Jamestown, VA

400 Years of Settlement

Jamestown, VA

Jamestown is a name that conjures up images of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. It is indelibly etched into our historic consciousness and because of that, sorting out fact and fiction can become difficult. The truth is – this was the first SUCCESSFUL English colony in the New World, established on May 13, 1607. It was occupied for 91 years and then abandoned. That abandonment makes it one of America’s oldest ghost towns!

It is located on an island along the north bank of the James River, 10.8 miles southwest of Williamsburg, midway between Richmond and Virginia Beach in the southeastern part of the state.

It was on May 13, 1607, when three small English ships loaded with 104 men and boys, and all their provisions, landed on the shore of the James River after a five month voyage. Within five days a colony had been established, and from that flimsy start Jamestown developed as England's second oldest colony in the New World (Fort Raleigh/Roanoke, NC. was the first in 1587.) The settlers built a palisaded, triangular-shaped fort to help protect them against the predations of the local Algonquians who distrusted the strange newcomers. Crops were planted, and despite near starvation and the fact few of the settlers were suited for this kind of labor, the colony survived.

By September, 1609, nearly 500 settlers were at the colony. Captain John Smith returned to England ostensibly to bring more provisions and settlers. He never returned, but the ships that did next May found only 60 people remaining. The colonial settlers wanted to abandon the site and move on, but were dissuaded, and they all remained. Jamestown was saved. In 1614, one of the settlers, John Rolfe, married Pocahontas, a daughter of Algonquian chief Powhatan. As a result, there were a number of years of peace and prosperity. Plantations and farms expanded well beyond the confines of Jamestown proper, and the colony moved east of the original fort.

In 1619, a Dutch slave-trader ship arrived and traded a number of African slaves for food and provisions. These Africans became indentured servants. As a side note, true slavery was not introduced until around 1680.

Around 1622, the Algonquians grew tired of these settlers, and rose against them, wiping out some of the outlying farms and plantations, and killing some 300 folks in the process. Even so, this did not stop the flood of English colonists and new colonies growing up, and Virginia became one of England’s Crown Colonies.

About ten miles away, Williamsburg developed on higher ground. Jamestown remained England's Colonial capital until 1698 when a fire wiped out a major storehouse. Williamsburg grabbed the title of colonial capital, and the filthy, swampy site of Jamestown was pretty much abandoned, leaving it to those that wanted to remain.

Few did, and the site quickly fell into ruin.

By the mid 1700s, the site was part of farmland, and had nearly been forgotten.

In 1893, the site, including the crumbing remains of the church were deeded to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and they held the site until 1934 when it was acquired by the United States National Park Service. That year the site became a part of Colonial National Historic Park. The foundations and tumbled down walls of a number of buildings have been excavated. A private tourist attraction replica of the original Jamestown (Jamestown Settlement) is next door.

Jamestown and the replica settlement both escaped serious damage in the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that was centered in Virginia on August 23, 2011.

This is one of the towns featured in my newest book, GHOST TOWNS: Yesterday & Today^TM^.

This was our Ghost Town of the Month for May 2007

LOCATION:

· Latitude: 37.2088889 / 37° 12’ 32” N

· Longitude: -76.7788889 / 76° 46’ 44” W