Virginia Colony Vocabulary

Bacon Rebellion

1676 - Nathaniel Bacon and other western Virginia settlers were angry at Virginia Governor Berkley for trying to appease the Doeg Indians after the Doegs attacked the western settlements. The frontiersmen formed an army, with Bacon as its leader, which defeated the Indians and then marched on Jamestown and burned the city. The rebellion ended suddenly when Bacon died of an illness.

Joint-Stock Company

A company made up of a group of shareholders. Each shareholder contributes some money to the company and receives some share of the company's profits and debts.

Virginia Company

A joint-stock company: based in Virginia in 1607: founded to find gold and a water way to the Indies: comfirmed all Englishmen that they would have the same life in the New World, as they had in England, with the same rights: 3 of their ships transported the people that would found Jamestown in 1607.

John Rolfe

He was one of the English settlers at Jamestown (and he married Pocahontas). He discovered how to successfully grow tobacco in Virginia and cure it for export, which made Virginia an economically successful colony.

John Smith

Helped found and govern Jamestown. His leadership and strict discipline helped the Virginia colony get through the difficult first winter

Indentured Servant

Laborer who agreed to work without pay for a certain period of time in exchange for passage to America

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, found in East Virginia

Chief Powhaton

Traded with John Smith. His corn kept the colonists alive. His young daughter, Pocahontas, often visited the Jamestown. For a brief time, the relationship between the English settlers and the Powhatons were peaceful.

Colony

a body of people who settle far from home but maintain ties with their homeland

Districts

a defined area or region; a geographical or political division

Charter

a document incorporating an institution and specifying its rights

Export

commodities (goods or services) sold to a foreign country

House of Burgesses

the first elected legislative assembly in the New World established in the Colony of Virginia in 1619, representative colony set up by England to make laws and levy taxes but England could veto its legistlative acts.

tobacco brides

young women brought to America by the Virginia Company whose husbands had to give 150 lbs. of tobacco to the VA Co.