Learning Objective One:
Discuss the background of when, how and why Jamestown was founded as well as its first few years.
Discuss the background of when, how and why Jamestown was founded as well as its first few years.



The independence of the House of Burgesses was limited in that any laws enacted were subjected to the acquiescence of the Virginia Company in London . The body developed because of the growth of the colony and the ever changing economic and social conditions required the colonists have more political control over their environment.

At the same time, it was an invaluable legacy from England . The concept of the limited power of the monarch was widely accepted in England starting with the Magna Cartain 1215. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, this idea of basic rights and limited government had evolvedfrom the English mind and experience and was transmitted to the English colonies in the form of this enlightened and far-reaching governmental system in Virginia . This process was called the "Germ Theory"
Another event, but this one was of social significance, saw the Virginia Company
in 1619 send 90 young women of marriageable age to the colony. The Virginia
planters were to pay 120 pounds of tobacco for the passage of each woman' The purpose was to give stability to the colony by creating a pro European
life-style as 90 families were automatically created with the importation of
the women. At the same time 100 London slum children were dispatched to Virginia
where they became apprentices. This practice continued from time to time
as reflected by the events of 1627 when 1500 kidnapped children were sent
over to Virginia to provide needed labor and settlers for the colony.
The background on the economic development of Virginia.
The chief objective of the settlement of Virginia which she did not accomplish,
was to find gold. Virginia's charter of 1606 specified that one-fifth of the gold i
and silver found belonged to the King. As mentioned, gold fever so seduced the
minds of most early settlers that Jamestown nearly died for lack of food.
Also one of the main reasons for the founding of Virginia, as well as the Carolina's
and later Georgia, was to produce a variety of specialized products. It was thought
in England that silk, figs, olives, lemons, oranges, and other highly desired
commodities could be successfully grown. England also desired Virginia to
produce glass and other raw materials such as tar, pitch and timber. However,
none of the above mentioned products proved to be very profitable during
Virginia's early Years.
Virginia's economic future was assured in 1612 when John Rolfe successfully
planted the first West Indies tobacco seeds in American soil. The tobacco culture
set the pattern for life in Virginia from that time until after the Civil War. Virginia
remained the leading producer of tobacco in the United States until the War, when
she was replaced
Learning Objective Two Show how the interrelationship between a successful cash crop, cheap land, and cheap labor led to the plantation system and to the gradual acceptance of slavery.
After a servant completed their years of labor in exchange for their transportation to the New World, they became free.
The medieval serfdom that had tied English peasants to the land or a master had long since died out.
Learning Objective ThreeDiscuss the plantation system and the development of “white identity”. Also discuss how imperialism and capitalism created the need for the economic and moral acceptance of slavery

As mentioned above, the catastrophic fall in the price of tobacco ruined the small farmers, permitting profits only to men who had the capital to purchase cheap and self-propagating labor.

White Identity
- Economic Necessity to support the plantation system
- Cultural Nationalism
- increase number of Africans
- the development of democracy
- class conflict (Bacon’s Rebellion)
- Abolitionism
- Slave Revolts
- English Cultural Nationalism deemed Africans as “foreign”
- African culture was non western
- Dramatic increase of population of Africans in the Americas
- Emergence of Racism (race consciousness)
- English Cultural Nationalism deemed Africans as “foreign”