Virginia Company: Difference between revisions

{{Not to be confused|Virginia Company of London}}{{Short description|English trading company}}

The '''Virginia Company''' was an English [[trading company]] [[Chartered company|chartered]] by [[James VI and I|King James I]] on 10 April 1606 with the objectobjective of [[British colonization of the Americas|colonizing the eastern coast of America]]. The coast was named [[Virginia]], after [[Elizabeth I]], and it stretched from present-day [[Maine]] to the [[Carolinas]].<ref name="”Charter">{{cite web|url=http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1600-1650/instructions-for-the-virginia-colony-1606.php|title=Charter of the Virginia Company of 1606}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dos.myflorida.com/library-archives/research/explore-our-resources/florida-history-culture-and-heritage/spanish-colonial-history/|title=Spanish Florida|website=Florida State, Dept of Library and Information Services}}</ref><ref name="Charter of 1609">{{cite web|url=http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1600-1650/the-second-virginia-charter-1609.php|title=Charter of 1609}}</ref> The company's [[shareholder]]s were [[London]]ers, and it was distinguished from the [[Plymouth Company]], which was chartered at the same time and composed largely of gentlemen from [[Plymouth]], England.<ref>{{cite book |last= Paullin|first= Charles O |editor=John K. Wright |title= Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States|year= 1932|publisher=Carnegie Institution of Washington and American Geographical Society|location= New York and Washington, D.C. | pages= Plate 42}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last= Swindler|editor-first= William F.|title= Sources and Documents of United States Constitutions.' 10 Volumes |year= 1973–1979|publisher=Oceana Publications |location=Dobbs Ferry, New York | pages= Vol. 10: 17–23}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Van Zandt|first= Franklin K.|title= Boundaries of the United States and the Several States; Geological Survey Professional Paper 909|year= 1976|publisher=Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. | pages= 92}}</ref><ref>[http://www.virginiaplaces.org/boundaries/boundaryk.html How Virginia Got Its Boundaries, by Karl R Phillips]</ref>

The biggest trade breakthrough resulted after adventurer and colonist [[John Rolfe]] introduced several sweeter strains of [[tobacco]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.foundersofamerica.org/johnrolfe.html |title=Welcome to Founders of America! |access-date=25 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070605072826/http://foundersofamerica.org/johnrolfe.html |archive-date=5 June 2007 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> from the Caribbean.<ref>[http://www.historyisfun.org/Economics-of-Tobacco.htm Economics of Tobacco]</ref> These yielded a more appealing product than the harsh-tasting tobacco native to Virginia.<ref>[http://www.virtualjamestown.org/jrolfe.html Virtual Jamestown]</ref> Cultivation of Rolfe's new tobacco strains produced a strong commodity crop for export for the London Company and other early English colonies and helped to balance a national trade deficit with [[Spain]]. The company failed in 1624, following the widespread destruction of the [[Great Massacre of 1622]] by indigenous peoples in the colony, which decimated the English population. On May 24, James dissolved the company and made Virginia a [[royal colony]] from England<ref name="The First Seventeen Years 1624">''The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607–1624,'' Charles E. Hatch, Jr.</ref> with propertied male colonists retaining selfsome representative-government through the lower house, the [[House of Burgesses]].<ref name="Andrews 1924 32–34">{{cite book|last=Andrews|first=Charles M.|title=The Colonial Background of the American Revolution|year=1924|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven and London|isbn=0-300-00004-9|pages=32–34|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sHq2IYgfcLUC&pg=PA3}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/An_Ordinance_and_Constitution_of_Treasurer_and_Company_in_England_for_a_Council_and_Assembly_in_Virginia_1621 |title=An Ordinance and Constitution of Treasurer and Company in England for a Council and Assembly in Virginia (1621)}}</ref><ref name="Shakespeare1">{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/shakespearefound00gay/page/n7|title=Shakespeare and the Founders of Liberty in America|last=Gayley|first=Charles Mills|date=1917|website=Internet Archive|access-date=2018-11-30}}</ref>{{rp|90–91}}

<blockquote>that they should devidedivide themselves into two colonies, the one consistingeconsisting of divers Knights, gentlemen, merchauntsmerchants and others of our cittie of London, called the First Collonie; and the other of sondrie Knights, gentlemen and others of the cities of Bristoll[[Bristol]], [[Exeter]], the townetown of [[Plymouth]], and other places, called the Second Collonie.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1600-1650/the-second-virginia-charter-1609.php|title = The Second Virginia Charter 1609 < 1600–1650 < Documents < American History from Revolution to Reconstruction and beyond}}</ref></blockquote>

By the terms of the charter, the [[London Company]] was permitted to establish a colony of 100 miles square between latitudes 34° and 41° N, approximately between [[Cape Fear (headland)|Cape Fear]] and [[Long Island Sound]]. It also owned a large portion of inland [[Canada]]. The company established the [[Jamestown, Virginia|Settlement]] in present-day [[Jamestown, SettlementVirginia]] on 14 May 1607, about 40 miles inland along the [[James River (Virginia)|James River]], a major tributary of the [[Chesapeake Bay]] in present-day [[Virginia]]. In 1620, [[George Calvert]] asked James for a charter for English [[Catholic Church|Catholics]], to addso the territory ofcould be added to the Plymouth Company.

The indigenous peoples had grown increasingly resistant to the competition from the colonists and mistreatment at their hands. They rose in what is known as [[Indian massacre of 1622|Jamestown Massacre of 1622]], also known as the Great Massacre, which decimated the population. Survivors of some eighty plantations gathered into eight near Jamestown. In Britain, company officers debated over guarding the original charter, or deciding to disband the company. The Jamestown Massacre brought unfavorable attention to the colony, particularly from James who had originally chartered the company. There was a period of debate in Britain between company officers who wished to guard the original charter, and those who wanted the company to be disbanded. On 24 May 1624, James dissolved the company and made Virginia a [[Crown colony|royal colony]].<ref name="The First Seventeen Years 1624"/>