University of Batna 2 Mostefa Ben Boulaid

Faculty of Letters and Foreign Languages

Department of English Language and Literature

CCL/ First Year LMD / Groups : 4 and 5 / Teacher: Mrs. Khelkhal

Early Settlement in North America

Explorers from Europe

The first Europeans to reach North America were Icelandic Vikings, led by Leif Ericson,
about the year 1000. Traces of their visit have been found in the Canadian province of
Newfoundland, but the Vikings failed to establish a permanent settlement and soon lost
contact with the new continent.

Five centuries later, the demand for Asian spices and textiles spurred1 European
navigators to dream of shorter routes between East and West. Acting on behalf of the
Spanish crown, in 1492 the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus sailed west from
Europe and landed on one of the Bahama Islands in the Caribbean Sea. Within 40 years,
Spanish adventurers had carved out a huge empire in Central and South America. The
growing wealth of Spain made other European nations envious. They became eager to
share the riches of the New World. Soon England and France sent exploeres to the new
world.

Claiming that you owned land in the New World was one thing. Actually making it yours
was something quite different. Europeans could only do this by establishing settlements
of their own people. By the seventeenth century, plenty of people in Europe were ready to
settle in America. Some hoped to become rich by doing so. Others hoped to find safety
from religious or political persecution. In the hundred years after 1600. Europeans set up
many colonies in North America for reasons like these.

Jamestown Settlement

Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America. It was founded
in 1607 and served as the capital of the Virginia colony for over 80 years. In 1606, King
James I of England gave the Virginia Company of London the charter to establish a new

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to encourage an activity or development, or to cause something to develop faster

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colony in North America. They financed an expedition of 144 men to travel to America.
The settlers, four months after leaving England, landed at Cape Henry in Virginia on April
26, 1607.

The first task was to select a site to build a fort. The settlers explored the coast and picked
an island spot that could be easily defended if they were attacked by the local natives.
They named the new settlement Jamestown after King James I. Unfortunately, the site
they chose was not ideal. In the summer, the site turned into a swamp 2 filled with
mosquitoes and poisonous water. In the winter, it was unprotected from the harsh winter
storms and became bitterly cold.

The first settlers of Jamestown were all men. Most of them were gentlemen looking for
gold. They hoped to get rich quickly and then return to England. Few of the men were
used to the hard rigors3 and work that it took to survive in the New World. They didn't
know how to fish, hunt, or farm. Their lack of basic survival skills would make the first
few years very difficult.

The early years of the settlement were hard ones. This was partly the fault of the settlers
themselves. The cite they chose was low-lying and malarial. Besides, they failed to grow
enough food to feed themselves. They were too busy looking for gold. The first year was a
disaster. More than half of the original settlers died during the first winter. Most of them
died from diseases, germs from the water, and starvation. A few were also killed in
disputes with the local Native American peoples called the Powhatan. The settlers that did
survive only survived with the help of the Powhatan and a resupply ship that arrived in
January.

The local Native Americans were part of a large confederacy of tribes called the Powhatan.
At first the settlers did not get along with the Powhatan. Some settlers were killed or
kidnapped by the Powhatan when venturing outside the fort. It wasn't until Captain John
Smith took over the leadership of the colony that the relationship improved. When Smith
attempted to visit the Powhatan Chief, he was taken captive. Smith was saved when the
chief's daughter, Pocahontas, intervened and saved his life. After this event, the
relationship between the two groups improved and the settlers were able to trade with the
Powhatan for much needed goods.

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an area of very wet, soft land
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the fact that people are made to follow rules in a very severe way

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It was in the summer of 1608 that Captain John Smith became the president of the
colony. Unlike the other leaders, Smith was not a "gentleman", but an experienced
seaman and soldier. Smith's leadership gave the colony a chance to survive. A lot of the
settlers didn't like Smith. He forced everyone to work and made a new rule that said "if
you don't work, you don't eat." However, the rule was necessary because too many of the
settlers were sitting around expecting others to build houses, grow crops, and hunt for
food. Smith also told the Virginia Company to only send skilled laborers such as
carpenters, farmers, and blacksmiths to the settlement in the future. Unfortunately,
Smith was injured in October of 1609 and had to sail back to England to recover.

The winter after John Smith left (1609-1610) turned out to be the worst year in the
history of the settlement. It is often called the "starving time" because only 60 of the 500
settlers living in Jamestown survived the winter. After the harsh winter, the few settlers
left were determined to abandon the colony. However, when fresh supplies and colonists
arrived from England in the spring, they decided to stay and make the colony work. The
Virginia Company gathered homeless children from the streets of London and sent them
to the new colony. They also sent a hundred convicts from london's prisons.

Many settlers travelled to the new world willingly because life back in England was so
hard. Incomes were low, but prices of food and clothing climbed higher every year. Many
people were without work. And if the crops failed, they startved. Some English people
thought that the possibility of hardships in Virginia was worth risking to escape the hard
life in England. At least in Virginia, a poor man could own land of his own, unlike in
England, and could feed his family.

For the next few years, the colony failed to be much of a success. Things began to turn
around, however, when John Rolfe introduced tobacco. Tobacco became a cash crop for
Virginia and helped the colony to grow rapidly over the next several years. Soon most of
the Virginia settlers were busy growing tobacco. The possibility of becoming rich by
growing tobacco brought wealthy men to Virginia. They obtained large stretches of land
and brought workers from England to work on them.

Most of the workers were « indentured servants » from England. They promised to work for
an employer for a number of years in exchange of food and clothes. At the end, they
become free to work for themselves and may even have a piece of land. In 1619, black
Africans were captured and brought to work in the tobacco plantations. They were treated
as slaves.