Lesson 1: Hard Times in Virginia

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Places

 Roanoke Island  Virginia  Jamestown

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People

         Queen Elizabeth I Walter Raleigh John White Francis Drake King James I John Smith Chief Powhatan Pocahontas John Rolfe

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Vocabulary

 Charter  Stock  Cash Crop  Indentured Servant  House of Burgesses

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The Lost Colony of Roanoke

   England’s rulers watched as Spain established vast new colonies in Americas In the late 1500’s England began trying to establish its own colonies Roanoke was England’s first attempt

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The Lost Colony of Roanoke

  Queen Elizabeth I of England and other English leaders had many reasons for wanting colonies in North America England was hoping to find gold and other natural resources

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The Lost Colony of Roanoke

  Queen Elizabeth I knew that establishing a colony would be difficult and expensive and maybe even dangerous The Spanish did not want other nations to build colonies in North America

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The Lost Colony of Roanoke

   Walter Raleigh, an advisor to the Queen, offered to organize the first colony Raleigh was a soldier who explored North America in the 1580’s Roanoke Island was off the coast of present day North Carolina

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The Lost Colony of Roanoke

   The first group of colonists landed on Roanoke Island in 1585 They faced a tough winter, having difficulty finding food In 1586, the starving colonists returned to home England

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The Lost Colony of Roanoke

   Raleigh did not give up on starting a colony in North America In 1587, John White led 100 men, women, and children to Roanoke Island This colony struggled as well

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The Lost Colony of Roanoke

   When supplies ran out, John White went back to England for help Upon arriving in England, John White found England at war with Spain England could not spare any ships to send supplies to the Roanoke Island colony

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The Lost Colony of Roanoke

    White was unable to return to Roanoke Island until 1590 Everyone on the Island had disappeared The only clue White found was the word “CROATOAN” carved in a tree Croatoan was the name of an American Indian group that lived near Roanoke Island

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The Lost Colony of Roanoke

    No one knows what happened to the Roanoke settlement The colonists may have been captured by the Spanish or died in battles against the Native Americans The starving colonists may moved south to live with the Croatoan people Roanoke Island settlement is known as “The Lost Colony”

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The Battle of the Spanish Armada

   Tension was growing between England and Spain England’s attempt to build a colony in North America angered Spain’s King Philip II English sea captains had been raiding Spanish ships, traveling from America to Spain, of silver and gold

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The Battle of the Spanish Armada

   One of the most famous English captains was Francis Drake In 1577 Drake began a voyage around the world When Drake returned to England in 1580, his ship was full of gold captured for Spanish ships

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The Battle of the Spanish Armada

    Drake was considered a hero in England The Spanish called him the “Master Thief” In 1588, King Philip II decided to attack England King Philip II assembled the Spanish Armada, a huge fleet of war ships

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The Battle of the Spanish Armada

   The Spanish had 130 ships carrying about 30,000 sailors and soldiers The Spanish Armada met the English off the coast of England The Spanish were confident of victory

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The Battle of the Spanish Armada

   The English navy had some advantages The English ships were smaller and could move faster in the water The English ships had more powerful guns

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The Battle of the Spanish Armada

 The commander of the English fleet, Lord Howard, wrote:  “Their force is wonderful great and strong, yet we pluck their feathers by little and little.”  Many of the Spanish ships were sunk by English cannonballs

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The Battle of the Spanish Armada

  Other Spanish ships were caught in a storm and smashed against the rocky coast of Ireland Of the 130 ships of the Spanish Armada, 60 returned to Spain safely

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The Battle of the Spanish Armada

   The Battle of the Spanish Armada was a major victory for the English The victory made England one of the world’s most powerful nations Now the English could turn their focus back to establishing colonies in North America

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The Jamestown Colony

  In 1606, a group of merchants formed the Virginia Company of London They asked King James I for a charter to set up a colony in Virginia  Charter – a document that permitted colonies to settle on land claimed by their ruler

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The Jamestown Colony

  The owners of the Virginia Company raised money by selling stock – shares in the company Each person who bought stock in the company would earn a profit if the colony was successful

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The Jamestown Colony

    In 1607, three English ships carrying about 120 colonists reached the eastern coast of Virginia They sailed up a river they named the James River in honor of King James I They unloaded their ships on a peninsula in the river The spot was called Jamestown

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The Jamestown Colony

    One of the settlers, John Smith, called Jamestown  “A very fit place for erecting a great city” He was wrong The land was low and swampy The air was full of disease carrying mosquitoes

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The Jamestown Colony

   The river water was not healthy to drink The water made the people sick As soon as they arrived in Jamestown, many of the settlers began to die

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Map Adventure

 Be sure to read page 159 in class

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John Smith and the “Starving Times”

   Some Jamestown colonists expected to find gold in Virginia Instead of building shelter and planting crops, they spent days searching for this gold Some thought they found gold but it wasn’t gold

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John Smith and the “Starving Times”

   Soon, men began dying of starvation and disease By the end of the first year, there were only 38 settlers remained The little wheat they had left form the voyage was full of worms

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John Smith and the “Starving Times”

  John Smith was elected leader of the colony He issued an order to the surviving men based on the Bible:  “He that will not work, shall not eat.”

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John Smith and the “Starving Times”

   Under John Smith’s leadership, the colonists built houses and dug wells for fresh water The colonists planted crops and fished in the river Smith began trading with the leader of Powhatan people, Chief Powhatan

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John Smith and the “Starving Times”

   Corn from the Powhatan helped keep the colonists alive Relations between the English settlers and the Powhatan were peaceful for a moment Pocahontas, Chief Powhatan’s young daughter would visit Jamestown often

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John Smith and the “Starving Times”

    John Smith wrote that when he first met Chief Powhatan, he was taken prisoner Smith was about to be executed when 12 year-old Pocahontas saved his life She persuaded her father to let Smith go free Smith returned to England in 1609

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John Smith and the “Starving Times”

    The colony suffered without John Smith’s leadership So many people died of hunger This period was known as the “Starving Times” Jamestown was nearly abandoned with the population dwindling

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John Smith and the “Starving Times”

   More settlers arrived including a new leader, Lord De La Warre The Virginia Company gave the leader new powers  Forcing colonists to work The last survivors were saved and the colony revived

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Tobacco Helps Jamestown Grow

   Like corn and tomatoes, the tobacco plant is native to the Americas Earlier European explorers and traders learned from Native Americans how to grow tobacco By the early 1600’s tobacco was becoming popular in England and other European nations

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Tobacco Helps Jamestown Grow

   In 1612, a settler named John Rolfe raised a crop of tobacco in the rich Virginia soil Tobacco soon became Virginia’s first cash crop  Cash crop – crop grown for a profit Tobacco was soon widely grown

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Tobacco Helps Jamestown Grow

   King James I of England did not approve of tobacco King James I called smoking “hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs” Despite the King’s opposition to smoking, people in Virginia still raised tobacco

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Tobacco Helps Jamestown Grow

   Tobacco export to England rose rapidly Farms were growing so quickly that more workers were needed Thousands of English indentured servants began arriving in Jamestown

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Tobacco Helps Jamestown Grow

  Indentured Servants were those who agreed to work for someone for a certain amount of time in exchange for the cost of ocean voyage to North America Most indentured servants hoped to buy their own land when they gained their freedom

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Tobacco Helps Jamestown Grow

  Many never lived long enough to become free Between 1619 and 1622, many indentured servants died of disease, overwork, and mistreatment by their masters

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Tobacco Helps Jamestown Grow

   In 1619, a Dutch ship arrived with 20 African who were sold as indentured servants and later released Some established their own tobacco plantations Later Africans brought to Virginia would be enslaved

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Tobacco Helps Jamestown Grow

  In spite of the hardship of life in Jamestown, the colony continued to grow steadily The marriage between John Rolfe and Pocahontas in 1614 helped to maintain peace between the English and the Powhatan people

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Self Government in Virginia

  The Virginia Company of London continued to try to attract more settlers to the colony The Leaders of the company declared that the settlers in Virginia should have  “Such a form of government…as may be to the greatest benefit and comfort of the people”

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Self Government in Virginia

    On July 30, 1619, the Virginia House of Burgesses met for the first time The House of Burgesses was the first law-making assembly in an English colony Members were chosen to represent each district The House of Burgesses helped to establish the tradition of self-government in the English colonies

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John Smith 1580 - 1631

  Be sure to read page 163 in class Or research John Smith on your own

  Answer your study questions. Quiz will be on Wednesday morning before moving to Lesson 2