Roanoke (The Lost Colony) and Jamestown

The Lost Colony

• Sir Walter Raleigh given rights to claim land for Queen Elizabeth

• 1st sends Philip Amadas and Arthur Bartlowe to check out sites

• Find Roanoke Island off coast of NC

• They depend too much on NA’s, strain relations, 1st attempt fails

• 2yrs later Raleigh sends John White and more men

• White has to return to England for supplies and gets stuck there for 3yrs due to war with Spain

• White left his daughter there and his grand daughter is born– Virginia Dare– 1st English child born in the new world

• When White returns, the settlement is abandoned, supplies left, no bodies

• Only clue is word “Croatoan” carved several places nearby

• White can’t search because of a hurricane, returns to England

• No one knows what happened to settlers, Croatan Indians kill them? Live with them? Went and settled in mainland NC?

Jamestown• Joint-stock-company-

investors share risk by investing but also profit

• Sailed into Chesapeake Bay and up James River

• Founded with 105 men • Problems:• On a swamp- diseases and

mosquitos• Surrounded by unfriendly

tribes• People wanted to look for

gold all the time

• 1st year many die of disease/starvation• Captain John Smith takes over- whips people

into shape (literally)• Parts of Pocahontas story true did save his life• She marries John Rolfe (new tobacco makes $)• She goes to England, dies of disease

Conflict with the Powhatan• At first help colonists, they take advantage

and get greedy• Jamestown grows and takes more land• Small fights break out, many killed on both

sides, colonists burn many Powhatan villages

Life in Virginia• Headright system–

encouraged settlers, 50 acres/person

• Other towns develop outside of Jamestown

• Many women are sent, men could buy a wife for certain pounds of tobacco

• Plantations develop and slaves needed

• Indentured servants– work for 4-7 yrs in return for passage to New World

• 1st Representative (elected) Government is formed– House of Burgesses

Bacon’s Rebellion• Nathanial Bacon, a wealthy VA farmer,

lead others against Jamestown• Mad about rights to land, conflict with NA’s• Killed many NA’s, burned villages and then

burned Jamestown• Bacon dies and rebellion falls apart