FACT SHEET 1.
Surrounding Jamestown Fort was a triangular wooden palisade (a fence or wall made from
wooden stakes or tree trunks and used as a defensive structure) and insider were wattle-anddaub structures topped with thatch roofs, an Anglican church, a court of guard, a storehouse, a
merchant’s office and a governor’s house. (Wattle and daub is a building material used for
making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky
material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung, and straw.
Wattle and daub has been used for at least 6000 years and is still an important construction
material in many parts of the world.)
In the photos, historical interpreters forge and repair metal objects in a blacksmith’s forge and
show how matchlock muskets are fired. These colonists also produce wood products using
17th-century-style tools, engage in domestic activities such as sewing and meal preparation
and, outside the fort, cultivate food and tobacco crops.
The muskets were so heavy that they required the setting up of a fork-rest for shooting. These
shot accurately for 70 yards. In the time it took to load this gun and fire it, a Native American
man could release five arrows. The English also used pistols that were good for quick firing, but
they took two hands to load them.
The colonists played games of quoits (ring-toss) and ninepins (bowling).
ENTER THE WORLD OF THE COLONIAL GOVERNOR
IN NEW BUILDING AT JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT
Fit for the highest ranking official in the Virginia colony,
the newest and grandest dwelling in Jamestown
Settlement’s re-created 1610-14 fort is open to visitors.
Based on archaeological and documentary research, the
Jamestown Settlement building is furnished and
interpreted as the colonial governor’s house.
The 66- by 18-foot, two-and-a-half-story building has a cobblestone foundation, walls of wattle
and daub, wood plank floors, and a thatch roof.
Entering through one of six doors, two on opposite sides that open into small “lobbies,” visitors
can explore all four rooms on the first floor of the new building. The second story, not accessible
for public viewing, is likely to have served in the original building as sleeping space for servants
and for storage. The first-floor hall, or main public room, has a table with a distinctive armchair
at its head for the governor. The adjacent parlor, interpreted as a space where the governor
may have entertained guests, features a smaller table and chairs, clothes press and
cupboard. On opposite ends of the house are bedchambers – one for the governor, the other
for members of his household, which might include his physician and secretary. Two chimneys
with back-to-back fireplaces provide a hearth in each of the four rooms.
Elaborately carved wood furniture and Turkish
carpets covering tabletops indicate the high rank of
the people living in the house.
The new governor’s house is patterned after one of
two large “row houses” uncovered by Preservation
Virginia’s Jamestown Rediscovery archaeological
project at Historic Jamestowne. The cobblestone
He is dressed in a green silk day suit,
made for periodic display. Another more
formal suit of burgundy silk is
accessorized with neck and wrist ruffs of
handmade lace.
foundations of the two row houses at Historic
Jamestowne are located within the original James
Fort site, paralleling the western wall of the palisade.
Based on their location in the fort, the buildings
probably were constructed between 1610 and 1614,
and the one re-created at Jamestown Settlement
may have served as the colonial governor’s house.
According to Ralph Hamor’s account of Virginia during 1610-14, Jamestown had “two
faire
rowes of howses, all of framed Timber, two stories, and an upper Garret, or
Corne loft.” The 1618 records of the Virginia Company cite a “Governors
house in James town first built by Sir Thomas Gates Knight.” Gates served as
lieutenant governor of Virginia from 1611 to 1614.
FACT SHEET 2
The Susan
Constant, Godspeed and Discovery are
the three ships that brought English
colonists to Virginia in 1607. This voyage
took four and a half months from England!
The sailors sailed with a whipstaff ( a
device used in 16th- and 17th-century
Europe to control the movement of a
large sailing ship) or tiller. Rapid
movement of the tiller results in an
increase that will result in braking or slowing the boat. In steering a boat,
the tiller is always moved in the direction opposite of which the bow of the
boat is to move.
Starboard side means to the right and port side means to the left of the
ship. The bow is the front of the ship while the stern is the back.
 The Jamestown colonists came to the Chesapeake to
find treasures of gold and silver and to discover a
water passage across North America.
 Everyone had to follow the rules which included daily
prayer and attend church every Sunday.
 The English did not believe in bathing or washing their
clothing very often. Because of this, the English
colonists attracted fleas and lice. The Indians had
them, too, but took daily baths to keep them away.
 The English did not want to dig up and eat the
Tuckahoe (arrow arum) like the Indians.
 Back in England, there was a serious shortage of
firewood and timber for ship building due to all of the
agricultural fields and pastures for animals. Imagine
how surprised the colonists were to find so many
forests!
FACT SHEET 3
THE POWHATAN INDIANS
At the time English colonists
arrived in the spring of 1607,
coastal Virginia was inhabited
by the Powhatan Indians, an
Algonquian-speaking people.
The Powhatans were
comprised of 30-some tribal
From John Smith's Map of Virginia,
published in 1612.
groups, with a total population
of about 14,000, under the
control of Wahunsonacock,
sometimes called “Powhatan.”
The Powhatans lived in villages with houses built of sapling
frames covered by reed mats or bark. Villages within the same
area belonged to one tribe. Each tribe had its own “werowance” or
chief, who was subject to Wahunsonacock. Although the chiefs
were usually men, they inherited their positions of power through
the female side of the family.
Agricultural products – corn, beans and squash – contributed
about half of the Powhatan diet. Men hunted deer and fished,
while women farmed and gathered wild plant foods. Women
prepared foods and made clothes from deerskins. Tools and
equipment were made from stone, bone and wood.
The Powhatans participated in an extensive trade network with
Indian groups within and outside the chiefdom. With the English,
the Powhatans traded foodstuffs and furs in exchange for metal
tools, European copper, European glass beads, and trinkets.
In a ranked society of rulers, great warriors, priests and
commoners, status was determined by achievement, often in
warfare, and by the inheritance of luxury goods like copper, shell
beads and furs. Those of higher status had larger homes, more
wives and elaborate dress. The Powhatans worshipped a
hierarchy of gods and spirits. They offered gifts to Oke to prevent
him from sending them harm. Ahone was the creator and giver of
good things.
As English settlement spread in Virginia during the 1600s, the
Powhatans were forced to move inland away from the fertile river
valleys that had long been their home. As their territory dwindled,
so did the Indian population, falling victim to English diseases,
food shortages and warfare. The Powhatan people persisted,
however, adopting new lifestyles while maintaining their cultural
pride and leaving a legacy for today, through their descendants
still living in Virginia.
FACT SHEET 4
POCAHONTAS
The renowned Indian maiden
who befriended English
colonists in Virginia in the early
1600s has been immortalized in
art, song and story.
Born about 1596, Pocahontas
was the daughter of Powhatan,
chief of over 30 tribes in coastal
Virginia. Pocahontas was a
nickname meaning “playful
one.” Her formal names were
Amonute and
This modern painting is based on a 17thcentury engraving of Pocahontas attired in
English clothing.
Matoaka. Pocahontas was Powhatan’s “most deare and wel-beloved
daughter,” according to Captain John Smith, an English colonial leader who
wrote extensively about his experiences in Virginia. Powhatan had
numerous wives, and Pocahontas had many half-brothers and half-sisters.
Her mother’s name is not mentioned by any 17th-century writers.
As a child, Pocahontas probably helped her mother with daily chores,
learning what was expected of her as a woman in Powhatan society. Even
the daughter of a chief would be required to work when she reached
maturity.
In late 1607 Pocahontas, then about age 11, met John Smith in an event
he described years later. Smith wrote that he had been captured by Indians
and brought before Powhatan at Werewocomoco, the chief's capital town
on the York River. After the Indians gave Smith a feast, they laid his head
on two stones as if to “beate out his braines,” when Pocahontas “got his
head in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death.”
Some scholars today believe the incident was a ritual in which Powhatan
sought to assert his sovereignty over Smith and the English in Virginia. In
1608 Pocahontas assisted in taking food to the English settlement at
Jamestown to persuade Smith to free some Indian prisoners. The following
year, according to Smith, she warned him of an Indian plot to take his life.
Smith left Virginia in 1609, and
Pocahontas was told by other
colonists that he was dead.
Sometime later, she married an
Indian named Kocoum. In 1613,
while searching for corn to feed
hungry colonists, Samuel Argall
A 17th-century engraving depicting the found her in the village of the
abduction of Pocahontas.
Patawomekes in the northern part
of the Powhatan chiefdom and kidnapped her for ransom. Powhatan waited
three months after learning of his daughter’s capture to return seven
English prisoners and some stolen guns. He refused other demands,
however, and relinquished his daughter to the English, agreeing to a
tenuous peace.
Thereafter, Pocahontas lived among the settlers. The Reverend Alexander
Whitaker, living up the James River near Henrico (Henricus), taught her
Christian principles, and she learned to act and dress like an English
woman. In 1614 she was baptized and given the name Rebecca. Soon
after her conversion, Pocahontas married John Rolfe, a planter who had
introduced tobacco as a cash crop in the Virginia colony.
In 1616 the Rolfes and their young son Thomas traveled to England to help
recruit new settlers for Virginia. While there, Pocahontas had a brief
meeting with John Smith, whom she had not known was alive, and told him
that she would be “for ever and ever your Countrieman.” As the Rolfes
began their return trip to Virginia, Pocahontas became ill and died at
Gravesend, England, in March 1617. John Rolfe sailed for Virginia, where
he had been appointed secretary of the colony, but left Thomas in England
with relatives. Thomas Rolfe returned to Virginia in the 1630s. By that time,
Powhatan and John Rolfe were dead, and peace with the Indians had been
broken in 1622 by a bloody uprising led by Pocahontas’s uncle,
Opechancanough.
Although Pocahontas was one of Powhatan’s favorite children, she
probably had little influence over her father’s actions toward the English
colonists. However, after she married and traveled to England, she was
able to bring the Virginia colony to the attention of prominent English men
and women.
Significant Events in Jamestown's History
1570-1
Spanish Jesuits set up a mission on the York
River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.
Within six months, the Spaniards were killed
by local Indians.
1585-7
Three separate voyages sent English
explorers and settlers to the coast of what is
now North Carolina, then known as Virginia.
John White, who was governor of a colony
on Roanoke Island and had gone back to
England for supplies, returned in 1590 and
found no trace of the settlers.
1607
On May 13, nearly five months after
departing from England, an expedition of 104
colonists arrived at a site on the James River
selected for settlement. The group was
sponsored by the Virginia Company of
London, whose investors hoped to make a
profit from the resources of the New World.
The group named their settlement for King
James I.
1608
Captain Christopher Newport, commander of
the 1607 Jamestown expedition who had
sailed back to England, returned to Virginia
in January with settlers and goods. It was the
first of a series of regular arrivals in the
colony. John Smith was elected president of
the governing council in the fall. Smith left for
England the next fall (1609) to recover from
a wound caused by a gunpowder
explosion and never returned to Virginia.
1611
Elizabeth City and Henrico were established,
marking the beginning of expansion beyond
Jamestown.
1613
Pocahontas, a daughter of Powhatan,
powerful leader of 30-some Indian tribes in
coastal Virginia, was kidnapped by the
English.
1614
The first sample of tobacco cultivated by
John Rolfe was shipped to England by this
time. Tobacco was the “golden weed” that
ensured the economic survival of the
colony. Pocahontas married John Rolfe after
being baptized in the Anglican Church, and
an eight-year period of peace between the
English colonists and Powhatan Indians
ensued.
1617
Pocahontas died in England.
1619
The first representative legislative assembly
in British America met at Jamestown on July
30. The first documented people of African
origin in Virginia arrived in late summer
aboard an English ship flying Dutch colors.
1620
The Plymouth colony was established in
Massachusetts.
1624
King James revoked the charter of the
Virginia Company, and Virginia became a
royal colony.
1699
The capital of Virginia was moved from
Jamestown to Williamsburg.
FACT SHEET # 5
A Brief History of Jamestown
The founding of Jamestown, America’s first permanent English colony, in
Virginia in 1607 – 13 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in
Massachusetts – sparked a series of cultural encounters that helped shape
the nation and the world. The government, language, customs, beliefs and
aspirations of these early Virginians are all part of the United States’
heritage today.
The colony was sponsored by the Virginia Company of London, a group of
investors who hoped to profit from the venture. Chartered in 1606 by King
James I, the company also supported English national goals of
counterbalancing the expansion of other European nations abroad, seeking
a northwest passage to the Orient, and converting the Virginia Indians to
the Anglican religion.
The Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, carrying 105 passengers,
one of whom died during the voyage, departed from England in December
1606 and reached the Virginia coast in late April 1607. The expedition was
led by Captain Christopher Newport. On May 13, after two weeks of
exploration, the ships arrived at a site on the James River selected for its
deep water anchorage and good defensive position. The passengers came
ashore the next day, and work began on the settlement. Initially, the colony
was governed by a council of seven, with one member serving as
president.
Serious problems soon emerged in the small English outpost, which was
located in the midst of a chiefdom of about 14,000 Algonquian-speaking
Indians ruled by the powerful leader Powhatan. Relations with the
Powhatan Indians were tenuous, although trading opportunities were
established. An unfamiliar climate, as well as a brackish water supply and
lack of food, conditions possibly aggravated by a drought, led to disease
and death. Many of the original colonists were upper-class Englishmen,
and the colony lacked sufficient laborers and skilled farmers.
The first two English women arrived at Jamestown in 1608, and more came
in subsequent years. Men outnumbered women, however, for most of the
17th century.
Captain John Smith became the colony’s leader in September 1608 – the
fourth in a succession of council presidents – and established a “no work,
no food” policy. Smith had been instrumental in trading with the Powhatan
Indians for food. However, in the fall of 1609 he was injured by burning
gunpowder and left for England. Smith never returned to Virginia, but
promoted colonization of North America until his death in 1631 and
published numerous accounts of the Virginia colony, providing invaluable
material for historians.
Smith’s departure was followed by the “starving time,” a period of warfare
between the colonists and Indians and the deaths of many English men
and women from starvation and disease. Just when the colonists decided
to abandon Jamestown in Spring 1610, settlers with supplies arrived from
England, eager to find wealth in Virginia. This group of new settlers arrived
under the second charter issued by King James I. This charter provided for
stronger leadership under a governor who served with a group of advisors,
and the introduction of a period of military law that carried harsh
punishments for those who did not obey.
In order to make a profit for the Virginia Company, settlers tried a number
of small industries, including glassmaking, wood production, and pitch and
tar and potash manufacture. However, until the introduction of tobacco as
a cash crop about 1613 by colonist John Rolfe, who later married
Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas, none of the colonists’ efforts to establish
profitable enterprises were successful. Tobacco cultivation required large
amounts of land and labor and stimulated the rapid growth of the Virginia
colony. Settlers moved onto the lands occupied by the Powhatan Indians,
and increased numbers of indentured servants came to Virginia.
The first documented Africans in Virginia arrived in 1619. They were from
the kingdom of Ndongo in Angola, West Central Africa, and had been
captured during war with the Portuguese. While these first Africans may
have been treated as indentured servants, the customary practice of
owning Africans as slaves for life appeared by mid-century. The number of
African slaves increased significantly in the second half of the 17th century,
replacing indentured servants as the primary source of labor.
The first representative government in British America began at Jamestown
in 1619 with the convening of a general assembly, at the request of settlers
who wanted input in the laws governing them. After a series of events,
including a 1622 war with the Powhatan Indians and misconduct among
some of the Virginia Company leaders in England, the Virginia Company
was dissolved by the king in 1624, and Virginia became a royal
colony. Jamestown continued as the center of Virginia’s political and social
life until 1699 when the seat of government moved to
Williamsburg. Although Jamestown ceased to exist as a town by the mid
1700s, its legacies are embodied in today’s United States.
Agricultural Fields & Gardens at
Jamestown
.
Corn, a food staple of the Powhatan Indians that
English colonists adapted to their diet, is planted
in early spring at the Powhatan village and fort,
as well as at the 1780s farm. At Jamestown
Settlement, beans and squash are later planted
around the emerging corn stalks, a Powhatan practice also adopted by
English colonists.
Tobacco, Virginia’s premier cash crop during the colonial period with
seedlings planted in mid-spring. Nicotiana rustica, a native variety, grows in
the Powhatan village, and Nicotiana tabacum, a type brought to Virginia in
the early 17th century, is cultivated outside the Jamestown
Settlement. Grain crops like barley and wheat are planted in the cooler
seasons at Jamestown Settlement.
Dozens of varieties of vegetables and herbs
used in the 17th and 18th centuries for food,
medicine, fabric dye and insect repellant are
cultivated year-round in the gardens. Peas,
carrots, lettuce, chard, onions and radishes
are among vegetables planted in the spring.
Some items have two growing seasons and others, like kale, cabbage and
parsnips, thrive in cool weather. Feverfew, wormwood, savory, rosemary,
yarrow, coriander, sage, thyme, dill, oregano, chamomile and lemon balm
are among the herbs grown here.
Sunflowers, a food source native to the Americas, are grown here as well
as at the Powhatan village.