James River in the context of "Appomattox River"

The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River, about 2.5 mi (4 km) southwest of present-day Williamsburg. It was established by the London Company as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 O.S. (May 14, 1607 N.S.), and considered permanent, after a brief abandonment in 1610. It followed failed attempts, including the Roanoke Colony, established in 1585. Despite the dispatch of more supplies, only 60 of the original 214 settlers survived the 1609–1610 Starving Time. In mid-1610, the survivors abandoned Jamestown, though they returned after meeting a resupply convoy in the James River.

Jamestown served as the colonial capital from 1616 until 1699. In August 1619, the first recorded slaves from Africa to British North America arrived at present-day Old Point Comfort, near the Jamestown colony, on a British privateer ship flying a Dutch flag. The approximately 20 Africans from present-day Angola had been removed by the British crew from a Portuguese slave ship. They most likely worked in the tobacco fields, under a system of race-based indentured servitude. The modern conception of slavery in the British colonies was formalized in 1640, and fully entrenched in Virginia by 1660.

Hampton Roads is a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point near the point at which Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic Ocean. It also gave its name to the surrounding metropolitan region located in the southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina portions of the Tidewater Region.

Comprising the Virginia Beach–Norfolk–Newport News, VA–NC, metropolitan area and an extended combined statistical area that includes the Elizabeth City, North Carolina, micropolitan statistical area and Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, micropolitan statistical area, Hampton Roads is known for its large military presence, ice-free harbor, shipyards, coal piers, and miles of waterfront property and beaches, all of which contribute to the diversity and stability of the region's economy.

The Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line, or Fall Zone, is a 900-mile (1,400 km) escarpment where the Piedmont and Atlantic coastal plain meet in the eastern United States. Much of the Atlantic Seaboard fall line passes through areas where no evidence of faulting is present.

The fall line marks the geologic boundary of hard metamorphosed terrain—the product of the Taconic orogeny—and the sandy, relatively flat alluvial plain of the upper continental shelf, formed of unconsolidated Cretaceous and Cenozoic sediments. Examples of Fall Zone features include the Potomac River's Little Falls and the rapids in Richmond, Virginia, where the James River falls across a series of rapids down to its own tidal estuary.

Williamsburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It had a population of 15,425 at the 2020 census. Located on the Virginia Peninsula, Williamsburg is in the northern part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. It is bordered by James City County on the west and south and York County on the east.

In 1632, English settlers founded Middle Plantation as a fortified settlement on high ground between the James and York rivers and farther inland than their headquarters at Jamestown. The city of Williamsburg was established at the site of Middle Plantation in 1699. It functioned as the capital of the Colony and Commonwealth of Virginia from 1699 to 1780 and became the center of political events in Virginia leading to the American Revolution. The College of William & Mary, established in Middle Plantation in 1693, is the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Of the nine colonial colleges in the U.S., it is the only one located in the American South. Its alumni include three U.S. presidents as well as many other important figures in the nation's early history.

Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the James River, it had a population of 79,009 at the 2020 census, making it the 11th most populous independent city in Virginia. The city is nicknamed the "City of Seven Hills" or the "Hill City." Lynchburg was founded in 1757 by John Lynch, a Quaker ferry operator and abolitionist. During the American Civil War, Lynchburg’s strategic importance helped it remain the only major city in Virginia not recaptured by Union forces before the war’s end.

Lynchburg anchors the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) which lies near the geographic center of Virginia and is the fifth-largest MSA in the state with a population of 261,593. The city is a regional hub for education, home to several institutions of higher learning including Liberty University, the University of Lynchburg, Randolph College, Virginia University of Lynchburg, and Central Virginia Community College.

Chesterfield County is a county located just south of Richmond in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county's borders are primarily defined by the James River to the north and the Appomattox River to the south. Its county seat is Chesterfield Court House.

Chesterfield County was formed in 1749 from parts of Henrico County. It was named for Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, a prominent English statesman who had been the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

State Route 150 (SR 150) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. Known as Chippenham Parkway, the state highway runs 15.19 miles (24.45 km) from Interstate 95 (I-95) and SR 895 in Bensley north to Parham Road and River Road near Tuckahoe in Henrico County. SR 150 is a four- to six-lane circumferential highway that connects the Chesterfield County suburbs of Richmond with western Henrico County and, via SR 895, eastern Henrico County and Richmond International Airport. The highway is a freeway except for a short stretch east of SR 147 in Richmond. SR 150 has junctions with all of the radial highways south of the James River, including I-95, U.S. Route 1 (US 1), US 301, US 360, US 60, and SR 76.

Midlothian (/mɪdˈloʊθiən/ mid-LOH-thee-ən) is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States. Settled as a coal town, Midlothian village experienced suburbanization effects and is now part of the western suburbs of Richmond, south of the James River in the Greater Richmond Region. Because of its unincorporated status, Midlothian has no formal government, and the name is used to represent the original small Village of Midlothian and a vast expanse of Chesterfield County in the northwestern portion of Southside Richmond served by the Midlothian post office.

The Village of Midlothian was named for the early 18th-century coal mining enterprises of the Wooldridge family. Incorporated in 1836, their Mid-Lothian Mining and Manufacturing Company employed free and enslaved people to do the deadly work of digging underground. Midlothian is the site of the first commercially-mined coal in the Colony of Virginia and North America.

The Harrison family of Virginia has a history in American politics, public service, and religious ministry, beginning in the Colony of Virginia during the 1600s. Family members include a Founding Father of the United States, Benjamin Harrison V, and three U. S. presidents: William Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison, and Abraham Lincoln. Some Harrisons have served as state and local public officials and others have been instrumental in education, medicine, and business. Entertainer Elvis Presley is also in their number.

The Virginia Harrisons comprise two branches, both originating in northern England. One branch was led by Benjamin Harrison I, who journeyed from Yorkshire by way of Bermuda to Virginia before 1633 and eventually settled on the James River at Berkeley Plantation; Benjamin and his descendants are often referred to as the James River Harrisons. Successive generations of this part of the family served in the legislature of the Colony of Virginia. Benjamin Harrison V also served in the Continental Congress, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and later was Governor of Virginia.

The blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) is a large species of North American catfish, reaching a length of 65 in (170 cm) and a weight of 143 lb (65 kg). The continent's largest catfish, it can live to 20 years, with a typical fish being between 25–46 in (64–117 cm) and 30–70 lb (14–32 kg). Native distribution is primarily in the Mississippi River and Louisiana drainage systems, including the Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Arkansas Rivers, the Des Moines River in south-central Iowa, the Rio Grande, and south along the Gulf Coast to Belize and Guatemala.

An omnivorous predator, it has been introduced in a number of reservoirs and rivers, notably the Santee Cooper lakes of Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie in South Carolina, the James River in Virginia, Powerton Lake in Pekin, Illinois, and Lake Springfield in Springfield, Illinois. It is also found in some lakes in Florida.