A Brief History of the Virginia Company of London

The Virginia Company of London was founded in 1606 by a charter (a document granting permission from the king) to colonize North America. The Virginia Company wanted to gain wealth and power from its new colony. To do this, its leaders came up with a “wish list” of specific things it wanted to get. The things on this list were:

• Looking for riches like gold and silver. The Spanish found gold and silver in Central America and the English wanted it too.
• Claiming part of the Americas for England. Spain had a lot of colonies in the New World and England wanted one to prove that it was also powerful.
• Getting access to materials like wood, iron, minerals, gems and plant medicines.
• Making England depend less on imports from other empires. England wanted to be able to use materials from its own colony to support itself (glassmaking, iron working, wood processing, pitch and tar manufacture, silk and wine industries).
• Finding a Northwest Passage to Asia in order to trade there.
• Converting American Indians to Christianity.
• Creating jobs for people in England who were unemployed.

With these goals in mind, 105 English men and boys sailed for the east coast of North America in 1606. When the colonists landed in Virginia in May 1607, they moved into a land already occupied by the Powhatan Indians. The English claimed the land as their own, ignoring the fact that the land already had a leader. Powhatan was the paramount chief of the Powhatan tribes in the area. The colonists began to take the land’s resources for their own needs, despite the Powhatan already living on this land. When they could not survive on their own, they started trading with the Powhatan. They traded beads and metal for foods like corn and meat. They relied on this method of obtaining food for the first few years, since their own supplies were never adequate.

Part of the Virginia Company of London’s 1606 charter involved making a government for the new colony. This government was a seven-man council filled by men who were connected to the company. It did not last long. The men started fighting among themselves and a few of them died from disease or warfare.

In 1609, the Virginia Company received a second charter. This one changed the structure of Jamestown’s government. Instead of a seven-man council, the colony had one governor. The governor had a group of advisors to help him. To fix the problem of disease spreading from the swampy water, the company told the colonists to make a new settlement farther up the James River. Instead of one, the colonists built two settlements. They put one upriver and one downriver. This meant that the English moved even further onto Powhatan lands. This pushed many of the Powhatan off their prime lands along the water, which they used for transportation and trade. Also, more colonists were coming to Jamestown and had little food to eat. The English leaders became more aggressive in demanding and taking food from the Powhatan who had little to give, due to a major drought in the area.

The Virginia Company also struggled to make a profit for England. They did not find gold, silver or minerals like the Spanish had. They had a hard time setting up silk-making and wine-making businesses. They had hoped to start these in order to stop getting silk and wine from other places. In time, growing tobacco would save Jamestown, but it did not help the company. It came too late. In the end, the Virginia Company did not make a profit from Jamestown.

In order to keep the Virginia Company alive, the second charter in 1609 came up with a new way to raise money. First, the company’s leaders asked wealthy people to donate. This was not enough, so in 1609 the company started selling shares of stock to the public. Stock shares are pieces of ownership in a company. People could own pieces of the Virginia Company and in return, they would get a small part of the profits seven years later. The company also promised to give its stockholders pieces of land in Virginia. Still, with this new plan, the company was not making enough money.

The Virginia Company received a third charter in 1612 that changed some of the rules about running the company. Mostly, it came up with another new way to fund the company. They started hosting lotteries around London. Selling the tickets raised money for the company. By this time, they were trying to get donations from wealthy men, selling stock, and selling lottery tickets. Even doing all of this, they were not bringing in enough money to keep the company running. Perhaps more importantly, they could not afford to buy the supplies that the Jamestown colonists needed to survive.

In 1618, Powhatan died. His more warlike brother Opechancanough took over the role of paramount chief. By the time Opechancanough rose to power, the Powhatan were fed up with the English. For the past 15 years, the colonists had been taking Powhatan land and resources without paying them back. In 1622, the Powhatan, led by Opechancanough, rose up against Jamestown. They stole the Englishmen’s weapons and killed over 340 of them. That was almost a quarter of all of the colonists. For the Virginia Company, this was a huge loss. English records do not say how many Powhatan Indians were killed. Between the massive toll that the Powhatan uprising took on the colony and running out of money, the Virginia Company of London failed. In 1623, King James I started ruling Jamestown himself.

Throughout its short 17-year life, The Virginia Company of London’s hopes were achieved in some fashion. England did get a piece of North America, they did find natural resources for the taking, and individuals did find a way to make a profit for themselves (not for the company) through tobacco and the fur trade. But all of these advances came at a price to the Powhatan Indians who already lived in Virginia.

Student Inquiry

1. Which items on the Company’s wish list had to do with making money? Which items had to do with becoming more powerful? Which items did both? Explain your answer.
2. List some of the struggles that the Virginia Company of London faced. How did they try to overcome them? Did they succeed?
3. Do you think that the colony of Jamestown was a success, a failure or something in between? Try to consider both the Powhatan and the English perspectives.