Jamestown and Virginia
1. Name the tribe that helped feed the
Jamestown settlers their first winter.
(Later they fought against the Virginians)
2. What was the invention that saved
Jamestown, and who invented it?
3. Explain the headright system.
4. What was the House of Burgesses, and why
was it significant?
5. What is the importance of Nathaniel
Bacon?
What you need to know
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Locate & identify Virginia colony
Virginia Company
Powhatan
The crop that saved Jamestown
• Importance of House of Burgesses
• Nathaniel Bacon
The British Arrive
• First attempts
• Trying to fight Spain in Americas
• 1585—Roanoke Colony (fail)
• They quit & went home to England
• 1587—Roanoke Colony #2 (epic fail)
• Everybody disappeared
Jamestown—1607
• 1st permanent colony
• Set up by Virginia Company
• English businessmen setting up
colony for profit
• Get charter from King James I
Yes…that King
James.
How were they going to make a
profit?
• Virginia Company was a joint-stock
company
• Merchants in London fund the colony
• Colony sends merchants goods to sell
in London market
They arrive in Jamestown
• John Smith led 1st group
• 1st group was obsessed with idea of
finding gold
• Unwilling to do manual labor
• Why is this a problem?
You can’t really eat gold
First winter
The “Starving Time”
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They didn’t find gold
They didn’t have any food
They got sick
It was really, really cold
Powhatan Indians helped them
Brown Gold
• John Rolfe invents a new type of
tobacco
• Becomes popular in Europe
• Makes lots of money
• Saves Jamestown
Growing tobacco
• Many workers needed for large
quantities of tobacco
• Headright system
• If you pay for (anyone’s) trip to
Virginia, you get 50 acres of land
Growing tobacco
• Rich men sent many people, got
huge estates of land
• Land worked by indentured
servants
• Promised several years of work (usu.
4-7) for travel to America
House of Burgesses
• Set up in 1619
• First legislature in America
• Citizens elected representatives to
write laws
• Only wealthy could vote
Transition to Royal Colony
• Indian raids created need for more
troops
• Virginia Company couldn’t pay for
necessary security
• King took control of colony
Battles between Virginians
• Must own land to vote
• Most settlers didn’t own land
• Had to pay taxes even if they couldn’t
vote
• Taxes unfairly targeted the poor
Battles between Virginians
• Western settlers poorer than
coastal settlers
• Indians raided westerners
• Coastals didn’t help defend
Nathaniel Bacon
• Wealthy coastal planter
• Raised army of westerners to fight
Indians
• Without government’s consent
• Army marched on Jamestown
Bacon’s Rebellion
• Army’s demands:
• Equal vote for poor settlers
• Protection
• Ended when Bacon died
What you need to know
•
•
•
•
•
Locate & identify Virginia colony
Virginia Company
Powhatan
Indentured servitude
The crop that saved Jamestown
• Importance of House of Burgesses
• Nathaniel Bacon