Jamestown

British Colonization Before Jamestown

● Ireland (1536)● English Reformation (1536)

o King Henry VIII● Desmond Rebellions (1569-1583)

Sir Humphrey Gilbert

● Nine Years War (1594-1603)o Hugh O’Neal

● A View of the Present State of Ireland (1596)o Edmund Spenser

Chesapeake Virginia Before Jamestown● Powhatan Confederacy● Powhatan

o priest, warrior, politiciano Opechancanough

● Chesapeake Indians● Monocan Indians● Prior Encounters with

Europeanso Ajacan Mission (1570)o Roanoke (1585-1586)

Powhatan controls the James, Mattaponi, and Pamunkey rivers and the western shore of Chesapeake Bay

The English Arrive

● Initial English-Indian Relations (1607)o location critical to initial peaceo assaults by Indians

● Paspahegh Indians ● Seven Year Drought (1606-1612)● John Smith captured (Dec. 1607)

o English accuse him of desertion/ death sentence● Captain Christopher Newport visits Powhatan (Feb

1608)

Gift Exchange Rituals● give, accept, reciprocate ● continual transference of gifts and obligations● status gained by elaborate gifts and accumulation of

personal debts● helped maintain peace through extended network of

reciprocal obligations● Contrasted with European market based economy● Europeans: profit=goal of exchanges● American Indians: relationships=goal of exchanges● stealing= ritualistic killing as response

Gift Exchange at Jamestown● John Smith: “by the gifts you bestow on me you gain

more than trade”● Paspahegh Indians

Virginia Company Policy

"If you make friendship with any of these [native] nations as you must doe, choose to doe it with those that are farthest from you and enemies unto those amonge whom you dwell, for you shall have the least occasion to have differences with them and by that means a suerer league of amity."

English-Indian Relations

● Powhatan’s attempts to kill John Smith (1609)● Four German Spies● Orapax Massacre (1609)

o John Ratcliffe Expedition● Asylum offered to Jamestown deserters● Starving Time (1609-1610)

o Only 90 of 400 colonists surviveo cannibalism, murder, starvation

● Period of Peace, 1614-1622

John Rolfe marries Pocahontas

John Rolfe• Tobacco Boom

(1617) 20,000 lbs(1618) 40,000 lbs(1619) tobacco inspection law passed(1619) first African slaves arrive(1622) 60,000 lbs(1623) limiting acts passed

• Benefits of tobacco production• Negative consequences of tobacco production

Opechancanough Uprising 1622

Bacon’s Rebellion 1676

• Nathaniel Bacon• Widening economic gap

among colonists• Rise of landed gentry• Fluctuating tobacco prices• Transition from indentured

servitude toward slavery