This page contains a curated list of resources on the history of the Virginia Constitution. To the extent possible, links are to publicly accessible copies of the sources listed. Where that is not possible, the link directs to an online database.
Convention & Commission Records
1775-76
Proceedings of the Virginia Convention of 1775
Journal of the Convention of Virginia, 1775 & 1776
1829-30
Proceedings and Debates of the Virginia State Convention of 1829–1830
1850-51
Journal, Acts and Proceedings of a General Convention of the State of Virginia, Assembled at Richmond, on Monday: The Fourteenth Day of October, Eighteen Hundred and Fifty
1861 (Secession Conventions)
Journals and Papers of the Virginia State Convention of 1861
1861-63 (Wheeling Conventions)
Virginia Conventions in Wheeling
Journal of the Convention Assembled at Wheeling: On the 11th of June, 1861
1864 (Restored Governments’ Convention)
Journal of the Constitutional Convention which convened at Alexandria on the 13th day of February 1864
1867-68
Documents of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Virginia, 1867-1868
1901-02
Journal of the Constitutional Convention of Virginia. Held in the City of Richmond, beginning June 12th, 1901
Report of the Proceedings and Debates of the Constitutional Convention, State of Virginia, Volume II, 1901-1902
1927
Report of Citizens Committee on Consolidation and Simplification in State and Local Government (February 10, 2027)
Summary of the Report of the Commission to Suggest Amendments to the Constitution
1945
Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the Commonwealth of Virginia to Amend the Constitution of Virginia for Voting by Certain Members of the Armed Forces: Held in the Old Hall of the House of Delegates in the State Capitol at Richmond April 30, May 1, 2, 22, 1945
1956
Journal of the Constitutional Convention to revise and amend sec. 141 of the Constitution of Virginia held in the Old Hall of the House of Delegates in the State Capitol at Richmond, March 5, 6, 7, 1956
1969
Report of the Commission on Constitutional Revision (January 1, 1969)
Books
A.E. Dick Howard, Commentaries on the Constitution of Virginia (1974)
Brent Tarter, Constitutional History of Virginia (2023)
John Dinan, The Virginia State Constitution (2014 2d Edition)
William G. Shade, Democratizing the Old Dominion: Virginia and the Second Party System, 1824-1861 (1996)
Articles
A.E. Dick Howard, Constitutional Revision: Virginia and the Nation, 9 U. Rich. L. Rev. 1 (1974)
A.E. Dick Howard, Who Belongs: The Constitution of Virginia and the Political Community, 37 J.L. & Pol. 99 (2021)
Brent Tarter, The Virginia Constitution of 1971: The First Half Century, 129 Va. Mag. Hist. & Biography 290 (2021)
Craig Simpson, Political Compromise and the Protection of Slavery: Henry A. Wise and the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850–1851, 83 Va. Mag. Hist. & Biography 387 (1975)
D. R. Anderson, Jefferson and the Virginia Constitution, 21 Am. Hist. Rev. 750 (1916)
John Dinan, Amendments to Virginia’s 1971 Constitution, 129 Va. Mag. Hist. & Biography 322 (2021)
John E. Selby, Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, and the Virginia Constitution of 1776, 84 Va. Mag. Hist. & Biography 387 (1976)
Leron Rountree Hassell, Sr., The Evolution of Virginia’s Constitutions: A Celebration of the Rule of Law in America, 20 Regent U. L. Rev. 1 (2008)
Marvin T. Chiles, “A Period of Misunderstanding”: Reforming Jim Crow in Richmond, Virginia, 1930–1954, 129 Va. Mag. Hist. & Biography 244 (2021)
R. K. Gooch, The Recent Limited Constitutional Convention in Virginia, 31 Va. L. Rev. 708 (1945)
The Virginia Constitution: A Documentary Analysis, 10 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 511 (1968)
W. F. Dunaway, Jr., The Virginia Conventions of the Revolution, 10 Va. L. Reg. 567 (1904)
Wythe W. Holt, Jr., Constitutional Revision in Virginia, 1902 and 1928: Some Lessons on Roadblocks to Institutional Reform, 54 Va. L. Rev. 903 (1968)
Government Publications
Historical Election Results, Virginia Department of Elections
Additional Databases & Resource Lists
Virginia Chronicle Digital Archive
Virginia Constitutions Digital Collection
The Virginia Amendments Project
