In May 1609, three little ships under the command of Captain Christopher Newport sailed up the James River and anchored off a grassy and wooded peninsula. On board were emigrants from England, the men numbered about 100 souls.  Exhausted from the long battle with the North Atlantic, seeing this new land in May must have been a sight for sore eyes, possibly thinking their troubles were over, unaware that troubles had just begun, even starvation and death to many. 

These first settlers were city dwellers of London, having no experience in survival in a primitive, but promising land.  They had no knowledge of building homes from standing trees of the wilderness, nor were they used to the manual labor that would be required.  The majority of them had not thought of staying, but came for the adventure and hope of finding the great riches of gold that Cortez had discovered that enriched Spain. In their minds, it was a quick trip over the Atlantic and back with great wealth.

Under the command of Captain John Smith, due to Captain Newport's departure back to England, these settlers were whipped in to shape, learning that it was work or perish.  They named the site of their settlement, Jamestown, in honor of the king of England.

The Early Survival Life    

Smith bartered with the Indians for corn to keep the settlers alive the first winter. However, the Indians were suspicious of the newcomers, and kept the settlers in constant fear.  At one point, John Smith was captured by Chief Powhatan, and as legend  tells,  was helped to escape by the chief’s daughter, Pocahontas.

Nevertheless, Jamestown’s troubles were not over with the passing of the first winter and the arrival of additional settlers.  The first settlers already had a food shortage, due to their fear of the Indians, not venturing outside of the camp in search of  needed food and firewood.  Instead, they ate rodents and burned the wood from their houses.  The James River could have been a food supply of fish, but these city dwellers had no skill in fishing or hunting. 

In May of 1610, the size of the colony had dwindled to about sixty souls, who were ready to give up, but Lord Delaware arrived with a relief expedition just in time to save them. 

As it was originally a business venture, funded by the Virginia Company of London, they made no money, but survived as a virgin colony, and later became the great state of Virginia.

The Discovery Of Tobacco

In 1612, John Rolfe discovered that tobacco could be easily grown and sold for a high price, thus their financial burdens began to lift.  So great was the popularity of tobacco in England that by 1614 England’s tobacco bill was two hundred thousand pounds sterling, which would be millions and millions of dollars today.    

In 1613, it was determined to give each settler a few acres to farm, tobacco being the chief crop. They neglected other necessary crops and grew tobacco to the point that crop growing restrictions had to be imposed on tobacco.

Colony Life Going Forward

Other important things were happening in the little Virginia colony in these early years.  The first representative assembly met in the church at Jamestown on August 9, 1619, a momentous date in the history of American democracy, making new laws to govern the colony. 

The Virginia Company of London allotted lands and funds to build schools and universities, but was put on hold, due to a great Indian massacre on Good Friday 1622, placing the very existence of the colony in jeopardy, killing several hundred colonists, because of restrictions being placed on Indian hunting grounds. Chief Opechancanough, who succeeded Pocahontas’s father, determined to rid the land of all whites.

The Virginians survived, rebuilding the destruction of the Indians, fighting with them and driving them from the land.  Despite hardships and sufferings, Englishmen gradually established themselves on all Virginia rivers, growing tobacco and food for their households. 

They developed a civilization which brought over the best of the British tradition, and introduced to Americans, a legacy of law and liberty, which we have guarded from that day to this.   

References taken from the writings of Historian, Louis B. Wright, Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, authoring several books on American History.