In 1606 King James I set two companies, the London and the Plymouth, out with three instructions: find gold, find a route to the South Seas, and find the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Five months later, and forty-five men less, the London Company landed on a semi-island along the banks of a river the Indians knew as “Powhatan’s River”. On May 13, 1607, the first permanent British colony had been established in the form of a triangular fort. The men named their fort Jamestown, in honor of their King, and named their land Virginia, in honor or Queen Elizabeth I, the “Virgin Queen”.
“The company defined Virginia as the entire North American coast between 30º and 45ºN, and extending inland for 50 miles (80 kilometers). Virginia at one time stretched from southern Maine to California and encompassed all or part of 42 of the present 50 states, as well as Bermuda and part of the Canadian province of Ontario.” (Gale group) At first, the men believed they had found paradise. The climate appeared mild, and the natives had reacted friendly. John Smith wrote, “Heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitations.” (Colonial History) Then, the beautiful new world turned to blistering heat, s
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The one factor that revolutionized Jamestown and Virginia's economy, though, came in 1612. Though many indentured servants earned their freedom over time, more wealthy colonists were able to absorb New World land rapidly during early colonization. Since few British colonists could finance their cost of passage, colonizing agencies fronted transportation costs. The colony's charter established a rigid orthodoxy for both church and government affairs. As historian Norman Davies explains, "One of the most enterprising--if unsavory—trading practices of the time was the so-called triangular trade. Land-versus trade based economies; cooperation and conflict with Indians, religion, and even the types of people emigrating from England defined distinctly individual cultures for each of the early colonies of the New World. Disease struck most of the first settlers within the years of 1609-1610. The colony quickly succumbed to anarchy when Smith returned to England just two years after Jamestown was founded. " These were men, often lesser scions of nobility, with no future in overpopulated England, who had been lured by the Virginia Company with promises of land and wealth--much as people were lured into going to California during the Gold Rush. In 1630, armed with a grant from the British king for colonial authority, a large wave of Puritan emigrants arrived on the shores of the Massachusetts Bay and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. After indentured emigrants won their freedom, the situation also created a need for work force, which came in the form of a burgeoning slave trade. New England colonists quickly turned to other pursuits for survival. Bringing personal libraries with them from England, both the Puritans and Quakers were instrumental in establishing America's first libraries and school systems (Gordy 210).
The only man who was able to somewhat keep peace, both in the colony and with the Indians, was John Smith. As experienced in other colonies, indentured servitude created an imbalance of economy and political power as Jamestown and the Chesapeake Bay colonies developed (Gordy 134).
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