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Unit Five – The Great Charter of Virginia

During all the early years of the Virginia colony the people were fed and clothed out of a common stock of provisions.  This means there was a storehouse that kept all the food and supplies and everyone, regardless of rank, was fed and clothed in the same fashion.

There was also no such thing as private property and none of the men could work a little bit harder and make a profit from his labors.

Sir Samuel Argall, who was the governor after Dale, governed very badly, and the colony was almost ruined. In 1618 many new emigrants were sent, and Lord De la Warr was again sent as governor.

Unfortunately, he died on the way. The "Virginia Company" of London, which had the government of the colony in November, 1618, granted to Virginia a "Great Charter" under which the people of the colony were allowed a voice in making their own laws.

This was the beginning of free government in America.

Under this charter the government of Virginia was put into the hands of a governor, a "council of estate," and a "general assembly." The other American colonies that came later, would use this form of threefold government for their own settlements.

The current government of the United States is governed by a president, a senate, and a house of representatives, another three-fold institution.  

This shows that the ideas put into the Great Charter have left their mark on the constitution of our country. The governments of all our States also show traces of the same idea. Each State has a governor, a senate, and a house of representatives.

The plan arranged in 1618 for a few hundred people in Virginia was a tiny stream that has spread out into a great river.  Once a man was given the opportunity to work hard, excel and profit from it, he was more productive and more industrious.  This is called capitalism, which means that goods and services are privately controlled and operated for a profit.  
 

The Great Charter also gave the people of Virginia the right to divide the land into farms, and to own and work ground for the individual instead of for the community.

The new governor, Sir George Yeardley, got to Virginia in the spring of 1619. He brought this good news that the settlers were to live under laws of their own making, and were to enjoy the fruits of their own labors.  The Jamestown settlers thought themselves the happiest people in the world.

About this time it was thought that the colony would be more firmly planted if the colonists had wives, and so young women were allowed to come from England to be married and start families with the settlers.

Before any man could marry one of these ladies, he was obliged to gain her consent and to pay the cost of her passage, which was about a hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco. This venture proved very satisfactory to the Virginians, and women were therefore sent for wives from time to time for years afterward.

When the colonists had land of their own, they felt that America was finally their home and gave up on the thought of going back to England.

Before this there had been many small wars and troubles of one kind or other with the Indians. But as the Indians had few firearms, the European men could easily defend themselves.

After 1619 many efforts were made to change the Indians and bring them into the European way of life.  The Jamestown colony was also instructed to convert them to Christianity. Money was given to educate their children, and a college was planned for them. One ambitious Indian brave, whom the white people called "Jack of the Feather" and who was believed to be “bulletproof”, was suspected of wishing war.

After a dispute he killed a colonist.  The colonist’s servants tried to take him to the governor and ending up shooting him in the process. The Indians did not show any resentment at his death at first, and Opechankanough (O-pe-chan'-ka-no), who had become head chief at the death of Powhatan, said that the sky might fall sooner than he would break the peace.

But on the 22d of March, 1622, while the men of the colony were in the fields, the Indians suddenly fell on the settlements, killing the colonists mostly with their own axes, hatchets, and hoes. Three hundred and forty-seven men, women, and children were killed in a single day.  This was the first massacre of colonists by the Indians.

One Indian who was living in a colonist’s house had given warning during the night before and some of the settlements had time to prepare themselves for defense. This act marked an almost continual war with the Indians for many years.

At first the colonists made no attempt to enact revenge for the massacre and after that bloody day in March, no fighting took place between the Europeans and the Indians until the next autumn, when an army of three hundred colonists marched into Indian territory and laid waste the country.

In 1624 the Virginia Company of London was dissolved and the colony was put under the government of the king. The king, James I, promised to the colony all the liberties which they then enjoyed. This promise was not well kept by his successors in after years and the Virginians were often oppressed by the governors sent to them, but the right to pass laws in the General Assembly was never taken away.

Unit 5 Great Charter
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