First Expedition Of Virginia Essay

This meant land became a very important resource since a great deal of land was required to grow tobacco.  Because growing tobacco also required a lot of hard work and labor, more people were needed to work in the fields. The more workers we had, the more tobacco we could grow making more profit of our work. Tobacco was the only cash crop we were able to grow in our little swamp town. John Rolfe had done more than just help Jamestown with producing Tobacco. He had met a beautiful young lady. Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, paramount chief of the Indians in Tidewater Virginia, was kidnapped and brought to Jamestown.  John Rolfe eventually married her in 1614.  Their marriage coincided with a temporary peace with the Indians, allowing the settlers to develop and expand their colony, including planting more tobacco. We made peace with the natives and at that moment of peace with their tribe Jamestown was at its best. My old friend and I had become friends again, I am very grateful for my friendship with the natives. I had survived many awful things during my time in Jamestown. I almost died of infection and deceases. I was forced to eat the people I had arrived with, some even being my fellow friends. Facing these challenges there wasn't I time I didn't want to give up and leave, but I didn’t. I am here telling you the story of my journey to document what I and many others faced here in Jamestown. I’m not promised that my letter will reach the hands of another person to share my experience, but that wasn't going to keep me from

This further emphasizes their intentions by showing their main priorities; minters to create a religion based society as well as followers, in this case - his family. On the other hand other people’s motivation to come to the New World was commercial and profit. This is the case with the founding fathers of the Chesapeake colonies. The Chesapeake region of the colonies included Virginia, Maryland, the New Jerseys and Pennsylvania. In 1607, the first English colony in the New World, Jamestown, was founded by a group of 104 settlers along the James River. These settlers were hungry for gold and silver. This is emphasized in the Ship’s list of Emigrants (doc 3) where they state that the men listed should be transported to Virginia embarked in the Merchant’s Hope. Though the settlers of the Chesapeake Colonies desired religious freedom it was not their main focus when coming to the New World, they wanted to be merchants; in other words - they wanted money! Captain John Smith further highlights the intentions of the Chesapeake settlers in History of Virginia (doc 5) which was written for the pure purpose of informing future people of the origins of Virginia. Smith refers to the men as ‘gold seekers’ who made all men their slaves in their hope that they would become wealthy and discover incredible riches from this new land. Because of the contrasting reasons for settlement these two colonies became extremely different.

In 1607, three ships sent by King James the first sailed into Chesapeake bay, Virginia carrying each over 100 people. They then sailed up the James river and settled on a piece of land today called James island. This piece of land was home to over 15,000 Powhatan natives. They gentleman who provided the voyage came here to become rich and make money by collecting animal pelts, wood, and iron. The cause of numerous colonist fatalities in early Jamestown was in direct correlation to their relations with the natives, the horrendous lack of essential supplies impeding their survival, and atrocious ailments leading to inevitable disease.

In 1800 Thomas Jefferson was elected president. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Jefferson had the vision of the United States growing from sea to sea. However, it was unknown what was out there. Jefferson planned an exploratory expedition and called upon Meriwether Lewis to lead it. Jefferson was very interested in what was in the west lands. Much was involved in the carrying out of this expedition; the preparations for this trip, what happened during their long journey west, and the return home. This expedition was very important in the development of the United States.

The English had two main colonies in the new world, Jamestown and Plymouth. The first colony was Jamestown, established in Virginia in 1607. Jamestown was settled by Captain John Smith, and was named after King James I. Tobacco was the main export of Jamestown, and became the basis of the Jamestown economy, sending more than 50,000 lbs of the plan back to Europe by 1618 (textbook 46). Jamestown had a very rocky start, many colonists dying in the first few years of the settlement, and the settlers had many problems with natives. Shortly after the arrival of English colonists the Natives attacked them, and were finally forced back by a canon from the English. A very uneasy truce was finally settled between the natives, called the Powhatans,

The plan at this time was for English colonies to go to America to spread the Protestant religion and expand the market for English woolens; this would bring in valuable tax revenues. The American forests could be used for timber and naval stores to build a bigger navy and merchant marine. Queen Elizabeth did not condone this as she was too cautious and so settlement was not acted upon until after her death in 1603. The new king James the 1st granted licenses for two groups of English merchants to colonize Virginia. The first charter revealed the motives of the king when it spoke of spreading Christianity and bringing the savages to civility along with the rights to dig, mine and search for all matters of gold,

The first establishment of the New World was Jamestown in 1607. This colony was founded by King James I. King James sent merchants and adventurers that were looking to profit from land and wealth to the New World just as the Spaniards did in Mexico and Peru. The London Company issued a Virginia charter to form plantations in Virginia. This was lead by Sir Thomas Smith, one of the wealthiest merchants aboard the ships to the New World. There were approximately 104 settlers that arrived on a peninsula along the James River. These settlers wanted to make a profit to take back to England. This peninsula was known as Jamestown. The colonists in this low lying swamp area was stricken with disease, contaminated drinking water, and was attacked by Spaniards or Native Americans. This was a serious threat to the early settlers of Jamestown.

Settlement of Virginia started with James I becoming king and making peace with Spain who at that time had control over North America; as well as the Native Americas. Charter London Company was mainly started to fund the vogue to Jamestown. The idea behind the company was to give investors land, gold, and goods, for investing in help of settlement in Virginia. The settlement of Jamestown was to find more trade and resources. In 1607 Jamestown was colonized but early on there was crises. Lack of food, and new diseases caused many settlers to die. As well as Spanish and Native American attacked the new settlers seeing them as threats and intruders. With low farmers food was scarce and Atlantic crossing was a 3 months sail in order to send messages to England. In order to survive Jamestown

The premier reason for the differentiation of the evolvement was primarily due to the motives for the foundations of these regions. The Virginia Company of London received a charter from King James I of England to establish Jamestown in 1607 in the New World as a profit-making venture. Like most joint stock companies, the Virginia Company was designed to last for a few years dedicated to the proposition that all stockholders should receive dividends adequate for their investments. Conversely, New England's motives for its foundation arose for religious

The Indians knew how to live off the land and were expert hunters and gatherers their main food they grew was corn and traded with the colonist by giving them corn and gathering up food for them. Back in England people who were wealthy had no clue how to survive on the plains and take care of a farm and plow fields and hunt for meat. Since they came from the city of England the Englishmen were people who did not know that kind of life. They were wealthy Englishmen; most of these men were lazy and didn’t know what manual labor was. In addition, there were Englishmen of trade who were carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers who settled down in Jamestown. It was known that one of the main reasons why the Englishmen settled in Jamestown in hope to find gold, rubies, pearls, and silver and to be able to sell it in England for a profit. Devastation struck instead, within a few months less than hundred died. These deaths were excruciating deaths, and the horror of deaths continued from 1607 to 1610. Some men would find themselves going out of their mind, while others had a blistering burning fever, and some men’s skin would just peel off like peeling off a boiled potato and sudden deaths rapidly appeared, some licked up the blood from their falling comrades as some swelled up so fast less than a hundred from five hundred survived. Many of the colonists were very weak and could not do hardly anything. Some figured the cause of the deaths was from

The members of the new joint stock company awarded a share to those willing to come to Virginia at their own expense as well as sold stock in their quest to English investors. With the money raised from the sale of stocks, the company planned to send Virginia hundreds of poor and unemployed people along with many kinds of skilled craft workers. All of these people were to serve the company for seven years in return for the cost of getting them to Virginia. There they would pool their efforts to produce anything that would return a profit for the shareholders. The goal was gold and silver, but if it could not be found perhaps North America held another valuable commodity such as furs, pitch, tar, or lumber. The first expedition dispatched by the Virginia Company founded Jamestown in the spring of 1607. Jamestown’s 104 men and boys pitched their fort on a swampy inland peninsula in order to prevent a surprise attack from the Spanish. That was their first mistake. They died by the scores weakened by bouts of disease and beset by dysentery, typhoid, and yellow fever. But even before sickness wiped out many, a lot of the colonists of Jamestown refused labor. The gentlemen of the journey expected to be leaders rather than to do physical labor, and most of the other early settlers were gentlemen’s servants and craft workers who did

Life in England during the early 1600’s was harsh for a multitude of the poor. The country was just coming out of the Thirties Year’s War with a flood of citizens and laborers displaced. In fact, PBS (2015) indicated that “the timing of the Virginia colony was ideal.” The Thirty Year 's War had left Europe 's economy depressed, and many skilled and unskilled laborers were without work. A new life in the New World offered a glimmer of hope; this explains how one-half to two-thirds of the immigrants who came to the American colonies arrived as indentured servants” (para. 3). This opportunity for those willing to receive free passage to the New World and start a new life was enticing. Granted, the work was difficult it was not without reward.

* Many were gentlemen who felt it below their stations to clear fields or build stockades (barriers)

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.

Jamestown, the birthplace of America was the first permanent english settlement in North America. In April 1606, King James I established Jamestown and on May 13, 1607, colonists began to arrive at Jamestown. When establishing Jamestown as a colony, the Virginia Company was in search of economic opportunities. The citizens wanted to escape poverty and prosecution. They wanted to be able to believe in what they wanted. The first month in Jamestown was a struggle for all passengers. The moment the passengers came ashore, they immediately began on settlement. Serious problems soon emerged when about 15,000-25,000 Indians were already living in the Chesapeake Bay when the colony was founded. The Indians were part of the Powhatan Confederacy which was ruled by Powhatan, a powerful leader. At this time, the English settlers were looking for gold that no one was farming. In this situation, Captain John Smith became the colony’s leader and established a “no work, no food” policy. Smith had been instrumental in trading with the Powhatan Indians for food but their relationship was tense in all aspects. After he was injured by a burning gunpowder in 1608 and left for England, the “starving time” began. This was a period of warfare between the colonists and Indians and the depth of many English men