When the first humans who crossed the Bering Straits at the end of the last great Ice Age arrived on the Virginia landscape, the environment was vastly different than today. Although the regions comprising the Blue Ridge Mountains, Piedmont, Ridge and Valley, and Coastal Plain were in place — the effects of the glaciers to the north caused long, hard winters and short, cool summers.

As Virginia’s climate changed to a warmer, drier one and sea level rose, open grassland gave way to a rich floodplain with woods of pine and oak. Vegetation also became profuse. The floodplain that developed on Virginia’s Coastal Plain contained numerous environmental zones that produced a variety of marine, freshwater and terrestrial life. In particular, the mixed forest zone provided the greatest variety and abundance of plant and animal life. It was rich in nuts and berries, gave access to fish and shellfish, and provided an abundance of animals and birds including white-tailed deer, turkey, ducks, opossum, raccoon, black bear, river otters, skunks, red and gray foxes, civet cats and wolves. Many plants and roots were available for gathering, and the rich soil made the eventual cultivation of crops possible.

In the late 16th century, the inhabitants of Virginia lived along waterways which also provided their main form of transportation. The Chesapeake Bay, created when warming caused sea levels to rise, was really the valley of the Susquehanna River flowing down from the north, which was flooded by the rising ocean. This valley, now the Bay, is fed by tributaries which lie in the Virginia Coastal Plain — the Potomac, Rappahannock, York and James Rivers. These tributaries are actually tidal estuaries; they consist of freshwater flowing downstream and meeting with saltwater from the ocean.

Powhatan Towns

The Powhatan people occupied the Coastal Plain or Tidewater region of Virginia, which includes the area east of the fall line and the area we know today as the Eastern Shore. They lived on high ground overlooking the many waterways, their main form of transportation.

A typical Powhatan “town”, as the English called them, lay along a stream or river in a cleared area of deciduous forested land in Virginia’s Coastal Plain. Immediately surrounding the settlement were cultivated fields, dotted haphazardly with tree stumps burned to create the fields. Just beyond the fields lay a variety of environments used by the people. The mixed forests provided an abundance of plant and animal life allowing the Powhatan to hunt and fish.

The forest provided game and plants to gather for food, rich and fertile soil for those interested in farming, trees to cut for housing and tool production and roots for medicines. Nearby marshes provided reeds to weave into mats and tuckahoe tubers to gather for food. The streams and rivers provided fresh water fish upriver beyond the salt-water zone and marine and shellfish down river. Rivers and ponds also provided a habitat for wild birds and aquatic plants.

Englishmen arrive in Virginia

In April of 1607, the English sailed into the Chesapeake Bay.. After planting a cross at Cape Henry, thanking God for their safe voyage, the 104 English men and boys, along with the ships’ crew sailed up the James River, which they named after their King. On May 13, after two weeks of inland waterway exploration, the ships arrived at a site on the James River selected for its deep water anchorage and good defensive position. The passengers came ashore on May 14, and work began on the settlement. Thus, the three ships – the Discovery, the Godspeed and the Susan Constant – completed their journey of 144 days.

Because one of the goals of the English voyage was to find a “Northwest Passage” to Asia, several men, including John Smith and Christopher Newport, continued sailing up the James River. They discovered they could not go further when they encountered the fall line where the area we know as the Piedmont begins. Here, the rapids flow over the hard rocks of the Piedmont region, marking the natural end of navigation in the rivers.

The climate encountered by the English differed slightly from the climate we know in Virginia today, because in 1607 the Northern Hemisphere was experiencing a slightly cooler period known as the “Little Ice Age.” Winters were more severe and had fewer frost-free days per year in which to cultivate crops. Even so, there were many plants and roots available for gathering and rich soil for cultivation.

In 1606 King James I granted the first of three Royal Charters to the London Company, giving it legal rights to plant a colony along the east coast somewhere between 34 degrees and 41 degrees North Latitude. Instructions were to go inland and find a suitable place for their colony. The English were especially concerned about attacks from the Spanish. The site the settlers chose for their settlement was almost an island, connected to the mainland only by a narrow sandbar. Because deep water touched the land, they could sail right up to the site and secure their ships to the many trees that filled the land. These geographical features also made it easier to defend from the Spanish. While these were positive features for the land they named Jamestown, in honor of their King James, there were also some very negative features of this environment including swampy land and brackish water from the James River. By the end of the summer, half the colonists had died, and many of those remaining were sick with various diseases such as dysentery and typhoid. Since the planting season had ended before the colonists had finished building their houses, they were unable to plant crops and soon were very short of food. By the time the first supply ship from England arrived in January 1608, only 38 colonists were still alive to greet it. The environment proved to be one of the greatest challenges faced by the colonists.