The Virginia Colony

The Virginia Colony was founded in 1607 Located on the James River Their climate was swampy and cool with forest areas Jamestown was the capitol of the Virginia Colony

History The Virginia Colony was founded in 1607 but they weren’t really ready to start a colony and their leader wasn’t ready either. Their leader was John Smith. They didn’t have a very easy start but they got through it and their colony kept growing until it reached it’s final stage. John Smith

History #2 The Virginia Colony has only had one major war in their history. This war was against the Powhatan Indians. The people of the Virginia Colony had killed the Powhatan leader but when the people of Powhatan struck back they killed 350 men, woman, and children.

History #3 The capital of the Virginia Colony was Jamestown when the colony first got started, but as the colony got bigger they decided to change the capitol to Williamsburg. Williamsburg was appointed the capitol because they wanted to give appreciation to their king, William III.

History #4 The Virginia Colony had a period they called, “The Starving Time” They had gone into starvation because they couldn’t supply food and they lost half of their people in their colony. With only 60 survivors left they abandon the colony but were brought back by with more people by their king a few months later.

Civil War The Virginia Colony was a big part of the civil war because a lot of runaway slaves used it as “a meeting place.” Virginia didn’t know this at the time and when they found out they were mad because everyone was blaming them for “letting” the slaves stay there.

Location The Virginia Colony was located in Virginia right along the James river. It was a warm climate with a lot of swamps and forests.

Habitat The Virginia Colony had a lot of things that kept them from having an easy life. There habitat had a lot of crucial flaws. These flaws included living by a swamp with a lot of disease carrying mosquitoes. This also made it hard because they had a hard time growing crops anywhere in the Virginia Colony. – Continued on next page

Habitat –continued. The Virginia Colony also had almost no good water to drink because it was all polluted from the swamp. They would have to boil their water to get the dirt and grime out of the water so it was drinkable. They managed to survive and got back to normal shortly after that.

Climate The Climate in the Virginia Colony was warm but was very humid in the summer. Sometimes in the summer it would get up into the 110’s or higher. This made for great tobacco growing weather and they had many plantations in Virginia.

Living Conditions People in the Virginia Colony lived in a big fort that surrounded the houses, churches and other stores. It was meant for protection because the big tall walls prevented people from climbing over and then the only other entrance would be where the guards were.

Economy To make a lot of their money the the Virginia Colony exported a lot of tobacco. It was their main source of money supply and that’s what got the colony started.

How The Virginia Colony’s Culture Was Affected By Other Cultures The Culture in Jamestown was affected a lot by the Powhatan and The Algonquin Indians. They affected them because they taught them how to grow food, plants, animals and how to hunt. They also affected them negatively because they had wars against each other also.

Famous People From The Virginia Colony There are a few people that came from the Virginia Colony that became very important to the American history. The weird thing is that they were all presidents, they were: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. – Continued on next slide. George Washington Thomas Jefferson James Madison

Famous People cont. George Washington was the first U.S. president and he served for eight years. Thomas Jefferson was the 2 nd president and served for eight years also. And James Madison was the 4 th president. He served for eight years just like the other two.

Religion People in the Virginia Colony took their religion very seriously. They practiced a religion known as catholic. They were very dedicated to it and took it very seriously. It soon began to be a part of their daily life.

Other When Virginia started making their tobacco they didn’t want to do all the work so they captured slaves and forced them to do almost all the work on the plantation. The slaves would work long strenuous hours out on the plantation. They weren’t fed well and weren’t given any beds to sleep on.

Reference (txt book) (A primary source history of the Colony of Virginia)