Virginia's 400th Anniversary

Résumé du document

The theme of our study being "Virginias 400th Anniversary", we decided to study the birth of Virginia and more precisely Jamestown settlement and Williamsburg, where we spent one day of our trip. Four hundred years ago, on May 14th, 1607, men and boys crossed the Atlantic Ocean on three ships. They established, on the southern fringe of Chesapeake Bay, what became the first permanent English settlement in the New World: Jamestown. Here, three cultures (European, North American and African) came together and defined the character of an important nation: the United States of America. In setting up camp on the marshy Jamestown peninsula, the colonists were taking the first steps toward creating the American landscape we know today: the government, language, customs, beliefs and aspirations of these early Virginians are all part of the United States' Heritage today: The mission of Jamestown's site is to preserve, protect and promote this original first permanent English settlement in North America and to tell the story of the role of the cultures that came together to lay the foundation for a uniquely American form of democratic government, language, free enterprise and society. Now this site is jointly administered by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and the National Park Service. You can have an interactive visit of it, with the reproduction of the planting of settlers, Indians, and you can visit the living-history museum, which is very interesting.

Extraits

[...] IV - Jamestown settlement In May English men began a settlement on the banks of a river, the in honor of James king of England, the country from which they had set sail five long months before. Just over a hundred men went ashore. On the swampy banks they began cutting down bushes and trees and building rough shelters for themselves. By the end of the year, two out of every three of them were dead. But their little group of huts became the first lasting English settlement in America. They named it Jamestown. [...]

[...] While disease, famine and continuing attacks of Algonquians took a tremendous toll on the population, there were times when the Powhatan Indian trade revived the colony with food for copper and iron implements. III - The indian population When the English arrived in 1607, more than 15,000 Indians lived around Chesapeake Bay, most ruled by Chief Powhatan. Within 60 years, English settlers had pushed the Indians off the most fertile waterfront land. Only 2,000 Indians remained. Many things were changed, transforming and shaping the wilderness of origin into the American landscape. [...]

[...] Virginia's 400th Anniversary The theme of our study being “Virginia's 400th Anniversary”, we decided to study the birth of Virginia and more precisely Jamestown settlement and Williamsburg, where we spent one day of our trip. I Introduction Four hundred years ago, on May 14th men and boys crossed the Atlantic Ocean on three ships. They established, on the southern fringe of Chesapeake Bay, what became the first permanent English settlement in the New World: Jamestown. Here, three cultures (European, North American and African) came together and defined the character of an important nation: the United States of America. [...]

[...] These investors had formed the Virginia Company. The Company‘s directors hoped that the settlers would find pearls, silver or some other valuable product in Virginia. Then, lots of colonists began to die, in ones, in twos, finally in dozens. They died in Amerindian attacks, of diseases, or of starvation. By April 1608, only fifty-three were still alive, out of a total of 197 Englishmen who had landed in Virginia. men were destroyed by cruel diseases” wrote a colonist who survived, “swellings, fluxes, burning fevers by wars. [...]

[...] Villages in the same area would be part of the same tribe, united under tribal chiefs. Each tribe had its own leader and also priests and healers and others with power. Like other Native Americans, the Powhatan worshipped a variety of gods. Priests who foretold the future and helped to cure illnesses would also be part of individual villages. The Powhatan Indians, as they were called by the English, celebrated with dancing and feasts. They had songs and dances for a variety of occasions- grief, war, and feasting. [...]