The Early English Colonies Who Came and Why

How Colonies Were Founded The London and Plymouth companies got company charters from the king, which meant they had permission to start colonies in the new world.

How Colonies Were Founded These companies were Joint Stock companies, actual businesses that wanted to make a profit.

How Colonies Were Founded A Joint Stock company is a business where a number of people contribute money by buying shares, and would split the profits according to how many shares each person had.

How Colonies Were Founded The shareholders wanted to make money in the New World by finding gold, a path to Asia, or by trading furs.

The First English Colony The London Company founded the colony at Jamestown in Jamestown was a rotten place for a colony, because it had bad soil and disease carrying mosquitoes.

Building the fort at Jamestown, 1607

Jamestown Colony Around Old Towne was the original settlement of 104 men and boys. New Towne began to be built around 1614.

The Fist English Colony The first group of colonists were a bunch of rich Englishmen, who wanted to hunt for gold all the time.

The First English Colony The colony began to run out of food, and John Smith took over and made the colonists work to survive. By the end of the first winter, half of the colonists died from starvation or sickness, and the colony was a flop because they did not make any money.

Capt. John Smith

The Starving Time After John Smith left for home, all but sixty of the Jamestown colonists died during the winter of Things were brutal.

The Starving Time Jamestown Colonists Dealing Out the Last Kernels of Corn During the Starving Time,

Tobacco Saves Jamestown John Rolfe, the guy who married Pocohontas, discovered he could grow good tobacco at Jamestown. Tobacco could be grown at Jamestown and sold in England for a lot of money, because it was cheaper than Spanish tobacco.

John Rolfe and Pocohontas

Tobacco Plants. Tobacco grew very well in the Virginia climate.

Tobacco Saves Jamestown The Jamestown colony finally began to be a success because now the colonists had a way to make money.

Growth of Virginia The Headright System was started to get people to come to Jamestown; each time you paid for a person to come to the New World, you got 50 acres of land.

Growth of Virginia In the colonies, Land = Wealth

Growth of Virginia Indentured Servants were people who signed a contract saying they would work for a certain number of years for the person who paid for them to come to the New World.

An Indenture. The contract indentures William Tracey to Frederick Baker for a period of four years.

Growth of Virginia Because growing tobacco was so successful, more and more servants were needed at Jamestown, so they began to use Africans as slaves.

Howard Pyle created this depiction of the 1619 arrival of Virginia's first African slaves. Harper's Weekly (1917)

The Crown Takes Over Because the Jamestown colonists had taken so much of the land of the Powhatan Indians, they became very angry. One day in 1622, the Indians attacked the colonists, killing 350 people. This was called the Jamestown Massacre.

Indian massacre of 1622, depicted as a woodcut by Theodore de Bry.

A colonist is attacked.

The Crown Takes Over Because the Colonists had guns, they nearly wiped out the Indians as revenge for the Jamestown Massacre. King James heard of the Jamestown Massacre, and decided to make Jamestown a Royal Colony, that is, property of the King.