A Journey to Jamestown Settlement

Fourth graders in Virginia are expected to learn about the state's geography, people, and history, so we hit the road to see first-hand the Jamestowne Settlement and learn about life in the 1600s during the founding of the United States of America. Have you ever heard of Pocahontas and John Smith? They lived in this region!

I'm confused. Is Historic Jamestowne the same as The Jamestown Settlement?

No. They are two separate sites. Historic Jamestowne is the original site of the first permanent English settlement in North America. Jamestown was established about 13 years before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth, MA. It is currently an active archeological dig site where scientists are looking for artifacts from this period.

The Jamestown Settlement is a living history museum that includes a re-creation of an Indigenous American village, the three ships that brought settlers to the New World, and a re-creation of James Fort. There are costumed historical interpreters in all the sites demonstrating what life was like back then. You can see musket demonstrations, blacksmithing, woodworking, an armorer, and a medical display, amongst others. It also has an excellent museum, full of hands-on exhibits where you can see and learn about actual artifacts from this time.

Where is Jamestowne?

Historic Jamestowne is in the Tidewater region of Virginia. It is located on Jamestown Island, on the James River at Jamestown, Virginia. It is near Historic Williamsburg, which was another important city during the years of Colonial America. Its location next to the Chesapeake Bay played a key role as ships could easily travel in and out of the area.

Who started Jamestowne?

King James I of England, eager to compete with other European countries as they all explored new trade routes for land and profit, gave the Virginia Company of London the charter to create a new colony in the New World.

The Virginia Company of London financed an expedition of 144 men (105 settlers and 39 crewmen) to travel to what is now called America on three ships (the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery). Led by Captain Christopher Newport, they set sail on December 20, 1606. Four months later, after stopping at numerous places on the Atlantic Ocean, they landed in Jamestown Island in 1607.

Setting up Jamestowne

When the settlers first arrived, they knew they had to build a fort for their protection. They named the settlement Jamestown after King James I, and built a triangle-shaped fort (James Fort) to protect their colony. Unfortunately, the area they picked was not ideal; the winters were harsh and cold, with no protection from the elements. In summer, rain made the site a swamp filled with mosquitoes and germ-infested waters.

What were the settlers like?

The first settlers of Jamestown were all British gentlemen looking to get rich quick that did not know how to fish, hunt, or farm. Very few of them were used to the work it took to survive in the new world.

The first year was a disaster for these settlers. More than half of them died during the first winter, dying from diseases, germs in the water, and starvation. Some were also killed in disputes with the Indigenous people called the Powhatan. The few that survived only survived with the help of the Powhatan and a resupply ship that arrived 9 months later.

On this supply ship was Margaret Fox Forrest, who came to join her husband at the colony, accompanied by her 14-year-old maid, Anne Burras. Anne Burras later became the first woman to give birth at Jamestown. It wasn't until 1620 that approximately 90 single women were brought to Jamestown with the clear intention of growing the community and bringing a sense of permanence to the colony.

Who were the Powhatan?

The Powhatan Indians were a group of Eastern Woodland Indians who occupied the coastal plain and lived in the area for thousands of years. They were also referred to as the Algonquians because of their shared culture and language. Some words we use today, such as moccasin and tomahawk, came from this language. When the English arrived in 1607, ancestors of the Powhatans had been living in eastern Virginia for thousands of years.

Powhatan way of life

	The Powhatans didn't live in tepees. They lived in small round houses called yehakin or larger longhouses.
The frames of the longhouses were made with poles covered with bark that was cut into rectangular slabs.
	Some towns were palisaded (surrounded by high log walls) for protection.
They were farmers. Crops included: beans, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, wild rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, avocados, papayas, and chocolate.
	In the winter, they hunted and ate game such as raccoon, deer, opossum, turkey, squirrel, and rabbit. Deer was the most important because it was used for food, clothing, and tools. They also fished.
The Powhatan people wore little clothing. Although other types of clothing could be made, Powhatan men and women typically wore an apron of deerskin around the waist. Men wore fur cloaks, loose sleeves, and leggings. Moccasins were worn on trips into the forest.

Wahunsonacock/Chief Powhatan

The leading chief of the Powhatans was Wahunsonacock (called "Powhatan" by the English), and he ruled over a large confederacy of approximately 32 tribes. Each tribe had its own chief, and although they lived in separate villages, they shared many things in common, such as religious beliefs and cultural traditions. Tribe people paid tribute taxes, such as deerskins, shell beads, copper, or corn, to their local ruler, and these local chiefs paid tribute to Powhatan. In return, they received Powahatan's protection.

The Powhatan was a matrilineal society where kinship and inheritance were passed down through the mother or female line. This was how Powhatan came to his position as paramount chief. Powhatan lived in Werowocomoco, a large Powhattan town located on the York River.

Captain John Smith

At first, the settlers did not get along with the Powhatan. The Powhatan sometimes kidnapped or killed settlers that would venture outside the fort. Then in 1608, Captain John Smith, an experienced seaman and soldier, became the colony's leader and set forth a new chapter in the settlement. He implemented many changes that were necessary for the colony to survive, such as:

Implementing a new rule that said, "if you don't work, you don't eat." This rule was necessary because many settlers were sitting around expecting others to build houses, grow crops, and hunt for food.
He also told Virginia Company to only send skilled laborers such as carpenters, farmers, and blacksmiths to the settlement in the future.
He also encouraged dialogue with the Powhatan tribe to improve the colony's relationship with the Powhatan tribe.

Pocahontas

However, some claim that during one of Smith's visits to see Powhatan, he was taken captive and was saved by the chief's daughter, Pocahontas. Pocahontas, age 11 or 12, was the favorite daughter of Powhatan. Pocahontas wasn't her actual name; her real name was Amonute, and she also had the more private name Matoaka. Pocahontas was her nickname, which some think means "playful one" or "ill-behaved child."

For centuries, stories have been told of Pocahontas saving John Smith from being executed by her father and allying with the English, helping to find common ground between both. Most of these stories originated from Captain John Smith's journal, where he wrote about the beautiful daughter of a powerful native leader who rescued him from being executed by her father. His writings even give the impression that they had fallen in love.

However, some historians now claim that Captain Smith's life was not in danger and that he might have misinterpreted a ritual ceremony that Pocahontas took part in.

After this significant event, however, Pocahontas joined Powhatan envoys to the settlement, which made it clear that they came in peace. Even though relationships between the Powhatan and the settlers were strained, Pocahontas occasionally brought the hungry settlers food and helped successfully negotiate the release of Powhatan prisoners in 1608.

The Starving Time

In September of 1609, Captain Smith was injured in a mysterious gunpowder explosion that some claim could have been the act of settlers not happy with all the changes he implemented. Due to his injuries, he had to sail back to England to recover. The winter after John Smith left turned out to be the worst year in the history of the settlement. It is often called the "starving time" because only 60 of the 500 settlers living in Jamestown survived the winter. Some claim that they had to resort to cannibalism to survive.

Tobacco

The settlement struggled for the next few years until one of the settlers, John Rolfe, believed that tobacco could be the crop that Jamestown could trade with England. He started growing tobacco plants from seeds he had smuggled on his journey to the New World. By 1614, four barrels of Rolfe's tobacco were shipped to London, marking the beginning of the tobacco trade and establishing Jamestown as a one-crop economy. Tobacco became a cash crop for Virginia and helped the colony grow over the next several years.

In 1614, John Rolfe married Pocahontas, who converted to Christianity a year later and was renamed Rebecca at her baptism. Their marriage brought a climate of peace between the colonists and the Powhatan tribe. In 1615 John and Rebecca traveled to England, but before they could ever return to Virginia, she became ill and died.

Slavery in the colony

In 1619, John Rolfe documented the arrival of the first African captives to Jamestown on a Dutch ship. They were initially captured in modern-day Angola, an area of West Central Africa, and forced to march over 100 miles to board the San Juan Bautista, a Portuguese ship destined for Mexico.

While in the Gulf of Mexico, two English privateers, the White Lion and the Treasurer attacked the ship and stole 50 to 60 African captives on board. The White Lion then brought the first Africans to Jamestown. Historians believe that Rolfe either falsified his report to conceal what the English had done or that the White Lion swapped flags with a Dutch ship causing Rolfe to incorrectly record the ship's country of origin.

For years, the people who came in 1619 have been described as “the first Africans to set foot on the North American continent,” but that is incorrect. Nor is it the case that those who arrived in 1619 were the first enslaved people in what would become the United States.

These erroneous statements ignore the brutality of the ongoing and broad slave trade preceding 100 years before the first African ever stepped foot on Jamestown soil.

There are many documented cases of Africans arriving in the Americas prior to 1619. For example, in 1565, the Spanish brought enslaved Africans to present-day St. Augustine, Fla., the first European settlement in what’s now the continental U.S. Prior to that, in 1526, a Spanish expedition to present-day South Carolina was thwarted when the enslaved Africans aboard resisted.

Additionally, the English settlers enslaved indigenous people — notably those of the Powhatan Confederacy —around the time of 1619, and some colonists later owned both Indegenous and African slaves.

The later years

In 1624, King James revoked the Virginia Company's charter, and Virginia became a royal colony. Similar to England, and by order of King Charles I, the colony was divided into the original eight shires of Virginia (or counties) in 1634. Jamestown was now located in James City Shire, later renamed the "County of James City", now known as James City County, Virginia, the nation's oldest county.

The Fall of the Powhatan Confederacy

In 1646, Opchanacanough, Chief Powhatan's younger brother and now tribe chief, was captured and killed by an English soldier acting outside of orders. After his death, the Powhatan Confederacy declined and in 1677, Opechancanough's successor signed the first peace treaty, known as the Treaty of Middle Plantation. between the English Crown and representatives from various Virginia Native American tribes, including the Nottoway, the Appomattoc, the Wayonaoake, the Nansemond, the Nanzatico, the Monacan, the Saponi, and the Meherrin. The treaty stated that the tribes had the right to keep their lands, hunt, fish, keep and bear arms, and others if they maintained their loyalty towards the English Crownpay yearly tribute payments to the English. The treaty also confined the tribes into reservations.

Bacon's Rebellion

In 1676, a man named Nathaniel Bacon, unhappy with the colony's Governor William Berkley, led the first popular revolt in England's North American colonies. The conflict between the two men was over the presence of the indigenous tribes in the territory. Bacon wanted all Indegenous people from the settlement gone while Berkely wanted to foster trade. Then in 1676, joined by approximately 60 other colonists, Bacon organized raids against neighboring Native American groups. Bacon eventually seized control of Jamestown and burned it to the ground on September 19.

The Rebellion quickly fell apart after Bacon's sudden death on October 26, 1676.

Jamestown recovery

When King Charles II heard of Bacon's Rebellion, he sent a fleet of ships carrying thousands of soldiers and a three-man commission to defeat Bacon and investigate the causes of the conflict. However, Berkeley had already restored order and executed the leaders of the uprising. During Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, the statehouse and most of the buildings at Jamestown were destroyed, but the capital remained in Jamestown.

Through the 1690s, Jamestown was still a tiny village with inadequate meeting facilities for the House of Burgesses, but when the statehouse burned down again in 1698, rather than rebuilding Jamestown again, the capital of the colony was permanently moved in 1699 to Middle Plantation (now known as Williamsburg), leaving the original Jamestown settlement abandoned.

Wanna visit Jamestown? Here are some tips.

WHICH SITES TO SEE – If traveling with kids, I suggest you spend the morning visiting the Jamestown Settlement (more fun for kids), have lunch and ice cream at the Yorktown Riverwalk water-front area, then do the American Revolution Museum nearby in the afternoon. Some kids might get bored at the Historic Jamestowne site but there is plenty of outdoor space to walk and burn up some energy. Get them nice and tired.
TICKETS – If you plan to visit more than one site during your trip to the Williamsburg/Jamestown area, I suggest you purchase a combo ticket. They have different packages depending on how many days you plan to be there as well as what sites you want to see. We were in the area for a long weekend, so we purchased the America’s Historic Triangle package which is a 7-day ticket that includes admission to the Jamestown Settlement, Historic Jamestowne, Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown Battlefield, and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. Kids 5 and under are free. Click on the links below to find a combo ticket package that works for your crew.

Jamestown Settlement and American Revolution Museum

Historic Jamestowne

Colonial Williamsburg

WHEN TO GO - I suggest you bundle up and go during the winter months. Avoid the summer if you can, since summers here are hot and very humid. You’ll still see the exact same things during the winter months, but school field trips are not commonly scheduled for those months.
WHERE TO PARK - There is plenty of free parking at both the Jamestown Settlement and Historic Jamestowne.
PET RESTRICTIONS - Leashed pets are allowed on outdoor locations of Colonial Williamsburg as well as at Historic Jamestowne, but not allowed at the Jamestown Settlement. Service animals are welcomed at all locations.
MISCELLANEOUS TIPS -
- Wear comfortable sneakers or hiking shoes as there is a lot of walking.
- If visiting in the spring or fall, bring bug spray. Lots of mosquitos due to the natural geography of the region.
- Allow about 3 hours to explore the outside exhibits and the museum, a little bit longer if you are a heavy reader as I am.

Are you an expert in this field? Please reach out if you see any errors in the information I've written. I'm not a historian, just a homeschool mom, so I want to make sure I am giving my kids all the right info.