month after Lord De La Warr arrived at Jamestown with supplies that effectively ended the Starving Time in that settlement. St. John's Church is the oldest English-speaking parish in America, founded in 1610. The present church building, completed in 1728, is the fourth structure to stand on behalf of the parish and is the only building standing today that survived the town's burning during the Civil War.

A pivotal and troubling event occurred in August 1619. In August 1619, the site witnessed a tragic chapter in American history — the arrival of the first Africans transported to Virginia unwillingly. They had been seized from a Portuguese slave ship by a privateer bearing a Dutch letter of marque and, although they were considered indentured servants at the time, the incident is recognized as the beginning of slavery in the British North American colonies.

Hampton was named for Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, an important leader of the Virginia Company of London, for whom the Hampton River, Hampton Roads, and Southampton County were also named. The area became part of Elizabeth Cittie in 1619, Elizabeth River Shire in 1634, and was included in Elizabeth City County when it was formed in 1643. By 1680, the settlement was known as Hampton, and it was incorporated as a town in 1705 and became the seat of Elizabeth City County. Incorporated as a town in 1849 and as a city in 1908, Hampton merged with Elizabeth City County and the town of Phoebus in 1952.

Fort Monroe and the Civil War

Designed by French military engineer General Simon Bernard and built between 1819 and 1834 in response to the War of 1812, Fort Monroe is the largest of the Third System fortifications in the United States. Known as the "Gibraltar of the Chesapeake," Fort Monroe was designed to protect the bay's inland waters from attack by sea.

Fort Monroe was the only federal military installation in the Upper South to remain under United States control throughout the American Civil War (1861–1865). Its role in the war extended well beyond simple garrisoning. Fort Monroe played an important part in numerous Union initiatives: a crucial link in the Anaconda Plan's naval blockade, the launch point for the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, and logistical support for gunboat operations based out of City Point during the late-war Petersburg Campaign.

Perhaps the most consequential chapter in the fort's history unfolded in May 1861. Just six weeks after the Civil War began, three enslaved men — Frank Baker, James Townsend, and Shepard Mallory — escaped from behind Confederate lines and sought refuge at Fort Monroe. Commanding General Benjamin Butler refused to return the fugitives and declared the three men contraband of war. Soon, thousands of enslaved African Americans from all over the region descended on Fort Monroe in pursuit of freedom and sanctuary. This event fundamentally changed the meaning of the Civil War from states' rights to the immorality of slavery, and marked the beginning of the end of slavery in the United States.

As the Civil War continued, the "Contraband" Doctrine formed at Fort Monroe became the basis for a series of Confiscation Acts passed by Congress and capped by the Emancipation Proclamation, tying the end of slavery to the Union's expansion across the South and definitively shifting the meaning of the Civil War from Union to Emancipation.

In March 1862, the naval Battle of Hampton Roads took place off Sewell's Point between two early ironclad warships, CSS Virginia and USS Monitor. While the outcome was inconclusive, the battle marked a change in naval warfare and the end to wooden fighting ships. After the war, former Confederate president Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe from 1865 to 1867.

Fort Monroe remained an active military post until 2011, when it was decommissioned as part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process and its functions transferred to nearby Fort Eustis. On November 1, 2011, President Barack Obama used his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act to declare Fort Monroe a national monument and the 396th unit of the National Park System.

Hampton University

The Grand Contraband Camp that grew outside Fort Monroe during the Civil War planted the seed for one of the most significant institutions in American history. The facility that would ultimately be home to more than 10,000 formerly enslaved persons quickly became a locus for education of African Americans, which had been forbidden in Virginia, ultimately leading to the founding of Hampton University.

Hampton University (now known by that name) was founded in 1868 through the efforts of General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, local agent of the Freedmen's Bureau, to train the many former enslaved African Americans who had gathered in the area. Though begun with only fifteen students and two teachers, the institute prospered and was chartered as the Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute in 1870.

The campus houses the Hampton University Museum, which is the oldest museum of the African diaspora in the United States and the oldest museum in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Hampton University's main campus is located on 314 acres in Hampton, Virginia, on the banks of the Hampton River.

Booker T. Washington, the most famous 19th-century graduate of the institution, infused the "Hampton Idea" into the Tuskegee Institute, which he founded in 1881 in central Alabama. Hampton was also unique in that it opened its doors to Native American students.

On July 1, 1930, the school's name was changed to Hampton Institute, reflecting college-level accreditation. In 1984, Hampton's Board of Trustees formally adopted a university structure and changed the name to Hampton University. Hampton University is home to 16 research centers, including the Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute, the largest free-standing facility of its kind in the world.

Aerospace and Military Legacy

Hampton's relationship with aviation and space exploration is unmatched among American cities of its size. In 1916, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NASA's predecessor) determined that an airfield and proving ground was needed for Army, Navy, and NACA aircraft. A plot of land along Back River in Hampton was chosen, and Langley Field, named for aeronautical researcher Samuel Pierpont Langley, became the nation's first experimentation site for aviation.

The Langley Research Center (LaRC or NASA Langley), located in Hampton, Virginia, near the Chesapeake Bay front of Langley Air Force Base, is the oldest of NASA's field centers. LaRC has focused primarily on aeronautical research but has also tested space hardware such as the Apollo Lunar Module.

According to NASA, the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory was founded just three months after America's entry into World War I, and was established as the nation's first civilian facility focused on aeronautical research. During World War II, Langley tested planes like the P-51 Mustang in the nation's first wind tunnel built for full-size aircraft. According to NASA, the changes made to warplanes like the P-51 decreased fuel use and increased speeds — a combination that reportedly helped win the war.

The West Area Computers were African American female mathematicians who worked as human computers at the Langley Research Center from 1943 through 1958. The West Computers were originally subject to Virginia's Jim Crow laws and got their name because they worked at Langley's West Area, while the white mathematicians worked in the East section. Their story, later dramatized in the film and book *Hidden Figures*, has become one of the most celebrated chapters of Hampton's history.

Langley Research Center claims many historic firsts, including the development of the concept of research aircraft leading to supersonic flight, the world's first transonic wind tunnel, training the first crews of astronauts, the Lunar Landing Facility which provides the simulation of lunar gravity, and the Viking program for Mars exploration. Neil Armstrong, who was the first human to set foot on the moon, trained at Langley's Lunar Landing Research Facility.

NASA's Langley Research Center is comprised of nearly 200 facilities on 764 acres in Hampton, Virginia, and employs about 3,400 civil servants and contractors.

Beaches, Waterfront, and Natural Areas

Hampton, Virginia enjoys free beach access at Buckroe Beach, Grandview Nature Preserve, and Outlook Beach. As the home of the world's greatest natural harbor, water is a way of life in Hampton, Virginia.

Grandview Nature Preserve is open to the public and forms the northeast corner of the city of Hampton. The Preserve covers over 475 acres of salt marsh, tidal creeks, and Chesapeake Bay beachfront. The Preserve is a great location to beachcomb, observe migratory birds, and practice photography.

Surrounded by water on all sides, the Fort Monroe beaches extend for miles and offer some of the best views in all of the Chesapeake Bay. Outlook Beach, Fort Monroe's public beach, is the perfect place for swimming, sunning, and relaxing, open sunrise to sunset.

Hampton's beach history carries deeper significance tied to the era of racial segregation. In 1898, a bookkeeper at Hampton Institute, now known as Hampton University, got an idea to create a beachfront escape for Black people in the region, and that place became the popular resort known as Bay Shore Beach. The beach was one of the most popular resort and vacation destinations in the Mid-Atlantic region for African Americans. From the late 1940s through the early 1960s, Bay Shore continued to be a vital part of the Black community. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed the segregationist policies that gave rise to Bay Shore, marked the beginning of its decline with the loss of revenue as patrons now had access to a greater range of entertainment. The City of Hampton assumed ownership of Bay Shore in 1978.

Relationship with Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads

Hampton and Virginia Beach are closely linked neighbors within the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, united by shared geography, history, and economy. Virginia Beach is part of a metropolitan area called Hampton Roads, named for the shipping lanes that ran through this region in colonial times. The Virginia Beach–Norfolk–Newport News, VA–NC, MSA has an estimated 2023 population of 1,787,169, making it the 37th-largest metropolitan area in the United States.

Like much of this storied region, Newport News, Hampton, and Portsmouth are all known for their place in the nation's earliest history and their part in the country's military presence. Hampton's proximity to Virginia Beach makes it an easy day trip for visitors to the region; the two cities share access to Chesapeake Bay beaches, a rich maritime culture, and a deep connection to the United States military.

The history of Hampton, a small southern city, has the ability to illuminate the arc of American history in a unique way, at once personal and complex, and fundamental in America's early settlement, education, slavery, war, and modern technology and innovation.