Visiting Jamestown

Jamestown was established in Virginia in 1607 and became the first permanent English settlement in what would become the United States. More than 400 years later, it remains one of the most important historic sites in the country. Although little remains above ground from the earliest settlement, visitors can explore both the original historic site and nearby recreations of life in the early colony. Costumed historical interpreters, reconstructed buildings, ships, and demonstrations help show what life was like for the English settlers and the Native peoples who already inhabited the region.

The original settlers crossed the Atlantic aboard three ships belonging to the Virginia Company of London: the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. The expedition was commanded by Captain Christopher Newport and departed England in December 1606. After a voyage lasting more than four months, the ships reached the Chesapeake Bay in April 1607 before continuing up the James River and establishing Jamestown the following month. Above are replicas representing the ships that carried the first colonists to Virginia, giving visitors a much better idea of just how cramped and difficult such a long voyage must have been.

The English settlers arrived in a region already inhabited by numerous Native American communities belonging to the Powhatan chiefdom. Relations between the colonists and the Powhatan peoples shifted repeatedly between trade, cooperation, tension, and warfare as the English settlement expanded. The recreated Powhatan village at Jamestown helps show how the region’s Native inhabitants lived at the beginning of the 17th century. Above is a reconstructed dwelling, while the photo on the right shows animal hides being prepared.

Life in early Jamestown was extremely difficult. Disease, food shortages, conflict, and the unfamiliar environment caused high death rates during the colony’s first years, and its survival was far from guaranteed. Over time, additional settlers and skilled workers arrived from England and elsewhere in Europe, while the growth of tobacco eventually gave the colony an important source of income. Reconstructed homes and demonstrations by historical interpreters show some of the building techniques and trades that were necessary for the settlement to survive and grow.

Jamestown eventually expanded far beyond the struggling settlement established in 1607, becoming an important center of colonial Virginia before the capital was moved to Williamsburg in 1699. Today the area is especially interesting because you can see several sides of the story in one place, from the experiences of the English colonists to those of the Powhatan peoples whose homeland they entered. For such a small historic site, Jamestown represents the beginning of a major chapter in the history of Virginia and the United States.