Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown, Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in America. The first persons landed on May 14, 1607, one year before the establishment of the City of Quebec in Canada. About 104 persons were sent by the London Company to leave in three ships, the Sarah Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. They came to Virginia to establish a trading post and to search for gold and silver. After five months at sea,the pioneers sighted land at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay on April 26, 1607. They sailed about 32 miles up the James River,and then chose a little peninsula as the site for their settlement. They named both the river and the settlement after King James the First of England.
Economics of Jamestown
Initially, from 1607-1608, the Jamestown settlement lived under socialism, whereby the group shared its food with everyone no matter how much or little he worked. This economic system was a complete failure as no one had any incentive to do any work.[Citation Needed] In September 1608, John Smith was elected president of the governing council. He ruled for a year and installed a conservative economic system: "don't work, don't eat!" Under this new system, food production increased and by 1614 there was plenty to eat.
But Jamestown settlers were there to find fortune, and there was not any gold or silver. American Indians had discovered tobacco and Europeans were beginning to become addicted on it. Many Europeans recognized that tobacco was bad for them, and some wanted to prohibit it. In 1613, Englishman John Rolfe, who married the Indian Pocahontas in Virginia, began growing tobacco to export to Europe. The King banned the growing of tobacco in England, so Rolfe had no competition. Cash began pouring in for the tobacco, and this so-called "cash crop" became highly profitable for the Jamestown settlers.
Despite profiting from the sale of tobacco, the Jamestown settlement had other difficulties. It had made peace with Indian Chief Powhatan, whose daughter Pocahontas married settler John Rolfe. But after Powhatan died, his brother led a sudden attack on the settlers in 1622, massacring 357 out of a total of only 1200.
But Indian strife was only one of many problems. Labor was in short supply for working the fields. Settlers began importing indentured servants, who received free travel to the colonies in exchange for a promise to work for seven years. But Virginia also turned to a cheaper approach to labor: importing slaves from West Africa beginning in 1619 to work the crops.
Poles in Jamestown
According to Narod Polski, the publication of PRCUA (Polish Roman Catholic Union of America), a year after the settlement of Jamestown, six Polish setters arrived. They were Zbigniew Stefanski, a glass expert, Jan Bogdan, a tar and ship building expert, Jan Mata, a soapmaker, Michael Lowicki, a nobleman and workers Stanislaus Sadowski and Karol Zrenica.
The colony was intended to be guided by the Church of England but the Poles were Roman Catholic. Each settler was required to attend Anglican services or be punished. However, because of the skills and work ethic of the Poles, they were exempt.