An English Colony

An English Colony Jamestown Third Grade Social Studies Rita Rogers George Percy • He was a passenger on a small ship that sailed from England to North America in 1607. • George Percy wrote these words about North America: “There are fair meadows and goodly tall trees……beautiful strawberries and excellent good timber.” Natural Resources • Tall pines trees were • They fished in the used for building James River and the houses and making Chesapeake Bay. bows and arrows. They also carved out • A bay is a body of trees and used them as water partly canoes. surrounded by land. Coastal Plain • The area around Jamestown is a coastal plain. • A coastal plain is flat land along the coast. • It is good for farming. Corn, beans, and squash were grown on the plain Virginia The English at Jamestown • England sent John Smith to start a colony at Jamestown. • A colony is a place ruled by another country. • A colonist is someone who lives in a colony. Difficult Times • Even with the help of the Powhatan Indians the colonists struggled. • The winter of 1609 was called a “starving time.”There was little food. Colonists were dying from diseases. The Colony Survives • In 1612, a colonist named John Rolfe began growing a new kind of tobacco and sending it back to England. The tobacco was sold for a lot of money. • Rolfe married Pocahontas, an Indian, in 1614. Their marriage led to a long time of peace between the Indians and the English. Why It Matters • After years of struggle, the little community of Jamestown grew larger. It was joined by other colonies. • Later, these colonies-13 in all-came together as a new country, the United States of America.