Where Is Virginia?
It was December 1606. More than one hundred men and boys climbed aboard three ships—the
Susan Constant, the
Godspeed, and the
Discovery—and set sail from London. They were headed to a place they believed would bring great opportunity—what would one day be the United States.
King James I of England wanted to set up a colony (an area that would be controlled by England) in America. The English believed they would find gold and silver there and wanted to spread Christianity, their religion. They also hoped to find the Northwest Passage, a sea route westward from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This route would enable them to trade with Asia.
King James I did not want to risk losing money if the colony failed. So, he formed the Virginia Company of London. Wealthy men paid money to own parts of the company, which the settlers would use to start the colony. Once the colony was successful, the men would get their money back (plus more).
On April 26, 1607, after four months of sailing, the three ships pulled into what we now call the Chesapeake (say: CHESS-uh-peek) Bay. The settlers chose a marshy peninsula (a piece of land surrounded by water on three sides) as the site of their new colony. They traveled fifty miles up a river from the bay, which they named the James River. They picked a spot they could easily defend if the Spanish (who already had colonies in what is now Florida) attacked.
The colony was called James Fort. Eventually, it was renamed Jamestown. Jamestown became the first permanent English colony in North America, and it is still a part of the state of Virginia today.
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