Colonial History

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Virginia

Jamestown

People to Remember

Captain Christopher Newport (1561- 1617) English sea captain who was hired by the Virginia Company to transport the colonists to the New World.

Captain John Smith (c.1580–1631) - helped found Jamestown and became Colonial Governor of Virginia

Pocahontas (1595-1617) Virginia Indian chief's daughter who assisted colonial settlers at Jamestown.

Chief Powhatan (c. 1545 -1618) Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy when Jamestown was settled in 1607.

John Rolfe (c. 1585 – 1622) English settler in Jamestown who married Pocahontas and cultivated a strain of tobacco that Jamestown was able to successfully grow and export back to England.

King James I - King of England and Scotland who granted a charter to the London Company (later known as the Virginia Company) to establish a satellite English settlement in the Chesapeake region of North America.

Places and Terms to Know

Jamestown - the first permanent English colony in America

Powhatan - Native American tribe that lived near Jamestown

The London Company - the company that founded Jamestown. The London Company, which was later called the Virginia Company of London, sent settlers, supplies, and ships to Jamestown with the hope that the settlement would be profitable.

Chesapeake Bay - inlet of the Atlantic Ocean that was explored by Captain John Smith

The House of Burgesses - the first law-making body to meet in America. The House of Burgesses was established in 1619.

Bacon's Rebellion - uprising in 1676 led by Nathaniel Bacon, who was angry ar Governor Berkeley's refusal to open up land in western Virginia to settlers. Bacon and his followers killed hundreds of Indians and burned Jamestown.