United States

Virginia: Jamestown

Virginia: ° Alexandria ° Jamestown ° Newport News ° Plymouth ° Richmond

The first English settlement in America is noted as Jamestown, Virginia on May 13, 1607.

Interest in American colonization led to the creation of the Virginia Company (chartered in 1606 by King James I) by investors in London and South West England. In May 1607, the Company's London branch established England's first permanent colony in North America at Jamestown, west of Chesapeake Bay.

a group of about 100 members of a joint venture named the Virginia Company founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River.

Famine, disease and conflict with local Native American tribes in the first two years brought Jamestown to the brink of failure, even though John Smith had reached understandings with Powhattan for much-needed trade.

After Smith returned to England in late 1609, the inhabitants of Jamestown suffered through a long, harsh winter, during which more than 100 of them died. In the spring of 1610, just as the remaining colonists were set to abandon Jamestown, two ships arrived bearing at least 150 new settlers, a cache of supplies and the new English governor of the colony, Lord De La Warr.

Tobacco became Virginia’s first profitable export, and a period of peace followed the marriage in 1614 of colonist John Rolfe to Pocahontas, the daughter of an Algonquian chief.

During the 1620s, Jamestown expanded from the area around the original James Fort into a New Town built to the east.

The colony survived because of experiments with tobacco as a commercial crop in 1612.

After the first Africans arrived in 1619, working as indentured servants, the local economy developed when exports to England grew to 15 million pounds by the late 1660s.

Jamestown remained the capital of the Virginia colony until 1699.

December 28, 1850, Sacramento Transcript, Sacramento, California, U.S.A.

Early Pioneers and Modern Pioneers.

It is interesting to a Californian to turn over the pages of history, and read the record of the first settlements in America, and contrast the manner of colonizing the eastern shore of this continent, near two hundred and fifty years ago, with the present state of things on the Pacific.

We read that the London Company, after its incorporation in 1606, dispatched to America three ships, having on board one hundred and five persons, destined to begin a settlement in South Virginia. Some of them were allured by curiosity, some by the prospect of gain to visit a new country, said to be inhabited by a new race of kings, and to abound in silver and gold.

On the thirteenth of May, they landed and commenced the place Jamestown. In four months, famine and the diseases of a hot, damp climate, swept away fifty of their number. The small number remaining lingered along, making but little progress till 1609, when the London Company dispatched to Jamestown nine ships, carrying five hundred emigrants, but they were disorderly and profligate, and in a short time after their landing, the Colony was again reduced to about sixty persons.

In 1611 the Colony was again reinforced, and commenced a more prosperous career. Martial law was continued to 1619, when the Colony had become so large, that a general Assembly was called by the inhabitants.

"Emigrants continued to arrive frequently from England, but nearly all were men, who came for the purpose of making wealth, and intended eventually to return. With such view, they were evidently less useful to the Colony than if they should be induced to regard it as their home, and as the abode of their posterity. To produce this desirable attachment to the country, ninety girls, young and uncorrupted, were sent over in the year 1620, and sixty more in the subsequent year, and immediately sold to the young planters as wives. The price was, at first, one hundred, and afterwards one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco, then selling at three shillings per pound; and it was ordained that debts contracted for wives, should be paid in preference to all others."

Shortly afterwards it is recorded, that the "Colony is in the full tide of prosperity."

The first settlers of California encountered many hardships, but by the close of the first year, they had more comforts at their command than the early settlers of Virginia could obtain twenty-five years after their landing on the shores of the Atlantic. The hostile Indians have never caused our people any serious alarm. The "diseases of a hot, damp climate," do not make such destruction among the pioneers of California as they did among our ancestors who settled in Virginia.

Old Church. Jamestown, Virginia.

This suggests an important fact. In the settlement of any new place, disease is a serious obstacle, and hence the country is apt to get the reputation of being unhealthy. Virginia is now considered to possess a salubrious, healthy climate; whereas, 250 years ago, 50 died in four months out of a population of 105; and it appears that it was years before this degree of mortality was greatly diminished.

No such alarming mortality has ever attended the settlement of any portion of California, although it is known that the larger share of the people now in the State, have slept in the open air for weeks in succession. The inference is, that when things become settled, when our buildings are all up, roads opened, farms laid out and cultivated, and the habits of the people become regular, this will be a more healthy country than Virginia. The pure mountain air that constantly circulates through our valleys,— the foaming streams that in countless numbers dash down the western slope of the Sierra Nevada,— the rolling table lands, and fertile valleys,— the mild, salubrious climate, in which flowers may bloom almost the entire year— all indicate this land as the abode of health and comfort. The first settlers of Virginia could not live, except by the assistance and protection of their friends in the mother country.

Those of California come here as the best means of assisting their friends and families which they left behind them. The early emigrants to Virginia were newly all men, "who came for the purpose of making wealth, and intended eventually to return to England." Here is a striking similarity between them and the present population of California. But our people have different notions from their ancestors in regard to supplying the deficiency in the number of females. A cargo of girls would not be bought up for wives, by the "young planters" of California. A "desirable attachment to the country" cannot be produced in that way. Our bachelor people are sufficiently in love with California already, and as soon as proper arrangements can be effected, they intend making a visit to their old homes, to wed their old sweethearts; and then to return again to the land of gold and plenty, wherein their first efforts were crowned with success.

April 22, 1898, Sacramento Daily Union, Sacramento, California, U.S.A.

Old Price of Wives.

When Virginia was settled auctions of wives were held at Jamestown. The average price was £120, or $600. The only place on the continent now where such a price might prevail is the Klondike. There are 80,000 more women than men in Massachusetts alone, which is an indication that the market is overstocked.

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1899. World's Fleet. Boston Daily Globe

Lloyds Register of Shipping gives the entire fleet of the world as 28,180 steamers and sailing vessels, with a total tonnage of 27,673,628, of which 39 perent are British.

Great Britain	10,990 vessels, total tonnage of 10,792,714
United States	3,010 vessels, total tonnage of 2,405,887
Norway	2,528 vessels, tonnage of 1,604,230
Germany	1,676 vessels, with a tonnage of 2,453,334, in which are included her particularly large ships.
Sweden	1,408 vessels with a tonnage of 643, 527
Italy	1,150 vessels
France	1,182 vessels

For Historical Comparison
Top 10 Maritime Nations Ranked by Value (2017)

	Country	# of Vessels	Gross Tonnage (m)	Total Value (USDbn)
1	Greece	4,453	206.47	$88.0
2	Japan	4,317	150.26	$79.8
3	China	4,938	159.71	$71.7
4	USA	2,399	55.92	$46.5
5	Singapore	2,662	64.03	$41.7
6	Norway	1,668	39.68	$41.1
7	Germany	2,923	81.17	$30.3
8	UK	883	28.78	$24.3
9	Denmark	1,040	36.17	$23.4
10	South Korea	1,484	49.88	$20.1
Total		26,767	87.21	$466.9