US History

U.S. History Study Guide

©2018 of 194 The Two Virginia Companies About twenty years after the failure of Roanoke, two joint-stock companies set out to colonize the North American east coast. England authorized a charter, granting land in a territory on the east coast called Virginia (modern day Maine to North Carolina) to the Virginia Company of Plymouth and the Virginia Company of London. Colonists were considered employees of these companies and traveled to America in 1607. The Virginia Company of Plymouth failed and its settlement in Maine was abandoned within a few years. The Virginia Company of London was successful, but conditions were very difficult in its early beginnings. 3.6 Jamestown Jamestown would be the first successful settlement of the English, but the early hardships would seem insurmountable. The original Jamestown colonists were all men and Jamestown was treated like a business endeavor, not a place to raise a family. The colonists focused all their efforts on getting rich, foolishly neglecting they also needed to stay for an extended period, they did not put much time into farming. As a result, more than half of the colonists died of malnourishment and starvation within the first year. Only 38 colonists remained when reinforcements arrived in 1608. One of the most famous figures that survived the very beginning was Captain John Smith. In 1608, Smith organized work groups to ensure the colony would have food and made rules to control sanitation and hygiene. During the winter of 1608–1609, only twelve of the two-hundred men died. Smith maintained friendly ties with the nearby natives, the Powhatan Confederacy. However, when Smith was wounded in 1609 and returned to England, his leadership was missed. Shortly after the colony began to crumble. The population of roughly five-hundred colonists, had only one hundred survivors by May of 1610. This period became known as "The Starving Time". Relations with the nearby Native Americans deteriorated, and in 1610 war erupted. Jamestown managed to overcome these hardships because it had the perfect climate for growing tobacco which produced revenue. John Rolfe, who famously married the Powhatan leader’s daughter, Pocahontas, (not John Smith as previously thought), introduced the colony to tobacco and the crop flourished making the colony a tremendous amount of money. The profits produced by tobacco saved Jamestown and ensured the settlement’s success. In 1619, the colonists formed the House of Burgesses. The House of Burgesses was the first representative government in the New World, though its power was limited because the Virginia Company could still overrule its actions. Ironically, that same year, the first Africans were brought to Jamestown originally working only as indentured servants. However, by the 1640s most Africans were bought and sold as slaves. War with the Powhatan tribe, drop in tobacco prices, corruption by local officials, and high death rates from disease, all lead to the joint-stock company to collapse. England's King James I revoked its charter, making Virginia a royal colony in 1624. Achieve Page 30