Jamestown

The primary motivations of most of the Jamestown settlers were economic. For over a century, Spain had been reaping massive fortunes in the New World. By the beginning of the 17th Century, the...

The first permanent English colony in North America was founded by 104 men in 1607. They landed on a peninsula on the James River and called their colony Jamestown in honor of King James I, who had...

Jamestown was established before settlement at Plymouth and is credited as the first English colony. Having heard of new lands and potential for wealth creation, the English embarked on a voyage to...

There was an opportunity for settlement of North America after James I became king in 1603. England ended its wars with Spain and Scotland, and this enabled the country to invest its money and...

There is a long tradition of military and political leaders writing memoirs in the third person. The most celebrated example is Julius Caesar, who wrote extensively about his campaigns in Gaul....

1619 marks the first arrival of slaves to what would eventually become the United States. They arrived in Virginia, as a new solution to replace the indentured servants, whose promised freedom and...

There are several key successes and failures that the Jamestown colony experienced. One major success was the colonists’ ability to adapt to the land in the way of growing crops. The original...

To date, historians estimate that about 70 settlers died in the first six months in Jamestown. About 110 settlers comprised the original contingent of colonists at Jamestown in May 1607. Historians...

One difference would be the reason the different groups settled. The gentleman farmers of Jamestown hoped to make their money either finding gold or the Northwest Passage. They then hoped to go...

The Virginia colony began with the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. Jamestown had at least five advantages over a previous settlement attempt at Roanoke Island, the "Lost Colony." First, Jamestown...

Wariness characterized the relationship between the Jamestown settlers and the nearby Indians under Chief Powhatan. Overt hostility was avoided during the first years of contact—1607 to...

As well as the hunger and dangers posed by the Native Americans, the settlers at Jamestown faced an additional hardship when an accidental fire broke out. This happened in January of 1608 and the...

The settlers began to arrive at Jamestown in the year 1607. It is estimated that at least 14,000 Native Americans lived in Virginia at that time. The settlers faced various hardships including a...

The first English settlers arrived at Jamestown in 1607. They had no idea how to survive in the New World. Their initial contacts with the Naive Americans were uneasy, as both sides did not trust...

The settlers at Jamestown faced many challenges. One challenge was dealing with unfriendly Native Americans. Because of this concern, the settlers felt unsafe venturing away from their...

Jamestown, an English colony, was founded in 1607, but by 1614, disease, famine, and war with the Native Americans turned the establishment into a place of suffering. The colony seemed lost until...

In May of 1607, just over one hundred colonists made landfall in Virginia with the hopes of establishing a prosperous colony. They could not possibly foresee the doom and death that was to befall...

The settlement at Jamestown faced many hardships. The original settlers had expected to find silver and gold in abundance in the New World. Instead, they were faced with poor soil, mosquitos, and...

The early settlers of Jamestown faced many hardships. Their first winter (1609-1610) was a difficult one, and they faced cold, disease, and hunger. Most of the settlers died during this time. A...

Jamestown, as with other early European colonies, suffered greatly at its inception. Disease, starvation, droughts, lack of agricultural skills, and intermittent Indian attacks made the colonists'...

Captain John Smith was an interesting character in history. He was a sailor, soldier, slave, explorer and leader. His leadership proved vital to the Jamestown Colony in providing the necessary...

Actually, poor diplomacy with the Indians was NOT a problem, in fact the colony proudly would have disappeared from starvation had it not been for help from the local Pumunkey Indian tribe. The...

Off the top of my head, good drinking water seems to have been a challange. Many of the earliest Jamestown colonists died and it is thought to have been from drinking the stagnant water in the...

Jamestown, in modern-day Virginia, is important as it was the first permanent English settlement in North America. There had been a number of previous efforts by the English to establish American...

A charter colony is a self-governing entity in which the king grants a charter to a company to establish a colony in the Americas. The king would do this so that he did not have to spend the...

In May 1607, 104 settlers established a permanent colony at Jamestown. Life for these settlers was very hard and, by the end of the first year, only 38 of these men and women survived. Here are...

In 1607, the London Company, which had been granted all the land between what is today southern New York and North Carolina by King James I in the previous year, sent a group of roughly one hundred...

Jamestown was important as it was the first permanent English settlement in America. Prior to the establishment of Jamestown there'd been a number of false starts, and for one reason or another...

Jamestown was a very troubled colony. The adventurers who came initially had no idea about farming—their plan was to find gold or a waterway to China, thus securing themselves riches with the least...

For the first decade and a half of its existence, the English settlement at Jamestown received support from the Virginia Company, a joint stock company composed of London investors that founded the...

Successfully establishing a viable colony for England in North America was a daunting undertaking. Plundering Spanish treasure ships when they returned to Europe from America was far easier. At the...

Jamestown was the first settlement in the Virginia colony and was located on the James river. Jamestown was granted a royal charter in order to produce cash crops, notably tobacco, for sale....

This period, the Starving Time, was a difficult and decisive one in the history of Jamestown. It was characterized by new leadership, hostile Indians, famine, and a near evacuation of the colony....

Settlers arrived in what came to be known as Jamestown in 1607, and most history books regard Jamestown as the first permanent English settlement in North America; however, Jamestown was initially...

The original government of the Jamestown Colony was determined by the King of England. As the first settlers set sail on three different ships, a sealed box was also aboard that named the members...

Jamestown was settled in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London. The Virginia Company was a joint-stock company. Joint-stock companies were like a corporation in that shares are publicly sold. The...

The English colonization of Jamestown was done purely for economic reasons. By the early 1600s, the English had seen that colonization of the New World could be lucrative. They saw that money...

The Jamestown colony was established as a money-making venture. For many years, Europeans had been dazzled by tales of the phenomenal wealth that awaited them on the other side of the Atlantic. In...

John Rolfe saved the Jamestown colony by experimenting with the growing of tobacco. Up until this time, the colonists had tried all kinds of trades and manufactures to make a profit, without much...

Life in Jamestown was difficult, but the New World offered the Jamestown settlers enough benefits to entice people to leave Europe and make the voyage across the Atlantic. Most importantly, the New...

This period was very aptly named. 439 of the 500 colonists perished during this period, which lasted into 1610. The colony almost certainly would have been lost if not for the timely arrival of...

Pocahontas was a member of the Powhatan group of Native Americans. Her father was the chief of a group of several Native American factions, all of which were united by their Algonquian languages...

In 1607, 144 English men and boys travelled to America and established a colony called Jamestown. Their motivations for leaving England were purely financial: they believed that America was rich in...

The first settlers at Jamestown encountered many problems. One issue the settlers faced was a lack of food. Part of the reason for this was that the settlers spent a lot of time looking for gold....

Jamestown, the first surviving English colonial settlement in the New World, was built on the north east bank of the James River in Virginia in 1607. The original fort is about 2.5 miles from the...

The Jamestown colony was a financial venture by a group of private investors in a London firm called the Virginia Company. The group obtained a royal charter from James I in 1606, hence the name...