A series of supply ships brought by De La Ware and other Englishmen meant that the colonists had enough food too. Although no gold would ever be discovered in Virginia, the colony was becoming lucrative on its own.
In 1613, Pocahontas was captured and taken to Jamestown as a hostage in response to an Englishman being held by her tribe. Pocahontas and John Smith had met years earlier and Smith reports that she helped save his life. As a captive, Pocahontas was introduced to John Rolfe and the two were married. Pocahontas converted to Christianity and changed her name to Rebecca.
The conditions under which they were married have been romanticized as a chapter of American history but undoubtedly the wedding changed the political alliances between the English settlers and the indigenous peoples living in Virginia. The wedding signified the balance of power between the settlers and the natives, showing that the English colonists intended to take what they wanted from the New World.
The marriage of tobacco entrepreneur to Pocahontas, who was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, solidified the settlement's success. Powhatan reportedly approved of the alliance. Rolfe and Pocahontas relocated to England, and she died there in 1617. However, several English women had arrived in Jamestown years before. Jamestown gradually transformed from a temporary settlement organized around the business needs of the Virginia Company into a permanent English colony. Between 1618 and 1623 the colony's population surged from 400 to 4500.
In need of a charter for local governance, Jamestown created a General Assembly for the Virginia Company on July 30, 1619. That same year, Jamestown colonists purchased twenty African slaves from Dutch slave traders. The exchange marked the beginning of the brutal and bloody slave trade that would populate the plantations of Virginia. By...
However, relations between the English settlers and the indigenous Algonquins remained strained. In 1622, Algonquin warriors launched one of their most successful offensives on the Jamestown settlement, killing more than 300 settlers. The attack was led by Opechancanough. A few years later a trading expedition was thwarted by marauding Indians. To retaliate, Captain William Tucker and Dr. John Potts poisoned two hundred Powhattans by pretending to propose a peace toast.
In the wake of these conflicts and further incidences of disease, King James decided to revoke the Virgina Company Charter and turn Jamestown into a Crown Colony in 1624. The Jamestown colony also shifted slightly east of the original fort and became the capital of Virginia.
In 1639, the Crown once again allowed the colony to call a General Assembly and be semi-self-governed. However, the conflicts with natives did not subside. In 1644 a large massacre left 400 English dead. In 1644 Opechancanough was captured and then killed. Conflicts also ensued between the Jamestown settlers and the Puritans who settled north of the Chesapeake Bay area. Sir William Berkeley became governor and Jamestown in 1642 and proceeded to persecute Puritan settlers.
A fire burned the Jamestown statehouse at the end of the 17th century, causing the capital of Virginia and the first English settlement in the New World to perish. Williamsburg became the new capital of Virginia. However, it was Jamestown that strengthened the English presence in the New World, established the tobacco trade, and set the tone for the future of America.
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