by Angela La Fon

Created on: May 25, 2007   Last Updated: August 27, 2011

Silver and Gold in Jamestown?

Founded in 1607, Jamestown was a business venture by the Virginia Company of London. Investors from both upper and lower classes pooled their resources counting on large profits from the gold and silver expected to found in the New World. Around 100 colonists sailed aboard the ships Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery to the banks of the James River.

Starvation, Malaria and Bankruptcy in Jamestown:

Instead of gold and silver, the colony was awash with starvation and malaria and under attack from the Algonquian natives. By 1610, of the eventual 214 colonists, there were only sixty survivors. Those sixty were under threat of starvation and were planning to return to England in the spring when at last, a ship of supplies arrived from England. In 1616, the colony was still in jeopardy. The only saleable products were cedar boards that could be used for wainscoting and a small tobacco crop, started by John Rolfe three years earlier. Stockholders were abandoning the company and it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

An Indian Princess and Slaves in Jamestown:

The colonists of Jamestown didn't have silver or gold, but they still had a ace- an Indian princess. In 1614 John Rolfe had married Pocahontas with the blessing of her father chief Powhattan, which had given the colonists temporary peace with the Indians.

Another history changing event occurred when a Dutch slave trader arrived carrying Africans, which he traded with the colonists for food. The Africans became indentured servants, similar to legal standing to the many poor Englishmen who had traded labor for passage to America, although important to note for the Africans this was not a voluntary agreement.

Jamestown, A Crown Colony:

In an effort to bolster support for the colony, twenty year-old Pocahontas was sent to England to appear before the court of Queen Anne and King James I to bolster support and renew interest. She was already considered a celebrity in England because John Smith had written of how she had saved his life be intervening to her father, Chief Powhattan on his behalf.

It worked. Pocahontas, who had taken the Christian name, Rebecca, became a darling of the upperclass. So many people wanted to go the New World that the Virginia Company reorganized itself as a land company, giving 50 acre plots to shareholders and in 1624, Jamestown, the permanent English settlement became a crown colony.

Sources:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action =Article&id=4997

http://www.preservationvirginia.org/rediscovery/page .php?page_id=6

Learn more about this author, Angela La Fon.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.