The first permanent English colony in North America was Jamestown, Virginia
founded in 1607. It was a business venture of the Virginia Company of London, an
English firm that planned to make money by sending people to America to find gold
and other valuable natural resources and then ship the resources back to England.
Initially, the colony suffered from a lack of leadership and profitable enterprises
which resulted in starvation and near failure of the colony. In order to induce
Englishmen to come to the Virginia Colony, the company instituted a series of
changes that helped the colony grow. The company’s monopoly on land was
lessened which allowed the colonists to acquire land for themselves. English
common law was imposed and eventually a measure of self-government was
allowed. At this point, more women and families began to come to come to
Virginia.
Tobacco Cultivation Changed Virginia
There was no gold in the Jamestown colony, but John Rolf successfully crossbred
native strains of tobacco with West Indian tobacco. Tobacco quickly became a
major cash crop and an important source of wealth in Virginia. Tobacco cultivation
was labor-intensive. People known as indentured servants were sent from England
to work for the Virginia Company. Indentured servants worked for a land owner in
exchange for their passage to the New World in hopes of eventually claiming their
own land. More tobacco cultivation required more indentured servants. Tensions
began to develop over the continual need to supply land to newly freed indentured
servants. African slaves were introduced to the Virginia Colony in 1619. Eventually,
plantation owners came to rely on African slaves as a more profitable and renewable
source of labor. As a result, Virginia’s colonial economy became highly dependent
on slavery.
House of Burgesses
The Virginia Company established a legislative assembly that was similar to
England’s Parliament, called the House of Burgesses. The House of Burgesses was
the first European-style legislative body in the New World. The representatives
were both appointed by the company’s governor and elected by land-owning males
of Virginia. Laws enacted were subject to approval by the governor and the London
board of directors, but it was the first self-government in the colonies. However, all
the colonists did not own land and therefore lacked representation. i dont know if this helped i hope it did
