Another significant development of 1619 was the sending by the company
of maidens to Virginia to be wives of the settlers. Although many women
were already established with their families in the Jamestown colony,
the company recognized that homes and children for all the men would be
conducive to established family life and permanent residence. Under this
new project, the first maidens arrived in May and June 1620. Others
followed, as ships brought more and more young women seeking their
fortunes in Virginia.
The third momentous event in 1619 was the arrival of Negroes in a Dutch
warship. They remained in Virginia, some finding homes, and some as
indentured servants even as some white men were at that time.
Nevertheless, this first arrival of Negroes was to lead to the
introduction of slavery into the colony. It was more than a generation
before the institution of slavery began to be entrenched as the backbone
of the economic life in Virginia, yet this event of 1619 was the first
move in that direction.
[Illustration: _A typical view of the landscape on Jamestown Island.
The high ground is principally along low ridges, sometimes called
“fingers,” divided by marshes or very low ground._]
Under Dale, the emphasis on colonization was away from Jamestown, yet
later governors found the original seat desirable. Capt. Samuel Argall,
who succeeded Yeardley as deputy governor in 1617, wrote that he
advanced physical improvements prior to his hasty withdrawal from
Virginia in the spring of 1619 to avoid arrest under charges of
mismanagement of company affairs. Argall had been the first to prescribe
limits for Jamestown. Yeardley followed him as governor, and for the
next few years Jamestown, at this time most often called “James City,”
witnessed considerable growth and activity. The town, long before, had
expanded outside of the fort and spread along the shore on the extreme
west end of the island. The borough or incorporation, of which it was
the center, extended west to the Chickahominy River and downriver beyond
Hog Island. Its territory was along the north side of the river and
included the south side as well—the area that later became Surry County.
West toward the Chickahominy the area adjacent to Jamestown Island
became rather heavily developed and was referred to as the “Suburbs of
James City.”
The period from 1619 to 1624 was one of considerable activity for
Virginia in general and Jamestown in particular. The reorganized
Virginia Company, following its political changes, renewed its efforts
to expand the colony and to stimulate profitable employment. Heavy
emphasis was placed on new industries, particularly iron and glass, the
latter evidently attempted a second time on Glasshouse Point. The
planting of mulberry trees and the growing of silkworms were advanced by
the dispatch of treatises on silk culture and silkworm eggs in a project
in which King James I himself had a personal interest. Immigration to
the colony was increased, and measures were taken to meet the religious
and educational needs of the settlers. This was the period that saw the
attempt to establish a college at Henrico.
The industrial and manufacturing efforts of these years, however, were
not destined to succeed. This condition was not due to any laxity on the
part of George Sandys, resident treasurer in Virginia, who was something
of an economic on-the-spot supervisor for the company. Virginia could
not yet support these projects profitably, and interest was lacking on
the part of the planters who found in tobacco a source of wealth
superior to anything else that had been tried. Tobacco was profitable,
and it was grown, at times, even in the streets of Jamestown. It was the
profit from tobacco that supported the improved living conditions that
came throughout the colony.
These Englishmen who came to settle in the wilderness retained their
desire for the advantages of life in England. Books, for example, were
highly valued, and with the passage of the years were no uncommon
commodity in Virginia. As early as 1608, Rev. Robert Hunt had a library
at Jamestown, which was consumed by fire in January of that year. Each
new group of colonists seemingly added to the store on hand—Bibles,
Books of Common Prayer, other religious works, medical and scientific
treatises, legal publications, accounts of gardening, and such. In 1621,
the company wrote to the colonial officials regarding works for a new
minister being sent to the colony that: “As for bookes we doubt not but
you wilbe able to supplie him out of the lybraries of so many that have
died.” By this date there was local literary effort, too, such as that
by Treasurer George Sandys who continued his celebrated translation of
Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_ in the house of William Pierce at Jamestown.
Then, too, in March 1623, a gentleman of the colony sent from “_Iames_
his Towne” the ballad “Good Newes from Virginia” in which, among other
things, he describes the arrival of the governor’s wife at Jamestown and
uses this to prod others to support the colony and to settle in
Virginia.
_But last of all that Lady faire,
that woman worth renoune:
That left her Country and her friends,
to grace braue_ Iames _his towne_.
_The wife unto our Gouernour,
did safely here ariue:
With many gallants following her,
whom God preserue aliue.
What man would stay when Ladies gay,
both liues and fortunes leaues:
To taste what we haue truely sowne,
truth never man deceaues._
(From _The William and Mary Quarterly_, 3rd Ser., V, 357-8)
“NEW TOWNE.”
It is in the 1619 to 1624 period that the first clear picture of
Jamestown emerges, for this period corresponds with the earliest known
property records that exist. The town had outgrown the original fort in
some years past and now appeared as a fairly flourishing settlement. The
records reveal that many of the property owners were yeomen, merchants,
carpenters, hog-raisers, farmers, joiners, shopkeepers, and ordinary
“fellows,” as well as governors and colonial officials. The “New Towne”
section of James City developed in this period as the old section proved
too small and the residents began to build more substantial houses,
principally frame on brick foundations. The Indian massacre of 1622,
that wrought such heavy devastation in the colony, did not reach
Jamestown which was warned through the efforts of the Indian, Chanco. It
did temporarily cause congestion in the Jamestown area, however, as the
survivors from the more distant settlements fell back for safety and to
regroup. The punitive Indian campaigns that followed were directed from
Jamestown by the governor, who resided there.
The population figures taken in these years give a good idea of the size
of Jamestown in this period. In February 1624, it is recorded that 183
persons were living in Jamestown and 35 others on the island outside of
the town. These are listed by name, as are the 87 who died between April
1623 and the following February. The death toll suggests that the
mortality rate was continuing high and that it was still difficult for
newcomers to adapt themselves to the Virginia environment. In the
“census” of January 1625, a total of 124 residents are listed for “James
Citty” and an additional 51 for the island. In the over-all total of
173, 122 were males and 53, females. At that time, Governor Sir Francis
Wyatt and former Governor Yeardley had two of the largest musters for
the town, which included women, children, indentured servants, and
Negroes. Nine Negroes were listed for Jamestown and the island,
evidently some of those brought there in 1619.
Aside from the population statistics, the musters of January 1625 give
much more information. Jamestown had a church, a court-of-guard
(guardhouse), 3 stores, a merchant’s store, and 33 houses. Ten of the
colony’s 40 boats were here, including a skiff, a “shallop” of 4 tons,
and a “barque” of 40 tons. There were stores of fish (24,880 pounds to
be exact), corn, peas, and meal. There were four pieces of ordnance,
supplies of powder, shot and lead, and, for individual use, “fixt
peeces,” snaphances, pistols, swords (to the number of 70), coats of
mail, quilted coats, and suits of armor (35 of them complete). The bulk
of the colony’s livestock seems to have been localized in the Jamestown
area—about half (183) of the cattle, a little more than half (265) of
the hogs, and well over half (126) of the goats. The one horse listed
for the colony was at Jamestown.
The “census” clearly indicates that the population of Jamestown was not
keeping pace with that of the colony. The needs of tobacco culture—open
fields and new soil—and the abundance of navigable waters in the rivers,
bays, and creeks of tidewater Virginia led to a scattered population,
based on the plantation system. These factors prevented the rise of
trade centers and large towns for almost a century, despite the best
efforts of both home and colonial officials. The idea was to make
Jamestown the center of social, political, and economic life and to
develop it into a city of some proportions. In size, it never attained
that of a city and it failed to dominate trade and commerce. It was,
however, the hub of political and social life for as long as it was the
capital of Virginia—92 years. Hence, its story is vital to an
understanding of American beginnings. Its citizens, in their daily life
and work, developed the origins of many of our institutions, styles, and
customs in speech, in architecture, in dress, and in government
organization.