TheFifth Virginia Convention was a meeting of thePatriotlegislature ofVirginia held inWilliamsburg from May 6 to July 5, 1776. This Convention declaredVirginia an independentstate and produced its firstconstitution and theVirginia Declaration of Rights.

The previousFourth Virginia Convention had taken place inWilliamsburg, in December 1775. InPhiladelphia, theSecond Continental Congress appointedGeorge Washington commander of theContinental Army troops that then surroundedBoston, and Virginia patriots defeated an advancingBritish force at theBattle of Great Bridge southeast ofNorfolk.

The newly elected delegates to the Fifth Virginia Convention re-electedEdmund Pendleton as its president on his return from Philadelphia as presiding officer of theFirst Continental Congress. The membership could be thought of as belonging to one of three groups: radicals from western Virginia, who had agitated for independence fromBritain even before 1775; philosophers of theAmerican Enlightenment; and wealthy planters, largely from the east. A malapportionment of delegates granted disproportionate influence to this latter group.^[1]

The Convention convened from May 6 to July 5, 1776, at the colonial capitol inWilliamsburg. It electedEdmund Pendleton its presiding officer after his return as president of theFirst Continental Congress inPhiladelphia.

There were three parties in the Fifth Convention. The first was mainly made up of wealthy planters, who sought to continue their hold on local government as it had grown up during colonial Virginia's history. These includedRobert Carter Nicholas Sr., who opposed theDeclaration of Independence fromKing George III. It dominated the convention by a malapportionment that lent an advantage to the slaveholding east. This party likely ensured the continuation of slavery at a time when other states had already begun ending it withgradual emancipation.^[1] It ensured the continued self-perpetuating gentry rule of county government with a franchise limited by property requirements underpinning the republican form of state government.^[2] The second party was made up of the intellectuals of theEnlightenment-era lawyers, physicians, and aspiring young men. These included the older generation ofGeorge Mason,George Wythe,Edmund Pendleton, and the youngerThomas Jefferson andJames Madison.^[3] The third party was a minority of young men mainly from western Virginia in present-dayWest Virginia. This party was led byPatrick Henry and others who supported independence fromBritain prior to 1775.^[4]

On May 15, the Convention declared that the government of Virginia as "formerly exercised" byKing George III inParliament was "totally dissolved" in light of the King's repeated injuries and his "abandoning the helm of government and declaring us out of his allegiance and protection".^[5] The Convention adopted a set of three resolutions: one calling for a declaration of rights for Virginia, one calling for the establishment of a republican constitution, and a third calling for federal relations with whichever other colonies would have them and alliances with whichever foreign countries would have them. It also instructed its delegates to the Continental Congress inPhiladelphia to declare independence. Virginia's congressional delegation was the only one under unconditional positive instructions to declare independence; Virginia was already independent of Parliament as the "fourth realm" ofBritish Empire, but its convention did not want their state, in the words ofBenjamin Franklin, to "hang separately."

According toJames Madison's correspondence for that day,Williamsburg residents marked the occasion by taking down the Union Jack from over the colonial capitol and running up a continental union flag, keeping theUnion Jack of the British Empire in the canton and adding the thirteen red and white stripes of the self-governingEast India Company.^[6]

On June 7,Richard Henry Lee, one of Virginia's delegates to theSecond Continental Congress inPhiladelphia, carried out the instructions to propose independence in the language the convention had commanded him to use: that "these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." The resolution was followed in Congress by the adoption of the AmericanDeclaration of Independence, which reflected its ideas.^[7]

The convention amended, and on June 12 adopted,George Mason'sDeclaration of Rights, a precursor to theUnited States Bill of Rights. On June 29, the convention approved the firstConstitution of Virginia. The convention selectedPatrick Henry as the firstgovernor of the newCommonwealth of Virginia, and Henry was inaugurated as governor on June 29, 1776, allowing Virginia to establish a functioning republican constitution a few days before theSecond Continental Congress declared theirindependence on July 4, 1776.^[7]

The delegates to the Virginia Convention of 1776 – elected in 1776(One hundred and thirty-two members, two from each county, and one each from the Boroughs of Jamestown, Williamsburg, Norfolk, and the College of William and Mary)^[8]

• Virginia Conventions

• Andrews, Matthew Page (1937).Virginia, the Old Dominion. Doubleday, Doran & Company.ASIN B0006E942K.
• Grigsby, Hugh Blair (1855).The Virginia Convention of 1776. Da Capo Press, NY.ISBN 978-1-4290-1760-2.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Heinemann, Ronald L. (2008).Old Dominion, New Commonwealth: a history of Virginia, 1607-2007. University of Virginia Press.ISBN 978-0-8139-2769-5.
• Pulliam, David Loyd (1901).The Constitutional Conventions of Virginia from the foundation of the Commonwealth to the present time. John T. West, Richmond.ISBN 978-1-2879-2059-5.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Tartar, Brent (2013).The Grandees of Government: the origins and persistence of undemocratic politics in Virginia. University of Virginia Press.ISBN 978-0-8139-3431-0.

• Dunaway, W. F. (1904).The Virginia Conventions of the Revolution. The Virginia Law Register.

• 1776 in Virginia
• 1776 in American politics
• American constitutional conventions
• Virginia in the American Revolution

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