We tend to think that the pilgrims were the first settlers in America but that is not the case. A group came over from England and settled in Jamestown, Virginia, 10 years earlier. On April 26, 1607, three ships landed in America. They had sailed from England in December, and carried 100 passengers.
They landed at Chesapeake Bay, looking for a place to settle. They sailed about 60 miles up the James River and settled on a peninsula which they called Jamestown, naming both of them after King James. One of the reasons they chose this is because they thought it would be easy to defend, with entrance on land from only one direction. Also the river was so deep that they could dock against land.
It is said they saw “Fair medders and goodly tall trees,” along the coast. “The interesting thing is that these were all men. 100 men. They had been financed by a group of investors who charged them to: search for treasure, to raise farm products to be sent to England, and to spread the Christian faith among the Indians. The very first settlers in America were missionaries.
They landed on May 14, 1607, and founded a permanent settlement, but things were bad from the start. They had no drinking water, and the land was swampy. The unwholesome conditions weakened the men, and 2/3 of them died of malnutrition, malaria, pneumonia, and dysentery. John Smith was their leader, but something came up and he had to go back to England. Indian attacks, starvation, and disease plagued their colony. The colonist called the following winter, “The starving time.”
The next spring women were shipped over to be wives for the men. Lord De La Warr was appointed governor of the settlement. At this time there were 18,000 Indians living in Virginia. 30 tribes gathered together to form a Confederacy under the leadership of Powhatan. His daughter Pocahontas married John Rolfe one of the colonists. England had sent over another wave of, “Young, handsome and honestly educated maids,” to become wives for the men.
By 1619 the population of Jamestown was nearly a thousand. In 1619 they set up the first lawmaking body in America called, “The House of Burgess.”in 1620 there arrived a Dutch ship carrying 20 negroes. There were many that followed them and they helped make the settlement prosperous. The thing that saved the colony was that they were able to grow their own food, and by now they had children to help with the labor and to stabilize the families.
In 1622 the Indians broke the peace and attacked and killed about 350 people. Later on they attacked again and killed about 500 people. Today Jamestown is an island and a tourist attraction. The area today is owned by the National Park Service and is operated by the Colonial National Historic Park. In 1957 they celebrated the 350th anniversary of the settling of Jamestown.
If I were younger this would be a neat place to visit and to study the history of our country. Today the park has a replica of the areas first fort, Powhatan’s Lodge, and the three ships that brought the first settlers. Too bad the settlers didn’t know that I-64 runs just a few miles from Jamestown. They could have hopped on and saved all of that trouble.
–James Neuhouser
