The Virginia Colony

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The Virginia Colony

• Roanoke Jamestown

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Founding History of the Virginia Colony

• Lost Colony of Roanoke
• In 1584, Queen Elizabeth gave Sir Walter Raleigh
  the right to claim lands in North America
• Raleigh led an expedition to settle the island of
  Roanoke off the coast of North Carolina
• Failure of the First Attempt
• All of 100 settlers except 15 men returned to
  England
• Failure of the Second Attempt
• 15 settlers that remained were dead
• John White became Governor
• White left for supplies returned 3 years later
• Colony was deserted and he found the word
  Croatoan on a tree
• White ordered attack against Powhatan natives but
  settlers attacked friendly Croatoans
• English abandoned Roanoke

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Founding History of the Virginia Colony

• Jamestown Settlement
• The Virginia Company of London (joint-stock
  company) received a charter from King James I to
  settle in North America
• In 1607, settlers sailed up the James River and
  established Jamestown
• Jamestown faced hardships (disease and hunger)
  but survived due to Captain John Smiths
  leadership
• Required subsistence crops
• You dont work, you dont eat
• Established relationship with Chief Powhatan
  (received corn from natives)
• Captain John Smith left the colony due to injury-
  relations with natives deteriorated
• Marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe improved
  native relations again

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Founders Important Colonists of the Virginia
Colony

• Sir Walter Raleigh
• Led settlers to Roanoke Island with permission of
  the crown
• Captain John Smith
• Leadership of Smith ensured the survival of the
  Jamestown Colony
• John Rolfe
• Introduced tobacco to Jamestown and married
  Pocahontas
• Pocahontas
• Daughter of Chief Powhatan, worked to ensure
  coexistence of settlers and natives, and married
  John Rolfe
• William Berkeley
• Early Governor of Virginia Colony

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Reasons for the Founding of the Virginia Colony

• To establish an English presence in the New World
• In 1606, the Virginia Company petitioned for a
  charter to form a settlement in North America
• The businessmen of the Virginia Company wanted to
  get rich from the New World like the Spanish had
  by
• Trading
• Subjugating the natives and forcing them to
  provide the English with food, goods, and wealth
• Pillaging and Raiding native villages
• Growing cash crops and selling them in Europe

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The First Charter of the Virginia Colony

• Date
• April 10, 1606
• Between
• King James I of England
• Individual Members of the Virginia Company of
  London (Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and
  others)
• Grant
• Licence, to make Habitation, Plantation, and to
  deduce a colony of sundry of our People into that
  part of America commonly called VIRGINIA

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The Economy, Major Industries Occupations in
the Virginia Colony

• Agriculture
• Tobacco (Major Cash Crop)
• Grain
• Cattle
• Fishing
• Trading
• Furs
• Products
• Rum
• Furniture

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Religion in the Virginia Colony

• By Law, Settlers in Virginia were English and
  belonged to the Church of England
• The Church was supported by taxes paid by all
  settlers
• The line was blurred between the religious and
  civil authorities
• Virginians were not tolerant of non-Christians

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Government in the Virginia Colony

• England
• King James I authorized his agents to govern in
  Virginia according to the Laws of England and the
  Charter of the Virginia Company
• House of Burgesses
• The House of Burgesses was created as a
  representative legislative body in Virginia made
  up of 22 members
• The governor selected by the Company
• 6 Counselors selected by the Company
• 15 members selected by colonists
• Only wealthy, landowning, white, male colonists
  helped elect representatives
• It was Americas first representative legislature
  and it continues to this day as the Virginia
  Assembly
• In 1624 King James I revoked the Virginia Company
  Charter and Virginia became a royal English Colony

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Major Cities The Status of Slavery in the
Virginia Colony

• Major Cities in Colonial Virginia
• Jamestown
• Williamsburg
• Norfolk
• Status of Slavery in Colonial Virginia
• Slavery was legal in Virginia although at first
  colonists used indentured servants (slaves were
  three times more expensive)
• In 1619, two British ships sold 21 African slaves
  to the governor of Virginia (first African slaves
  in North America)
• In 1660 as the tobacco industry took hold,
  farmers required more labor and the more and more
  African slaves were brought to Virginia

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Bibliography (Internet Sources)

• http//www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-colonial
  /2029
• http//avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/va01.asp1
  
• http//www.history.org/almanack/life/religion/reli
  gionva.cfm
• http//www.lva.virginia.gov/exhibits/political/col
  onial.htm
• http//www.lva.virginia.gov/exhibits/political/col
  onial.htm