Virginia

Section 2.2

Main Idea

• After several failures, the English established a permanent settlement at Jamestown, Virginia.

• Sir Walter Raleigh >>>>>>>>>

Lost Colony• 1587: British lord Sir

Walter Raleigh established the colony of Roanoke on an island off the coast of modern NC.

• With few supplies, Raleigh went back to Britain for food, but promised to return soon.

• Raleigh was delayed for 3 years! (war with Spain)

• When the British arived at Roanoke, the white colonists had disappeared.

• Mystery surrounds the “Lost Colony”, but the 1st British settlement was a failure.

Lost Colony

British Plans• The King authorized 2

companies to settle British America.

• These were joint-stock companies: individuals invested hoping to make a profit.

• Many British were eager to move to the New World. Land, jobs, and opportunity were scarce back home.

Jamestown• 1607: 144 British

settlers leave Europe destined for Virginia, only 100 survive the trip!

• John Smith was their leader.

• They settled on the coast, but malaria and dysentery plagued the colonists.

• The Powhatan Indians lived nearby, which presented danger.

• Most spent their time treasure hunting, not farming.

• Only 38 were alive by 1608.

John Rolfe and Pocahantas

Jamestown• The 2nd winter in Virginia

was rough, known as the “starving time”.

• John Rolfe, another colonist, attempted to keep peace by marrying Pocahontas, the daughter of the Powhatan chief.

• Still trouble with Indians persisted.

• Rolfe also is credited with 1st growing tobacco at Jamestown.

• This native plant had been used by Indians, but Rolfe began shipping it back to Europe.

• Soon Europeans were addicted to the drug, and Virginia was making a profit.

New Colonists• The joint-stock

company in charge of Virginia offered headrights.

• This guaranteed each person that moved to VA 50 acres of land.

• This attracted more settlers.

• House of Burgesses: created by the Virginia settlers.

• White-male-landowners were elected to make laws and establish taxes on the colony.

• The HoB became the 1st representative legislative body in the colonies.

Help Wanted• Poor Europeans could

agree to be indentured servants.

• IS signed a contract to work for 7 years, their employer would feed and house them.

• When 7 years was up, they became free.

• In 1619, a ship brought the 1st Africans to VA.

• At 1st they were treated like indentured servants, but over time owners saw that it was more profitable to keep them permanently as slaves.

• White IS could run away and blend in, Africans could not.

Indentured Servants v Slaves

-Service for limited time

-Easy to escape, could blend in to white

populations- Had limited rights as a

servant

- Permanent servant- Difficult to escape

- No rights

Bacon’s Rebellion• Former IS were poor,

and had to move inland to find land.

• This lead to increased problems with American Indians.

• These poor frontiersmen asked the HoB for help, but the rich people on the coast refused.

• In 1676 a man names Nathaniel Bacon led an uprising of poor whites against the elites.

• Bacon’s Rebellion resulted in increased rights for poor whites, but also scarred more landowners away from importing IS = more African slaves.

Bacon’s Rebellion Video