Richmond
Richmond, Virginia, United StatesThe Americas
City on the James River where the General Assembly of Virginia sat in 1785–86 and passed the Act for Establishing Religious Freedom.
The enrolled acts of the session that passed the Act for Establishing Religious Freedom are headed as those of a General Assembly begun and held at the public buildings in the city of Richmond on 17 October 1785 (Virginia, Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, heading of the enrolled acts). See Religious Freedom in the United States.
What happened here
- 1786 to 1791, firm dateReligious Freedom in the United States
In January 1786 Virginia enacts Jefferson’s statute that no one shall be compelled to support any worship or suffer for his religious opinions. The federal Constitution bars religious tests, and the First Amendment, ratified in 1791, forbids Congress to establish a religion.