By 1860, the population of Virginia had reached over one and a half million including 490,865 slaves and 58,042 free Negroes. From 1851 to 1861, four counties were added: Craig (formed from Botetourt, Giles, Monroe and Roanoke Counties and named for Robert Craig, a Virginia Congressman), Wise (formed from Lee, Scott and Russell Counties and named for Henry Alexander Wise, Governor of Virginia, 1856-1860), Buchanan (formed from Tazewell and Russell Counties and named in honor of President James Buchanan) and Bland (formed from Giles, Wythe and Tazewell Counties and named for Richard Bland, a Virginia statesman during the Revolutionary War Period). S U M M A R Y After Virginia had furnished many leaders for the First Continental Congress, another special Virginia convention was held in Richmond where a resolution for military preparedness was passed and delegates were elected to the Second Continental Congress. Three additional special conventions were later held in the Virginia colony alone which resulted in the abdication of the last colonial Governor of the colony, the declaration of Virginia as a free and independent State, the writing of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the adoption of an official State seal and motto, the creation and adoption of a State Constitution establishing the Commonwealth of Virginia, the adoption of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and the eventual ratification of the United States Constitution. In the political field, the names of Patrick Henry, Peyton Randolph, George Washington, George Mason, George Wythe, Edmund Pendleton, James Madison, Edmund Randolph, Archibald Cary, Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe suggest numerous contributions made by Virginians during the period, 1775-1860. Virginians also had major roles in the military history of our country during this same period: George Washington, John Mühlenberg, Henry Lee, Jack Jouett, Andrew Lewis, Daniel Morgan, John Paul Jones, Samuel Houston, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott and Robert E. Lee. In the meantime, the capital had been moved from Williamsburg to Richmond, Virginia had ceded its Northwest Territory to the new national government and Yorktown had become internationally famous as the area where the British had surrendered to the Americans. It is a unique historical fact that the site where the British armies were forced to surrender in 1781 was located only a few miles from the site where the first permanent English settlement in America was established. The Presidency of George Washington started the so-called "Virginia Dynasty" of Presidents. By 1861, the Commonwealth had furnished the United States with seven Virginia-born Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler and Zachary Taylor. For this achievement, Virginia has earned the title of "Mother of Presidents."