Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown, Virginia Jamestowne, Williamsburg
Fort (1607) and Town (1619)
The ruined tower of the 17th century Jamestown Church; the nave was reconstructed in 1907 on its original foundations
Location of Jamestown in Virginia
Jamestown Location of Jamestown in Virginia Show map of Virginia Jamestown Jamestown (the United States) Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 37°12′33″N 76°46′39″W / 37.20917°N 76.77750°W / 37.20917; -76.77750
Colony	Colony of Virginia
Established	May 14, 1607
Abandoned	Briefly in 1610; again after 1699
Founded by	London Company
Named for	James I

The Jamestown^[a] settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River, about 2.5 mi (4 km) southwest of modern Williamsburg.^[1] It was established by the London Company as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 O.S. (May 14, 1607 N.S.),^[2] and considered permanent, after brief abandonment in 1610. It followed failed attempts, including the Roanoke Colony, established in 1585. Jamestown served as the colonial capital from 1616 until 1699. Despite the dispatch of more supplies, more than 80% of colonists died in 1609–1610, from starvation and disease.^{[3][citation not found]} In mid-1610, the survivors abandoned Jamestown, though they returned after meeting a resupply convoy in the James River.

In August 1619, the first recorded slaves from Africa to British North America arrived in what is now Old Point Comfort, near the Jamestown colony, on a British privateer ship flying a Dutch flag. The approximately 20 Africans from present-day Angola, had been removed by the British crew from a Portuguese slave ship.^[4][5] They most likely worked in the tobacco fields, under a system of race-based indentured servitude.^[6][7] The modern conception of slavery in the British colonies was formalized in 1640, and fully entrenched in Virginia by 1660.^[8]

The London Company's second settlement in Bermuda claims to be the site of the oldest town in the English New World, since St. George's, Bermuda was officially established in 1612 as New London, and James Fort in Virginia was not converted into James Towne until 1619, and has not survived to the present day.^[9]

In 1676, Jamestown was deliberately burned during Bacon's Rebellion, though it was rebuilt. In 1699, the colonial capital was moved to what present-day Williamsburg, Virginia. In the 18th century, Jamestown ceased to exist as a settlement and remains as an archaeological site, Jamestown Rediscovery, which houses museums and historical sites, including the Jamestown Settlement and the American Revolution Museum in Yorktown. Jamestown is one of three locations composing the Historic Triangle of Colonial Virginia, along with Williamsburg and Yorktown.^[10] is the archaeological site on Jamestown Island and is a cooperative effort by Jamestown National Historic Site and Preservation Virginia. Jamestown Settlement, a living history interpretive site, is operated by the Jamestown Yorktown Foundation, a state agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

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