The First Successful English Colony

1587 Colony off the coast of present- day North Carolina.

Leader John White left to England for more supplies.

When White returned the colonists disappeared. Carved on a doorpost CROATOAN!!!!

Until this day no one knows what happen to the colony????

After Raleigh’s failure with Roanoke, individual people stopped funding colonies

Joint stock companies started• a business in which investors combine their

money in order to make a profit London Company (founded Jamestown) Plymouth Company (Plymouth Mass)

Once a joint stock company got a charter, they could establish a colony• a written contract from a government that gave

the companies permission to create a colony

First permanent English settlement with more than 100 colonists

Began with problem• Bad location- swampy• Disease- malaria- carrying

mosquitoes• Spent more time mining for

gold than building a settlement or planting crops

Climate• Summer- hot and humid• Winter- bitter cold

Gentlemen: did not work with their hands/labor.

Only 38 of the original 100 were still alive

John Smith takes over in January• Made physical improvements

built a protective wall around the colony

• Got colonists working “He that will not work shall not

eat.”• Improved relations with

Powhatan Indians Got them to trade corn with the

settlers• Injured in an explosion and

had to leave in 1609• That same year about 500

more settlers arrived

Growing tensions with Indians• Indians stopped trading

food• Increased attacks on the

settlers Colonists afraid to leave fort

Starving Time• Colonists ate rats, mice,

snakes & people• Only 60 survived in 1610• The next spring they

were saved again Supply ships brought food,

more settlers, and soldiers a new governor who imposed

more discipline

John Rolfe arrives with a crop that will make Jamestown rich• a high grade version of

tobacco• tobacco became a cash

crop a crop grown in order to be

sold for money instead of personal use (food, clothes, shelter, etc.)

Became widespread and popular

Colony became more of a business than a colony• Colonists seen as employees• Colonists wanted their share of the profit

Virginia Company eventually let settlers own land• This caused them to work even harder on harvesting tobacco

First African American slaves came Population more than tripled in 2 years More workers were needed but not many people could afford

the passage Indentured servitude was also a way to increase the

amount of workers • a person who sold his or her labor in exchange for passage to America• after they paid the money back they were free to own their own land

John Rolf married Pocahontas.

Perhaps to bring peace between Natives and English.

John Rolf dies in Indian attack.

Pocahontas goes to England and at young age dies of small pox.