The First English Colony

It was England's good fortune to be ready to enter the North America scene at the right time - when the fruitful coastal regions remained virtually unsettled.  England had gained the results of Spain's labors in the New World during intermittent wars - her treasure filled galleon ships that helped finance English explorations.

England was interested in the empires of the Americas.  In 1606, two groups of merchants requested of James I the right to risk their fortunes in founding new colonies across the ocean.  Sir Walter Raleigh had already tried and failed, but one of the new merchants, the London Company, succeeded in Virginia in 1607.

The men and women they brought over built the village of Jamestown.  For awhile, the colonists
starved with plenty of resources around them, for they could not endure the backbreaking labor of the frontier.  They were not trained to capitalize on nature's riches and too busy hunting gold to plant food.

Gradually they learned, acquiring work habits and basic frontier skills that helped them survive.  The "Starving Period" was over but the colony could not prosper until it developed a suitable export crop to England.

Next time...John Rolfe and Company
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Today in Pioneer History:  On August 13, 1860, Annie Oakley, one of the greatest female sharpshooters in American history, is born in Patterson Township, Ohio.