The Virginia Colony

Roanoke & Jamestown

Founding & History of the Virginia Colony

• Lost Colony of Roanoke– In 1584, Queen Elizabeth gave Sir

Walter Raleigh the right to claim lands in North America

– Raleigh led an expedition to settle the island of Roanoke off the coast of North Carolina

– Failure of the First Attempt • All of 100 settlers except 15 men

returned to England– Failure of the Second Attempt

• 15 settlers that remained were dead• John White became Governor• White left for supplies & returned 3

years later• Colony was deserted and he found

the word Croatoan on a tree• White ordered attack against

Powhatan natives but settlers attacked friendly Croatoans

• English abandoned Roanoke

Founding & History of the Virginia Colony

• Jamestown Settlement– The Virginia Company of London (joint-stock company) received a charter from King

James I to settle in North America– In 1607, settlers sailed up the James River and established Jamestown– Jamestown faced hardships (disease and hunger) but survived due to Captain John

Smith’s leadership• Required subsistence crops• “You don’t work, you don’t eat”• Established relationship with Chief Powhatan (received corn from natives)

– Captain John Smith left the colony due to injury- relations with natives deteriorated– Marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe improved native relations again

Founders & Important Colonists of the Virginia Colony• Sir Walter Raleigh

– Led settlers to Roanoke Island with permission of the crown

• Captain John Smith– Leadership of Smith ensured

the survival of the Jamestown Colony

• John Rolfe– Introduced tobacco to

Jamestown and married Pocahontas

• Pocahontas– Daughter of Chief Powhatan,

worked to ensure coexistence of settlers and natives, and married John Rolfe

• William Berkeley– Early Governor of Virginia

Colony

Reasons for the Founding of the Virginia Colony

• To establish an English presence in the New World

• In 1606, the Virginia Company petitioned for a charter to form a settlement in North America

• The businessmen of the Virginia Company wanted to get rich from the New World like the Spanish had by:– Trading– Subjugating the natives and

forcing them to provide the English with food, goods, and wealth

– Pillaging and Raiding native villages

– Growing cash crops and selling them in Europe

The First Charter of the Virginia Colony

• Date:– April 10, 1606

• Between:– King James I of England &– Individual Members of the

Virginia Company of London (Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and others)

• Grant:– “…Licence, to make

Habitation, Plantation, and to deduce a colony of sundry of our People into that part of America commonly called VIRGINIA…”

The Economy, Major Industries & Occupations in the Virginia

Colony• Agriculture

– Tobacco (Major Cash Crop)– Grain– Cattle

• Fishing• Trading

– Furs

• Products– Rum– Furniture

Religion in the Virginia Colony

• By Law, Settlers in Virginia were English and belonged to the Church of England

• The Church was supported by taxes paid by all settlers

• The line was blurred between the religious and civil authorities

• Virginians were not tolerant of non-Christians

Government in the Virginia Colony

• England– King James I authorized his agents to

govern in Virginia according to the Laws of England and the Charter of the Virginia Company

• House of Burgesses– The House of Burgesses was created

as a representative legislative body in Virginia made up of 22 members:• The governor selected by the Company• 6 Counselors selected by the Company• 15 members selected by colonists

– Only wealthy, landowning, white, male colonists helped elect representatives

– It was America’s first representative legislature and it continues to this day as the Virginia Assembly

• In 1624 King James I revoked the Virginia Company Charter and Virginia became a royal English Colony

Major Cities & The Status of Slavery in the Virginia Colony

• Major Cities in Colonial Virginia:– Jamestown– Williamsburg– Norfolk

• Status of Slavery in Colonial Virginia– Slavery was legal in Virginia

although at first colonists used indentured servants (slaves were three times more expensive)

– In 1619, two British ships sold 21 African slaves to the governor of Virginia (first African slaves in North America)

– In 1660 as the tobacco industry took hold, farmers required more labor and the more and more African slaves were brought to Virginia

Bibliography (Internet Sources)

• http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-colonial/2029

• http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/va01.asp#1

• http://www.history.org/almanack/life/religion/religionva.cfm

• http://www.lva.virginia.gov/exhibits/political/colonial.htm

• http://www.lva.virginia.gov/exhibits/political/colonial.htm