Jamestown
The First to Last
About Jamestown
Jamestown was founded in 1607 and was a successful permanent English settlement in Virginia that would become a U.S. state. It was located in Jamestown Island, in Virginia, 30 miles up the James River from the Atlantic coast. Jamestown not the first successful permanent European settlement in what would become US. In the early Jamestown years, there was extremely high mortality rate; lack of food actually lead some of the settlements to resort to cannibalism during the winter of 1609, known as the "starving time".
Jamestown on a Map
Triangular Jamestown
Inside the Settlement
John Smith
Captain John Smith became the colony’s leader in September 1608 – the fourth in a succession of council presidents – and established a “no work, no food” policy. Smith had been instrumental in trading with the Powhatan Indians for food. However, in the fall of 1609 he was injured by burning gunpowder and left for England. Smith never returned to Virginia, but promoted colonization of North America until his death in 1631 and published numerous accounts of the Virginia colony, providing invaluable material for historians.
Citations
History of Jamestown. Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. Web February 02, 2016
United States. National Park Service.National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior February 01, 2016. Web. February 02, 2016.