Virginian Beginnings All through the night the storm blew the three small ships northwards.

For hours the frightened sailors struggled with wet ropes and snaping canvas sails. At last, as dawn colored the eastern skies, the storm came to an end.Men dropped to the decks, exhausted. Some fell asleep.Excited shouts awoke them. and! and!"#he sailors rushed to the sides of the ships.#here, at last,was the land for which the$ had been searching%&irginia. 't was the morning of April () in the $ear *)+,. A few weeks later, on Ma$ (+, the sailors tied their ships to trees on the banks of a broad and deep river.#he$ named the river the -ames , in honour of -ames ' , king of England, the countr$ from each the$ had set sail five long months before..n the swamp$ banks the$ began cutting down bushes and trees and building rough shelters for themselves./$ the end of the $ear, two out of ever$ three of them were dead. /ut their little groups of huts became the first lasting English settlement in America.#he$ named it -amestown. #he earl$ $ears of the -amestown settlement were hard ones. #his was partl$ the fault of the settlers themselves. #he site the$ had chosen was low%l$ing and malarial.And although their English homeland was man$ miles awa$ across a dangerous ocean, the$ failed to grow enough food to feed themselves. #he$ were too bus$ dreaming of gold. #he settlers had been sent to -amestown b$ a group of rich ondon investors.#hese investors had formed the &irginia 0ompan$. #he 0ompan$1s directors hoped that the setllers would find pearls, silver, or some other valuable product in &irginia and so bring them a 2uick profit on their investment. Most of all, the$ hoped that the colonists would find gold, as the Spanish con2uistadores had done in Mexico. /ut the colonists began to die in ones, in twos, finall$ in do3ens.Some died in Amerindian attacks, some of diseases, some of starvation. .ur men were destro$ed b$ cruel diseases", wrote a colonist who survived , swellings, fluxes, burning fevers and b$ wars./ut most died of famine. #here were never Englishmen left in a foreign countr$ in such miser$ as we were in &irginia." 4et new settlers continued to arrive. #he &irginia 0ompan$ gathered homeless children from the streets of ondon and sent them out to the colon$. #hen it sent a hundred convicts from ondon1s prisons.Such emigrants were often unwilling to go because of the atrocious conditions.

Some English people decided that it was worth risking the possibilit$ of hardships in &irginia to escape from the certaint$ of them at home5 incomes were low, but the prices of food and clothing climbed higher ever$ $ear, man$ people were without work6. For &irginia had one great attraction that England lacked7 plentiful land. 'n England, as in Europe generall$,the land was owned b$ the rich. 'n &irginia a poor man could hope for a farm of his own to feed his famil$.For a number of $ears militar$ governors ran &irginia like a prison camp. /ut it was not discipline that saved &irginia. 't was a plant that grew like a weed there7 tobacco.Earlier visitors to America , like Sir 8alter 9aleigh, had brought the first dried leaves of tobacco to England. 'ts popularit$ had been growing ever since, for smoking , for taking a snuff, even for brewing into a drink. Soon most of the &irginia settlers were bus$ growing tobacco.#he$ cleared new land along the rivers and ploughed up the streets of -amestown itself to plant more. #he$ even used it as mone$. #he price of a good horse in &irginia, for exemple , was sixteen pounds of top 2ualit$ tobacco. #he possibilit$ of becoming rich brought wealth$ men to &irginia.#he$ obtained large stretches of land and brought workers from England to clear trees and plant tobacco. Soon the houses and barns of their estates, or plantations", could be seen through the trees along the banks of the -ames river. Most of the workers on these earl$ plantations were indentured servants" from England.#he$ promised to work for an emplo$er for an agreed numbers of $ears :about seven was average% in exchange for food and clothes. At the end the$ became free to work for themselves. 'n August *)*;, &irginia saw another important beginning. A small <utch warship anchored at -amestown. .n board were twent$ captured black Africans.#he ship1s captain sold them to the settlers as indentured servants. #he blacks were set to work in the tobacco field with white indentured servants from England. /ut there was a ver$ serious difference between their position and that of the whites working beside them. 8hite servants were indentured for a fixed number of $ears. #heir masters might have treated them badl$, but the$ knew that one da$ the$ would be free./lack servants had no such hope. #heir indenture was for life. Did you know that...................? 1) Captain John Smith was the most able of the original Jamestown settlers. During one of his e peditions ! whi"h was meant to bring some "orn from the #merindians to his hungry

people! he was taken prisoner.#""ording to the story that he told! the #merindians were going to beat his brains out when $o"hahontas! the twel%e year old daughter of the "hief! $owhatan! sa%ed his life by shielding his body with her own.

&) Very few women settled in early Virginia! so in 1'1( the Virginia Company shipped o%er a group of ninety young women as wi%es for its settlers. )o obtain a bride the would*be husbands had to pay the "ompany +1&, pounds weight of best toba""o leaf.+)he pri"e must ha%e been reasonable ! for within a %ery short time all the young women were married.