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Jamestown

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Jamestown
Shannon Springstead
Honors US History 1
09/09/13

Jamestown

Jamestown settlement was the first successful establishment when the 13 colonies on North America were founded. In 1606, King James I sent a charter known as the First Charter of Virginia to the Virginia Company in order to assign land rights to colonists. By assigning land rights, King James I had a better grip on propagating the Anglican Religion to the settlers. He also had the intentions of rectifying other countries from Europe at this time from expanding overseas, and he wanted to locate a northwest passage to Asia. Virginia Colony was one of the 13 colonies in Colonial America, and this is where Jamestown was located. The London Company—later known as the Virginia Company, originally founded Jamestown when some 100 English colonists under the command of John Smith, set out to settle in Virginia. These sailors were sent not only to settle here but also to find gold and a water route to the Orient. On May 14, 1607 the Virginia Company landed on the banks of the James River to establish the Virginia English colony. The first settlers of Jamestown faced many hardships because they were the first to inhabit the land and they contracted many diseases, went through a famine, lacked fresh water, and had many conflicts with neighboring Native Americans. There was originally no proper food supply so many people starved to death, and most of the water had an unhealthy amount of salt making in undrinkable. The settlers had just had a long voyage to Virginia and not having been properly nourished, they were very susceptible to disease. The settlers needed food some how so products such as glass beads, copper, and iron implements were traded the Native Americans in return for food. The crops created a lot f conflict between the neighboring Native Americans and the Jamestown settlers, but a major conflict was that the English settlers needed slave labor in order to grow and harvest crops. This



Cited: "House of Burgesses." United States American History. Web. 13 Aug. 2013. . "History of Jamestown -- Jamestown Rediscovery." History of Jamestown – Jamestown Rediscovery. Jamestown Redicovery, n.d. Web. 13 Aug. 2013. "A History of Jamestown." A History of Jamestown. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Aug. 2013. "Jamestown Settlers Arrive." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 13 Aug. 2013.

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