1. The Jamestown Nightmare
US History Lesson 3, Part 2
The Jamestown Nightmare
Chapter 2, The American Pageant

2. Reasons to Leave England for the New World
*With the defeat of Spain, England was no longer at threat and could more easily travel.
*A new policy of enclosure by the wealthy of fencing in lands to prevent hunting made it difficult for the poor to supplement their diet.
*Tradition of primogeniture = 1st born son inherits all the property leaving other sons with little money or land.
* The joint-stock company was perfected (investors put money into the company with hopes for a good return), so there was enough money to fund a colony.

3. Jamestown
*In 1606, the Virginia Company received a charter from King James I to make a settlement in the New World.
*The charter of the Virginia Company guaranteed settlers the same rights as Englishmen in Britain.
*On May 24, 1607, about 100 English settlers disembarked from their ship and founded Jamestown.

4. Problems for Jamestown
*40 people died on the voyage leaving 60
*People did not want to work
*Water was bad and people got sick
*Sickness, starvation, and even cannibalism soon occurred
*Supply ship crashed off Bahamas in 1609

5. More Leaders…More Problems
*Captain John Smith used the “no work, no eat” policy
*Also traded with Indians for food
*Assassination attempt sent Smith home to England
*Lord De La Warr arrived to get the colony back on track, but he caused even more problems…

6. Anglo-Powhatan War
*The Powhatan wanted Jamestown residents to make their settlement at a different location
*Captain John Smith though kept extending their settlement by building more forts
*Eventually, starving Jamestown residents stole food from the Powhatan and the Indians raided the village

7. Anglo-Powhatan War *These events eventually led to the first war
*It ended with a peace sealed by the marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe
*The Second War occurred when a raiding Indian party attacked the settlement killing 1/3 of the people.

8. Anglo-Powhatan War
*The English attacked nearly every day during the summer and periodically thereafter for 3 years, destroying corn fields as well as property.
*The Indians continued to attack and 8 years later 347 settlers had been killed, including John Rolfe.
*Eventually the English caught the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy and shot him in the back.
*The Powhatan ceded much of their land in the area to the English between the Blackwater and York rivers.

9. Jamestown Succeeds
*John Rolfe mixed two strains of tobacco together to form a mild tobacco that people could not get enough of (I think we call that addiction).
*A House of Burgesses was created to deal with local problems and to rule the people.
*The first African-Americans to arrive in America also came in 1619 to farm the land.