English Settlement at Jamestown

Chapter 2 Section 2Page 42

Sir Walter Raleigh

13 Col

John Smith

Colonization

• Joint-stock Companies – several investors pool money to support a colony.

• Jamestown funded by a joint-stock company• Expedition led by John Smith• Named in honor of King James of England• Disastrous start– Disease (from water)– Lack of food

Pocahontas Powhatan

Jamestown

• Powhatan people were convinced by Smith to give colonist food.

• Became alarmed at the number of colonist arriving & began killing colonist.

• Only 60 colonist survived

• New colonist arrived• Developed a new

profitable crop… tobacco

“Brown Gold”

• Colonist mixed Native American tobacco w/ Brazilian tobacco resulting in a high quality tobacco.

• Needed laborers to grow to crop.• Introduced the headright system – anyone who

paid for their own or another’s passage to Virginia received 50 acres of land.

• Indentured Servants – in exchange for passage to America, food, & shelter a person agreed to work for 7 yrs for the owner.

First African Laborers

• First Africans arrived as indentured servants on a Dutch ship.

• Decades before Africans were used as slaves.

Settlers Clash w/ Native Americans

• Colonists clashed w/ Native Americans• King James was disgusted at Virginia • Declared the colony a royal colony – one

under direct control of the king.

Bacon’s Rebellion

• Virginia’s poor settlers felt oppressed by colony’s governor Berkeley.

• Imposed high taxes• Frontier farmers had a dispute w/ Indians.• Berkeley refused to help the farmers w/ the

conflict.• Nathaniel Bacon raised an army to fight

Native Americans on the frontier.• Berkeley declared the army illegal

Bacon’s Rebellion

• Bacon marched on Jamestown & presented a list of grievances to the House of Burgesses (Virginia's Legislature)

• March turned violent as Berkeley fled the colony.• When Bacon died, Berkeley returned to Jamestown.• Rebellion drew attention to Berkeley’s policies• Exposed the growing power of the colony’s former

indentured servants.

Read

• Pages 42-48

Answer the following questions1. What difficulties did the English at Jamestown face?2. How did the growing tobacco affect the Jamestown colony?3. What was the headright system?4. What was life like for colonies’ first African laborers?5. How did the English colonists’ relationship with Native

Americans differ from the Spaniards’ relationship with the Native Americans?

6. Why did Virginia become a royal colony?7. What was life like for indentured servants in Virginia?8. What were the causes and consequences of Bacon’s

Rebellion?