PL HELP ME TEXT: Jamestown and its Struggles
After the Roanoke disaster, several Englishmen got a charter (certificate of permission) from their king to form a joint-stock company (a company funded by investors who share profits and losses) called the Virginia Company (named for the “virgin queen” of England). In 1607, the Virginia Company sent about 100 settlers to set up a colony in modern-day Virginia called Jamestown (named for King James I).

Jamestown almost totally failed also, for several reasons. First, there was terrible conflict with the Native Americans In the first weeks: 200 natives attacked the settlers in the first weeks. Several Englishmen from Jamestown tried to make peace and earn the trust of the Natives by paying taxes of skins and food to their tribal leader, Powhatan. Still, Powhatan and his people didn’t trust the English or their motives. Second, some of the British settlers in Jamestown thought they could get rich quickly without doing much hard work. Many had been born into wealthy families and had no experience of manual labor such as growing crops or building houses. Some spent their days looking for gold and ignored daily chores. This only began to change when one of their leaders, John Smith, told the settlers that “he that will not work shall not eat.” Third, Jamestown’s location was near swamps and pools of standing water, which bred mosquitos that gave the settlers diseases like malaria, typhus, and dysentery. Finally, Jamestown did not have good leaders at first. The only strong leader they had was a soldier named John Smith, but he soon became injured and had to sail back to England. During the first years of the settlement, Jamestown colonists suffered from starvation and sickness. The period from October 1609 to March 1610 was known as the “Starving Time”. The settlement only survived because the Native Americans gave the English help in the form of food and water.

Meanwhile back in England, writers were publishing advertisements calling Jamestown a paradise. 5,500 new settlers soon sailed over to Jamestown based on these promises. Instead they found a desperate life of starvation and 4000 of them quickly died. King James I of England decided it was time for the British government to take control of Jamestown. He canceled its charter and appointed a governor to rule it. Jamestown also formed a council of men to make laws, called the House of Burgesses. This was the first elected government in the British colonies.

Tobacco Saves Jamestown
The Virginia colony would have collapsed if it hadn’t been for a single plant: tobacco. Tobacco was new to Europeans, and people in Europe quickly became addicted to smoking and chewing it, demanding more. The Jamestown planters shipped thousands of pounds of it each year. They made so much money from selling tobacco to England that they began cutting down forests to make bigger tobacco plantations. Thousands of English people came to work on the new plantations. Many of them were poor and worked as indentured servants. These were workers who had to work for their food and shelter for years before they could own land. They were not free until their years of contracted service had finished, which usually took 7 years. Many of them died before their term of service was up, and many who survived were not given the land they were promised.
QUESTIONS:
1. Give 4 reasons why Jamestown almost totally failed:
a)
b)
c)
d)

2. What were the advertisements in England saying about Jamestown?

3.What happened as a result of this?

4. Give 2 reasons why the colony of Jamestown survived:
a)
b)

5. What happened to most of the indentured servants?