JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA
MAY 13 1607
411 YEARS AGO
Some 100 English colonists
arrive along the west bank of the James River in Virginia
to build Jamestown, the
first permanent English settlement in North America .The dispatched
from England by the 'London
Company' . They sailed across the Atlantic aboard the
“Susan Constant”,
“Godspeed” and “Discovery”.
Upon the landing the first
“colonial council “ was held. Seven settlers whose names had
been placed in a sealed
box by King James I then became “The Council”. The council,
which included Captain
John Smith chose Edward Wingfield as Jamestown's first leader.
Within the first two weeks
the settlement was attacked by the local Algonquian indians but
were repulsed by the armed
settlers. Later on, in December, John Smith and two colonists
were captured while
hunting provisions in the wilderness. The two colonists were killed
but
Captain John Smith was
spared because of words of Pocahonias, a daughter of the Chief
Powhaten.
The next two years
disease, starvation and more Indian attacks wiped out most of the
colony, but The London
Company kept sending more settlers and supplies.
A severe winter of 1608 –
1609 , “starving time” killed more colonists and caused the
Jamestown settlers to make
plans to return to England.
Then on June 10, came
Thomas West De La Warr, Virginia's new governor , with supplies
and convinced the settler
to remain at Jamestown.
In 1612, John Rolfe grew
the first crop of tobacco introducing a successful source of
livelihood.
John Rolfe, on April 5,
1614, married Pocahontas bringing peace with Powhatan for
a period until 1618 when
Powhatan died, The new Chief Opechanough resumed Algonquian
attacks that nearly wiped
out the colony in 1622. In 1644, Chief Opechancanough led
his last uprising , was
captured and executed at Jamestown.
1646, the Algonquian
Confederacy gave up much of the territory to the rapidly growing
colony. By 1665
Algonquian chiefs were appointed by the governor of Virginia.
Abstract: By Harrison H.
2018 of A&E Networks, History Today , history.com staff,
Sunday, May 13, 2018
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