Why Did English Settlers Come to Virginia?: And Other Questions about the Jamestown Settlement

In late April 1607, three British ships arrived at the coast of the Virginia Colony. An exploration party rowed to shore, and within weeks, the group had established a settlement they called Jamestown. The settlers endured illnesses, lack of profitable crops, starvation, and hostilities with Native Americans. But they endured, and Jamestown became the first permanent British settlement in the American colonies. Throughout the 1600s, Jamestown remained the capital city of Virginia, the wealthiest and most populous American colony.