Chapter 2, The American Pageant

The Jamestown Nightmare

Reasons to Leave England for the New

World• *With the defeat of Spain, England was no longer at threat and could more easily travel.

• *A new policy of enclosure by the wealthy of fencing in lands to prevent hunting made it difficult for the poor to supplement their diet.

• *Tradition of primogeniture = 1st born son inherits all the property leaving other sons with little money or land.

• * The joint-stock company was perfected (investors put money into the company with hopes for a good return), so there was enough money to fund a colony.

Jamestown

•*In 1606, the Virginia Company received a charter from King James I to make a settlement in the New World.

•*The charter of the Virginia Company guaranteed settlers the same rights as Englishmen in Britain.

•*On May 24, 1607, about 100 English settlers disembarked from their ship and founded Jamestown.

Problems for Jamestown

•*40 people died on the voyage leaving 60

•*People did not want to work

•*Water was bad and people got sick

•*Sickness, starvation, and even cannibalism soon occurred

•*Supply ship crashed off Bahamas in 1609

More Leaders…More Problems

•*Captain John Smith used the “no work, no eat” policy

•*Also traded with Indians for food

•*Assassination attempt sent Smith home to England

•*Lord De La Warr arrived to get the colony back on track, but he caused even more problems…

Anglo-Powhatan War

•*The Powhatan wanted Jamestown residents to make their settlement at a different location

•*Captain John Smith though kept extending their settlement by building more forts

•*Eventually, starving Jamestown residents stole food from the Powhatan and the Indians raided the village

Anglo-Powhatan War

•*These events eventually led to the first war

•*It ended with a peace sealed by the marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe

•*The Second War occurred when a raiding Indian party attacked the settlement killing 1/3 of the people.

Anglo-Powhatan War

•*The English attacked nearly every day during the summer and periodically thereafter for 3 years, destroying corn fields as well as property.

•*The Indians continued to attack and 8 years later 347 settlers had been killed, including John Rolfe.

•*Eventually the English caught the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy and shot him in the back.

•*The Powhatan ceded much of their land in the area to the English between the Blackwater and York rivers.

Jamestown Succeeds

•*John Rolfe mixed two strains of tobacco together to form a mild tobacco that people could not get enough of (I think we call that addiction).

•*A House of Burgesses was created to deal with local problems and to rule the people.

•*The first African-Americans to arrive in America also came in 1619 to farm the land.