An English Colony on Chesapeake Bay

1601-1700

SecotanOriginal drawing, 1585,

village on the North Carolina coast

Population Jamestown in 1607: 105 Jamestown in 1624: 1,200

An English Colony on Chesapeake Bay

A. The Fragile Jamestown Settlement

1. Virginia Company

2. Jamestown

3. Powhatan and the Algonquian Indians

B. Cooperation and Conflict between Natives and

Newcomers

1. Mutual distrust

2. Trade relationship between English and Indians

3. Difficulties for Powhatan’s chiefdom

Pocahontas, Mrs. John Rolfe

JOHN SMITHPOCAHONTAS IN ENGLAND

King James IThe King revoked the charter of the Virginia Company and made it a royal colony

From Virginia Company to Virginia Colony

The demise of the Virginia Company marked the end of the first phase of colonization of the Chesapeake region

The King now appointed the governor The legislative body, the House of

Burgesses, remained intact

The Chesapeake Coastal area along the edges of the

Chesapeake Bay

A Tobacco Society

Tobacco Agriculture turned Virginia into a colony of planters

Men could earn two to three times as much growing tobacco as working in England

New settlers who paid their own way were given a headright—fifty acres of free land

Indentured Servants 80 % of those who came in the first

half of the century, came as indentured servants

75% of indentured servants were men

The labor contract was called the ‘indenture’

The immigrant borrowed the cost of passage from a sea captain, and in return agreed to work as a servant for four to seven years

The sea captain sold the indenture to a tobacco grower

Punishment for petty crimes extended the servitude

Planters made a lot of money, regaining their original investment within one year

Restrictions Female servants could not marry

while indentured Women who became pregnant had to

serve two extra years Interracial sex was outlawed Servants of all races co-mingled and

were of the same class

Tobacco growing