Gayle Olson, age 12, of Pittsfield, Mass., for her question:
WHERE WAS THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA?
Jamestown, Va., was the first permanent English settlement in America. On April 26, 1607, three ships stopped at Cape Henry, at the southern entrance to Chesapeake Bay, after more than four months at sea.
The colonists consisted of about 100 men. They had been sent out by a group of London merchants known as the London Company. These men came to America to search for treasure, to spread the Christian faith among the Indians and to raise farm products that England could not grow at home.
Only a few of the 100 men were able or willing to do manual labor.
The three ships sailed up the James River from Cape Henry for about 60 miles. The colonists landed on a little peninsula on the river and established their settlement there. They named both the river and their settlement in honor of King James I of England.
The site of the colony turned out to be a bad choice. The ground was swampy and the drinking water was impure. An unwholesome diet weakened the men and about two thirds of them died of malnutrition, malaria, pneumonia and dysentery.
Captain John Smith took control from mid 1608. He forced the settlers to work and bought corn from the Indians.
Tribes of Indians in the area were united under the mighty chief Powhatan. His daughter, the Indian princess Pocahontas, was reported to have saved the life of John Smith. In 1614, Pocahontas married John Rolfe, one of the colonists. This marriage brought about eight years of peace between the settlers and the Indians.
The first farm products to be raised successfully were hogs and Indian corn.
In 1619, the first representative legislative assembly in the Western Hemisphere met in Jamestown. By this time, the population was about 1,000.
Another important event of 1619 was the arrival from Africa of a Dutch ship at Jamestown with 20 Negroes. These blacks and the many who followed helped make the colony prosperous.
Ill luck overtook Jamestown in the late 1600s. The town was burned to the ground in 1676 during Bacon's Rebellion, a revolt against the royal governor led by planter Nathaniel Bacon. Fire again destroyed the settlement in 1698.
These disasters caused the people of Virginia to transfer their capital to Williamsburg in 1699. The town of Jamestown itself fell into decay after that time.
The site of the Jamestown settlement no longer stands on a peninsula. It now lies on an island, having been cut off from the mainland by water. Much of the original land has been washed away by tidal currents.
For many years, only a few foundation stones and the ruined tower of a brick church stood as reminders of the settlement. But archeologists have now discovered many relics of the original town. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities controls the land around the ruined church. The National Park Service owns the rest of the area. It operates this area as part of the Colonial National Historical Park.