English at Jamestown

1. “Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!”

3. Investors fund exploration
 English colonies funded by joint-stock
companies
 James I grants charter for Virginia
 1607: Jamestown established

4. Life in Jamestown
 What did settlers expect to find?
 Few willing to work
 Winter of 1609 “starving time”
 60 of 600 settlers survived

5. Tobacco Saves Jamestown

6. Tobacco Saves Jamestown
 By late 1620s, colonies
exporting 1.5 million pounds
of tobacco to England a year
 Requires massive influx of
labor (slaves)

7. Clashing with the Natives
 English did not intermarry with native population
 Settlers and Powhatan engage in armed conflict
 1624: Virginia becomes a royal colony; English
population rises while native population falls

8. Economic Differences in Virginia
 western Va populated by poor whites
 At odds with wealthy “planter” class
 Paid most of the taxes
 Constantly fighting Native groups