by Will

       In this retell, you will learn about the colony of Virginia.  You will learn about the hardships the colonists went through and what they overcame.  You will also learn about the businesses they had in the colony.

     On April 26, 1607, a trio of ships sailed out of a terrible storm.  The first year was the hardest.  Sixty of the hundred colonists who had survived the storm on the ship died.  Part of the reason was that the wheat they had planted wouldn’t grow.  The only way the colonists stayed alive was by trading with the Indians.  Right when they decided to go back to England a ship came with 120 people, food and supplies.  The colony was named Jamestown and was founded in 1607. Jamestown was Virginia’s first capital. The capital was later moved to Virginia.  The leader of the colonists was John Smith.                                                                  

            One colonist named John Rolfe decided to grow tobacco in Jamestown.  By 1928 the Virginia colony was exporting 500,000 pounds of tobacco a year.  In 1619 a ship carrying ninety women arrived to be the colonists’ wives.  Ships also brought Africans to work on the tobacco plantations as slaves to harvest the tobacco.  The Virginia colony learned how to grow tobacco from the Indians.

          Many historians think that John Rolfe married Pocahontas, the Algonquian chief’s daughter. One colonist named Patrick Henry thought that the colonists should not pay taxes to England since England did not give colonists the same rights as people in England had.

    I learned many facts...the colonists were going to a new land.  They didn't know much about this land.  The colonists were risking their lives to go to the new land.  I wish that I could do this because it would be exciting.

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