Jamestown, Virginia
America’s First Permanent English Settlement
1607
Chesapeake Bay
Albemarle Sound
The Virginia Company
• Joint- Stock Companies were
companies backed by investors.
• King James I granted charters( for
right to establish an American
colony to the following
companies):
– Virginia Company of London
– Virginia Company of Plymouth
Tidewater Virginia
1607-1650
Jamestown
Questions to Think About?
• About how long was the
Jamestown settlement
after the Lost Colony,
1587?
• How was the Jamestown
site similar or not similar to
Roanoke Island?
Captain John Smith
• By January, 1608 only 38 of the 100
original settlers were alive “Starving
Time”
• During the “Starving Time” the
settlers ate rodents and reverted to
canabalism.
• John Smith brought order and
government to Jamestown.
• He told settlers, “He that will not
work, will not eat.”
• In 1609-injured in a gunpowder
accident and had to return to
England.
Lord Delaware Arrives
• Lord Delaware
arrives as new
governor with
supplies and women:
• “The Brides Ships”
bring women from
England for
Jamestown
marriages.
John Rolfe and Tobacco
• He developed a high- grade
tobacco that the colonists
learned to grow and could be
exported to England.
Africans Arrive in Jamestown
• The Dutch bring
Africans to Jamestown
for slave labor in 1619.
Indentured Servants Come to Jamestown
• These were Englishmen who
had their passage paid to the
colonies by an individual for
whom they would have to work
for 7 years.
Would this amount of time be
worth coming to America?
Why?
Who Was the Real Pocahontas?
Pocahontas “Playful Little Girl”
• Daughter of Indian Chief
• About 12 years old when English
Arrived at Jamestown in 1607
• Married John Rolfe
• Went to England
• Died Tuberculosis at Age 22 before
leaving England
• 2 children
Baptism of Pocahontas, 1614
Portrait Hangs in Rotunda of US Capitol
Marriage of
John Rolfe and Pocahontas
April, 1614
Virginia House of Burgesses
• Created in 1619 to provide
an assembly of elected
representatives. This was the
first representative
assembly in the
American colonies.
Do you think a less democratic form of government would
Have been better at Jamestown?
Jamestown Expands by 1620
Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676
• Former indentured colonists in Virginia
protested against high taxes and not
being able to settle on the western
frontier
• Nathaniel Bacon and enraged settlers
took over the House of Burgesses and
burned Jamestown.
• Important in American history: One of
the first protest against English authority
in the British American colonies
Bacon’s Rebellion, Virginia 1676
Early Protest Against English Authority
Virginia Capital Moves to Williamsburg, 1699
House of Burgesses
Bruton Parish Church
College of William and Mary
1693
America’s 2nd Oldest College
Williamsburg, Virginia
Historic
Jamestown,
Virginia Today
Example of Jamestown Home