Of course it’s important to the colony.

It’s where the center of crops are usually harvested (Tobacco, Sugar cane, Indigo), it took on a role of being one of the first colony’s to actually establish a nice economy in the colony’s

Virginia is almost a swing state. Slavery did flourish there in the 1700s and her politicians were heavily involved in the creation of the nation and she had power when it came to laws favorable to slavery. Later as slavery grew more powerful in the cotton rich regions of the Deep South (Alabama, Mississippi) the center of the slavery movement shifted south away from Virginia.

At the time of the Civil War there was almost no doubt Virginia would go with the South. With the capital being in Richmond, Virginia is now considered a solid part of the Confederate South.

When West Virginia seceded from Virginia in 1863 and joined the Union, that was big blow to the Confederacy.