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In 1606, the Virginia Company of London received a charter from King James I of England to settle a colony in North America. The following year, after a good deal of hard work, the company landed 105 colonists at a settlement called Jamestown, Virginia. Life was hard for the settlers, and many people died during the first year in Virginia. Although the local Powhatan Indians helped the colonists with food and supplies, wars with the Indians quickly ensued. This early period of settlement from 1607 to 1624 has been called "The Jamestown Fiasco."
Following the initial difficulties, Virginia began to prosper when tobacco was introduced by John Rolfe. Then, after 1642, Sir William Berkeley led the colony as royal governor until 1676. At that time Nathaniel Bacon published an inflammatory document accusing the governor of abusing and betraying his fellow English settlers. Rather than defending the colonists and their frontier lands, the document alleged, Berkeley supported local Indians and allowed wealthy Virginians to build up a prosperous trade with them at the expense of poor white freedmen. Nathaniel Bacon and his supporters hoped to make war against the Indians and secure English settlements on the frontier. When Governor Berkeley refused Bacon's requests for a commission as leader of Virginia's colonial forces, however, Bacon organized the largest popular rebellion of the seventeenth century.
Although Bacon's Rebellion died out rather quickly, it signaled an important turning point in Virginia's history. Shortly after the last conspirator was put down, the wealthy elite in Virginia began to purchase African slaves rather than renting the services of white indentured servants. This shift in labor was the most important determinant in the life of the Virginia colony for the next century. |
