Reasons for English Settlement

1
Reasons for English Settlement

• Keep up with the Spanish Empire
• Expanding Population
• Younger sons needing a livelihood

2
Types of Charters

• Corporate Colonies Jamestown est. by VA Company
• Royal Colonies VA after 1624, under direct
  authority of King
• Propriety Colonies MD and PA, authority of
  individuals granted charters of ownership by King

3
The Settlement of Virginia
Credit for many slides to Ms. Susan M. Pojer
4
Virginia
5
Failure of Roanoke

• 1585 Sir Walter Raleighs attempt failed
• 1587 John White attempted, sailed back to
  England, later returned to discover colonists had
  vanished
• Only one word written on trees
• CROATOAN
• Colonists may have
• starved to death
• joined with or were attacked by local natives
  (the Croatoans???)

6
The Charter of the VA Company

• Guaranteed to colonists the same rights as
  Englishmen
• This provision was incorporated into future
  colonists documents.
• Colonists felt that, even in the Americas, they
  had the rights of Englishmen!

7
England Plants the Jamestown Seedling

• Late 1606 ? VA Co. sends out 3 ships
• Attacked by natives at first stop at Chesapeake
  mouth
• May 24, 1607 ? about 100 colonists all men land
  at Jamestown, along banks of James River
• Easily defended, but swarming with
  disease-causing mosquitoes.

8
Jamestown Settlement, 1609
9
Chesapeake Bay
Geographic/environmental problems??
10
Jamestown Fort Settlement Map
11
Jamestown Fort Settlement(Computer Generated)
12
Jamestown Housing
13
Jamestown Settlement
14
Jamestown Chapel, 1611
15
The Jamestown Nightmare

• 1606-1607 ? 40 people died on the voyage
• 1609 ? another ship from England lost
  leaders/supplies in shipwreck off Bermuda.
• Settlers died by the dozens!
• Gentlemen colonists would not work themselves.
• Game in forests fish in river uncaught.
• Settlers wasted time looking for gold instead of
  hunting or farming.

16
Captain John SmithThe Right Man for the Job??
There was no talkbut dig gold, wash gold, refine
gold, load gold So he said He who shall not
work, shall not eat.
17
Pocahontas
Pocahontas saves Captain John Smith
A 1616 engraving
18
High Mortality Rates

• The Starving Time
• 1607 104 colonists
• By spring, 1608 38 survived
• 1609 300 more immigrants
• By spring, 1610 60 survived
• 1610 1624 10,000 immigrants
• 1624 population 1,200
• Adult life expectancy 40 years
• Death of children before age 5 80

19
Chief Powhatan

• Powhatan Confederacy
• Powhatan dominated a few dozen small tribes in
  area
• Powhatan probably sawthe English as allies in
  his struggles to control other Indian tribes in
  the region.

20
Powhatan Confederacy
21
PowhatanIndian Village
22
Indian Foods
23
Culture Clash in the Chesapeake

• Relations between Indians settlers grew worse.
• 1) different cultures languages
• 2) English raids of Indian food supplies
• 1610-1614 ? First Anglo-Powhatan War
• 1614-1622 ?peace time
• 1622-1644 ? periodic attacks between Indians and
  settlers, killed John Rolfe, colonists continue
  to raid Natives

24
Smiths Portrayal of Native Americans
25
Powhatan Uprisingof 1622
26
Culture Clash in the Chesapeake

• 1644-1646 ? Second Anglo-Powhatan War
• Last effort of natives to defeat English, but
  unsuccessful
• Peace Treaty of 1646
• Removed the Powhatans from their original land.
• Formally separated Indian and English settlement
  areas!

27
English Migration 1610-1660
28
River Settlement Pattern 1620-1660
29
John Rolfe
What finally made the colony prosperous??
30
Tobacco Plant
Virginias gold and silver. -- John
Rolfe, 1612
31
Virginia Child of Tobacco

• Tobaccos effect on Virginias economy
• Vital role in putting VA on a firm economic
  footing.
• Ruinous to soil when continuously planted.
• Chained VAs economy to a single crop.
• Tobacco promoted the use of the plantation
  system.
• Need for cheap, abundant labor.

32
Virginia House of Burgesses

• Established in 1619
• First of Many Miniature Parliaments to be
  established in the New Colonies
• Raised Taxes and Made Laws
• Beginning of representative Self-Government
• James I distrusted the House, hated Tobacco, and
  in 1624 revoked the VA Co. Charter, made VA a
  royal colony under his control.