• Colonies founded by joint stock company

• Several investors pool wealth hoping colony would gain profit

• Once permit is obtained, stock company maintains colony

• King James I grants charter to Virginia Company

• Wanted to found a colony along eastern shore of North America

• King gave 4/5 of all gold and silver (he gets rest of it)

English Settlers Struggle in North America

• 150 passengers on 3 ships– Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed reach in 1607

• Named Jamestown in honor of King

• John Smith sensed trouble• 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

Virginia Company

• 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

• Colonists flee, but are convinced to stay• Colonists severely punished by new leaders for

neglecting work

• Flogged and hanged

• BIG cash crop: TOBACCO

Jamestown begins to flourish

• 1612 – John Rolfe cross bred tobacco from Brazil with what they had in North America

• High quality tobacco

• Late 1620s- export more than 1.5 million pounds of “brown gold” to England each year

• Needed field laborers to keep growing

• Introduced headright system – anyone who paid for their passage to Virginia received 50 acres of land.

“BROWN GOLD” AND INDENTURED SERVANTS

• The large areas of land come to be known as “Plantations”

• Owners imported indentured servants from England.

• in exchange for passage and food and shelter, indentured servants agree to limited term of servitude (4-7 years)

• Africans arrive in 1619• Originally treated as indentured servants• Most received land and freedom after a few years• Would be several decades before slavery begins

• Tobacco used as currency

• Indentured servants purchased for 1000 lbs of tobacco

• Slaves cost double or triple the amount

• Late 1600s – decline in indentured servants, increase in wealth

• Lots of slaves are imported, and are never freed

The First African Laborers

English Pattern of Conquest

• 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

Settlers Clash with Native Americans

• 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

• 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

Economic Differences Split Virginia

• 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

Bacon’s Rebellion