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Jamestown
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King james
In June of 1606, King James I granted a charter to the Virginia Company. He wanted them to establish an English settlement in the Chesapeake region of North America. -
Founding jamestown
On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company explorers landed on Jamestown Island. They established the Virginia English colony on the banks of the James River which was 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The 3 ships that came were called The Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery. -
John Smith
Captain John Smith became the colony’s leader in September 1608. He made a “no work, no food” policy. The people didn't come to America to be farmers, they came to find gold. So no one wanted to plant crops and they were starving. Smith had been a big part in trading with the Powhatan Indians for food. But in the fall of 1609 he was injured by burning gunpowder and left for England. He never came back to Virginia. -
John Rolfe
One of the colonists, John Rolfe, introduced tobacco as a cash crop around 1613. He later married Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas. Tobacco cultivation needed a lot of land and work and stimulated the fast growth of the Virginia colony. Settlers moved onto the lands where the Powhatan Indians lived to grow their crops and indentured servants came to Virginia to help work the land. -
John Rolfe married
John Rolfe and Pocahontas married at Jamestown. -
Thomas Rolfe born
Pocahontas gives birth to son Thomas Rolfe. -
John Rolfe goes back to England
John Rolfe, Pocahontas, and son leave Virginia for England. -
First Africans arrived
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. They may have been treated as servants at this time but later became slaves. They brought them to Virginia to help on the farms. -
Government
The first representative government in British America began at Jamestown in 1619. The convening of a general assembly happened because the settlers wanted input in the laws that governed them. -
Battle with the Powhatan’s
In 1622, the Powhatan’s attacked the plantations killing over 300 of the Jamestown settlers. A last minute warning spared Jamestown. -
Virginia becomes a Crown Colony
After the attack on Jamestown and the mismanagement of the Virginia Company, the King decided that he should revoke the Virginia Company Charter and Virginia became a crown colony in 1624. -
Jamestown no longer capital
Jamestown was the center of Virginia’s political and social life until 1699 when the seat of government was moved to Williamsburg. Jamestown ceased to exist as a town by the mid 1700's.
