The Story of Jamestown (continued)
JAMESTOWN, 161116. Under Dale, from May 1611 to
1616, and under Gates who replaced him for several years, beginning in
August 1611, the emphasis was away from Jamestown, but the capital was
not actually moved.
In 1612, "Master George Percie . . . [was busy] with
the keeping of Jamestown" while much of the colony had been "moved up
river." The first settlement was then looked upon as chiefly a place of
safety for hogs and cattle. In 1614, it was made up of "two faire rowes
of howses, all of framed Timber, two stories, and an vpper Garret or
Corne loft high, besides three large, and substantiall Storehowses
ioyned togeather in length some hundred and twenty foot, and in breadth
forty . . . this town hath been lately newly, and strongly impaled, and
a faire platforme for Ordnance in the west Bulworke raised." Without the
town ". . . in the Island [were] some very pleasant, and beutifull
howses two Blockhouses . . . and certain other farme howses. " In 1616,
it was a post of 50 under the command of Lt. John Sharpe, who was acting
in the absence of Capt. Francis West. Thirty-one of these were "farmors"
and all maintained themselves with "food and rayment. "
The Gates-Dale 5-year administration (161116)
actually saw Virginia established as a going concern. The role of Dale
in all of this seems to have been a heavy one. Martial law brought order
and uniformity in operations and compelled the people to go to work.
Dale saw to it that corn was planted and harvested and that the laws
were observed. He made peace with the Indians.
So effective were Dale's measures that one of his
contemporaries, John Rolfe, wrote "whereupon a peace was concluded,
which still continues so firme, that our people yearlely plant and reape
quietly, and travell in the woods a fowling and a hunting as freely and
securely from danger or treacherie as in England. The great blessings of
God have followed this peace, and it, next under him, hath bredd our
plentie . . . ". All this was accomplished when the fortunes of the
Virginia Company were at a low point and little support was being sent
to the colony. John Rolfe then went on to predict that Dale's "worth and
name . . . will out last the standing of this plantation . . . ."
Martial law, strictly administered at first, was
gradually relaxed in application as conditions stabilized, and within a
few years Dale took the step of granting 3-acre plots to private men for
their enjoyment outside of the common store. This was a big step in the
evolution of the private ownership of land. In the beginning, ownership
was communal and company controlled. In 1609, a future division of both
land and profits was anticipated, but it was about 1619 before
individual grants were made. A part of this evolution was the headright
system of acquisition, whereby persons were rewarded for venturing to
Virginia themselves, or their capital. Dale's grants of a semiprivate
nature, about 1615, were a step in this evolution as well. The headright
system which developed at Jamestown and on the banks of the James was
later adapted in other colonies and continued in use for
generations.
Gates and Dale in their administration had the help
of other enterprising and daring early Virginians. There was Capt.
Samuel Argall whose later work as governor of the colony has sometimes
been criticized, especially his handling of the company finances. This
should not becloud his earlier helpfulness in getting Virginia
established. He pioneered in making a direct crossing of the Atlantic to
save time and to avoid the Spanish, who now were fearful that the
Virginia enterprise might succeed and were sending spies to Virginia.
(Some of these spies were captured and interned at Jamestown.) Argall
led in exploration, both in Virginia waters and northward along the
coastline. He was adept at shipbuilding and in the Indian trade. It was
evidently he who discovered the best fishing seasons and the fact that
the fish made "runs" in the bay and in the rivers. He made an open
attack on the French settlements to the north in New England and Nova
Scotia, returning to Jamestown with his captives.

Monument to Pocahontas, by William Ordway
Partridge, near the entrance to Jamestown National Historic
Site.
POCAHONTAS. While on a trading expedition on the
Potomac, Argall captured Pocahontas and brought her as a prisoner to
Jamestown in an attempt to deal with her father, Powhatan. Pocahontas
was no stranger at Jamestown. She had often visited there before, once
in the spring of 1608 to seek some of her countrymen held as hostages in
the fort.
In 1613, Pocahontas was well received at Jamestown,
where she had not been for some time; and when her father refused to pay
the price asked for her ransom, she was detained. Later, she preferred
life with the English and did not wish to return to her native village.
She was placed under the tutelage of Rev. Alexander Whitaker who
instructed her in the Christian faith. Eventually Pocahontas was
baptized. In April 1614, in the church at Jamestown, she married John
Rolfe, one of the settlers. This was a celebrated marriage that did much
to improve relations with the Indians. About 1616, the couple went to
England where Pocahontas was entertained at court. She died there as she
was about to return to Virginia, in 1617, and her body rests at
Gravesend. She had one son, Thomas Rolfe, who later came to Virginia.
Through him many today can trace their ancestry to Pocahontas.
TOBACCO. After the death of Pocahontas, John Rolfe
came back to Virginia alone to resume the work which he had begun there
as early as 1610. Perhaps he continued his work with tobacco which had
already resulted in a plant that could compete in taste and quality with
that which had given the Spanish a monopoly of the tobacco market.
In the first years of the settlement every effort had
been made to find products in the New World that would assure financial
success for the settlers and the company. Pitch, tar, timber, sassafras,
cedar, and other natural products were sent in the returning ships.
Attempts to produce glass on a paying scale proved futile, as did early
efforts to make silk, using the native mulberry trees growing in
abundance. The glass furnaces fell into disuse, and rats ate the
silkworms. The native tobacco plant, found growing wild was ". . . not
of the best kind . . . [but was] poore and weake, and of a byting tast .
. ." and held little promise.

Tobacco cultivation as practiced at Jamestown. (A
conjectural painting by Sidney E. King.)
About 161011, the seed of a different species
of the plant was imported from Trinidad, then famous for the quality of
its tobacco. Later some came from Venezuela. These were planted and a
process of selection and crossbreeding began which resulted in the
commercially valuable Virginia leaf. John Rolfe, a smoker himself, has
been credited as the pioneer English colonist in this
experimentation.
In addition to the improvement of the plant, Rolfe
was one of the first regularly to grow tobacco for export and as such
was the father of the Virginia tobacco trade and industry. The first
experimental shipment of the newly developed Virginia leaf came about
1613, and because of its pleasant taste it was well received in some
quarters. Production was slow for several years. Dale restricted its
cultivation until basic commodities, such as corn, were well advanced.
In the 161516 period only 2,300 pounds reached London from
Virginia. Capt. George Yeardley, the next to govern, gave the new crop
his whole-hearted support, with the result that in 1617 exports reached
the 20,000 pound total, and by 1619 this had been more than doubled.
Thus, a new trade and industry were born in the colony, which proved to
be the economic salvation of Virginia, and provided a means for making
slavery profitable. Tobacco and slavery together led to the development
of important characteristics of the whole social, political, and
economic structure of the Old South. One of the immediate effects of
tobacco culture in Virginia was the impetus it gave to the expansion of
the area of settlement and to the number of settlers coming to
Virginia.
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