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Jamestown Settlement

Type Object Region North America Time 1607–1699

First permanent English colonial settlement in North America, founded on the James River in Virginia in 1607 by the Virginia Company.

Timeline

  1. 1607Peninsula at the mouth of the James River · VirginiaEngland's Virginia Company sent about 104 colonists aboard three ships including the Susan Constant to the mouth of the James River, landing on May 14, 1607 to establish Jamestown, England's first permanent settlement on the North American continent.
  2. 1609–1610Jamestown · VirginiaIn the winter of 1609–1610 the colony suffered a devastating food crisis; of 500 residents, about 440 starved or died of disease, an episode known as the Starving Time. The colony survived only after reinforcements arrived in spring 1610.
  3. 1612–1619Jamestown and the Virginia colony · VirginiaJohn Rolfe introduced an improved tobacco strain in 1612, establishing an export-oriented economy. In 1619 North America's first representative assembly, the Virginia House of Burgesses, was founded here, and the first Africans were also brought to the colony that year, laying multiple foundations of American history.

Sources