Virginia’s Development

Southern Colony

EQ: How did the economy and

culture develop in Virginia?

Southern colony;

What do you know?

Joint Stock Company◦ Several investors pool their wealth to support a

colony to gain a PROFIT $$. King James I granted charter to V.C. to

found a colony in America. (April 1607)

Named the colony Jamestown ◦ First colony of Great Britain in the New World.◦ People in search of gold and silver.

Virginia Company

Powhatan Tribe lived on frontier of Virginia colony.◦ John Smith negotiated to get food from natives for

colonists. Tensions increase with Powhatans

◦ 1609: 600 more colonists arrive.◦ Powhatans alarmed and began destroying

livestock and farms in the colony.

Relationship with the Natives

Powhatans no longer helping colonists. Few crops led to famine.

◦ People eat rats, snakes, pets, even resort to eating dead folks.

Why not just leave?◦ Winter◦ Hostile Natives

The Starving Time

John Rolfe: introduces tobacco to Virginia in 1612.◦ Major cash crop: pulls Jamestown out of starving

time. Creates a need for workers:

◦ Headright system: British citizens who could pay their own way- got land in Virginia. If you pay for someone else’s way you also get that land.

◦ Indentured servants: People who could not pay their own way could ask a

wealthy landowner to pay for their passage to the colony.

In exchange, they would have to work off the debt for a period of time.

Leads to a class system in the Virginia colony

Tobacco Cultivation

First Representative Government in Colonies.

People had a say in the laws- not just one person controlling everything.

House can make laws and raise taxes◦ Power of the Purse

Voting: white males with property creates elite ruling class.

House of Burgesses

Small land owners- former indentured servants unhappy. They were not being protected from Native American attacks on the frontier by the Virginia government.

Nathanial Bacon raised an army of landless settlers.◦ Marched on Jamestown and set fire to the town.

No immediate results, but would contribute to the use of slaves.

First Sign of Discontent….Bacon’s Rebellion 1676