Compare And Contrast Jamestown Colonies

989 Words4 Pages

In 1607, the attraction to the East Coast started off with the first permanent English settlement in North America, Jamestown. After Jamestown was founded no other colonies were made until 1620 with the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts. Not long after the founding of the first two colonies, eleven other colonies were created. Even with this many colonies I believe the first two colonies to be the most influential and insightful because they set the example for all of the other colonies. Because I believe these two colonies to be the most impactful I will start with history and then break down and compare different aspects including location, motivations, early years, religious differences, native relations, and economic standpoints. On May …show more content…

Pocahontas had been seized by the settlers and been converted to Christianity and previously saved John Smith, an original colonist, from her father’s captivity in 1609. Jamestown’s economy was able to thrive in 1619 due to Rolfe’s introduction of a new type of tobacco grown from seeds in the West Indies. In the same year, the colony established a General Assembly elected by Jamestown’s landowning males. This government model became a representative for governments in later colonies. Also in 1619, the first Africans (about 50 men, women, and children) were brought to the English settlement from a Portuguese slave ship. They worked as indentured servants at first and later became slaves in the …show more content…

Rallied by Powhatan’s successor, Opechankeno, the Algonquians became angrier about the expansion of Jamestown. Meanwhile, the diseases brought from the Old World obliterated the Algonquian population. In 1622, the Powhatan tribe made a major assault on English expansion in Virginia, killing around 400 (one quarter of the population). While Jamestown was not attacked, it was heavily warned and was able to mount a defense. In an effort to take control of the situation, King James I eliminated the Virginia Company and transformed Virginia into a royal colony in