The Jamestown Colony 1607

Key Terms• Colony• Virginia Company of

London• Corporation• Joint-Stock Company• King James I• Charter• Christopher Newport• Malaria• John Smith

• Powhatan• Pocahontas• The Starving Time• Yellow Fever• Lord de la Warr• John Rolfe• Indentured Servants• Slavery• The House of

Burgesses

The Virginia Company of London

• After the failed attempt at settling Roanoke Island, a group of wealthy British merchants decided to try again

• This time they would succeed

• Pooled $$ and resources together and formed the Virginia Company of London

• First private corporation in America (joint stock company)

Why try again?• Eager to gain a share

of the wealth in America (gold!)

• Continued search for passage to the Orient

• Trading opportunities– Furs, lumber (natural

resources)

• Inheritance laws – Only the oldest sons

inherit; little incentive to stay in overpopulated England

A British Success Story That Almost Failed ...

Again• After succeeding Queen

Elizabeth I (monarch during the failed Roanoke adventure), King James I agreed to grant the Virginia Co. a charter to establish the new colony

• The Virginia Co. had complete authority over their new colony, as well as much of the Atlantic coastline

• Named the new colony Jamestown, after their king

• Captain Christopher Newport sets sail with the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery – Dec 1606 – high expectations for success!

The Ships• Susan Constant

– Captain Newport (Commander of the Fleet)

– 76 ft with 71 men

– Heavily armed

• Godspeed– Captain Gosnold

– 52 men

• Discovery– Captain Ratcliffe

– 21 men with the majority of supplies and equipment

The 144 people aboard were comprised of 40 crew and 104 settlers (soldiers, gentlemen, and boys) and included carpenters, barbers, bricklayers, masons,

surgeons, and a tailor.

Activity: Instructions from the Virginia Company to the First Settlers (1606)

You Tube: The Virginia Company – Pocahontas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne2tzfxQ6T4

Problems• 104 men arrived along the

James River in May 1607• Ships were headed to Cape

Cod but were blown off course by a powerful storm

• Mostly gentlemen; few workers

• After constructing a simple fort, the men spent the rest of the time:– looking for gold instead of

planting or building– expecting to get food from

Indians – finding no gold but receiving

some food from Indians

• Swampy, insect-infested land

• Disease – malaria• YouTube: http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwsoK8O0lXE

• Barely survived the first year; only 38 still alive by the spring of 1608

• Newport/Smith - adversaries

Jamestown Fort

John Smith Takes Charge

• Takes command of day-to-day operations in Sept 1607

• New rules!– “He who works not, eats

not.”

• Cut timber, put up new buildings, plant crops

• Depends on Powhatan villages for food– Begins negotiations with

Indians for winter survival

First and Second Supply Ships 1608

• Captain Christopher Newport returns in 1608 with a supply of rations and 100 new settlers

• Finds the 38 survivors (including leader John Smith)

• Expands fortifications

• Reinforces shelters

• Places armed men to defend crops from Indian attacks

• Returns 3 months later with more supplies and the colony’s first two women

• John Smith remains in charge at Jamestown

Third Supply Ship 1609

• The flagship Sea Venture travels with 500 new colonists and supplies in June 1609

• Ran aground near Bermuda during a 3-day hurricane

• Permanently damaged – 350 colonists and all supplies lost at sea

• 7 additional ships arrived in Jamestown in the aftermath of the storm– Carried 200-300 men, women, and children– Limited supplies – most lost with the Sea Venture– No word on the fate of any of the survivors

1609-1610: The “Starving Time”

• 1609 – John Smith returns to England after injuring himself in a gunpowder explosion

• Ensured that there were “ten weeks’ provisions in the stores” before leaving– Plenty of hens, chickens, goats, pigs within the fort– Hog Island– Woods abounded with deer, rabbit, and squirrel– River thick with fish, frogs, and oysters

• Yet … conditions declined rapidly in Smith’s absence

What went wrong??

Problem 1: Relations with Powhatan worsened

– Powhatan wanted to rid the English from his land– More and more settlers continued to arrive– Refused to supply them with corn any longer– Stopped trade and laid siege to Jamestown– Settlers quickly ran out of food– When new ships arrived in the Spring, only 60 of

the 500 people left behind by John Smith were still alive ... barely.

Problem 2: Availability of fresh water

• Brackish water only potable half the year

• Drinking water fouled by dangerously high levels of salt, arsenic, and human waste– Arsenic = Spanish spies?

• Prolonged drought– 1606-1612 driest season in 800 years!

Problem 3: Diseases associated with malnutrition and contamination

• Archeaological evidence shows skeletons were buried in clothing (buttons!)

• Epidemics spread widely due to close quarters and weakened immune systems

• Diseases included:– Dysentery (“bloudie flixes”) – Typhoid (“burning fevers”) – Salt intoxication (“swelling”)– Scurvy

Spring has arrived!• May 1610 – two new ships arrive in Jamestown

– Patience and Deliverance– Survived the hurricane only to find horrifying conditions in

Jamestown– Breakout of yellow fever

• Settlers burned buildings to stay warm• Survivors weak and skeletal• Abandoned Jamestown in June: “Goodbye,

Jamestown!”• Lord de la Warr turned them around to start

Jamestown again– New governor– Set the colonists to work … again!

Lord de la Warr (Lord “Delaware”)

• Referred to Jamestown as “a very … unholsome place”

• Guided colonists into rebuilding the town

• Led settlers into fighting back against the Indians

• Started trading with distant tribes

• Tom Savage, an adopted son of Powhatan, started interpreting for both groups

• Facilitated labors, artisans, and more “gentlemen of quality” from additional ships

Sir Thomas Dale (aka Governor Dale)

• Replaced de la Warr• Understood need for

disease control• Established the Henrico

settlement after Henry, King James’s oldest son

• Stern, strict, religious• Anyone who swore,

broke a rule, or didn’t work was whipped

• Three strikes, you’re out!

• Captured Pocahontas for ransom– Taught her Christianity– Changed her name to

Rebecca

• John Rolfe married Pocahontas– Moves to London– Baby – Dies of smallpox– Peace with Powhatans

comes to an end

Tobacco Saves Jamestown

• John Rolfe developed a sweet variety of tobacco that was all the rage in England

• The Virginia Colony prospered – get rich quick!• Challenges:

– Hard field work – “too hard” for English gentlemen– Difficult to farm large areas of land singlehandedly– More labor required in order to get rich, but

availability was limited– Good workers cost $$$ !– New settlers kept dying or were in trouble with the

law

The Workers of Jamestown

• Indentured servants– Often poor or criminals– Worked for the person who paid the fare– Served 4-7 years to earn freedom

Slavery Comes to America

• First slaves from Angola, West Africa in 1619• Originally destined for Brazil • Captured by Dutch & English pirates; sold to

Jamestown• Treated as indentured servants at first• Earned freedom and owned land

• Greedy colonists wanted free labor• Workers in high demand; planters

desperate• Abundance of land but few willing

to do hard work• Indians ran away; blacks had nowhere

to run – trapped!

1619: The Turning Point• The English were in

America to stay– First boatload of Africans

• Introduction of slavery to America

– First boatload of women• Women sold as wives

– First labor strike• Polish workers demand

same rights as Englishmen

• English had more rights and freedoms that any other European nation

• First hint of “equality” in America

The Charter of the Virginia Company:

“All and every of the persons … which shall dwell and inhabit within every or any of the said several colonies and plantations, and every of their children … shall have and enjoy all liberties … as if they had been abiding and born, within this our realm of England.”

The Virginia Colony– First time English settlers are allowed to own

land• Motivation to work hard; stay longer

– First elected lawmakers• House of Burgesses

– The House of Burgesses Explained (Keith Hughes)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSZeEIdGeBo

• Gives Virginians their own form of Parliament

… and so it begins …The Virginia Colony, the First Colony