Monday, September 22, 2014

Jamestown: Britain's First Successful Colony in America

After the Roanoke debacle, which we will cover in depth on Thursday, England once again turned her gaze to the Atlantic Coast of North America. In 1607 John Smith and others led a group to the Virginia Coast and established Jamestown. This colony's main goal was to make a profit off the land for the Virginia Company, which was a business back in England. Unfortunately, there was essentially zero gold in Jamestown so the profit would have to come from selling crops from the New World to people back home. Unfortunately again, the original Jamestown settlers did not come to farm (they came for gold) so they were unprepared and ill-equipped.

For this week's blog, visit this site about Jamestown. Be sure to watch the videos about Jamestown. Also, explore the "Jamestown Settlement" tab on the left hand side of the screen for more information. In the comment section, list the 20 most interesting things you learned about Jamestown from exploring this site.

13 comments:

  1. English settlers came to the New World came because of England’s poor economy—at the time—and needed more opportunity. The Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery were the three ships that the English Colonists used to travel in 1607 to North America. The ships carried 104 men and boys. It took 4 months and 24 days to get from England to Virginia. 14 thousand Powhatan Indians were already living in Virginia when the settlers established Jamestown. May 14, 1607, Jamestown was officially established. The Virginia C.O. of Plymouth settled in the northern part of Virginia, where as the Virginia C.O. of London settled in the southern part of the land. Virginia C.O. came to Jamestown to find gold, silver, and other metals, but found none. Tobacco was such a great profit that it replaced the gold the settlers never found. The Virginia Company led the Native Americans to Christianity. Some free Africans owned their own tobacco plantations. Settlers traded with the Powhatan Indians for not just food but other resources, as well. It was a hard process because neither spoke each other’s language. Sometimes the Indians wanted to fight instead of trade. King James I had one main desire: peace. The first settlers in Jamestown didn’t have actual houses yet. Churches were also said to look like barns. John Laydon and Ann Burras were the first to get married in the new settlement in Virginia. Inside the Fort, there’s a church (Anglican), coast of guard, storehouse, cape of merchant’s office, and governor’s house. Pocahontas was captured by the English settlers and ended up marrying John Rolf.
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  2. The Jamestown settlement was founded in 1607, thirteen years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. When you think of early settlement clothing you don't think of neon green Elites or Under Armour shirts. But in the Jamestown settlement they did use color in their clothing. The food of the Powhatan "Indians" was like the clothing in the way of similarity to our society today. They ate soups and were also great hunters and fishermen. Corns, beans, and squash made up over half the diet of the Powhatan people. In 1607 there were 105 people. This settlement was sponsored by the Virginia Company of London. It wasn't just men in this settlement like Roanoke was. The first two English women arrived at Jamestown in 1608. Men however outnumbered the women for most of the Seventeenth Century. Captain John Smith became the colony's leader in September 1608. And a " no work, no food" policy was put in to place. Smith was injured by a burn and return to England never returning to Jamestown. After his departure the Jamestown settlement went through what is known today as the "starving time". Because of this period and time many English colonists died from warfare, disease, and of course starvation. They had to come up with a new for a food supply. This lead to the invention of tobacco , a cash crop, in about 1613 by colonist John Rolfe. Rolfe later married Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas. And after other colonists tried to create profitable enterprises they were all unsuccessfull. Even though tobacco required a lot of field and work, it still did not fail to be profitable to the Virginia settlement. Because the settlers moved onto the Powhatan land, more indentured servants came to the settlement. The first known Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619. Many of them were treated as indentured servants. The numbers of Africans continued to increase and provided great labor sources. Sadly Jamestown was ceases to exist by the mid 1700s

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    1. Sorry I forgot to put my word count, but it was 328 words.
      Thank You
      Noah Gray

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  3. The Jamestown settlement is a very diverse colony with a lot of issues. Often the history books try to hide those issues to make it more “child-friendly.” For example they only had one main export, so that made trade and getting things to and from England nearly impossible. And that the Virginia Company only sponsored them to find the gold, they were only people that wanted to invest a little and get a lot. The only reason that England came was to get gold and get it fast. When they found no gold the settled down and colonized. When they got there in 1607 (thirteen years before Massachusetts) only men came it wasn’t until a year later a woman came. Once the women did come there were only two of them that did. Once the governor found out that they were low on food he put in the place “No work, no food” act. There leader was also not so much of leader character, after he got injured he went back to England and never came back. In return of him leaving the Starving Time occurred, where thousands of English and Natives died. In 1610 they had to send better leadership and basically reinforce the entire colony. Eventually tobacco was beginning to grow a lot and that was basically gold. In growing this crop the wealth of the colony sky-rocketed in comparison to the wealth before the crop. Now that the money has come in they stopped using natives as slaves and used Africans. This was done by John Ralfe. But sadly after the seventeen hundreds the colony died off and is now a tourist destination.
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  4. Jamestown was founded in 1607, which is thirteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in Massachusetts. Jamestown was founded by the Virginia Company of London, which is where we get Virginia today. The voyage had three ships, and their names are the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and the Discovery. The expedition carried 105 passengers and only died during the long and arduous journey. It was also led by Cpt. Christopher Newport. Problems emerged as soon as the English outpost started to work… It was located in the middle of 14,000 Aloquain speaking Indians who were led by Chief Powhatan! Cpt. John Smith became the leader in 1608. He was the one who came up with the “NO work NO food!” policy. Smith and the colonists started trading with the Indians. But then Smith got injured by burning gunpowder and went back to England. After Smith left, there was a period known as the starving time. This was a period of warfare between the colonists and the Indians and disease and death in Jamestown. The colonists would have died had it not have been for John Rolfe. He introduced tobacco as a cash crop. He also married Pocahontas, which eased relations between the Indians and the colonists. There have been many ups and downs with Jamestown, but one thing is for sure, without Jamestown, the world would be very different. (230).

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  5. The Jamestown settlement began in the 17 century. Jamestown was also the first permanent English colony which was founded in 1607. It was 13 years before the Pilgrims went to Massachusetts. The ships that brought the English colonists to Virginia was The Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery. The ships carried 104 both men and boys. It took them four months and 24 days to get from England to Virginia. The first two English women arrived at Jamestown in 1608 and more came throughout the years. When the people arrived, Powhatan Indians were already living there. On May 14, 1607 the Jamestown settlement was finally established! Settlers traded with the Powhatan Indians for food and even resources. But some of the time, the Indians wanted to fight instead of trade! The colony was sponsored by the Virginia Company of London, who hope to profit from sponsoring them. In September 1608, John Smith became the colony’s leader. He made a policy that was “no work, no food”. Sadly however, he was injured by burning gunpowder and he had to leave for England. After he left a period came known as the “starving time”. Many people died from starvation and disease. When people began to consider leaving Jamestown, settlers from England arrived with supplies! As you can see, many interesting things happened at Jamestown. I loved learning a lot of the cool things that happened there! (233)

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  6. James town was founded in 1603, 13 years before the pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. They had three ships to travel on while they were looking for a place to settle, The Susan Constant, The Godspeed, and The Discovery. It didn’t take the settlers very long to find land compared to other trips, it only took four and a half months. Most other trips to find land took like 7 or 8 months. When they got to land they were soon to find out that they were not the only people there, there were also Indians on the island. After they met the Indians they decide to make a town but not to leave it out in the open they built a big wooden fence around the town. They even maid their own armor, they had a black smith who would make things out of mettle by heating them up and bending them with tools that they had to make the shape that they wanted. The natives showed them how to farm because they had spent most of their time looking for gold, but they found out that there wasn’t any gold on the land and they didn’t have the sallies to farm so two Indians taught them how to live off the land. Their main crops were corn and tobacco, corn because it has many different uses you can eat it you can use it to fish with you can also feed big game with it so you can hunt for them, and tobacco because their main peruse was to find gold and make money for England so they would sell the tobacco to the Indians and ship the rest back home. James town was a very well run colony they had their own goveneer and their own list of laws. They even established their own court system. IN 1622 they had a war with the Indians, in my opinion that was not a smart thing to do.in the mid 1700 the colony of James town was no longer existing.(340)

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  7. The Jamestown settlement began in 1607, which is thirteen years before the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts. Jamestown was founded by the Virginia Land Company, and was the first colony to be founded after Roanoke. In the seventeenth century England's economy wasn't the best which was one reason they set off to establish more colonies. So in 1607 the Discovery, the Godspeed, and the Susan. Constant set off to create a new colony. It took them four months and twenty four days to get to North America. When they arrived though fourteen thousand Powhatan Indians were already living there. They came in search of things like gold, silver, and other items like that, but unfortunately found none. Luckily they soon realized that tobacco was a big profit and it replaced the money they lost when looking for gold. For a year Jamestown was only filled with men. In 1608 the first 2 women arrived, but were still outnumbered for most of the seventeenth century. John Smith became the colony's leader in 1608. Once he started the "no work, no food" policy began. After he left due to an injury from burning gunpowder a starving time happened. During this time period many of the colonists died from starvation, disease, and warfare. Smith never returned to the colony and that affected them greatly. The fact that they had only one spot to which trade items and people could come and go to England made it extremely difficult for them to do these things. After the John Smith incident England had to send over new leaders and basically restart the whole colony. Jamestown died off after the seventeenth century and stopped being a colony. It's now a tour destination.
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  8. The colony Jamestown was founded in 1607. The English would travel on cargo ships in a small area below the deck. In the ship the passengers slept in very uncomfortable beds. The crew on the ship would tie knots to work the sail. Some even navigate all through the night. They came mostly to search for resources such as gold, iron ore, wood and other common resources. The Virginia Company hoped to find a better route to the orient trade. The Virginia Company also wanted to spread Protestant Christianity. They wanted to prevent the spread of Spanish colonies. They also wanted convert the Virginia natives into Christians. The English culture started to spread into the new world when King James I approved with a charter. In Jamestown kids played games like the ones we have today. Families usually had only 2 or 3 children. The boys in the colony were usually apprentices or labor workers. The girls practiced cooking or trained in motherly arts. English was the primary language in Jamestown. In 1611 The King James Bible became the first version written in English. By the 17th century wool became had been the basis of the English economy. Because of economy people went to London but it is unhealthy their because of the majority of people there. So some people were looking forward to coming to America. (217)

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  9. Jamestown was settled thirteen years before Plymouth settlers even got here. It is also the first English settlement to last. It lasted so long it is still around today. The first Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619. Jamestown started out as a business venture. They were looking for gold but little did they know there was absolutely no gold in the place that Jamestown was. Also at one point the English and Indians made a “Trade”. The trade was two people one English boy went to live with the Indians and an Indian went to live with the English. The founding of Jamestown was one of the things that helped shape the nation and the world we live in today. Most of their culture is part of the American heritage today. There were three ships, the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, brought 105 people to the new world. They also had a council of seven people and had one man serve as a president. In Jamestown the men outnumbered the women. The starving time came right after when John Smith left for England. This was when war broke out among Indian and Englishman. Many people also died because of starvation and disease. This took place from the winter of 1609 to the winter of 1610. By the mid 1700’s Jamestown was no longer a town.


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  10. The Jamestown settlement began in 1607. This was 13 years before the Pilgrims even arrived in America. It took the settlers four and a half months to cross the ocean from England. The used three ships called the Susan Constant, Godspeed ad the Discovery. Once they landed, there were 104 settlers that made it. These settlers were sent as part of a business and were going to make a profit to send back to England. However, they soon realized that there was no gold to be found. They were going to have to farm and were not prepared for that type of life. Their first President was John Smith. More settlers arrived in 1610 with much needed supplies. Under the guidance of John Rolfe, tobacco was the first crop that would make money for the settlement. John Rolfe eventually married Pocahontas, daughter of the Powhatan leader. The settlers soon began to move into the land of the Powhatan tribes to expand their land for growing tobacco. They eventually began to bring indentured servants. These servants came from Africa and soon more came, but as slaves. In 1624, Jamestown went from being a business colony to a royal colony of England. Jamestown remained the center of the social and political until it was shifted to Williamsburg. The town of Jamestown lasted until the mid 1700’s.(224)

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  11. The settlers of Jamestown came in 1607, which was about 13 years before the pilgrims came and landed in plymouth. out of the 104 that came, many realized quickly that there was no gold, which was the main reason they came. They had met some friendly natives, who showed them tobacco, which became a HUGE crop that they would farm and send back to England for a large profit. John Rolfe came up with the idea for farming it, and he eventually married Pocohontas, who was the daughter of the Powhatan Leader. They Colonists came and took over land, without asking, to gain farm land for tobacco. This was a bad idea, because then they needed more people to farm it, which became slavery of africans. Jamestown was like the capitol city until Williamsburg showed up. Jamestown was around until the 1700's. (142)

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