The Jamestown Settlement

Created by Carl J. GreerEME 6053 Internet in Education

King James I

• Was king of Scotland beginning in 1567• Becomes king of England and Ireland in 1603• Son of Mary, Queen of Scots• James believed that colonies could prove

profitable to the Crown• Viewed North America as the most likely place

for settlements• Only one problem…

Virginia Company

• Collection of businessmen and investors• Granted a charter by King James I in 1606• Charter was for 6 million acres (Vermont: 5.9

million square acres, Massachusetts: 5 million)• Purpose: To establish colonies in North

America that would prove financially beneficial to the Crown

• London and Plymouth Companies

Plymouth Company

• Colony is placed at the mouth of Kennebec River in Maine, near present day Bath

• Survives for one year before being abandoned• Area is ignored as a colonization target until

1620

Jamestown Settlement

• First colonists arrive April 1607• 104 men and boys• Combination of gentry, military men,

craftsmen/artisans, unskilled laborers• Upon arrival, secret orders from the Virginia

Company listing who was in charge were opened. Mix of gentry and military men.

Jamestown: After the Arrival

• Attacked by Algonquian Indians, led by Powhatan, on first night

• Sought refuge onboard ships• Construction of a fort begins after a month• Algonquian attack exposes vulnerabilities, leads to

construction of a second, stronger fort• Why Jamestown location?

1. Water depth2. Defendable

Jamestown: After the Arrival (cont.)

• Captain Newport returns to England for supplies one week after fort is finished

• Colony starts to slide towards extinction• Why?

Problems at Jamestown

• Famine• Less than 50% of population was still alive less

than six months later• Lack of farmers• Lack of proper equipment• Disease

1. Typhoid2. Dysentery

• Indian attacks

Divine Intervention…or Pure Dumb Luck?

• Powhatan intervenes• January 1687: Captain Newport returns• Brings supplies AND 120 colonists• Only 38 members from the original group are

still alive (36.5%)• Colonists accidentally burn fort, spend winter

months living in the ruins• High death rate continues for decades

Jamestown (non)Survivability Rate

• First colonists: 38 of 104• 1609: Population declines from 600 to 60 in

SIX MONTHS.• 1619-1622: Virginia Company sends 3570

people to Jamestown to join 700 already there. 3000 die.

• 1607-1625: Virginia Company sends 6000 people to Virginia. By 1625, only 1200 remain.

John Smith: Savior of Jamestown

• Adventurer (aka: mercenary)• Captured and sold as slave to Turkish nobleman• Escapes, returns to England. Joins Jamestown

expedition• Clashes with shipmates, clapped in irons,

threatened with execution• Named by Virginia Company to Jamestown

Council

James Smith (cont.)

• Explores and maps Virginia• Captured by Algonquians during exploring trip• Disappearance allows Captain Newport and

another colonist to assume control of colony• Summer 1608: Leaves settlement to further

explore Virginia• Reelected to the colony council in September

John Smith (cont.)

• Captain Newport returns to England (Fall 1608)• Colony still struggling to survive• Smith emerges as leader of the settlement• Pressures Powhatan• No work, on eat• Newport returns in 1609 with supplies and

colonists• Smith loses power struggle, departs colony

October 1609, dies in 1631

John Rolfe

• Departed England for Jamestown in May 1609• Onboard is his pregnant wife, Sara • Sea Venture was captained by Captain

Newport. • John Smith’s angry letter to the Virginia

Company leads them to make their third supply mission their biggest and best equipped

“When you send againe I entreat you rather send but thirty Carpenters, husbandmen, gardiners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons and diggers up of trees, roots, well provided; than a thousand of such as wee have: for except wee be able both to lodge them and feed them, the most will consume with want of necessaries before they can be made good for anything.” -John Smith

John Rolfe (cont.)

• Rolfe and other survivors are shipwrecked for 9 months

• Using the remains of the Sea Venture, the survivors build two ships, Deliverance and Patience in May 1610

• Rolfe’s wife and infant daughter die in Bermuda

John Rolfe (cont.)

• Does not begin growing tobacco until 1611• By 1617, Virginia colony produces 20,000

pounds of tobacco annually• In 1618, tobacco exports jump to 40,000

pounds• Rolfe marries Pocahontas in 1614

End of the Virginia Company

• Rolfe’s marriage to Pocahontas results in uneasy peace between Algonquian and the English settlers

• Death of Powhatan in 1618 ends peace• 1622: Slaughter of settlers by Indians. Loss of

more than 25% of the settlers results• Investigation by Crown places blame for

deaths of colonists on mismanagement

End of the Virginia Company(cont.)

• Charter is revoked• Virginia colony survives. Why?

YearColonial Tobacco Imports

to England(includes Virginia from 1612

and Bermuda from 1615)

European Tobacco Imports to England

1616 2,300 52,673

1617 19,388 50,906

1618 41,728 42,871

1623 134,607 66,877

1624 202,962 63,497

A Counterblaste to Tobacco

• King James hates the use of tobacco by subjects. Forbids use of it in his presence.

• Issues a treatise in 1604“A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse.”

1620: Women Arrive in Jamestown