THE
EARLY YEARS OF THE JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT
On December
20, 1606, just over one hundred English men and boys set sail
for a long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in three small
wooden ships. About half of the men on board were English
gentlemen, but some were craftsmen and laborers. Ocean travel
was very dangerous in the early seventeenth century, but they
were willing to take the risk. They were heading to the New
World to start the first permanent English settlement in America.
The English hoped to find riches in America, as well as a
trade route to Asia through the Pacific Ocean. They also planned
to produce raw materials, like lumber, which were scarce or
did not exist in England. The settlers hoped to find gold
and become landowners in America.
After almost five months at sea, the settlers reached Virginia.
They sailed across the Chesapeake Bay and arrived at the mouth
of the James River, which they named in honor of their king,
James I. After two weeks of exploration, they chose to settle
on a small peninsula of land in the James River. They thought
this location would be easy to defend against attack from
either land or sea. They also hoped that it would have a good
supply of fresh water. On May 14, 1607, the settlers went
ashore and began building a fort for their new settlement,
which they named Jamestown.
Jamestown turned out to be a poor place for a settlement,
and life for the early settlers was very difficult. Many settlers
got sick from drinking the unhealthy river water and died
of diseases. Others died from conflict with neighboring Indians
and from civil unrest. The winter of 1609-10 was the hardest
time for the colony. A failure of trade and possibly crops
caused the settlers to run out of food. The settlers called
this period the Starving Time.
The indigenous people of the area were called the Powhatan.
Although there was some occasional fighting between the settlers
and the Indians, the Powhatan people helped the English settlers
survive by trading food and furs and introducing new crops
to the English, including corn and tobacco.
By the winter of 1609-10, however, conflict between the two
groups had increased. The Powhatan refused to trade corn and
attacked the colonists if they left the fort to hunt or fish.
The Powhatan had realized that the British settlement would
continue to grow, and they did not want to lose the land that
had been theirs long before the settlers arrived.
Despite the hardships that the Jamestown settlers faced, new
ships of settlers and supplies arrived from England. By 1616,
the colonists were making progress. They were even making
profits by shipping tobacco back to England. The English had
succeeded in creating a permanent settlement in the New World.
Jamestown holds a special place in American history. The settlement
began as a commercial enterprise and grew into the first of
what would become a nation of British colonies. Many of the
political, cultural, and language traditions that characterize
the United States today have their origins in Jamestown. The
first representative government in America was established
here in 1619, and Jamestown was the first capital of Virginia
until 1699.
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