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Essay on Where America Began
| Date: |
04-14-04 9:14am |
| Subject: |
History |
| Word Count: |
479 |
| Page Count: |
1.92 |
Where America Began
On May 6, 1607 three ships, Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery , sailed in search
of treasures, among other things. On April 26, 1607 they found “ The New Land ,” where
they decided to settle in, the settlers named this new land “Jamestown” in honor of their
king, King James the I of England. Jamestown was the first English settlement in America.
The site of Jamestown in which the settlers decided to built their colony was a
inadequate choice. The area was swampy, saturated with mosquitoes, and the drinking
water was impure, Jamestown was a unhealthy and dangerous place to live in.
The colony suffered one disaster after another, men where dying do to starvation,
disease and fruitless grounds, during the winter of 1609, also known as “ The Starving
Time .” the colony used force against the Indians to obtain food and water, they so
desperately needed, this caused the Indians to retaliate.
Starvation, disease and Indian attacks was too much for the Jamestown settlers to
handle, and therefore they decided to abandon the colony and head back to England. On
their voyage back to England they came across some ships heading toward Jamestown,
these ships had plenty of supplies and merchandise, causing the Jamestown survivors to
head back to Jamestown. The new ships where under the leadership of John Smith and
Lord De La War.
During the early 1600’s more then thirty Indian tribes in the area united to form a
confederacy under the mighty chief Powhattan, father of the Indian Princess Pocahontas,
who was reported to have saved the life of John Smith. Pocahontas later than married one
of the Jamestown’s colonist, this marriage brought about 8 years of peace between the
settlers and the Indians.
In 1612, a new type of tobacco leaf was introduce to the colony, by 1617 tobacco
was being exported and it became the progress to wealth for many people in the colony,
with time, over manufacturing of this tobacco weed damaged the soil.
In 1619 several important events occurred, among a few the first representative
legislative assembly took place, and the arrival of a Dutch ship with Negroes from Africa
occurred. These Negroes, and the many who followed them helped make the colony
prosperous.
Jamestown was burn to the ground in 1676 due to the Bacon’s Rebellion, causing
Virginia to transferred their capital to Williamsburg by1699. Currently most of the original
land of Jamestown has been washed away by the tidal currents, but in 1957 during the
celebration of the 350th anniversary on the founding of Jamestown, a historical park was
opened about half a mile from the original site of Jamestown, this park not only has
created a replica to the scenery of the original Jamestown, by restoring over one hundred
original building but by also having people in costumes representing the first settlers and
acting out what the life of these first settlers was like. Replicas of the ships that brought
the first settles have been turned into delightful museums. Over thousands of tourists visit
Jamestown Festival Park every year.
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