In December of that year, 104 settlers sailed from London with Company instructions to build a secure settlement, find gold, and seek a water route to the Pacific. On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company settlers landed on Jamestown Island to establish an English colony 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
Q. Why did the settlers choose the site at Jamestown?
Why did the colonists choose the site they did for the Jamestown colony? The Virginia Company’s instructions indicated the colonists were to locate upriver “100 miles”, on a river with a northwest orientation so the colonists could search for a Northwest Passage.
Q. What was the purpose of the Jamestown colony?
Jamestown, Virginia, was the site of the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. The settlers chose a location close to the water, hoping to establish a thriving community. The first joint-stock company to launch a lasting venture to the New World was the Virginia Company of London.
Q. Which colony is Jamestown in and why is it important?
Established on May 14, 1607, the colony gave England its first foothold in the European competition for the New World, which had been dominated by the Spanish since the voyages of Christopher Columbus in the late 15th century. Replica of Jamestown Fort buildings at Jamestown Settlement, near Williamsburg, Virginia.
Q. How did settlers in Jamestown die?
Not long after Captain Newport left, the settlers began to succumb to a variety of diseases. They were drinking water from the salty or slimy river, which was one of several things that caused the death of many. The death tolls were high. They were dying from swellings, fluxes, fevers, by famine, and sometimes by wars.
Q. Were there female indentured servants?
Most started their new lives in the colony as indentured servants, exchanging four to seven years of work for paid passage to the New World. Like their male counterparts, female indentured servants faced harsh conditions once they arrived in Virginia.
