Jamestown — The Birth of America

 

Original art from MPI/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

This article continues from the previous entry in the History of America series, "The Lost Colony: The Story of Roanoke."

The English colony of Roanoke had been left alone. Their leader, John White, was stuck in England as the Anglo-Spanish War raged across the seas. But Roanoke, according to one theory, wasn’t a place of refuge where one could find peace at this moment. On the contrary, it was currently being raided and destroyed by an invading force of natives. Historically, Roanoke sat in a delicate balance of the formerly friendly Croatan tribe and the traditionally hostile Secotan tribe. But this group of natives, or American Indians, were different. They weren’t Croatan and they weren’t Secotan but they were destroying everything the English had built. In fact, though the English did not know it, this new group of invaders had already conquered and consumed the Secotans, the English colonists’ historical nemesis. This force had formed a confederacy of other tribes and were making their blitz on the east coast of North America.

But that was then.

Dawn of the Stuarts

Flashforward and things change. It’s a new day in England. Gone are the days of Queen Elizabeth I and the 1500s. Say hello to the 1600s and the newest English ruler, King James I. Everything is new and old ideas are getting the dust blown off them to start afresh. One of these old ideas brought back to life is the idea of planting an English colony in North America again. 

King James I of England by John de Critz

A group of English merchants, following the leadership of one Bartholomew Gosnold, have an idea. You see, ever since the times of the Renaissance, merchants have been forming guilds and expanding into companies as they obtain permission from the crown to trade and gain wealth in various parts of the world. Russia, Turkey, Africa and the Mediterranean have all seen these English merchant companies pop up. Gosnold wants to create a company specifically for the colonization of America. 

During the age of Elizabeth, colonization was a fool’s task that drained the wealth of the royal treasury. With the proposition from Gosnold, the company would be responsible with raising the funds themselves on the condition that they had ownership of the wealth generated by these colonies. Many support this idea. For one, England needs to obtain colonies in America as fast as possible to prevent the growth of enemy countries like Spain or France. For two, colonization meant the spread of Christianity, a religiously-driven goal for many in Europe. For three, England was facing an overpopulation crisis and needed more land to send these people. For four, much of England’s forestry had been harvested and the seemingly never-ending sea of timber in North America was believed to be just what England needed to boost itself economically. So, in 1606 CE, King James gave Gosnold the royal charter that established two companies with the goal of colonizing the North American continent.

Bartholomew Gosnold by Alan Patient 

The two companies were the London Company and the Plymouth Company. The Plymouth Company was given the region that spanned from modern day Maine down into modern day New York. The London Company was given a region that spanned from modern day Georgia up to modern day Virginia. The zone from Maryland and Delaware up into New York was a shared zone where both companies could set up a colony so long as they weren’t within 100 miles from each other. 

Claims of the Plymouth Company and the London Company in 1606 CE by Matthew Trump

Seeking the money to get the ships and supplies to build a colony, Gosnold immediately went about leading an awareness campaign for the movement to return to North America and to create a new settlement that would revive the old colony of Virginia. This campaign saw pamphlets spread throughout England, plays being held over the idea of America, religious sermons promoting the Christian duty of spreading the faith and more all to raise interest. America was painted as a mythical world where the beaches were made of gold and where jewels grew on trees. It was the place for people to find more wealth and opportunity. Around 1,700 people began investing, mostly wealthy members of the upper-class. Over a hundred men even signed up to get on those ships to head to the New World themselves. Keep in mind that this was an investment. These people signing up to go across the ocean had the money to invest, meaning that most of these people ready to go to America were of the upper class. They were not farmers or skilled laborers. This will be important later. The single largest investor was a man by the name of Thomas West, the Baron de la Warr or, as we say today, Delaware. He will also be important later. 

Transatlantic Crossing

And so, one chilly December day in 1606, the London Company dispatched three ships all under the command of an expert navigator named Christopher Newport. As the ships set sail, they had to stop in the Canary Islands for supplies. It was here that Newport took issue with one of the members of his crew.

Reconstructions of the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, the three ships carrying the first settlers to Jamestown. Photographed by the Virginia Tourism Association.

Meet John Smith. He’s an... interesting fellow. He has done pretty incredible things in his past. While we can confirm that he did indeed do some awesome things, we also know that he was the kind of person who lied about everything. Because he lead such an interesting life but also just felt the need to lie constantly, it’s really hard to tell what’s fact from fiction. Nevertheless, his story (told from a mixture of his own words and the words of others) is something like this: John Smith had a rural upbringing though he did manage to get an education. Like other people from the time period, Smith went to Europe to fight in the wars that were tearing the continent apart. In the Eighty Years’ War, Smith served as a mercenary for France, fighting for Dutch Independence from Spain. After that, he became a pirate in the Mediterranean before later joining the Austrians in the Long Turkish War to fight against the Ottoman Turks in Hungary, pushing into Romania and beheading three different Ottoman warriors in one-on-one duels and earning himself a place in European nobility as he was knighted for his deeds. It was during this war that he was captured and sold as a slave to a Turkish nobleman who sent him to his Greek mistress in Constantinople as a gift. The Greek woman fell in love with Smith and took him to Crimea where Smith escaped into Muscovy, crossing into Poland-Lithuania and spending much time exploring throughout Europe and North Africa before finally returning to England. 

John Smith, artist unknown

Which is a pretty insane biography.

Now he was on the boat ride to America because of course someone like that would be on the boat ride to America. The problem was that, like I mentioned before, most people on the ships were aristocratic noblemen who were born into wealth while Smith was born into a more rural lifestyle. Smith and the aristocrats clashed several times just on the short voyage to the Canary Islands alone. Finally, Captain Newport had enough and, while in the Canary Islands, accused Smith of planning a mutiny to take over leadership of the fleet. He arrested Smith and planned on executing him once they reached America. Smith would spend the remainder of the voyage locked away in a cell. 

Christopher Newport by Allan D. Jones, Jr.

Now. Back on the road again. Or sea. Or whatever, you get the idea. 

The journey took four months to complete which was unusually long for transatlantic crossings at the time. But, after a quick resupply at the Spanish colony of Puerto Rico, the fleet finally sailed into the Chesapeake Bay in 1607 CE, the place where John White was supposed to land nearly 20 years ago had Fernandes not betrayed him. Only one person died during the voyage. As the men landed, a group went on an exploration deeper into the area. As they explored the wilderness, they couldn’t help but notice that the beach wasn’t made of gold. Jewels weren’t growing in the trees. Wealth was going to harder to obtain that they previously thought but they remained optimistic. 

That was when they encountered the powerful and growing native empire that was dominating the unsettled area of Virginia. Taking arrow fire, the expedition retreated and decided that their current location wasn't going to work as a settlement. The colonists got back onto the boats and sailed 40 miles up the James River, a river they had named after King James that fed into the Chesapeake Bay. Finally, they found an uninhabited island close to shore in which they decided to settle. Here, they began to build a fort that would serve as the foundation of their settlement which they also named after King James. Welcome to Jamestown, the first English settlement within the colony of Virginia since the loss of Roanoke.

Humble Beginnings

First and foremost, Newport revealed that he had a letter from the London Company that was supposed to be opened once they reached America. Opening the orders like it was some sort of survival game show, the Jamestown settlers learned much about their duties that severely demoralized them.

The English arrive at Jamestown, 1607 CE. From MP1/Getty Images

The orders contained details like how to build a fort, how many watchmen are needed for the fort, where to put the watchmen and so on. It instructed the colonists that their goal was not only to survive but to thrive. They needed to build a colony for the London Company. The colonists were expected to make farms and trade with the local people to survive and to export the goods they produce to make money for the company. Indeed, they learned that the colony and everyone in it were now company property. The colonists weren’t even legally able to own land until a period of seven years would pass. Keep in mind that barely anybody at Jamestown knew how to run a farm and live independently, they were members of a comforted class that weren’t used to manual labor. Trading with the locals was also a ridiculous prospect considering not even two weeks into the settlement’s existence, they were attacked by the fiercely hostile natives from the powerful confederacy. Eleven settlers, or maybe I should say "employees," were wounded and one was even killed in the attack. The settlers would also be demoralized when the Plymouth Company established their own colony called Popham up in what would one day become Maine. The colony would be a failure and abandoned in less than a year and the Plymouth Company struggled to stay afloat.

The charter also included instructions from King James I about who should lead the colony with a council of seven that was hand-selected by the king. To Newport’s dismay, one of the men James had selected to serve on the council was Smith who was still stuck inside his cell. And so, Smith was released and jumped from prisoner on death row to settlement leader in a mere instant. Smith found Jamestown in a sorry state. The fort was poorly constructed. The farms were laughable. Religious services had to be held in the open air until a church could be built. 

The Jamestown Fort, 1607 CE

It wasn’t long before the settlers realized why Jamestown Island was uninhabited—it was a swamp that couldn’t support game animals to hunt. The settlers hunted what little animals there were until they were all gone. Being a swamp, the water was not drinkable and mosquitoes carried disease like malaria. 

In such a terrible situation, Newport and Smith agreed to work together. Jamestown would need supplies and quickly. Newport took his ship and left for England to get supplies while Smith whipped the colonists into shape. Smith had the experience and the rustic personality to drive the settlers to work, claiming that, in accordance with the Bible, those who do not work will not eat. The aristocrats despised Smith for his policy of making them do work but it kept the colony alive. Eventually, the settlers even began to gather timber to sell to England. The timber from Jamestown and the rest of North America would eventually give England the fuel it needed to build more ships that would ultimately result in England constructing the largest navy in the world, securing English global naval supremacy. But for now, the settlers couldn’t produce too much timber especially considering that they were fighting for their own survival. On top of that, timber would never reach the value that would make the colony profitable. Newport’s ship, by the way, was loaded with fool’s gold that the settlers had panned from the James River thinking that it was actual gold. Poor guys. 

Pocahontas saved John Smith, 1607 CE. Public domain.

When Smith wasn’t pushing the settlers to survive, he spent time exploring the area of the James River, making contact with various native tribes and trading with them. But on one cold December day, he and his party fell under attack by the same hostile tribe as before. His men were slaughtered all around him. Smith grabbed a native that had been serving as the party’s guide and used him as a human shield to escape the massacre of his men. However, the hostile tribe eventually caught up with him, capturing him and bringing him face to face with a man named Opechancanough who was essentially a prince of this empire. Smith negotiated his way out of being killed right then and there when he gave Opechancanough a compass which pleased the man, but he did not let Smith go. Instead, he took Smith to the empire’s capital of Werowocomoco to meet the leader of this tribe, Wahunsunacock. It was here where Smith learned more about this tribe known as the Powhatan Confederacy. It was the Powhatan Confederacy that had suddenly surged in the area of Virginia, warring with other tribes and absorbing them into the empire. It was likely the Powhatan Confederacy that had absorbed or conquered the Secotan tribe and, when Smith asked the Powhatan about what happened to Roanoke, Wahunsunacock revealed some captured English weapons dating back from the Roanoke colony. If the Secotan had been the English's native nemesis in Virginia before, it was now the much more powerful Powhatan Confederacy. Wahunsunacock was originally set to kill Smith but his daughter, who had many names but is best known by "Pocahontas," stepped in. 

The court of Wahunsunacock. From Lebrecht History

A princess of the Powhatan Confederacy, Pocahontas was known as a mischievous girl who tended to do things her own way—a free spirit within the rest of her tribe. According to later accounts from Smith (which... you know), it was Pocahontas who stepped in and defied the Powhatan chief, sparing Smith’s life. Smith would make his way back to Jamestown from the wilderness just as the "First Supply" arrived as Newport had finally returned with supplies from England. To the settlers dismay, however, there really wasn’t enough for what the colonists needed alongside the 70 extra colonists brought over from England. And then a fire broke out that burned the fort because the aristocrats had been negligent about their open flames. While the settlers tried to pick up the pieces, none other than Pocahontas arrived, bringing food and clothing for the poor settlers. Pocahontas had also entered negotiations with Smith to release some captured Powhatan warriors from an attempted raid to steal English weapons technology. Indeed, it appeared that if Smith and Pocahontas worked together, the relationship between the English settlement and the Powhatan Confederacy could become stronger.

In 1608 CE, Newport would arrive with the Second Supply, bringing still not enough food and again around 70 more colonists which included the wife of one of the colonists and her maid, the first European women in Jamestown. Another group of people who came with the Second Supply were the first Europeans in Jamestown that did not speak English. These were some ethnic Germans and ethnic Poles who were hired by the London Company because they were actual skilled workers and knew how to work farms and make goods. These craftsmen would make some improvements to the colony and even create a sort of proto-factory, but it still would not be enough to make the settlement profitable. With the Second Supply, the London Company sent a letter to Jamestown demanding the colony to produce more goods. Irritated, Smith wrote a letter in response known as “Smith’s Rude Answer” in which he essentially called out the company for having unrealistic expectations and sending the colony less than the bare minimum to survive.

German and Polish craftsmen at Jamestown, 1608 CE. Artist unknown.

Later that year, Jamestown received orders from the London Company: Seeking more backing from the politicians in the English Parliament, the company gave orders to Jamestown to force the native people to convert to Anglicanism and to subordinate them to the colonial administration. After all, Anglican Christianity was the religion of England where the King of England was a representative of God himself. If you weren’t Anglican, you were an enemy of England. That being said, Jamestown wasn’t really in a situation to carry out those orders but the writing was on the wall to show that the company wanted Jamestown to take a more hostile approach to the natives as opposed to Smith’s friendly relations. The next year, the London Company gave Jamestown instructions to kidnap native children from their villages and families and to educate them in English values and religion. 

In 1609 CE, the Plymouth Company finally dissolved due to its financial issues and England gave the London Company a new charter that extended the territory of the Virginia colony all the way to the Pacific Ocean. In theory, the London Company was allowed to settle from sea to shining sea though, of course, that was impractical. However, as winter began to set in, a drought occurred that prevented both Jamestown and the Powhatan Confederacy from producing much goods from their farms. This began what was called the Starving Times. 

The Starving Times

During the Starving Times, an accident occurred in which Smith’s gun powder bag exploded while he was wearing it and he was sent back to England for medical attention. Jamestown had lost its most capable leader. While in England, Smith began to write books about America. Other books like Nova Britannia came out, promoting travel to America while also promoting the forcible conversion of the Powhatan Confederacy as a religious duty. As a result, over 600 colonists would head to Jamestown at this time. You know, the Starving Times. 

Jamestown during the Starving Times. Art by Sidney E. King.

With Smith gone, relations between the Powhatan Confederacy and Jamestown began to sour with Wahunsunacock withdrawing the Powhatan capital from Werowocomoco to a point further from Jamestown. The new leader of Jamestown was an aristocrat named John Ratclife. At one point, Wahunsunacock promised a trade deal with Jamestown to give them corn. Allured at the prospect of food, Ratclife went on an expedition to meet with Wahunsunacock only for the Powhatan forces to ambush them, kidnapping Ratclife, torturing him by tearing off his skin and finally murdering the naïve Jamestown leader. Gone were the days of the Smith-Pocahontas understanding. 

The ruins of Jamestown by John Gadsby Chapman

Meanwhile, the London Company had just completed the Third Supply, taking Smith’s criticisms to heart and making it the largest supply mission yet with a ship called the Sea Venture specifically being built for the task of moving large amounts of food to the colony along with other ships filled with colonists. And so the ships were sent out… and the Sea Venture was hit by a hurricane and crashed onto the island of Bermuda. The other ships did manage to get to Jamestown but they only brought more mouths to feed. In Bermuda, Newport and the survivors essentially had to build their own colony on Bermuda to survive while building new ships from the trees on the island. Among the Bermuda group was a man named John Rolfe who had come on the voyage with his wife and child though they both died in the shipwreck. While in Bermuda, Rolfe discovered a new strand of tobacco that he decides to bring with him if he ever gets to America. After a period of nine months, the Bermuda crew, under the command of Thomas Gates, finally build a couple of ships and set back to America. They had used up most of the food supply trying to live on Bermuda since they expected Jamestown to already be a thriving society. When they arrived, they found Jamestown in a terrible state where only 60 settlers were alive out of 500 and these 60 were just barely hanging on to life as they were starving and diseased. Gates saw the sorry state the colony was in and decided that failure was inevitable. Gates took control and ordered Jamestown to be abandoned, leaving the fort behind along with many possessions. The tired and demoralized survivors of both Bermuda and Jamestown got on their ships and prepared to set sail… Only for another English ship to show up just in time to stop them. It was Baron Delaware. 

The Delaware Autocracy

You see, Baron Delaware was interested in how his investment in Jamestown was going along when he heard the wonderful tales from Smith’s books. Deciding to see things for himself and to ensure there was order, Delaware himself set off to the colony, arriving just in time to see the settlers abandoning it. Delaware forced the settlers to return to Jamestown and began to whip them into shape once more. This, naturally, made the settlers hate Delaware. However, Delaware also put in an order for more doctors, food and colonists for Jamestown as he refused to see the settlement abandoned.

Thomas West, the Third Baron De La Warr. Original artist unknown.

Rolfe, meanwhile, planted his new strain of tobacco that was much sweeter than the tobacco that had been grown in Jamestown. Realizing that this was Jamestown’s way out of poverty, Rolfe believed that Jamestown needed to expand from just Jamestown Island for lands for plantations if they wanted to survive. At the same time, much land was being held by the hostile Powhatan Confederacy that had murdered Ratclife. Delaware decided that it was time to take the fight to the enemy. And so, in 1610 CE, the First Anglo-Powhatan War broke out as armed English settlers, under Delaware’s orders, pushed out and attacked Powhatan villages in the wilderness. As they were not Anglicans or even Christians, the Powhatans were seen, in some ways, less than human. In one recorded battle, Jamestown settlers took native children to a river, throwing them in and, in their own words, "shooting the children’s brains in the water." The next year, a man named Thomas Dale arrived in Jamestown to serve as Delaware’s second-in-command. He inspected the conditions in Jamestown and found them unsatisfactory, forcing the settlers to improve the buildings and instating what was known as Dale’s Codes in the colony, turning Jamestown into more of a harsh dictatorship and having the death penalty in place for a wide range of crimes including theft. Dale would also lead a campaign to settle the area that would become the Virginian settlement of Henricus as a plantation area for tobacco. 

Rolfe would settle in Henricus and begin to export his tobacco which was beloved in England. Suddenly, Jamestown boosted incredibly in trade. Many other colonists followed suit in producing this cash crop and soon, for the first time ever, Jamestown was profitable with a gold rush atmosphere in the colony. Rolfe quickly became a wealthy man. Around the same time in 1612 CE, the London Company created a new charter that made the new settlement on Bermuda part of the Virginia Colony. Virginia quickly began to grow.

The Jamestown colony grew tobacco to become successful. Original artist unknown

That being said, the First Anglo-Powhatan War was raging on. In 1614 CE, The Virginians made contact with a man named Henry Spelman, a colonist that had come to Virginia back during the Third Supply and had moved to the Powhatan Confederacy to learn the local language and serve as an interpreter. Virginian forces managed to learn that Pocahontas and her husband were staying in the village of Passapatanzy, a village within a tribe that wasn’t fully loyal to the rest of the Confederacy. Virginian forces met with the people of Passapatanzy and they worked together to kidnap the Powhatan princess. The leader of the mission, Captain Samuel Argall, demanded that Wahunsunacock return all English prisoners and captured English weapons in return for the return of Pocahontas but when these things were returned, the Powhatan had still kept some of the English weaponry. As such, the English kept Pocahontas, taking her to Henricus where she converted to Anglicanism and was allowed to live fairly comfortably. She met the rich Rolfe and the two eventually married, having a son named Thomas Rolfe. As a footnote, I should also add that this was around the time Bermuda was removed from Virginia to be considered a separate colony. Anyway, a large clash was set to occur between Powhatan forces and the English when Pocahontas arrived to the battlefield. She was allowed to speak to Wahunsunacock where she criticized him for valuing her less than weapons and expressed that she decided to stay with the colonist who treated her well and actually loved her. The Rolfe-Pocahontas marriage in 1614 ended the First Anglo-Powhatan War and trade soon returned in the Peace of Pocahontas though some in England were upset at the marriage because the commoner Rolfe had married a princess. 

The marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas in 1614 CE by Henry Brueckner.

A few years later, Rolfe, Pocahontas and their son decided to go to England to spread awareness about Virginia for more investments. Rolfe guided Pocahontas through London and the mission was a success with the Queen Anne of England, the wife of King James, treating Pocahontas as a proper royal visitor. However, tragedy struck right before the family was going to leave for Virginia when Pocahontas became ill and died in England in 1617 CE. With Pocahontas gone, Rolfe decided to leave their son Thomas behind to have an English education while Rolfe returned to Virginia alone to remarry and focus on his tobacco.

Pocahontas at the court of King James, 1617 CE. Published by the Concessionaire, The Jamestown Amusement & Vending Co.

With the death of Pocahontas, the Peace of Pocahontas was gone and the relations between the Powhatan and English worsened. Continued disease, poor harvests and the demand for more land for tobacco plantations didn’t help things. However, for a time, things were still improving in the wealthy colony of Virginia. With the Great Charter of 1618, the military dictatorship over Virginia was replaced with English common law and allowed the Virginians to have their own degree of government independence. An assembly took place in a church in Jamestown where there were representatives of the seven regions that Virginia had grown into. They organized their own legislative body in a sort of democracy with self-governance called the General Assembly. However, there were concerns in England that this meant that the distant Virginia was drifting away. 

The Virginia General Assembly, or House of Burgesses, came into being in 1619 CE.

The Jewel in the Crown

That year, the elderly Chief Wahunsunacock died. He was eventually succeeded by his half-brother, the violent Opechancanough who rejected the idea of coexistence with the increasing English as he wanted them exterminated in their entirety from the North American continent. In the shadows, he prepared for war. 

As usual, Virginia continued to grow. Virginia was even becoming so profitable that it was considering selling tobacco to the Dutch as well. The London Company cut this idea off immediately, declaring that Virginia was only allowed to trade with England. Nevertheless, the increased amount of plantations necessitated more hands to work the fields. Because Virginia had plenty of land, many poor people in Europe sought to come to America for this land and the opportunity that came with it but were unable to pay for passage. The plantations brought these poor people over as indentured servants. These poor people would be brought by the plantations at the expense of the plantation. The servant would then work the plantation as a servant for a set period of time. Once the contract expired, the servant was free to leave and entitled to land in Virginia to start up their own plantation and become wealthy themselves. 

Indentured servants at Jamestown by A.W.

It wasn’t long before the newfound Virginian democracy had issues. An election in 1619 CE revealed that the Polish and Slovak artisans that couldn’t speak English were not allowed to vote. In response, the artisans simply stopped working in protest. With production in Jamestown driven to a halt, the General Assembly gave in and allowed the non-English speakers to vote. They subsequently went back to work in the first successful labor strike in English America.

Out of Africa

Now, let’s do an intermission with a completely different story that will loop us back to Jamestown. We’ve mentioned how the American Indians came to America. We’ve mentioned what sparked this European wave of exploration and lately we’ve been focusing on the English in America. But there’s another group of people that would be a major element in the history of America. Let’s jump to Africa, long, long ago, as the religion of Islam had been spreading throughout the north and into the west of Africa. 

According to Islam (of course, simplified), infidels were available to be enslaved and, as a result, as the religion spread throughout Africa and Muslim states were being established, the religious wars ended with many Africans being enslaved by the Muslim states. Gradually, war slaves became a cultural norm for Africa during the Dark Ages and as the Middle Ages continued. At the dawn of the Age of Exploration, the seafaring European nation of Portugal had been in search of a place to establish a sugar plantation as sugar was one of the most valuable commodities one could produce and sell. They found an uninhabited island off the coast of Africa called São Tomé and began sugar production there. Trading with the nearby African nation of Kongo, Portugal eventually experimented with the idea of using many non-Christian African slaves that Kongo was selling to work the sugar plantations in São Tomé. 

And it worked. Like some sort of horrifying dream. 

Colonial sugar cane manufacturing. Original artist unknown.

Europeans soon got word of the success of this slavery system and, as colonies began to spread in America, Europeans (mostly Spain and even more so Portugal) began trading slaves en-masse to their colonies in places like the Caribbean, Mexico and South America to work the plantations there. England and France, on the other hand, still hadn’t really dabbled in this Atlantic slave trade as they didn’t have the need for them. They didn’t have a plantation culture like Spain and Portugal did, and for what plantations did exist, indentured servants pretty much did the trick. 

That brings us to 1619. The Atlantic slave trade has escalated to the point that the Portuguese, in an alliance with their African allies, are launching full-on invasions into Africa (usually into Angola) to hunt the African lower classes to be slaves in order to support the industry. Some Portuguese ships have just captured well over 100 slaves and were now arriving near Mexico to trade the slaves with the Spanish. Suddenly, a ship flying the Dutch flag arrives, attacking the slave ships. These are not Dutch ships, but rather disguised English ships that had been raiding Spanish and Portuguese ships in the area. Though many die in the battle, the disguised English are able to escape with around 20 African slaves (or should I say Freedmen as they were now free from the Portuguese slavers). 

The first Africans in English America, 1619 CE. By Sydney King

These Africans were brought to Jamestown, the nearest English outpost in the area. Some Africans were able to hold their own as freedmen while others entered indentured servitude, ultimately serving their term and becoming free, getting their own land, their own plantations and even their own indentured servants, most of whom were actually European. However, being lower class people from Angola, most of these Africans did not speak English. Some plantation owners used this to their advantage, not telling African indentured servants that their service period had expired while letting the English-speaking servants go as usual. Though justice would often be brought to the plantation owners at this time, the seeds were being planted for something much different to come. 

From Company to Country

As time went on, Virginia was growing but the London Company was struggling to stay afloat. The company held more and more lotteries for funds, making investors a bit concerned at how the company was handling things as the company’s debt skyrocketed to over 9,000 pounds. Though Virginia was becoming self-sustaining, they were concerned when the company essentially told them to rely on themselves. Not long afterwards, to help grow the colony, the company sent 57 marriageable women to Virginia for population growth, most of these women being widows or children. Further illustrating the company’s need for money, the company required any man who married a woman to pay the bill for sending her to America.

The Indian Massacre of 1622 by Matthaeus Merian.

And then, a threat that had been forgotten for many years suddenly struck back. The Second Anglo-Powhatan War broke out when Chief Opechancanough launched a remarkably coordinated surprise attack across the Virginia Colony. One fourth of the entire Virginian population was wiped out in the attack. The Henricus settlement was destroyed entirely with Rolfe dying in the massacre. Jamestown proper survived the attack but only because a young Powhatan boy named Chanco who worked in Jamestown learned of the Powhattan plans and warned the city, giving them time to raise their defenses. The great assault became known as the Indian Massacre of 1622. From that point onwards, the English lived in fear of the Powhatan. The colony went to rally its forces to launch a counter attack only to find that the colony now largely consisted of women, children and the elderly. They did not have the force to fight back and had to cut their losses, retreating the borders of the colony back to Jamestown alone. Following the massacre, the London Company ordered:

perpetual war without peace or truce to root out from being any longer a people, so cursed a nation, ingrateful to all benefit and incapable of all goodness.

The Virginians were open to peace negotiations with the Powhatans. During peace negotiations in 1623 CE, however, the Virginians poisoned the Powhatan representative’s wine in revenge for the massacre. The war continued and though the Virginians were outnumbered by the Powhatans, they had superior technology and firepower that forced the Powhatans back. The two factions then rested for a time and regrouped with no formal peace treaty being signed.

Later, Thomas Rolfe would return to the smoldering colony of Virginia where his father died, setting up his own plantation and working to pick up the pieces left behind. Also during this time, in 1624 CE, William Tucker was born as the first ethnic African born in English America. He was the son of a married couple from Angola who had served as indentured servants for a Captain William Tucker whom he was named after. 

The Second Anglo-Powhatan War did not end in a formal treaty. Original artist unknown.

King James had been keeping an eye on Virginia this whole time as he had been the one to approve of the colony’s revival nearly twenty years ago when it all began. He watched carefully as the London Company became an economic powerhouse for England that was controlled privately by an incompetent administration that began to tank the company. He noticed as Virginia was given its own form of democracy separate from the crown in the form of the General Assembly as the Virginians seemed to slowly become their own nation. The Indian Massacre of 1622 was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Two years later, King James revoked permission from the London Company to establish a colony, converting Virginia from company property to property of England proper, ruled by a governor appointed directly by King James himself. Virginia had been brought back into the fold as part of the English Empire. The London Company instead focused efforts on Bermuda which they were allowed to keep. At the time Virginia became a crown colony, it had reached the population of 5,000. Virginia had grown from its lowest point of almost being abandoned to being an economic powerhouse for England. Virginia was divided administratively into shires and King James even allowed the General Assembly to continue as a legislative body under the governor. Congratulations, Virginia. You made it.

Smith in New England

Ten years earlier.

Satellite map of New England from NASA.

In 1614, around the same point in time as the Starving Time back in Jamestown, John Smith was back in America, having returned following medical treatment from the explosion he suffered. But he’s not at Jamestown. Indeed, he wouldn’t return to the colony he helped set up. Instead, Smith is on a new mission to find more gold in the New World though his mission hasn’t been that successful. After their failures at finding gold, he and his crew have just been fishing and fishing for days off the American coast, further north from Jamestown. While this mission is going on, Smith has been doing some mapping of the region that he dubs “New England.” On another ship in Smith’s fleet is a captain named Thomas Hunt. Despite being under Smith’s command, Hunt didn't really like Smith and had his own plans. Hunt believes that Smith might one day want to come to New England and set up his own plantation. Wanting to come back to New England later with other merchants to monopolize the region, he decided to throw a wrench into Smith’s plan. As Smith began the voyage back to England, Hunt landed a search party in New England, specifically visiting the area near a location Smith had labeled as Plymouth on his maps of New England. There, they kidnapped some local Indians as slaves, hoping to make the Indians in the area angry at the English so that Smith could never come back here. When Smith heard of Hunt enslaving American Indians, Smith was outraged and disapproved. Nevertheless, Hunt began to take his newfound slaves to Europe. Unbeknownst to Hunt, one of these enslaved Indians is a man that will be crucial to the future of English settlement of North America. One of the Indians Hunt has enslaved is a man by the name of Squanto. 

References

1. 1619: Virginia's First Africans by Beth Austin, 2019 (https://bit.ly/39JQsqp)
2. A Short History of Jamestown from the National Park Service (https://bit.ly/3N1EBT0)
3. Genesis of the United States by Alexander Brown, 1897
4. History of Jamestown from Historic Jamestowne (https://bit.ly/3M1wANX)
5. "Notes on the Gosnold Family" in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography by Warner F. Gookin, 1949
6. Women in Early Jamestown by Kathleen M. Brown, 2000 (https://bit.ly/3M8PxhO)

By Andrew Eubanks