Explore The Big Idea
Write an essay telling how the English learned to live in their new settlement of Jamestown.
After that Christopher Columbus discovered America. People from England first came to Powhatan lands in 1607. They began making this land their home and named it Jamestown.
In the beginning, in the winter of 1609, life in Jamestown was hard, settlers were suffering the sharp pricks of hunger. They went to their neighbors for help. They learned how to hunt and grow food, and made friends with Powhatans, some even got married, such as John Rolfe and Pocahontas. In ten years, the Powhatan had lost much of their land to the Jamestown settlers.
As more settlers arrived, Jamestown grew stronger. Settlers chopped down trees. They planted tobacco. They also made glass. Then they traded these goods back to England.
In 1619 a Dutch ship brought the first African workers, or to say slaves to Jamestown. They did almost all the jobs and helped Jamestown to grow even more. Slavery began and it developed from bad to worse over time.