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In December of 1606, the Virginia Company sent 3 ships to America carrying 104 colonists, all men and boys. The Virginia Company was run and owned by merchant investors seeking to profit from gold and silver in the region. King James I also ordered the company to bring missionaries but was quickly dropped in favor of making money.
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In May of 1607, the Virginia Company reached Chesapeake Bay, along the coast of Virginia and Maryland. To avoid Spanish raiders the colonists chose to settle 40 miles inland along a large river. They called the river James in honor of the king and named the settlement James fort, later renamed Jamestown.
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During the winter of 1609-1610, the food supply in the colony ran out resulting in many of the colonists dying of hunger. Desperate settlers ate their horses, dogs, cats, rats, and snakes. Some settlers even digging up corpses and eating them; there was also a case of a man killing, salting, and then eating his pregnant wife.
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When the colonists discovered no gold or silver, the Virginia Company shifted their focus to the sale of land. The land would rise in value as the colony's population increased. In response to this, Sir Thomas Gates, an English sea captain, brought 150 new colonists to Jamestown. Of the original 104 Englishmen, only 38 had survived.
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Smoking had become a widespread habit in Europe, and tobacco plantations flourished in the Caribbean. In response to this, colonists began growing tobacco for export to England
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In 1619, the Virginia Company created the first elected legislature in the Western Hemisphere. The House of Burgesses was modeled after parliament and would meet at least once a year to make laws and decide on taxes. The House represented the first experiment with a representative government in the American colonies.
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In 1620, a new group of colonists crammed in the Mayflower ship, bound for the Virginia colony. Due to it being hurricane season the ship was blown off course to cape cod and since the new colonists expended their resources on the trip they were forced to settle southeast of what is today's Boston, MA. They called this new settlement Plymouth and signed a group contract to form a civil body based on civil and just laws for the general good.
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In 1624, the Virginia Company declared Bankruptcy and Virginia was converted from a joint-stock company to a royal colony controlled by the government. The settlers were now free to own property and start businesses, however, the king would now appoint their governors.
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The first 145 English colonists in South Carolina arrived in 1669 at Charles Town, later known as Charleston, on the west bank of the Ashley River. They brought enslaved Africans with them.
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King Philips war was a conflict in 1675-1676 between groups of Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern woodlands and the English New England colonies and their indigenous allies. It was the Natives last effort to avoid recognizing English authority and to prevent English settlement of their native lands. The war was named after the Wampanoag chief Metacom, later known as King Philip.