The Settlement of Virginia
Updated January 8, 2008
The first permanent English colony in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. The colony was an immediate disaster. It was located in a swamp, which soon led to diseases and other maladies, and just as bad was the failure of the colonists to work together for the common good, or indeed to work at all.
Initially Captain John Smith saved the colony by imposing order, but conditions became so wretched by 1610 that the colony was almost abandoned. As late as 1616 the colony seemed to be incapable of returning a profit to the investors, and, in fact, none of the investors every earned a cent in profit. Eventually the colony went bankrupt and its charter was revoked.
As part of this project you might visit the Jamestown-Yorktown-Williamsburg area. All three locations are within an easy drive of each other, and all offer interesting historic presentations. To prepare, visit the National Park Service or historic organization sites for each and plan out your trip.
Your assignment for this project is to spend some time with these sites and documents and then prepare an essay in which you describe your thoughts about early Virginia. What was it like? What problems were there? How did they survive? This should be your assessment of early Virginia and Jamestown as you understand it.
121 Writing home | Updated January 8, 2008