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Jamestown is Founded!
Three ships named the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery holding 105 passengers left England in December 1606. In late April, the ships finally reached the coast of Virginia and on May 13, after 2 weeks of exploration found the James river. The next day, the passengers came to shore and began to work on the settlement. -
John Smith Becomes Colony Leader
Captain John Smith becomes the fourth of succession of council presidents. Then he established a "no work, no food" poilcy. Also Smith had been instumental in trading with the Powhatan Indians for food. In fall of 1609, John Smith was injured by burning gunpowder and was went back to England. Smith never made it back to Virginia, but promoted colonization pof North America until he died in 1631 and published numerous accounts of the Virginia colony. -
Starving Time in Jamestown
From during the winter in 1609 to 1610 after John Smith's death followed the "starving time," was a period of warfare between the colonists and Indians and the deaths of many English men and women from starvation and diseases. In Spring of 1610 when the colonists decided to abandon Jamestown, settlers with supplies arrived from England that were eager to find wealth in Virginia. -
New Cash Crop!
To make a profit for the Virgina Company, settlers tried small industries, which included 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 none of the colonists’ efforts to establish profitable enterprises were successful. Tobacco cultivation required large amounts of land, labor, and stimulated the rapid growth of the Virginia colony. -
Africans Arrive in 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 Africans may have been treated like indentured servents, the customary practice of owning Africans as slaves for life appeared in 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
The first representative government in British America began in Jamestown in 1619 with the convening of a general assembly, at the request of settlers who wanted input in the laws governing them. -
A Royal Colony
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.
