SSUSH1

Slide 1

SSUSH1 The student will describe European settlement in North America during the 17th century.
a. Explain Virginia’s development; include the Virginia Company, tobacco cultivation, relationships with Native Americans such as Powhatan, development of the House of Burgesses, Bacon’s Rebellion, and the development of slavery. The Virginia Company was a group of merchants who wanted to found an English Colony in North America. It was a joint-stock company.  This means: several investors put their resources together to support a colony.  When the colony began to make a profit, the profit would go to the investors. Joint-stock companies were granted charters by the government.  A charter is like a permit. In 1606 King James I of England granted a charter to the Virginia Company.  The territory was named Virginia.  Both the company and the territory were named after Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.   In 1607, three ships landed in Virginia and began building the first permanent English settlement- Jamestown. Jamestown had serious problems at first.  The settlers drank dirty water, which spread diseases, and some of the settlers were not used to hard labor and refused to work. John Smith took over and said “Those that will not work shall not eat.” He also made friends with the Powhatan people, who helped the settlers, until they realized that the settlers were here to stay and wanted ALL the land.  Once they realized that, they began killing the settlers’ farm animals and the settlers were are starving again. Even though Chief Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas, married a settler named John Rolfe, there was so much conflict with the Native Americans that King James took away the charter, made it a royal colony, and sent British troops to beat the Native Americans.