Lesson 11 - Jamestown
Unit 1 Day 12

🎯 Instructional Goal:

I will learn about the struggles and successes of the Jamestown colony.
(by reading a short text, analyzing a map of the fort, and writing a journal entry about the choices settlers had to make.)

📚 Vocabulary Words:

Tobacco – A plant grown and sold to make money; people used it for smoking.
Starving Time – A time when many Jamestown settlers had no food and died of hunger.
Boomtown – A town that grows quickly because people are making money and moving there fast.

❓ Essential Questions:

How did people’s need for money, safety, and their beliefs affect the choices they made in Jamestown?

- Did they choose to do what was best for their family, even if it hurt others?
Or did they try to do what was right, even if life was harder?

Reading and Comprehension

🏴‍☠️ Jamestown (1607):
From Struggle to Boomtown

Jamestown was the first successful English colony in North America. It was founded in 1607 by the Virginia Company, a group of English investors who hoped to get rich by finding gold and using the land for farming.

The colony was built in what is now Virginia, on land that belonged to the Powhatan people.

At first, life in Jamestown was extremely difficult. The settlers weren’t prepared for the work it would take to survive. They spent more time looking for gold than planting food.

During the winter of 1609–1610, the colony went through what became known as the “Starving Time.” Most of the colonists died—only about 60 of the 500 people survived. Some were so desperate that they reportedly ate rats, dogs, and even boiled leather from their shoes.

Relations with the Powhatan were tense, but one key figure helped build peace: Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan.

According to legend, she helped save the life of English leader John Smith and later married settler John Rolfe, which helped bring a temporary peace between the English and the Powhatan.

Jamestown began to succeed when Rolfe introduced a new type of tobacco that grew well in Virginia’s soil. Tobacco became a huge cash crop, and soon Jamestown was a booming business center—a true boomtown.

More settlers came to grow tobacco, and with them came more workers, including indentured servants and later, enslaved Africans.

In 1619, Jamestown created the House of Burgesses, the first elected legislature in the colonies. It was a big step toward American democracy.

Comprehension Questions:

Why was Jamestown originally founded, and who started it?

What happened during the “Starving Time,” and why was it so deadly?

How did Pocahontas help the relationship between the English settlers and the Powhatan people?

Why was tobacco so important to the success of Jamestown?

What was the House of Burgesses?

✅ Successes:

First permanent English colony in America
Tobacco made it economically strong
House of Burgesses: first form of elected government
Temporary peace with the Powhatan through Pocahontas

⚠️ Failures:

Starving Time: massive death from hunger
Poor planning and leadership at the start
Ongoing conflict with Native Americans
Growth of slavery tied to tobacco farming

#6 Group:
What do you think is the most important success and what do you think its the worst failure?

Map and Image Analysis

1. How can you tell the people in Jamestown wanted to protect themselves?

2. Who do you think they wanted to protect themselves from?

3. Why do you think the map shows a Native American man named Powhatan?

4. Why do you think the fort was built next to the river?

💭 Journal Question Prompt:

Lesson 11 - Jamestown

💭 Journal Question Prompt:

You left England because your family was poor and you needed a better life. You heard about life during starving time.

Now you’re living in Jamestown, and someone offers you a way to make money by growing tobacco.

But to do it, others will suffer—Native Americans might lose land, and enslaved people may be forced to work.

If you say yes, your family will have money and live easier.
If you say no, your family might stay poor and life will be hard.

What would you choose? Why?

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Lesson 11 - JamestownUnit 1 Day 12