today we're looking at the Jamestown Colony hello welcome to the daily bellringer please don't first
and take a look at the questions down in the description after Christopher Columbus first
sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the North American continent other European powers were
eager to establish a colony in the new world the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 by
the English secured English dominance at sea and paved the way for our English English exploration
of America the English had already attempted to establish a permanent colony in the late
1580s at Roanoke Island but the colonists there mysteriously disappeared this discouraged many
Englishmen from attempting a colony again but in 1606 the Virginia Company of London
was established with the goal of establishing a permanent colony in America it was a joint-stock
company meaning people would invest money with the company with the hopes of receiving future
profits from their expeditions there were rumors all over of huge huge amounts of
gold being somewhere in Virginia at the time the English called the entire eastern coast of north
of North America north of Florida Virginia named after Queen Elizabeth who was known as the Virgin
Queen in the same year of 1606 the Virginia company received a charter or permission to
settle land in the new world from King James the first in late December of 1606 three ships with
approximately 100 colonists all men departed from England heading for North America with the goal
of becoming rich or in other words coming for economic opportunity after over three months at
sea they came in sight of Virginia in late April of 1607 they proceeded to go up the James River
which they of course named after King James and they wanted to go far enough up the river so not
to be exposed to possible attacks from Spanish ships that might be exploring the coast on May
14th 1607 they went ashore and began building shelter and a community these 100 colonists
landed in the middle of a huge Algonquin Native American Empire known as the Powhatan named
after their chief chief palliative there was an estimated population of over 20,000 Politan in
this area the English colonists were completely unprepared what they would face in the new world
many of them literally thought they would find gold simply laying on the ground in fact many
of them did not break survival gear but instead brought chemical tests for gold despite bringing
all of the tools to find gold no gold was found needless to say almost immediately calmest began
dying from disease contaminated water and attacks from the palate in' among these colonists was a
man named john smith who was basically a mercenary or pirate it has recorded that Smith took charge
and began to organize the colony and was able to establish trade with palatine which was virtually
the only source of food for the colonists they built a triangle-shaped fort with the storage
building for weapons a church and several houses they named their settlement Jamestown again after
King James more colonists survived and they were able to maintain a relative peace with
the palette in' but in 1609 John Smith returned to England when he left communication with palette
inand the people of Jamestown broke down Native Americans cut off trade and began attacking those
who ventured outside of the fort the winter of 1609 became known as the starving time as the
colonists were down to nothing and had to resort to eating rats dogs cats and leather and there's
even records of cannibalism or people eating each other estimates are that there were close
to 500 colonists before the starving time and only 60 remained in the spring of 1610 right as
the colonists were ready to abandon the colony another ship arrived with 150 colonists aboard
one on one of which was a man named John Rolfe who carried an important cargo with him Rolfe
had tobacco seeds the climate and the soil of the Chesapeake region was ideal for growing and
growing the crop although not edible tobacco was extremely popular back in England and virtually
everyone was smoking it the colony now found its true wealth in tobacco not gold within ten years
every farm around Jamestown was growing tobacco the group that came in 1610 also brought Lord
Delaware who began leading military raids against the paladin and expanding the colony in 1614 John
Rolfe married Pocahontas the daughter of Chief Powhatan the marriage brought a period of peace
and the colony continued to expand Jamestown would be the first permanent English colony in America
in 1619 the House of Burgesses was established which was the first representative body in America
made up of Virginia landowners this basically set a precedent that people in the colonies had
a desire to govern and rule themselves however it would be over a century until that dream
would truly be realized so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
you