Coming To America:
Settling Jamestown
A sailors account of the first days in the New World
Coming To America
• In 1497 British explorer John Cabot explorer the
northern shoreline of North America.
• Later, the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth all regions
north of the lands of Spain, and named it Virginia
after her.
• Both England and Spain laid claim to this region.
• In 1606 King James I of England chartered two
companies to colonize Virginia.
– The London (Virginia) Company who ruled Virginia
south of Chesapeake Bay
– Plymouth Company ruled the north of Virginia
(roughly everything north of Chesapeake Bay).
What is a Joint Stock Company?
Voyage to Virginia
• On April 26, 1607, three little ships, the
Discovery, the Godspeed, and the Flagship Susan
Constant landed on what is now Virginia Beach
• The colonists moved slowly up the great
Chesapeake Bay on May 14 of 1607, and in the
next morning, the very first Virginians went
ashore, they built a tiny fort named in James
Towne in honor to the king, later it became know
as Jamestown.
Arriving in America
• In April, about four a clock in the
morning, we land in the Land of
Virginia:
– entered into the Bay of
Chesapeake.
• We landed and explored a little
way, but we could find nothing
worth speaking of, but fair
meadows and godly tall Trees,
with such Fresh-waters running
through the woods, as I was
almost ravished at the first sight.
First Encounter with the Natives
• At night, there came the
Savages creeping on all four,
from the Hills like Bears, with
their Bowes in their mouths.
• They charged us very
desperately in the faces, hurt
Captain Gabriel Archer in both
his hands, and a sailor in two
places of the body I will not
mention. They then
• retired into the Woods with a
great noise, and so left us.
Settling the New World
• The seventh day we began
to build up our lodging.
• We went further into the
Bay, and saw a plain plot of
ground.
• We past through excellent
ground full of flowers and
more trees than I had ever
seen.
Further Relations with Indians
• When we came over to the other side, there
were many Savages.
• They directed us to their town where we were
entertained
• They went into their houses and brought out
mats and laid upon the ground
• After we were well satisfied they gave us of
their Tobacco, which they took in a pipe made
artificially of earth as ours are, but far bigger,
with the bowl fashioned together with a piece
of fine copper.
• When they had ended their dance, the
Captain gave us Beads and other trifling
Jewels.
Settling The New World
The Early Fort at Jamestown
On the fourteenth day of our landing we set out to work on establishing the
fortification.
Finishing the Fort
• The fifteenth day of June, we had built and finished our
Fort which was triangle– Having three Bulwarks at every corner like a half Moon,
– Four or five pieces of Artillery mounted in them we had
made ourselves sufficiently strong for these Savages.
• We had also sewn most of our corn on two Mountains,
it sprang a mans height from the ground,
– this Country is a fruitful soil, bearing many goodly and
fruitful Trees, as Mulberries, Cherries, Walnuts, Cedars,
Cypress, Sassafras, and Vines in great abundance.
The Starving Time
• Powhatan are alarmed by
growing number of settlers
• Leads to the “Starving Time”
(winter of 1609-1610)
– Native Americans engage in two
acts:
1) Kill livestock
2) Destroy farms
• When the winter started the population of
Jamestown was five hundred, and by may only
sixty-five of them survived.
Sickness Among Us
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The sixt of August there died John Asbie of the bloudie Fluxe. The ninth day died George
Flowre of the swelling. The tenth day died William Bruster Gentleman, of a wound given
by the Savages, and was buried the eleventh day.
The fourteenth day, Jerome Alikock Ancient, died of a wound, the same day Francis
Midwinter, Edward Moris Corporalldied suddenly.
The fifteenth day, there died Edward Browne and Stephen Galthrope. The sixteenth day,
there died Thomas Gower Gentleman. The seventeenth day, there died Thomas Mounslic.
The eighteenth day, there died Robert Pennington, and John Martine Gentleman. The
nineteenth day, died Drue Pigasse Gentleman. The two and twentieth day of August, there
died Captaine Bartholomew Gosnold one of our Councell, he was honourably buried,
having all the Ordnance in the Fort shot off with many vollies of small shot.
After Captaine Gosnols death, the Councell could hardly agree by the dissention of
Captaine Kendall, which afterward was committed about hainous matters which was
proved against him.
The foure and twentieth day, died Edward Harington and George Walker, and were buried
the same day. The sixe and twentieth day, died Kenelme Throgmortine. The seven and
twentieth day died William Roods. The eight and twentieth day died Thomas Stoodie,
Cape Merchant.
The fourth day of September died Thomas Jacob Sergeant. The fift day, there died
Benjamin Beast. Our men were destroyed with cruell diseases as Swellings, Fluxes, Burning
Fevers, and by warres, and some departed suddenly, but for the most part they died of
meere famine.
Miserable Famine
“There was never Englishmen left in a foreign Country in
such misery as we were in this new discovered Virginia.
We watched every three nights lying on the bare cold
ground what weather came warded all the next day,
which brought our men to bee most feeble wretches,
Our food was but a small Can of Barley sod in water to
five men a day, our drink cold water taken out of the
River, which was filled with salt, at a low tide full of
slime and filth, which was the destruction of many of
our men.
Our men night and day groaning in every corner of the
Fort most pitiful to hear,
Out-cries of our sick men without relief every night and
day for the space of six weeks…”
The Starving Time
• “In terms of corn, provision,
and contribution from the
savages, we had nothing but
mortal wounds, with clubs and
arrows. Our hogs, hens, goats,
sheep, horse, or whatever else
had lived had already been
consumed by our commanders
and officers. Some small
portions sometimes we
tasted.”
The Starving Time
• “There remained not past sixty men, women,
and children, most miserable and poor
creatures. Those were preserved for the most
part by roots, herbs, acorns, walnuts, berries,
and now and then a little fish. So great was
our famine, that a Savage we slew, and buried,
the poor sort took him up again and eat him,
and so did divers one another and stewed
with roots and herbs.”
The Starving Time
• “And one amongst the rest did kill his wife,
powdered her, and had eaten part of her before it
was known, for which he was executed, as he
well deserved. Now whether she was better off
roasted, boiled, or carbonated, I know not, but of
such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of.
This was that time, which still to this day we call
the starving time. It were too vile to say…this in
ten days more, would have supplanted us all with
death…”
Describe the differences you see between these two civilizations…
What factors might account for these differences? How might these
differences been reflected in day-to-day activity?
Colonists have a Troubled Start
• Problems arising that need solving
1) Disease from contaminated water
2) Hunger came second
3) People would not work
Role of John Smith
• When they landed John Smith was in chains
• A large number of the Virginians were very
arrogant, and consider themselves too
dignified for ordinary labor.
• Smith took charge:
– “Those who will not work, will not eat”
– Forced colonists to farm
– Persuaded Powhatan people to help provide
food.
The Development of Industry
• After winter, England sent another group with
new supplies, and people- among them, John
Rolfe
• Abandon Jamestown and move South, down
river
• Credited for the creation of
Jamestown’s first industry:
Tobacco Cultivation
Tobacco in New World
• The native tobacco from Virginia was not liked by
the English settlers, nor did it appeal to the
market in England.
• However, Rolfe wanted to introduce sweeter
strains from Trinidad
– using the hard-to-obtain Spanish seeds he brought
with him.
– John Rolfe experimented by cross breeding tobacco
from Brazil with harsh strain of the weed that local
Native Americans had grown for years
– In 1611, Rolfe is credited with being the first to
commercially cultivate Nicotiana tabacum
• Exported 1.5 million pounds of “brown gold” each year
So how do we get from here…..
To here….what do you need?
The Headright System
1) Anyone who paid for their or another’s passage to
Virginia received 50 acres of land
2) Term “plantation´ used to describe the people who
settled the land grant (became known as the land
itself)
3) To work the plantations, owners imported Indentured
Servants
1) in exchange for passage, food, and shelter, agreed to a
limited term of servitude (4-7 years)- lower class people
4) First African Laborers
1) Africans arrived in Virginia aboard a Dutch merchant ship
in 1619
2) 20 Africans were treated as Indentured Servants (not
slaves)
1) Received land and freedom after a number of years