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Unit 2 Jamestown 1607
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Jamestown
1607
1st attempt to settle by England
Roanoke
1st attempt: Sir Walter Raleigh
-food shortage, problems with NA, colonists gave up, failure
2nd attempt: John White
-food shortage, White returns to England,
colonists never found, failure
The 1st permanent English settlement was established for economic reasons.
Jamestown
Virginia Company
The Virginia Company was a Joint-Stock company in which investors bought shares (or part ownership) hoping the company would make them money
The private company hoped to profit from gold and other resources
*Why did the Virginia Company assume they would find gold?
People
104 English men and boys built the settlement near the James River, at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, naming the river and settlement after England's King James I.
Environment
Searching for gold, the men instead found:
Swampy area plagued by mosquitoes that caused malaria. The men, many of who were "gentlemen" that did not care to work, quickly used up their supplies and many later died from a lack of food.
Captain John Smith
John Smith forced settlers to work and came up with the slogan, "you don't work, you don't eat." The local Powhatan tribe also supplied food.
Pocahontas,the chief's daughter, served as a link between English colonists and the Native Americans of Virginia
After the leader, Captain John Smith, returned to England in 1609, the colonists at Jamestown failed to plant or store enough grain for their needs and the settlers became desperate for food.
The Winter of 1609-1610 became known as "the starving time" since only 60 of the first 214 settlers at Jamestown survived.
Relations with the Powhatan tribe grew cool and then improved after a colonist, John Rolfe, married Pocahontas. John Rolfe would introduce tobacco to England to the Virginia colony.
The colony became hugely profitable and successful by growing tobacco for sale in Europe. By 1619, Jamestown was exporting tons of tobacco to England for the new fashion of smoking.
Success in Jamestown
The Virginia Company also began giving a headright, or land grant, of 50 acres to settlers who paid their way to the colony. The change to own land lured many settlers to Virginia with the incentive to work hard.
Land Grant
Labor
Needing laborers to work the tobacco fields, the settlers first tried to enslaved the area's Native Americans, but they were often unwilling or escaped into the surrounding forests.
Tobacco planting
The first African slaves would arrive to the colony in 1619, and as the tobacco planting success spread, using African slaves would grow to become the foundation of the Southern agricultural economy.
The Virginia Company also sent women to Jamestown, and marriage and children became a part of life in the colony.
Colony Future
Later the area of colonial settlement spread from Jamestown to other parts of Virginia. Virginia eventually had both rich plantation owners and small farmers, and grew to become one of the wealthiest colonies.