Rise and Fall of the Jamestown Colony

Rise and Fall of the Jamestown Colony

The English settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, was founded on May 14, 1607 by Captain Christopher Newport and his fleet of a hundred or so Englishmen. During the next nine decades, this settlement would begin as "a verie fit place for the erecting of a great cittie(Tyler, 33)", and develop into "nothing but Abundance of Brick Rubbish, and three or four good inhabited houses(Miers, 107)." Two major factors led to the gradual decay and destruction of Jamestown: (1) The profit-before-survival attitude of the English settlers, and (2) the persistence of the Indians of the area to drive the English from their native lands.

On the 26th day of April, 1607, three small ships - Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery - passed between Cape Charles and Cape Henry into the Chesapeake Bay for the purpose of founding a permanent colony in the land called Virginia. Captain Christopher Newport and the other voyagers took seventeen days to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of that region for such an undertaking(Carrier, 7).

First consideration for selecting the site was its possibilities for defense against foes from both the land and sea. The second most important thing for consideration was adequate harbor facilities. In both of these particulars, the island site selected about thirty miles up the James River left little to be desired. But, from the standpoint of raising food stuffs, the colonists could hardly have picked a more unfavorable location(Carrier, 8).

The land directly surrounding the settlement was usually flooded during the times of high water. In addition to this stretch, there were about eight hundred and fifty acres of heavily timbered forest lands on the island an...

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...hatan's to keep what was rightfully theirs. Although the English succeeded in establishing their permanent presence in the New World, Jamestown was not a success story.

Works Cited

1.Bridenbaugh, Carl. Jamestown, 1544-1699. Oxford University Press, New York(1980).

2.Carrier, Lyman. Agriculture in Virginia, 1607-1699. Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corp., Williamsburg, Virginia(1957).

3. McCrary, Ben C. Indians in Seventeenth-Century Virginia.

Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corp., Williamsburg,

Virginia(1957).

3.Miers, Earl Schenk. Blood of Freedom. Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia(1958).

5. Rountree, Helen C. Powhatan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722.

University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia(1993).

6. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. Narratives of Early Virginia, 1606- 1625. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York(1907).