early english colonies part i roanoke and jamestown mr. heath blue creek elementary school 2011
TRANSCRIPT
Early English Colonies Part I
Roanoke and Jamestown Mr. Heath
Blue Creek Elementary School
2011
Jamestown
Roanoke Island
North America
The Lost Colony • Roanoke Island, North
Carolina in 1587• Governor John White• White returns to England
for supplies• Returns 3 Years Later• The Colony had
Disappeared• Still a Mystery— “The
Lost Colony”
The Virginia Company of London • Joint-Stock Company
• Investors paid money for shares in the company
• Investors would share in profits of company
• Given a charter to start a colony in North America
• Charter—written document that grants certain rights to a colony, state or group of people
Jamestown
• Founded in 1607• Located on the
shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia
• Started by the Virginia Company of London
• Named after King James I of England
•40 of the 144 men died on the journey from England to the New World
Problems of the Jamestown
Colony • Spent time
looking for gold instead of planting crops
• Did not make friends with the Native Americans
• Settled in an area infested with mosquitoes that carried deadly diseases
• “The Starving Time”—Harsh first winter—many died
John Smith
• Became governor in 1608
• Improved Discipline
• Made Rule: “He who does not work does not eat.”
• Made men plant crops
• Improved relations with Indians
Tobacco• John Rolfe learns to grow
tobacco from Indians• Becomes a successful
export and cash crop • Cash Crop—a crop sold to
make a profit• Export—goods sent from
one country and sold to another country for a profit.
• Tobacco was popular in England.
Indentured Servants
• Planters (farmers) needed workers to grow and harvest the tobacco
• Indentured Servants agreed to work from 7 to 14 years for their passage to America
• Received food, clothing and shelter• Sometimes land & money to start a new
life
Enslaved Africans • Began arriving in
Jamestown in 1619
• First Africans were
indentured servants
• Freed Africans started their own farms
• First African Slaves in 1640
• By 1660, slaves from African were being imported to Virginia
• Slavery spread to other colonies