When West Virginia was admitted to the Union after it broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War, it inherited Virginia's sodomy laws. This is because West Virginia's first constitution authorized that laws of Virginia in effect at the time of separation would remain in force. The punishment for sodomy was 1-5 years in jail. In 1930, a code revision eliminated the term "buggery" and replaced it with "crimes against nature." The punishment for "crimes against nature." in the code revision was "not less than one nor more than ten years" in the penitentiary (a prison for people convicted of serious crimes).