AN ENGLISH SETTLEMENT AT JAMESTOWN ENGLISH SETTLERS STRUGGLE

AN ENGLISH SETTLEMENT AT JAMESTOWN

ENGLISH SETTLERS STRUGGLE IN NORTH AMERICA

VIRGINIA COMPANY • 150 passengers on 3 ships • Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed reach in 1607 • Named Jamestown in honor of King • Contaminated river water fuels disease • Hunger begins • All but 38 colonists die • “He that will not work shall not eat” • Powhatan people give food • John Smith catches on fire and goes back to England

• Spring 1609 – 600 new colonists • Powhatan nervous, kill colonists livestock • Famine sets in • Ate roots, rats, snakes, and boiled shoe leather • 60 out of 600 colonists survive

JAMESTOWN BEGINS TO FLOURISH • Colonists flee, but are convinced to stay • Colonists severely punished by new leaders for neglecting work • Flogged and hanged • BIG cash crop: TOBACCO

“BROWN GOLD” AND INDENTURED SERVANTS • 1612 – John Rolfe cross bred tobacco from Brazil and North America • High quality tobacco • Late 1620 s- export more than 1. 5 million pounds of “brown gold” to England each year • Needed field laborers to keep growing • headright system – anyone who paid for their passage to Virginia received 50 acres of land.

• The large areas of land come to be known as “Plantations” • Owners imported indentured servants from England. • Receive passage, food and shelter and agree to limited term of servitude (4 -7 years)

THE FIRST AFRICAN LABORERS • Africans arrive in 1619, originally as indentured servants • Most received land freedom after a few years • Several decades before slavery begins • Tobacco used as currency • Indentured servants were purchased for 1000 lbs of tobacco • Slaves cost double or triple the amount • Late 1600 s – decline in indentured servants, increase in wealth • Lots of slaves are imported, and are never freed

SETTLERS CLASH WITH NATIVE AMERICANS • English - not allowed to live among or intermarry with Irish • View Native Americans the same way • Settlers Battle Native Americans • Leaders demand corn and labor from Native Americans • Set Powhatan villages on fire, kidnap kids • Pocahontas – Chief Powhatan’s daughter – kidnapped • Marries John Rolfe

• 1622 – Chief Opechancanough orders attacks • Kills more than 340 colonists • Virginia Company send in more troops & supplies • James I revokes the charter • Virginia is now a royal colony • 1644 – 10, 000 men and women live in Virginia • Powhatan population declines

ECONOMIC DIFFERENCES SPLIT VIRGINIA • Former servants are poor – don’t own land? Can’t vote. • Hostilities Develop • 1660 -1670 – Governor Sir William Berkeley • Impose high taxes on poor people • Money went to plantation farmers • 1675 – battle between settlers and natives erupts • Shows clash between rich and poor settlers • Settlers murder 14 friendly natives and kill 5 chiefs during PEACE conference • Governor refuses to give support that will help poor settlers

BACON’S REBELLION • • • Nathaniel Bacon – planter Hated Native Americans 1676 – raises army to fight natives Gov. Berkeley declares army illegal Bacon marches through Jamestown and asks about representation for poorer settlers in House of Burgesses • Turns violent • • Set fire to town Berkeley and planters flee Bacon dies from illness, Berkeley returns to Jamestown Berkeley called to meet king because he’s shady, but dies beforehand