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2007 Jamestown 400th Anniversary
Commemorative Coin Program (Photo)
Commemorative Coin Programs - The United States Mint
Commenorative .41 US Stamp
Settlement of Jamestown
This souvenir sheet commemorates the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, VA, by English colonists in 1607. Under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery left docks near London Dec. 20, 1606, and arrived in Virginia, April 26, 1607.
Captain Newport’s expedition, which included Captain John Smith, was charged with establishing a colony in the New World. England had failed in previous attempts to build lasting settlements in the Americas, most notably on Roanoke Island, now part of North Carolina. Nevertheless, expectations were high that this new effort would succeed.
On May 13, 1607, expedition leaders selected a settlement site more than 30 miles up the James River from the Chesapeake Bay. The location, a marshy peninsula that became an island at high tide, offered good moorings. Connected to the mainland by only a narrow strip of land, the site seemed easily defensible. It was also far enough upriver, the men hoped, to be beyond notice of Spanish warships patrolling the Atlantic coast.
On May 14, all of the men went ashore, cleared a patch of ground, and set up tents behind a simple brushwood fence. Later, they built a more substantial structure: “The fifteenth day of June,” wrote colonist George Percy, “we had built and finished our Fort which was triangle wise, having three Bulwarkes at every corner like a half Moon, and four or five pieces of artillerie mounted in them.” They also planted their first grain crop and began replacing their tents with small houses.
In the early days of the settlement, the weather was fair, the countryside lovely and the hunting excellent. But as the seasons changed and relations with the Powhatan Indians worsened, conditions deteriorated. Disease, famine, polluted river water and skirmishes with the Indians took a terrible toll. More than a hundred men and boys had come ashore in May 1607, but by January 1608, fewer than 40 were left to meet “the first supply” of new settlers. The new arrivals would, in turn, face hardships of their own, and yet they, and the many colonists who followed, persisted. Through the efforts of leaders like Captain Smith and entrepreneurs like John Rolfe, and with the timely help from some of the local Indians — including Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan empire — Jamestown endured.
The town grew beyond the confines of the fort, and more settlements were established in the region. Jamestown became the first capital of Virginia, and on July 30, 1619, the first legislative assembly in English-speaking America was convened there. Fire destroyed the Virginia Statehouse in 1698 and the next year the seat of government was moved to Williamsburg. Richmond has been the capital of Virginia since 1780.
Over the years, the fort at Jamestown was lost to history. In 1994, archaeologists with the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities set out to find it. By the end of 1996, they had uncovered enough evidence, including traces of two walls, to prove they had located the remains of the fort. As part of the Jamestown Rediscovery Project, archaeologists continue to excavate the site, unearthing artifacts that may tell us more about the lives of the people who founded and maintained the first permanent English settlement of the Americas.
Commemorative Coin Program (Photo)
Commemorative Coin Programs - The United States Mint
Commenorative .41 US Stamp
Settlement of Jamestown
This souvenir sheet commemorates the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, VA, by English colonists in 1607. Under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery left docks near London Dec. 20, 1606, and arrived in Virginia, April 26, 1607.
Captain Newport’s expedition, which included Captain John Smith, was charged with establishing a colony in the New World. England had failed in previous attempts to build lasting settlements in the Americas, most notably on Roanoke Island, now part of North Carolina. Nevertheless, expectations were high that this new effort would succeed.
On May 13, 1607, expedition leaders selected a settlement site more than 30 miles up the James River from the Chesapeake Bay. The location, a marshy peninsula that became an island at high tide, offered good moorings. Connected to the mainland by only a narrow strip of land, the site seemed easily defensible. It was also far enough upriver, the men hoped, to be beyond notice of Spanish warships patrolling the Atlantic coast.
On May 14, all of the men went ashore, cleared a patch of ground, and set up tents behind a simple brushwood fence. Later, they built a more substantial structure: “The fifteenth day of June,” wrote colonist George Percy, “we had built and finished our Fort which was triangle wise, having three Bulwarkes at every corner like a half Moon, and four or five pieces of artillerie mounted in them.” They also planted their first grain crop and began replacing their tents with small houses.
In the early days of the settlement, the weather was fair, the countryside lovely and the hunting excellent. But as the seasons changed and relations with the Powhatan Indians worsened, conditions deteriorated. Disease, famine, polluted river water and skirmishes with the Indians took a terrible toll. More than a hundred men and boys had come ashore in May 1607, but by January 1608, fewer than 40 were left to meet “the first supply” of new settlers. The new arrivals would, in turn, face hardships of their own, and yet they, and the many colonists who followed, persisted. Through the efforts of leaders like Captain Smith and entrepreneurs like John Rolfe, and with the timely help from some of the local Indians — including Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan empire — Jamestown endured.
The town grew beyond the confines of the fort, and more settlements were established in the region. Jamestown became the first capital of Virginia, and on July 30, 1619, the first legislative assembly in English-speaking America was convened there. Fire destroyed the Virginia Statehouse in 1698 and the next year the seat of government was moved to Williamsburg. Richmond has been the capital of Virginia since 1780.
Over the years, the fort at Jamestown was lost to history. In 1994, archaeologists with the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities set out to find it. By the end of 1996, they had uncovered enough evidence, including traces of two walls, to prove they had located the remains of the fort. As part of the Jamestown Rediscovery Project, archaeologists continue to excavate the site, unearthing artifacts that may tell us more about the lives of the people who founded and maintained the first permanent English settlement of the Americas.
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