Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown, or Jamestown Island, was founded in 1607 on the James River in what is currently James City County, Virginia, about 40 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean and the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay and about 45 miles (70 kilometers) downstream and southeast of Richmond, Virginia. Both the James River and the old settlement were named for King James I of England, who granted the private proprietorship to the competing Virginia Companies of London and Plymouth. The Virginia Company of London's enterprise, the Virginia Colony, which was first established at Jamestown, was the first permanent English colony in what is now the United States to survive. It followed the failure of 18 earlier attempts including the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island to the south in what is now North Carolina. Jamestown is second only to St. Augustine, Florida as the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the present-day United States, the latter having been founded 42 years earlier (1565) by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés of Spain. Santa Fe, New Mexico was also founded in 1607. The successor to the Virginia Company of Plymouth successfully established settlements in Massachusetts and other parts of what became New England in 1620.

The Powhatan Confederacy was composed of the principal Algonquian-speaking Native American tribes that lived near Jamestown. Throughout the 17th century, the capital of the Virginia Colony was Jamestown, and to many, the names were synonymous. Gradually, other less important points emerged along the James River as the colony grew. Since the economy was primarily agricultural, in the early period, other than Jamestown, most developments were large plantations rather than traditional towns, usually located near the waterways such as the James River, and many had their own wharfs. However, by 1619, the newly-formed House of Burgesses ordered that each county establish a principal town which would have warehouses for both imports and exports, and some concentrated housing.

Sketch of Jamestown c. 1608

Although Jamestown was an important center of government and commerce in the 17th century, the location was plagued by mosquitoes, brackish tidal river water unsuitable for drinking, and offered limited space for major expansion. Several times during contingencies, such as fires and Bacon's Rebellion, the seat of government for the colony was shifted temporarily to nearby Middle Plantation, a fortified location on the high ridge approximately equidistant from the James and York Rivers on the Virginia Peninsula. When the Colony was finally granted a long-desired charter for a college in 1693, Middle Plantation was chosen as the site of the new College of William and Mary, named for the British king and queen who granted the royal charter. After another accidental state house fire at Jamestown in 1698, the capital of the Colony was permanently relocated to Middle Plantation in 1699. The new capital town was soon renamed Williamsburg, in honor of the current British king, William III.

Jamestown began a gradual loss of prominence after the capital was relocated, and eventually reverted to a few large farms. It became a significant point for control of the James River during the American Civil War (1861-1865), and then slid back into seeming oblivion until the early 20th century. Renewed interest in the historical aspects began around 1907 with the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. However, the general area of Jamestown itself was not very accessible in the day of rail travel before automobiles were common. Thus, the 1907 Jamestown Exposition was held about 30 miles downstream near the mouth of the James River at Sewell's Point on Hampton Roads, a site accessible by both long-distance passenger railroads and local streetcar service, with considerable frontage on the harbor of Hampton Roads, which proved ideal for the naval delegations which came from points all around the world. The Exposition site later formed the first portion of the large U.S. Naval Station Norfolk in 1918 during World War I.

However, 50 years later, conditions had changed and the 350th anniversary celebration was held at Jamestown itself in 1957. Although erosion had cut off the land bridge between Jamestown Island and the mainland, the isthmus was restored and new access provided by the completion of the Colonial Parkway which led to Williamsburg and Yorktown. Other major projects were developed by non-profit, state and federal agencies, as well as improvements of state highways. Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Prince Phillip attended and the 1957 event was considered a great success, and tourism became continuous.

While Jamestown has been the site of several continuing historical attractions since at least 1957, recent archaeological work and discoveries have generated a great deal of new interest. In preparation for the upcoming Jamestown 2007 event commemorating America's 400th Anniversary, new accommodations, transportation facilities and attractions were planned, and the celebration began in the Spring of 2006 with the sailing of the replica Godspeed to six major East Coast cities, where several hundred thousand people viewed it. Major corporate sponsors of Jamestown 2007 include Norfolk Southern Corporation and Anheuser-Busch.

The two major attractions at Jamestown are separate, but complementary to each other. The state-sponsored Jamestown Settlement near the entrance to Jamestown Island includes a recreated English Fort and Native American Village, as well as extensive indoor and outdoor displays featuring three popular replica ships. On Jamestown Island itself, the National Park Service operates Historic Jamestowne. Over a million artifacts have been recovered from the ongoing archaeological work, including a number of exciting recent discoveries. Several monuments and a loop road around the island are also popular attractions. The Colonial Parkway provides access directly to these, as well as State Route 31, which extends to nearby Williamsburg, as well as crossing the free Jamestown Ferry to areas south of the James River.

First landing

In December 1606, the Virginia Company of London sent an expedition to found the colony which became Jamestown. After an unusually lengthy trip sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from England, the three ships, the Susan Constant (sometimes known as the Sarah Constant), the Godspeed, and the Discovery. The Discovery was the smallest of the three. With their crews of 101 men and 4 boys and Abigail Orscheln led by Susan Constant Captain Christopher Newport made landfall at Cape Henry on May 14, 1607. The party explored the area, named the cape and set up a cross near the site of the current Cape Henry Memorial. This site came to be known as the "first landing." There weren't any women on the first ships. ^{[citation needed]}

Challenges of the location

It soon became apparent why the Native Americans did not occupy the site, and the inhospitable conditions severely challenged the settlers. Jamestown Island is a swampy area isolated from most hunting game such as deer and bears which like to forage over much larger areas. The settlers quickly killed off all the large and smaller game that was to be found on the tiny peninsula. The low, marshy area was infested with mosquitoes and other airborne pests and the brackish water of the tidal James River was not a good source of drinking water. The settlers consisted mainly of English farmers and Polish woodcutters hired in Royal Prussia. The settlers who came over on the initial three ships were not well-equipped for the life they found in Jamestown and many suffered from saltwater poisoning which led to infection, fevers and dysentery. As a result of these conditions, most of the early settlers died of disease and starvation.

Despite the area being uninhabited, the settlers were attacked, less than a fortnight after their arrival on May 14, by Paspahegh Indians who succeeded in killing one of the settlers and wounding eleven more. By June 15, the settlers finished the initial triangle fort at Jamestown and a week later Newport sailed back for London on the Susan Constant with a load of pyrite ("fools' gold") and other supposedly precious minerals.

Jamestown was named after James I. While president of the colony, Smith led a food-gathering expedition up the Chickahominy River where his men were set upon by Powhatan Indians. As his party was being slaughtered around him, Smith strapped his Indian guide in front of him as a shield and escaped with his life but was captured by Opchanacanough, the Powhatan chief's half-brother. Smith gave him a compass which pleased the warrior and made him decide to let Smith live. However, when Smith was brought before Chief Powhatan, the chief decided to execute him, a course of action which was (as related by Smith) stopped by the pleas of Powhatan's young daughter, Pocahontas, who was originally named Matoaka but whose nickname meant "Playful One." After returning to his duties in Jamestown, Smith was wounded in an accident. He was walking with his gun in the river, and the powder was in a pouch on his belt. His powder bag exploded and in the fall of 1609, he was sent back to England for medical treatment.

While back in England, Smith wrote A True Relation and The Proceedings of the English Colony of Virginia about his experiences in Jamestown. These books, whose accuracy has been questioned by some historians due to some extent by Smith's boastful prose, were to generate public interest and new investment for the colony.

Almost abandoned: the starving time

After Smith returned to England, Ratcliffe became colony president again and tried to improve the colony's situation by trading with the natives. While on a trade mission shortly after being elected, he was captured by Chief Powhatan and tortured to death by women of the Powhatan tribe leaving the colony without strong leadership. The winter of 1609-1610 at Jamestown became known as the "starving time" as the settlers faced starvation, and scheduled supply ships were delayed by weather. Over half of the settlers died during the starving time.

However, even with Smith's skills, some researchers think that Jamestown may have starved anyway. The colonists had not planned to grow their own food. Instead, they expected that trade with the locals would supply them with enough food between supply ships. But new evidence suggests that the Native Americans had very little food to start with. The cypress trees that grow around the settlement are extremely sensitive to changes in temperature and water supply, and it appears that the Jamestown colonists arrived during the worst drought the region had ever seen.

Fateful voyage of the Sea Venture

Sylvester Jordain's "A Discovery of the Barmudas".

Leaving England in 1609, the Sea Venture was the new flagship of the Virginia Company which carried the Admiral of the Company, Sir George Somers, Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Gates, William Strachey and other notable personages in the early history of English colonisation in North America. She had been separated from the seven other vessels of her fleet by a strong storm which lasted for three days. Deliberately driven onto the reefs of Bermuda to prevent her sinking, the 150 passengers and crew members were all landed safely but the ship was now permanently damaged.

The Sea Venture's longboat was fitted with a mast and sent to find Virginia but it and its crew were never seen again. The remaining brave survivors spent nine months on Bermuda building two smaller ships, the Deliverance and Patience from Bermuda cedar and materials salvaged from the Sea Venture. Leaving two men to maintain England's claim to the archipelago, the remainder sailed to Jamestown, finally arriving on May 23, 1610. They found the colony in ruins and practically abandoned. Of 500 settlers who had preceded them to Jamestown, they found only 60 survivors with many of those sick or dying. It was decided to abandon the colony and everyone was placed aboard the two ships to return to England.

Renewed interest, Lord De La Warre and more supplies

During the same period that the Sea Venture suffered its misfortune, and its survivors were struggling in Bermuda to continue on to Virginia, back in England, the publication of Captain John Smith's books of his adventures in Virginia sparked a resurgence in interest in the colony. This helped lead to the dispatch in the year 1610 of additional colonists, a doctor, supplies, and a new governor, Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr.

Lord De La Warr and his party arrived on the James River just as the Deliverance and Patience were preparing to leave Virginia. The new governor forced the remaining 90 settlers to stay, thwarting their plans to abandon the colony. Instead, the Deliverance and Patience turned back, and all the settlers were landed again at Jamestown.

Then, Sir George Somers returned to Bermuda with the Patience to obtain more food supplies, but he died on the island that summer. His nephew, Matthew Somers, Captain of the Patience, took the ship back to Lyme Regis, England instead of Virginia (leaving a third man behind). The Third Charter of the Virginia Company was then extended far enough across the Atlantic to include Bermuda in 1612. (The first two successful English colonies would retain close ties for many more generations, as can be seen when Virginian general George Washington called upon the people of Bermuda for aid during the American War of Independence in a letter).

Growth and development

By 1611, a majority of the colonists who had arrived at the Jamestown settlement had died and its economic value was negligible with no active exports to England and very little internal economic activity. Only financial incentives including a promise of more land to the west from King James I to investors financing the new colony kept the project afloat. Those incentives finally paid off by 1617, as tobacco exports were beginning to generate enough profit to ensure the economic survival of the colony. This is largely credited to colonist John Rolfe.

Pocahontas

Main article: Pocahontas

Although Pocahontas's life would be tied to the English after saving Smith's life around 1607-8, her contacts with Smith himself were minimal. However, she became something of an emissary. During the winter of 1608 following an almost complete destruction of the colony by flames, Pocahontas brought food and clothing to the colonists. She later negotiated with Smith for the release of Native Americans who had been captured by the colonists during a raid to gain English weaponry.

After Smith had departed, she was kidnapped by another leader of the Colony. During this time, Pocahontas converted to Christianity and took the name "Rebecca" in 1613 under the tutelage of Reverend Alexander Whitaker who had arrived in Jamestown in 1611 to found the first Presbyterian Church in Virginia. Pocahontas later married John Rolfe on April 24, 1614. In 1615, their only son, Thomas Rolfe was born.

An export cash crop: tobacco

In 1612, John Rolfe, whose wife had died during passage to Virginia, was just one of the settlers who had arrived in Jamestown following the shipwreck of the Sea Venture. However, his major contribution is that he was the first man to successfully raise export tobacco in the Colony (although the colonists had begun to make glass artifacts to export immediately after their arrival). The tobacco raised in Virginia prior to that time, Nicotiana rustica, was not to the liking of the Europeans but Rolfe had brought some seed for Nicotiana tabacum with him from Bermuda. Although most people "wouldn't touch" the crop, Rolfe was able to make his fortune farming it. Now a wealthy and prominent man, he married Pocahontas and lived at his Varina Farms where their son Thomas was born in 1615. By 1617, the colonists were exporting 50,000 pounds of tobacco to England a year.

An investor relations trip to England

In 1616, Rolfe and Pocahontas and their young son Thomas left their Varina Farms plantation for a public relations mission to England, where Pocahontas was received and treated as a form of visiting royalty. This stimulated more interest in investments in the Virginia Company, the desired affect. However, as the couple prepared to return to Virginia, Pocahontas died of an illness at Gravesend on March 17, 1617, where she was buried. The now wealthy Rolfe returned to Virginia, leaving their son Thomas, then a small child, in England to obtain an education.

Once back in Virginia, Rolfe married Jane Pierce and continued to improve the quality of his tobacco with the result that by the time of his death in 1622, The Colony was thriving as a producer of tobacco. Orphaned by the age of 8, young Thomas later returned to Virginia, and settled across the James River not far from his parents' farm at Varina, where he married and bore children. Many of the First Families of Virginia trace their lineage through Thomas Rolfe to both Pocahontas and John Rolfe, joining English and Native American heritage.

First non-English settlers

In 1608, roughly one year after the first English settled Jamestown a company of roughly seventy German and Polish settlers arrived aboard the English vessel Mary and Margaret. The journey took roughly three months. William Volday, a Swiss-German was among those who arrived in 1608. He was sent in the name of the Virginia Stock Company of London seeking a silver reservoir that was believed to be within the proximity of Jamestown. At the time, Jamestown was nothing more than a mere fort and conditions were harsh, causing more than half of the pilgrims to die by fall of 1609.^[1] By 1620, German settlers from Hamburg who were also procured by the Virginia Stock Company operated one of the first sawmills in the region.^[2] Among these were several other skilled craftsmen such as glass makers, carpenters as well as pitch/tar/soap-ash makers, who produced some of the colonies first exports of the early 17^th century.^[3]

1619: First single women, first blacks, and first democratic assembly

The Inside of the First Church in Jamestown, where the first law in America was made

Wheat was also grown in Virginia starting in 1618. The labor intensive tobacco plantations led to the importation of the colony's first black "indentured servants" as well as single women from England in 1619. That same year, the House of Burgesses, the first legislature of elected representatives in America, met in the Jamestown Church. Their first law was to set a minimum price for the sale of tobacco and set forth plans for the creation of the first ironworks of the colony.

Later, one of these first black indentured servants, John Casor, who had been released from his service and had grown wealthy, forced another black named Antonio to become his slave -- the first slave in what would later be the United States.

1622: Native Americans attack the colonists

Indian massacre of 1622, depicted in a woodcut by Theodore de Bry

The Indian Massacre of 1622, an uprising led by Opechancanough, led to the deaths of nearly 400 settlers, wiping out several entire communities, including Henricus and Wolstenholme Towne. However, Jamestown was spared from destruction due to the warnings of a Native American boy named Chanco who gave warning to colonist Richard Pace. Pace, after securing himself and his neighbors on the south side of the James River, took a canoe across river to warn Jamestown which narrowly escaped destruction. A year later, Captain William Tucker and Dr. John Potts worked out a truce with the Powhatan Native Americans and proposed a toast using liquor laced with poison. 200 Native Americans were killed by the poison and 50 more were slaughtered by the colonists. Also, many colonists died in wars against the other local Indians. In 1624, the Virginia Company lost its charter and Virginia became a crown colony.

Bacon's Rebellion

Governor Berkeley confronts Bacon

In 1634, the English Crown created eight shires (i.e. counties) in the colony of Virginia which had a total population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants. James City Shire was established and included Jamestown. Around 1642-43, the name of the James City Shire was changed to James City County.

In the 1670s, the governor of Virginia was Sir William Berkeley, a scholar and playwright, serving his second term in that office. Berkeley, now in his seventies, had previously been governor in the 1640s and had experimented with new export crops at his Green Spring Plantation near Jamestown. In the mid 1670s, a young cousin through marriage, Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., arrived in Virginia sent by his father in the hope that he would "mature" under the tutelage of the governor. Although lazy, Bacon was intelligent and Berkeley provided him with a land grant and a seat on the Virginia Colony council. However, the two became at odds over relationships with the Native Americans, which were most strained at the outer frontier points of the colony.

In July 1675, Doeg Indians raided the plantation of Thomas Mathews in the northern portion of the colony along what became the Potomac River in order to gain payment for several items Mathews had obtained from the tribe. Several Doegs were killed in the raid and the colonists then raided the Susquehanaugs (a different tribe) in "retaliation" which led to large-scale Indian raids. Governor Berkeley tried to calm the situation but many of the colonists, particularly the frontiersmen, refused to listen to him and Bacon disregarded a direct order and captured some Appomattox Indians, who were located many miles south of the site of the initial incident, and almost certainly not involved.

Following the establishment of the Long Assembly in 1676, war was declared on "all hostile Indians" and trade with Indian tribes became regulated, often seen by the colonists to favor those friends of Berkeley. Bacon opposed Berkeley and led a group in opposition to the governor. Bacon and his troops set themselves up at Henrico until Berkeley arrived which sent Bacon and his men fleeing upon which Berkeley declared them in rebellion and offered a pardon to any who returned to Jamestown peaceably.

Bacon led numerous raids on Indians friendly to the colonists in an attempt to bring down Berkeley. The governor offered him amnesty but the House of Burgesses refused; insisting that Bacon must acknowledge his mistakes. At about the same time, Bacon was actually elected to the House of Burgesses and attended the June 1676 assembly where he was captured, forced to apologize and was then pardoned by Berkeley.

Bacon then demanded a military commission but Berkeley refused. Bacon and his supporters surrounded the statehouse and threatened to start shooting the Burgesses if Berkeley did not acknowledge Bacon as "General of all forces against the Indians". Berkeley eventually acceded, and then left Jamestown. He attempted a coup a month later but was unsuccessful. In September, however, Berkeley was successful and Bacon dug in for a siege which resulted in his burning Jamestown to the ground on September 19, 1676. Bacon died of the flux and lice on October 26, 1676 and his body is believed to have been burned. Berkeley hanged the major leaders of the rebellion (22 in total?) and was then relieved of his governorship and returned to London where he died in July, 1677.

The capitol moves from Jamestown to high ground

The first phase of Jamestown's history ended in 1699 when a decision was made not to rebuild the statehouse after it burned down in 1698; instead, Jamestown denizens accepted a proposal by students of the nearby College of William and Mary to move the capital of Virginia to higher ground (about 12 miles (20 km) away) where W&M was located (and still stands to this day) -- an area then named Middle Plantation and soon renamed Williamsburg.

18th century

Due to the movement of the capital to Williamsburg, the old town of Jamestown began to slowly disappear from view. By the 1750s, the land was heavily cultivated, primarily by the Travis and Ambler families.

19th century

Remains of the tower of the old church

During the American Civil War, in 1861, Confederate William Allen, who owned the Jamestown Island, occupied Jamestown with troops he raised at his own expense with the intention of blockading the James River and Richmond from the Union Navy. He was soon joined by Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones who directed the building of batteries and conducted ordinance and armor tests for the first Confederate ironclad warship CSS Virginia (1861). Jamestown had a force of 1200 men which was augmented in early 1862 by an artillery battalion. When Union forces landed at Yorktown under General George B. McClellan in April 1862, the peninsula was however abandoned by the Confederates.

Once in Federal hands, Jamestown became a meeting place for runaway slaves who burned the Ambler house, an eighteenth century plantation which along with the old church were the few remaining signs of Jamestown. When Allen sent men to assess damage in late 1862, they were killed by the former slaves. For the most part, Jamestown did not have an active role in the Civil War although both sides Following the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, the oath of allegiance was administered to former Confederate soldiers at Jamestown.

20th century

Jamestown Exposition of 1907

Exposition Seal

The Jamestown Exposition of 1907 was one of the many world's fairs and expositions that were popular in the early part of the 20th century. Early in the 20th century, as the tercentennial of the 1607 Founding of the Jamestown neared, leaders in Norfolk, Virginia began a campaign to have a celebration held there. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities had started the movement in 1900 by calling for a celebration honoring the establishment of the first permanent English colony in the New World at Jamestown to be held on the 300th anniversary.

No one thought that the actual isolated and long-abandoned original site would be suitable because Jamestown Island had no facilities for large crowds and the fort housing the Jamestown Settlement was believed to have been long-ago swallowed by the James River.

The decision was made to locate the international exposition on a mile-long frontage at Sewell's Point near the mouth of Hampton Roads. The Jamestown Exposition was held there from April 26, 1907 to December 1, 1907.

Jamestown Festival Park

Jamestown Festival Park was established at Jamestown Island in 1957 to mark the 350th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown Settlement. At the National Park Service site, the reconstructed Jamestown Glasshouse, the Memorial Cross and the visitors center were completed and dedicated. Full-sized replicas of the three ships that brought the colonists, the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery were constructed at a shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia and docked at Jamestown. Other events included army and navy reviews, air force fly-overs, ship and aircraft christenings and even an outdoor drama at Cape Henry, site of the first landing of the settlers. This celebration continued from April 1 to November 30 with over a million participants, including dignitaries and politicians such as the British Ambassador and U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon. The highlight for many of the nearly 25,000 at the Festival Park on October 16 was the visit and speech of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and her consort, Prince Philip. Queen Elizabeth II loaned a copy of the Magna Carta for the exhibition.

Jamestown Rediscovery

Starting in 1994, a major archaeological campaign at Jamestown known as the Jamestown Rediscovery project has been conducted by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (now APVA Preservation Virginia) in preparation for the quadricentennial of Jamestown's founding. The original goal of the archaeological campaign was to locate archaeological remains of "the first years of settlement at Jamestown, especially of the earliest fortified town; [and the] the subsequent growth and development of the town". [1]

Early on, the project discovered early colonial artifacts. This was something of a surprise to some historians as it had been widely thought that the original site had been entirely lost due to erosion by the James River. Many others suspected that at least portions of the fort site remained and subsequent excavations have shown that only one corner of the first triangular fort (which contained the original settlement) turned out to have been destroyed.

The extended archaeological campaign has made many discoveries including retrieving hundreds of thousands of artifacts, a large fraction of them from the first few years of the settlement's history. In addition, it has uncovered much of the fort, the remains of several houses and wells, a palisade wall line attached to the fort and the graves of several of the early settlers.

Among the discoveries, a gravesite with indications of an important figure was located. Some theorizes the remains to be that of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold [2] though others have claimed it to be the remains of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr. It had long been thought that Baron De La Warr, who died en route back to the colony from England on his second trip, had been buried elsewhere but some recent research concluded that his body was in fact brought to Jamestown for burial. [3]. The studies are ongoing as of 2006.

Archaeological work at the site continues and is greatly expanding knowledge of what happened at Jamestown in its earliest days. Many of the hundreds of thousands of artifacts found by Jamestown Rediscovery archaeologists are now on display in the Archaearium at Historic Jamestowne.

21st century

Jamestown quadricentennial commemorated on the Virginia State Quarter.

Historic Jamestown

Main article: Historic Jamestown

Historic Jamestown, located at the original site of the Jamestown colony, is jointly administered by APVA Preservation Virginia and the National Park Service. The central 22 1/2 acres of land were donated to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (now APVA Preservation Virginia) in 1893 and the remaining 1500 acres were acquired by the National Park Service in 1934 and are now part of the Colonial National Historic Park. The two organizations have worked together since 1941 to preserve the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America and to interpret its history for visitors. Today visitors can view the site of the original 1607 James Fort, the 17th century church tower and the site of the 17th century town as well as tour an archaeological museum called the Archaearium and participate in living history and ranger tours. They can also often observe archaeologists from the Jamestown Rediscovery project at work.

Jamestown Settlement

Main article: Jamestown Settlement

The Jamestown Virginia USA tree at Runnymede. Enlarge for description

Although the 1957 celebration is long past, many of the attractions adjacent to the APVA-NPS site were created as part of the what was known as Jamestown Festival Park, largely sponsored by the Commonwealth.
In 1987 the Secretary of the Army of the United States of America planted an oak tree at Runnymede England commemmorating and linking the bicentenary of the Constitution with the establishment of the Jamestown settlement.

Jamestown 2007

Main article: Jamestown 2007

2007 will mark the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown. Preparations are underway for a variety of events being promoted under the banner of America's 400th Anniversary and promoted by the Jamestown 2007 Commission. America's 400th Anniversary will commemorate the quadricentennial of the founding of the Jamestown Settlement with 18 months of statewide, national and international festivities and events.

A feature length film, The New World, covers the story of Jamestown's colonization. Although historically accurate in many ways, the plot focuses on a dramatized relationship between John Smith, played by Colin Farrell, and Pocahontas. A limited release of the film took place in December 2005, with the full release in January 2006. Many scenes were filmed on-location nearby along the James and Chickahominy Rivers and at Henricus Historical Park in Henrico County, Virginia.

Trivia

• Jimsonweed is a corruption of "Jamestown weed," named for the village after some British soldiers sent to quell Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 failed in their mission after being fed leaves of the plant which grew wild in great quantity there. They were "intoxicated" for about a week and claimed afterward to have no memory of that period.

• The NPS and the Commonwealth of Virginia, respectively the principal operators of the Historic Jamestowne and Jamestown Settlement attractions at Jamestown, each also operates a separate, but nearby and complimentary attraction at Yorktown, near the opposite end of the Colonial Parkway.

Further reading

• William M. Kelso, Jamestown Rediscovery II (APVA, 1996)
• William M. Kelso, Nicholas M. Luccketti, Beverly A. Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery III (APVA, 1997)
• William M. Kelso, Nicholas M. Luccketti, Beverly A. Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery IV (APVA, 1998)
• William M. Kelso, Nicholas M. Luccketti, Beverly A. Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery V (APVA, 1999)
• William Kelso, Beverly Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery VI (APVA, 2000)
• David A. Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003)
• Ernie Gross, "The American Years" (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999)
• James Horn, "A Land as God Made It" (Perseus Books, 2005)
• Chesapeake, a novel (1978) by author James A. Michener

References

1. ^ First Germans in the colonies. Retrieved on 2006-10-10.
2. ^ German sawmill in 1620. Retrieved on 2006-10-10.
3. ^ German and Polish craftsmen in Jamestown. Retrieved on 2006-10-10.

External links

• Geographical coordinates: 37°12′33″N, 76°46′39″W
• APVA web site for the Jamestown Rediscovery project
• Historic Jamestowne
  • Where are We Digging Now?
• America's 400th Anniversary
• Jamestown 1607
• Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center
• Virtual Jamestown
• National Park Service: Jamestown National Historic Site
• New Discoveries at Jamestown by John L. Cotter and J. Paul Hudson, (1957) at Project Gutenberg
• State Tourism Website - Virginia is for Lovers
• The Assembly 2007 - Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the First Landing

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