In 1607, the London Company settled the colony of Jamestown. The settlers overcame many odds
to become the first permanent, English settlement in North America. In this lesson, learn about
the failures and successes of Jamestown before it was taken over by the Crown.
The Virginia Company
On May 14, 1607, 104 English men and boys set foot on North American soil. They named their
settlement Jamestown, in honor of the English king, James I. They got started doing what they
had come to do - get rich quick by finding the gold they had all heard stories about. Jamestown
had been funded by the Virginia Company, which was a joint-stock company which was a
new kind of public/private partnership investing in New World colonies.
Earlier voyages had been paid for by rich businessmen or kings and queens, but joint-stock
companies combined resources from both. Investors pooled their money to pay all up-front
expenses of starting a colony. The government gave the company a charter with boundaries and a
time limit, and in return, was granted a share of stock in the company.
Trouble in Jamestown
Jamestown had trouble from
the start. The settlers had
chosen their location with
defense in mind. They were
far enough up river to avoid
the Spanish navy along the
coast, on a peninsula with a
deep water port and there were
no Indians. But what was
good for their defense was bad
Map of the Powhatan Confederacy and Jamestown in Virginia
for their health. The tide
carried in seawater they couldn't drink. The swampy peninsula was filled with mosquitoes
carrying malaria. Also, many colonists suffered from dysentery and typhoid because the rivers
were contaminated by their own body waste.
But it got worse. Within two weeks of their arrival, the Jamestown settlement was under attack
by Virginia Indians that were part of the Powhatan Confederacy. By his own account (which
most historians don't believe), Governor John Smith was kidnapped, and about to be executed
when the chief's 12-year old daughter saved his life. Even if the story wasn't true, the colonists
abandoned everything they were doing to build a triangular shaped fort. For years, the colonists
fought with local tribes, suffering (and inflicting) murders, kidnapping, fires, thefts and more.
And that still wasn't the end of their problems. Though Governor Smith had imposed a new labor
law (if you don't work you don't eat), most of the colonists were gentlemen, manservants or were
skilled craftsmen. Not many were accustomed to the kind of labor needed to tame a wilderness,
and none of them were farmers. A few men attempted to grow crops the summer they arrived,
but they were totally unsuccessful because of an unusual drought that year.
Within eight months, only 35 of the original 104 colonists were alive. Though two relief ships
were sent, they didn't bring enough supplies for the people already there, let alone 140 new
settlers that came on the boats. Then, in the winter of 1608, a fire destroyed a lot of their
remaining supplies.
Pocahontas and Powhatan
A lot of the Native Americans were hostile,
but not all of them. Pocahontas, the Indian
girl who supposedly saved John Smith's life,
brought food to the starving colonists and
intervened on their behalf several times. She
was the daughter of a tribal chief named
Powhatan. Powhatan offered Jamestown
some protection from hostile neighbors and
food in trade. But he also reminded them of
his power by attacking them periodically.
And two years later - when John Smith
returned to England for medical treatment Powhatan lost interest in getting along with Jamestown.
Governor John Smith
The Additional Settlers
A third relief mission failed because a hurricane drove the main supply ship aground on the
uninhabited island of Bermuda. This disaster actually ended up being Jamestown's salvation a
few years later - as we'll discuss in a moment.
But in the meanwhile, 80% of the settlers who came to Jamestown were dead by the winter of
1609. The desperate survivors of this starving time decided to abandon the colony. They were
sailing up the James River when they were met by a ship carrying their new governor and were
forced to turn back and keep trying.
It was expensive to continually resupply the colonists. The shareholders would have lost all of
their investment if the settlement were abandoned, so they kept sending colonists. Between 1607
and 1622, the Virginia Company sent 10,000 people to Jamestown, only 2,000 survived.
Let's go back to the supply ship that ran aground in Bermuda. All of the people onboard
survived. They built two smaller boats from the remains of their ship and sailed for Jamestown.
At first their arrival just strained the settlement's resources even further. But this was the turning
point in Jamestown.
Tobacco saves Jamestown
One of the Bermuda survivors, a man named
John Rolfe, brought with him seeds for a
type of sweet Spanish tobacco. How he got
them is unclear, because those seeds were
guarded to the death by the Spanish empire.
However, Virginia's climate was perfect for
growing tobacco. A year later when Rolfe
exported his first crop to England, he became
John Rolfe married Pocahontas in 1614
a wealthy man. Sweet Spanish tobacco was in
great demand on the London market, and within a few years, Jamestown was booming from this
so-called brown gold. In 1614, John Rolfe also improved the colony's chances of survival by
marrying Pocahontas.