by
Jessica

       On April 26, 1607, three ships sailed to the New World.  They were the Susan Constant, the Goodspeed, and the Discovery. The Indians in the area where the ships landed called the boats “floating islands.”

Out of the 144 men who traveled on the ships, only one hundred survived the four month journey.  These men were the first colonists to the area from England. 

       A group of investors known as The Virginia Company paid for the colonists’ journey.  The investors expected them to find gold.  They didn’t find gold.  They did form an important colony called Jamestown.

    The colonists named the colony after King James I.  A fort was built out of nearby trees.  The walls around the settlement were in the shape of a triangle.  They hoped this would protect them from nearby Indians.

     John Smith became the first leader of the Virginia colony.  He made peace with the Indians.  Powhatan

gave John Smith and the settlement his protection.  The colonists trusted John Smith.

       The colonists tried to grow crops but they really didn’t know how to do it.  They were not ready for the hot summer with its disease causing mosquitoes.  Many men died of starvation, Indian attacks, or illnesses.  The settlement was almost a ghost town.

       By 1612, things got better. John Rolfe missed smoking tobacco from his pipe.  He learned about a different type of tobacco from the Indians and started growing it.  It grew well.  The other colonists grew it and eventually, they were able export 500 thousand pounds of tobacco a year to England.

       By 1619, ships carrying women who wanted to be wives arrived.  Ninety women settled there. The population grew.  A government was formed.  A Royal Governor was chosen by the King.  Representatives were chosen from the different counties and they met in Jamestown, the capital of the Virginia colony.

       Since the colony grew tobacco, they needed more workers to work in the fields.  At first, blacks were brought from Africa to work with the English men and women like indentured servants.  They were able to own land and be free after they worked a certain amount of time.  Later, after 1649, blacks could not own land or be free.  They were slaves.

        Thomas Jefferson, a leader who lived in Virginia, believed that the people should not have kings or queens.  Patrick Henry, another man from Virginia, believed that taxes to England should not be paid because colonists did not have the same rights as people in England.  Their ideas led the colonists to the Revolutionary War.  This war took place from 1775-1783.

       George Washington and Benjamin Harrison, two future presidents were from Virginia.  Along with Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, colonies gained in their confidence that they could govern themselves. They finally did.

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