The History of Jamestown

The New World had been founded and during the 17th century, England still had no claims to any part of it. King James, I established two companies, made up of merchants and adventurers, the London Company and the Plymouth Company, combined they were known as the Virginia Company. The London Company was the first company to send three ships In search of three particular things, gold, the Lost Colony of Roanoke. and a route to the South Seas. These three ships were called, the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. Stormy weather and high winds delayed their voyage fore weeks. On May 1A, 1607 the three ships arrived at an island in the James River, named for their King, They landed 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

It had been a long and difficult journey but 105 out of 150 colonists survived. They sanctioned the island on which they landed, Jamestown. Many traditional scholars feel that the pioneers above the ship were very ill-suited for the task since Captain John Smith identified half of the men as gentlemen. If they were gentlemen then what would they know about building a colony? Almost immediately after landing, the colonists were attacked by the Algonquian natives. In a little over a month's time, the colonists had built a wooden fort to protect themselves. Jamestown was chosen because of the military advantages it supplied in case there was any warfare. It was protected on three sides by the river and marshes, it was out of sight from the Spanish, and it had a deepwater mooring for the ships.

It was mostly swamp land and finding fresh water was a major problem The first few Winters in Jamestown were the hardest for the colonists. 0f the 105 who landed on May 14th, only 38 surVived the lst Winter. In 1608, 200 more colonists arrived followed by 400 more, a year later. During 1609-1610, the starving time, the colonist's population was reduced to 60, That June after the starving time, those survivors decided to bury their cannons and armor and abandon the town. The colonists finally returned to Jamestown when the new governor, Lord De La Ware, and his supply ships returned to get Jamestown back in order, Hardships were not over but peace followed Pocahontas and John Rolfes's wedding. Pocahontas was the favorite daughter of Powhatan, the Algonquian chief.

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The population fluctuated extremely over time because of food shortage. epidemics, and Indian attacks. Surprisingly, through all of these hardships, Jamestown began to progress. By 1617 new settlements existed beyond Jamestown. The English population was well over 1,000. Jamestown was inside the territory of an Indian confederacy, led by Chief Powhatan. Many English people ran away to the Indians to avoid hard times and to be fed. Many of them lived in cave like holes dug into the ground, The colonists went through such harsh times that many resorted to eating dead corpses and the excrements of man lost to stay alive. The colonists relied heavily on farms to keep their settlement running. Tobacco was Jamestowns biggest crop export. John Rolfe. Powhatans son-in-law. was the tobacco entrepreneur of this time.

In 1617 they sent off the first cargo to England, They found that although many people disapproved of tobacco because of religious reasons, it brought in good money. By 1619, ten tons of tobacco was being exported to Europe, So much farm work had to be done but there wasnt enough help to do it, The Virginians resorted to slaves, black and white. Ironically enough. they paid for these slaves using tobacco. On July 30. 1619 the Virginian governor and delegates from all 10 settlements opened the first legislative assembly in Jamestown. They met in response to many orders from the Virginia Company that they wanted one equal and uniform government over all of Virginia that would prowde iust laws for the colonists.

This legislative assembly was called the House of Burgesses. The House of Burgesses was the first legislative assembly of the New World, John Rolfe, a Jamestown resident in 1619. states, There have beene many complaints against the Governors, Captaines, and Officers in Virginia. for buying and selling men and boies. that the very report thereof brought great scandall to the generall action, As you can see from this statement that many colonists were not happy With slavery. They thought that it was wrong and should not be done. Although. some colonists were against it, there were many more who were happy about it. Many made up excuses for it and said that slaves were better off to have masters than to waste their money somewhere else on alcohol and other bad things. Some colonists even said that the Bible said it was the way of life and slaves should mind their masters. But no matter what View the colonists had about slavery, they did not see slaves in a legal sense, they were iust more indentured servants.

They were even listed as servants in the census counts of 1623 and 1624. Around 1651 some Negroes whose period of serVice was over were even being assigned land, just like the white indentured servants. Sunng the first half-century of existence. Virginias records Show an increased number of free Africans. Slavery was not finally recognized in Jamestown until 1661. The London businessmen who were investing their money into Jamestown soon realized that men in a town could not build a stable community. These businessmen sent 90 women to Jamestown in 1619. Women who were sent to Jamestown were women ol proper character and were free to marry whomever they chose to. The women coming over to Jamestown cause the men to be less restless and to have a reason to settle down.

By sending women to Jamestown, those businessmen were promoting stability and a larger population. Although these women were sent to help stabilize Jamestown, many others were sent to be mistresses to the men or even to serve as indentured Servants. These women were deprived of their rights and privacy. Many whites from Jamestown who had not received land grants began to go west to find land. The whites began encountering Algonquian Indians along their way. The Violence between the whites and the Indians escalated. The Algonquian Indians soon became irrational and in 1622 they attacked the out plantations killing over 300 settlers. The House of Burgesses declared war on the Indians, but tried to make deals with those Indians that cooperated. The frontiersmen didnt want to make any deals with the Indians.

They wanted total war, so they became very mad at the House of Burgesses because of this and because of the high taxes needed to pay for the war. The rebellion of the frontiersmen and of the Indians led to Bacons Rebellion. During Bacons rebellion Jamestown was burnt down. The white people of Jamestown found that Indians couldnt be controlled as easny as Africans could. This IS why the majority of indentured servants were either African or women. These attacks upon the frontiersmen convinced the king that he should revoke the Virginia Company Charter. Virginia became a crown colony in 1624. Jamestown remained the capital of Virginia until its major state house burned in 1698. Then the capital was moved to Williamsburg and Jamestown slowly began to disappear above ground.

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