Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown was a village on an island in the James River in Virginia, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of where Richmond, Virginia, is now. Both the river and the 1607 settlement there were named for King James I who had recently ascended to the English throne. The Jamestown Settlement was the first permanent English colony in the New World to survive.

Contents

1 Settlement

2 Prosperity

6.1 Jamestown Exposition of 1907
6.2 Colonial National Historical Park
6.3 Jamestown Festival Park
6.4 APVA archaeological campaign

7 21st century

8 External Links

9 Further reading

Settlement

Jamestown was founded in 1607 by the London Virginia Company. Three ships, Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery arrived at Jamestown on May 14, and their crews of 104 men and boys began the first permanent English settlement in North America. The settlers consisted mainly of English farmers and Polish woodcutters, hired in Royal Prussia. Upon landing, secret orders from the Virginia Company were opened which named John Smith as one of the councilors. Smith had been arrested on the voyage over by Admiral Christopher Newport for mutiny and scheduled to hang, but was freed upon the opening of the orders.

Despite the fact that Jamestown Island is a swamp, the men of the Virginia Company chose to settle there because they felt it was far enough inland to avoid contact and conflict with the Spanish fleet while the river was deep enough to permit them to anchor their ships yet have an easy and quick departure if necessary. They had only been at Jamestown for less than a fortnight when they were attacked on May 26 by Paspahegh Indians, who succeeded in killing one of the settlers and wounding eleven more. By June 15, the settlers finished the initial triangle fort at Jamestown and a week later, Newport sailed back for London on the Susan Constant with a load of pyrite and dirt.

Edward M. Wingfield was named the first president of the colony and would remain in that position until September, when he was found guilty of libel and deposed. John Ratcliffe was elected to take his place. A year later, John Smith was elected to replace Ratcliffe. He would remain as President until wounded in 1609, when Ratcliffe became President again, although Ratcliffe was captured by Chief Powhatan and tortured to death by women of the Powhatan tribe while on a trade mission shortly after being elected. The winter of 1609-1610 became known as the starving time in Jamestown.

The settlers who came over on the initial three ships were not well equipped for the life they found in Jamestown and many suffered from saltwater poisoning which led to infection, fevers, and dysentery. Smith was wounded when his powder bag exploded and he was sent back to England, where he wrote A True Relation about his experiences in Jamestown and a second book, The Proceedings of the English Colony of Virginia. The publication of this book sparked a resurgence in interest in the colony and, with plans being made to abandon Jamestown in 1610, a new governor, Lord de la Warr, arrived and forced the remaining 90 settlers to stay.

While president of the colony, Smith led a food-gathering expedition up the Chickahominy River. His men were set upon by Indians and when his men were killed, Smith strapped his Indian guide in front of him to use as a shield. Captured by Opchanacanough, Chief Powhatan's half-brother, Smith gave him a compass, which made the Indian decide to let Smith live. When Smith was brought before Chief Powhatan, however, the chief decided to execute him, a course of action which was stopped by the pleas of Powhatan's young daughter, Pocahontas, who was originally named Matoaka, but whose nickname meant "Playful one."

Although Pocahontas's life would be tied to the English after this first meeting, she is not tied to Smith, except in his report in his books. During the winter of 1608, after Jamestown was destroyed by flames, Pocahontas brought food and clothing to the colonists. She later negotiated with Smith for the release of Indians who had been captured by the colonists during a raid to gain English weaponry. Pocahontas converted to Christianity and took the name Rebecca in 1613 under the tutelage of Reverend Alexander Whitaker, who arrived in Jamestown in 1611 to found the first Presbyterian Church in Virginia. She married a settler, John Rolfe on April 24, 1614. Within two years, they left for London, where Pocahontas died at Gravesend on March 17, 1617.

Rolfe arrived in Jamestown in 1609 following the shipwreck of the Sea Venture, which may have inspired William Shakespeare's "The Tempest", through a log of the events kept by Captain Samuel Jordan. Wedged in a reef off Bermuda, the 150 on board built ships from the wreckage and sailed the two boats, known as the Deliverance and the Patience up to Jamestown, where they found the colony in ruins and practically abandoned until de la Warr arrived.

Prosperity

Rolfe was the first man to successfully raise tobacco at Jamestown. The tobacco raised in Virginia to that time, Nicotiana Rustica, was not to the liking of the Europeans, but Rolfe had brought some seed for Nicotiana Tabacum with him from Bermuda. Shortly after arriving, his first wife died, having given birth to a daughter in Bermuda, who did not survive long enough to see Virginia. Although most people wouldn't touch the crop, Rolfe was able to make his fortune farming it. When he left for England with Pocahontas, he was wealthy and they had a son, Thomas. When Rolfe returned to Jamestown following Pocahontas's death, Thomas remained behind in England. Back in Jamestown, Rolfe married Jane Pierce and continued to improve the quality of tobacco, with the result that by the time of his death in 1622, Jamestown was thriving as a producer of tobacco and Jamestown's population would top 4,000. Tobacco led to the importation of the colony's first black slaves as well as women from England in 1619.

That same year, the House of Burgesses, the first legislature of elected representatives in America, met in the Jamestown Church. Their first law was to set a minimum price for the sale of tobacco. In 1622, an uprising led by Opechancanough led to the massacre of nearly 400 settlers, although Jamestown was spared from destruction due to the warnings of an Indian boy named Chanco to Richard Pace of Wapping Wall, London (d. abt 1624), a resident since about 1613. Pace, after securing himself and his neighbors on the South side of the James River, took a canoe across river to warn Jamestown which narrowly escaped destruction. A year later, Captain William Tucker and Dr. John Potts worked out a truce with the Powhatan Indians and proposed a toast, using liquor laced with poison. 200 Indians were killed by the poison and 50 more were slaughtered by the colonists. In 1624, the Virginia Company lost its charter and Virginia became a crown colony.

Colonial Era

In the 1670s, the governor of Virginia was Sir William Berkeley, serving his second term in that office. Berkeley had previously been governor in the 1640s and was a scholar and playwright, as well as a veteran of the English Civil War and in his seventies. In the mid 1670s, a young cousin of his, through marriage, Nathaniel Bacon, Jr. arrived in Virginia, sent by his father in the hope that he would mature. Although lazy, Bacon was intelligent and Berkeley provided him with a land grant and a seat on the Virginia Colony council.

In July 1675, the Doeg Indians raided the plantation of Thomas Mathews in order to gain payment for several items Mathews had obtained from the tribe. Several Doegs were killed in the raid and the colonists then raided the Susquehanaugs in retaliation. This led to large scale Indian raids. Berkeley tried to calm the situation, but many of the colonists refused to listen to him and Bacon disregarded a direct order and captured some Appomattox Indians.

Following the establishment of the Long Assembly in 1676, war was declared on all hostile Indians, and trade with Indian tribes was regulated, often seen by the colonists to favor those friends of Berkeley. Bacon opposed Berkeley and led a group in opposition to the governor. Bacon and his troops set themselves up at Henrico until Berkeley arrived and Bacon and his men fled, upon which time Berkeley declared them in rebellion and offered a pardon to any who returned to Jamestown peaceably.

Bacon led numerous raids on Indians friendly to the colonists in an attempt to bring down Berkeley. The governor offered him amnesty, but the House of Burgesses refused, insisting that Bacon must acknowledge his mistakes. At about the same time, Bacon was actually elected to the House of Burgesses and attended the June 1676 assembly, where he was captured, apologized, and pardoned by Berkeley.

Bacon demanded a commission, but Berkeley refused. Bacon and his supporters surrounded the statehouse and threatened to start shooting the Burgesses if Berkeley did not receive the commission as General of all forces against the Indians. Berkeley eventually acceded and then left Jamestown. He attempted a coup a month later, but was unsuccessful. In September, however, Berkeley was successful and Bacon dug in for a siege, which resulted in his burning Jamestown to the ground on September 19, 1676. Bacon died of the flux and lice on October 26, 1676 and his body is believed to have been burned. Berkeley hanged the major leaders of the rebellion and was relieved of his governorship and returned to London, where he died in July 1677.

"Jimsonweed" is a corruption of "Jamestown weed," named for the village after some British soldiers sent to quell Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 failed in their mission after being fed leaves of the plant, which grew wild in great quantity there. They were intoxicated for about a week and claimed afterward to have no memory of that period.

The first phase of Jamestown's history ended in 1699, when a decision was made not to rebuild the statehouse which had burned down in 1698, but instead accept a proposal by students of the College of William and Mary to move the capital of Virginia to higher ground about 12 miles (20 km) away where their school was located at Middle Plantation, which would soon be renamed Williamsburg.

1700s

Due to the movement of the capital to Williamsburg, Jamestown began to slowly disappear above ground. By the 1750s the land was owned and heavily cultivated primarily by the Travis and Ambler families.

19th century

During the American Civil War, in 1861, Confederate William Allen, who owned the Jamestown Island, occupied Jamestown with troops he raised at his own expense with the intention of blockading the James River, and therefore protecting Richmond, from the Union Navy. He was soon joined by Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones, who directed the building of batteries and conducted ordnance and armor tests for the first Confederate ironclad warship CSS Virginia (formerly known as the Merrimac) at the site. By the end of 1861, Jamestown had a force of 1200 men, which was augmented in early 1862 by an artillery battalion. With the Union forces landing at Yorktown under General George B. McClellan, in April, however, the peninsula was abandoned by the Confederates.

Once in Federal hands, Jamestown became a meeting place for runaway slaves, who burned the Ambler house, an eighteenth century plantation which, along with the old church, were the few remaining signs of Jamestown. When Allen sent men to assess damage in late 1862, they were killed by the former slaves. For the most part, Jamestown did not have an active role in the Civil War, although both sides used it for feints. Following the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, the oath of allegiance was administered to former Confederate soldiers at Jamestown.

20th century

Jamestown Exposition of 1907

The Jamestown Exposition of 1907 was one of the many world's fairs and expositions that were popular in the United States early part of the 20th century. Early in the 20th century, as the tercentennial of the 1607 Founding of the Jamestown neared, leaders in Norfolk, Virginia began a campaign to have a celebration held there. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities had gotten the ball rolling in 1900 by calling for a celebration honoring the establishment of the first permanent English colony in the New World at Jamestown, to be held on the 300th anniversary.

No one thought that the actual isolated and long-abandoned original site would be suitable because Jamestown Island had no facilities for large crowds, and the fort housing the Jamestown Settlement was believed to have been long-ago swallowed by the James River.

The decision was made to locate the international exposition on a mile-long frontage at Sewell's Point near the mouth of Hampton Roads. The Jamestown Exposition was held there from April 26, 1907 to December 1, 1907.

Colonial National Historical Park

Currently, the Jamestown National Historical Site exists on 22½ acres (91,100 m&sup2) of land at the western end of Jamestown Island. The area was donated to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities in 1893, before which time, it had seen settlement, rebellion (in 1676), and battle (during the Civil War). In 1934, the Colonial National Historical Park obtained the remaining 1500 acre (6.1 km&sup2) island and partnered with the APVA to preserve the area and present it to visitors in an educational manner.

Jamestown Festival Park

Jamestown Festival Park was established at Jamestown Island in 1957 to mark the 350th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown Settlement. At the National Park Service site, the reconstructed Glasshouse, the Memorial Cross and the visitors center were completed and dedicated. Full-sized replicas of the three ships that brought the colonists, the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery were constructed at a shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, and docked at Jamestown. Other events included army and navy reviews, air force fly-overs, ship and aircraft christenings and even an outdoor drama at Cape Henry, site of the first landing of the settlers. This celebration continued from April 1 to November 30 with over a million participants, including dignitaries and politicians such as the British Ambassador and U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon. The highlight for many of the nearly 25,000 at the Festival Park on October 16, 1957 was the visit and speech of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and her consort, Prince Philip. Queen Elizabeth II loaned a copy of the Magna Carta for the exhibition.

Although the 1957 celebration is long past, many of the attractions remained and some have been enhanced in the years since. There is now a working reconstruction of the settlement. The original replicas of the three ships that brought the colonists, the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery which had been constructed at a shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia have been rebuilt, and are still very popular with tourists, especially school groups.

APVA archaeological campaign

Starting in 1994, a major archaeological campaign at Jamestown has been conducted by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, in preparation for the quadricentennial of Jamestown's founding. The original goal of the archaeological campaign was to locate archaeological remains of "the first years of settlement at Jamestown, especially of the earliest fortified town; [and the] the subsequent growth and development of the town". [1] (http://www.apva.org/pubs/94reprt.html)

Early on, the project discovered the remains of the 1607 settlement. This was something of a surprise, as it had been widely thought that the original site had been entirely lost, due to erosion by the James River. However, only one corner of the first triangular fort (which contained the original settlement) turned out to have been destroyed.

The extended archaeological campaign has made many discoveries, including retrieving hundreds of thousands of artifacts, a large fraction of them from the first few years of the settlement's history. In addition, it has uncovered much of the fort, the remains of several houses and wells, a palisade wall line attached to the fort, and the graves of several of the original settlers, including one thought to be that of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, one of the most important figures in the English settlement of the New World. [2] (http://www.historicjamestowne.org/news/gosnold_dna_01.php)

Archaeological work at the site continues, and is greatly expanding knowledge of what happened at Jamestown in its earliest days.

21st century

Plans are underway for "Jamestown 2007", which will celebrate the quadricentennial of the founding of the Jamestown Settlement.

External Links

APVA web site for the Jamestown Rediscovery project (http://www.apva.org/jr.html)
Historic Jamestowne (http://www.historicjamestowne.org/)
- Where are We Digging Now? (http://www.historicjamestowne.org/the_dig/)
Jamestown 2007 Celebration (http://www.jamestown2007.org/)
Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center (http://www.historyisfun.org/)
Virtual Jamestown (http://www.virtualjamestown.org/)