Jamestown

Jamestown holds a foundational place in the history of Virginia Beach and the entire United States, as the 1607 journey that established America's first permanent English colony began with a landfall on the shores of present-day Virginia Beach. Four hundred years ago, 105 men and boys set sail from England aboard three ships: the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery, funded and sent by the Virginia Company with instructions to build a secure settlement, find gold, and seek a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Although the settlement of Jamestown itself lies along the James River in what is now James City County, its deep connection to the Virginia Beach region begins at Cape Henry, where the colonists first stepped ashore on April 26, 1607. Today, the story of Jamestown is preserved and interpreted through two major institutions accessible to visitors traveling from Virginia Beach: Historic Jamestowne and Jamestown Settlement.

The First Landing at Cape Henry

These 105 English men and boys first caught sight of the land they would rename Cape Henry at 4 o'clock in the morning on April 26, 1607, after about five months at sea. Captain Christopher Newport, in command of the fleet, came ashore with about 20–30 men to scout the area. Cape Henry was named in honor of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the elder of two sons of King James I of England, by an expedition of the London Company branch of the proprietary Virginia Company. After an unusually long voyage of 144 days from England, it was their first landfall, an event which has come to be called "The First Landing."

Upon touching the shore of the New World on April 26, 1607 — thirteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock — the first permanent English settlers from the London Company set up a cross on the newly named Cape Henry shore in gratitude to God and to affirm England's claim to the site. Three days later, the colonists named this corner of Virginia Cape Henry in honor of King James I's eldest son, Prince Henry, and placed a wooden cross to mark the site. Then they began to sail north, farther upriver in search of a more sheltered location to build a fort that would protect them from a surprise Spanish attack.

Fearing rival Spanish vessels, the newcomers headed up the James River to seek a more sheltered settlement site. They chose Jamestown Island, as it was easy to defend and afforded deep mooring areas for their ships. They established their permanent settlement at Jamestown two weeks later in May 1607. Today, a granite cross commemorating this first landing stands at Cape Henry Memorial in Virginia Beach. The present-day granite cross was erected in 1935 and is a national landmark.

The deep maritime legacy of this event endures throughout the region. From the very first "America's First Port" at Jamestown in 1607 through modern-day naval ports, the history of Virginia's ports is deeply intertwined with the nation's history. Jamestown and its port were the very heart of the early American maritime world, facilitating trade, navigation, and the growth of the colonies.

Founding and Early Struggles

The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River, about 2.5 miles southwest of present-day Williamsburg. It was established by the London Company as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 (Old Style), and considered permanent after a brief abandonment in 1610.

The first charter of the Virginia Company, signed by King James I on April 10, 1606, planted the first seeds of constitutional values. It was an enterprise planned by the newly established Virginia Company of London to settle Virginia with people from England, initially under the direction of Captain Christopher Newport, and eventually by experienced English soldier Captain John Smith. They called the new Virginian settlement Jamestown, in honor of the King.

Life at the new settlement proved extraordinarily difficult. Serious problems soon emerged in the small English outpost, which was located in the midst of a chiefdom of about 14,000 Algonquian-speaking Indians ruled by the powerful leader Powhatan. Relations with the Powhatan Indians were tenuous, although trading opportunities were established. An unfamiliar climate, as well as a brackish water supply and lack of food, conditions possibly aggravated by a prolonged drought, led to disease and death. Many of the original colonists were upper-class Englishmen, and the colony lacked sufficient laborers and skilled farmers.

Captain John Smith became the colony's leader in September 1608 — the fourth in a succession of council presidents — and established a "no work, no food" policy. Smith had been instrumental in trading with the Powhatan Indians for food. However, in the fall of 1609 he was injured by burning gunpowder and left for England. Smith never returned to Virginia, but promoted colonization of North America until his death in 1631 and published numerous accounts of the Virginia colony.

Despite the dispatch of more supplies, only 60 of the original 214 settlers survived the 1609–1610 Starving Time. In mid-1610, the survivors abandoned Jamestown, though they returned after meeting a resupply convoy in the James River.

Tobacco, Pocahontas, and Colonial Growth

The colony's fortunes turned with the introduction of tobacco as a commercial crop. In order to make a profit for the Virginia Company, settlers tried a number of small industries, including glassmaking, wood production, and pitch and tar and potash manufacture. However, until the introduction of tobacco as a cash crop about 1613 by colonist John Rolfe, who later married Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas, none of the colonists' efforts to establish profitable enterprises were successful.

Tobacco was colonial Virginia's most successful cash crop. The tobacco that the first English settlers encountered in Virginia — the Virginia Indians' Nicotiana rustica — tasted dark and bitter to the English palate; it was John Rolfe who in 1612 obtained Spanish seeds, or Nicotiana tabacum, from the Orinoco River valley — seeds that, when planted in the relatively rich bottomland of the James River, produced a milder, yet still dark leaf that soon became the European standard.

Rolfe married Pocahontas in 1614, a union which forged a peace between the colonists and the Native Americans of the Powhatan Confederacy. The couple had one son and traveled to England on a public relations tour to encourage further investment in Jamestown in 1616. Tobacco cultivation required large amounts of land and labor and stimulated the rapid growth of the Virginia colony. Settlers moved onto the lands occupied by the Powhatan Indians, and increased numbers of indentured servants came to Virginia.

The year 1619 brought several watershed events. The first representative government in British America began at Jamestown in 1619 with the convening of a general assembly, at the request of settlers who wanted input in the laws governing them. The first documented Africans in Virginia also arrived in 1619. They were from the kingdom of Ndongo in Angola, West Central Africa, and had been captured during war with the Portuguese.

In 1676, Jamestown was deliberately burned during Bacon's Rebellion, though it was rebuilt. In 1699, the colonial capital was moved to present-day Williamsburg, Virginia. Jamestown continued as the center of Virginia's political and social life until 1699 when the seat of government moved to Williamsburg. Although Jamestown ceased to exist as a town by the mid-1700s, its legacies are embodied in today's United States.

Historic Jamestowne and the Jamestown Rediscovery Project

Today, the original site of the settlement is preserved as Historic Jamestowne, a cooperative archaeological and interpretive destination. Preservation Virginia acquired 22.5 acres of Jamestown Island in 1893 and in 1994 began the Jamestown Rediscovery archaeological project, which is still ongoing today. The Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, under the auspices of Preservation Virginia, jointly administers Historic Jamestowne through a public/private partnership with the National Park Service.

The Jamestown Rediscovery Project began in 1994 with the hope of uncovering the site of the original James Fort, long considered lost to erosion in the James River. Excavations subsequently revealed that most of the fort, except for one of the bastions, remained on dry land. To date, archaeologists have excavated approximately 80% of the original 1607 triangular fort and 50% of the expanded 5-sided 1608 fort, yielding some 3 million artifacts from the settlement's early years.

Preservation Virginia's acreage on the western end of the island includes the James Fort site and current Jamestown Rediscovery archaeological digs, the 17th-century brick church tower and cemetery, the 1907 brick Memorial Church, the riverside Dale House Café, the Archaearium archaeology museum, and the Rediscovery Center research and collections facilities. The National Park Service maintains the main Visitor Center, education facilities, and exhibits. The NPS property includes the former townsite of "New Towne" that developed into James City; the Island Drive with its three- and five-mile loops through the forests and wetlands of Jamestown; and the NPS Glasshouse, the site of the archaeological ruins of a 17th-century glassworks.

Among the notable discoveries made since 1994, in 2013 archaeologists found evidence that the colonists had likely resorted to cannibalism during the "starving time," and in 2010 discovered the remains of the original church built inside James Fort. In 2007, Preservation Virginia and the National Park Service rebranded Jamestown Island as "Historic Jamestowne," where both organizations provide tours, programs, and events year-round.

Jamestown Settlement Museum

Jamestown Settlement is a living-history park and museum located 1.25 miles from the original location of the colony and adjacent to Jamestown Island. Initially created for the celebration of the 350th anniversary in 1957, Jamestown Settlement is operated by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, and largely sponsored by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Near the site of the original colony, Jamestown Settlement tells the story of 17th-century Virginia, from the arrival of English colonists in Jamestown in 1607 to the cultural encounters and events that planted the seeds of a new nation. The world of Jamestown, America's first permanent English colony, comes to life through film, gallery exhibits and outdoor living history. Expansive gallery exhibits and an introductory film describe the cultures of the Powhatan Indians, English and West Central Africans who converged in 17th-century Virginia, and trace Jamestown's beginnings in England and the first century of the Virginia colony.

The outdoor living-history areas allow visitors to explore the Powhatan way of life in a re-creation of Paspahegh Town, board re-creations of the three ships that brought colonists to Jamestown, and visit the re-created 1610–14 English fort, church, storehouse and armory.

As part of a large-scale $10.6 million phased renovation to the 30,000-square-foot exhibition space completed in 2019, Jamestown Settlement features a 4-D experiential theater with multi-sensory special effects that tells the story of "Bacon's Rebellion," a 1676 armed rebellion of Virginia colonists led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley.

Over 500 artifacts are currently on exhibit in the Jamestown Settlement galleries, including both rare and everyday objects, including a wooden bellows used to craft iron by the revered blacksmiths of West Central Africa, a 1612 English map by Captain John Smith that provided the most accurate picture of Virginia for half a century, and a ritual stone face bead carved by Indigenous hands centuries ago.

Jamestown Settlement and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's days. Jamestown Settlement is located on State Route 31 near the Colonial Parkway in James City County, just southwest of Williamsburg and adjacent to Historic Jamestowne.