Building the Jamestown Colony
3-4
Pages 87-91
First English Colony
• Sir Walter Raleigh and 100 men established the
colony of Roanoke off the coast of NC in 1585
• After a year, they grew tired of the conditions and
returned to England
• John White returned in 1587 to reestablish the
colony
• White returned to England to get more supplies
for the colony.
• Due to war with Spain, he could not return to the
colony for three years
• There were no traces of the colonists when he
returned (CROATOAN)
Jamestown: Challenge and Survival
• England did not make another colonization
attempt for 20 years
• VA Company receive charter from James I to
establish a colony
• The charter guaranteed colonists same rights
of Englishmen
• 1607-colonists arrive and build homes along
James River
• Colony called Jamestown in honor of King
James I
• Problems existed:
– Built on marsh  disease/malaria
– Little future planning done by government officials
– Starvation b/c colonists were looking for gold more than
they were planting corn
• John Smith helps save the colony by enforcing that all
people work if they wanted food
• Secured supply of corn from Powhatan (Indian chief)
– Colonists threatened natives with force when they refused
to given them more corn
– Violent encounters
– Peaceful relations for a short time when John Rolfe
marries Pocahontas
• Conditions in Jamestown improved when
colonists began growing tobacco
• This crop secures the Jamestown economy
Representative Government
• Initially the colony was run like a military
outpost-harsh rule and consequences
• This type of lifestyle did not attract new colonists
• 1619 establish a representative form of
government with the election of burgessesrepresentatives
• House of Burgesses-representative body of
Jamestown
• VA Governor + representatives made laws
• English tradition of representative
government:
– Magna Carta
– Great Council  Parliament
• Initially, VA colonists had more freedoms than
Englishmen under new government
• No voting restrictions on men until 1670
(white property owners only)
New Arrivals
• Begin to push for women to come to Jamestown
by 1619
• Men who married new women colonists were
charged 150 pounds of tobacco to be paid to VA
Company
• Women made everything from scratch and
suffered the same struggles of colonial life as
men
• 1624 population record: less than 300 women
and over 1,000 men
• 1619 Dutch sailor sold Africans to colonists
• African agrarian skills valued by colonists
• 1644-330 Africans in VA:
– Servants
– Slaves
– Free planters (could vote for short time)
• By 1700s, African property owners couldn’t
vote and slavery began to expand