American History Hit - Jamestown: Decline & Fall?

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

In 1699, Virginia’s government and capital moved from Jamestown to Middle Plantation, renaming it Williamsburg.But why did they abandon Jamestown? In this final episode of our series, Don and Willie Balderson of Jamestowne Rediscovery uncover the colony’s last great struggles - from the loss of its charter, to fire and to rebellion.Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.American History Hit is a History Hit podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The currents of the James River are almost at high tide, moving along the shoreline. Crossing a short bridge, we park at the visitor's center and make our way towards historic Jamestown, following along a gravel path leading to the reconstructed palisades, the wooden fencing, carefully positioned to match the original design of the fort. To our left, the Memorial Church stands, erected in 1907 to mark the 300th anniversary of Jamestown. Past the red brick building, we approach the church tower, separate yet nearby. It is a lone sentinel from the past, the last remaining above-ground structure from the colonial days. Rising about 40 feet, the tower's wide square base supports a tall, narrow doorway.

stretching more than halfway up the building's height. Built around 1680, 73 years after the English settlers first arrived, this is believed to be the fourth church constructed here. Every year here at historic Jamestown, archaeologists unearth more buried evidence of the fort and its community. But why does this tower remain, while everything else has seemingly vanished? What was it exactly that finally led to Jamestown's demise?

Welcome back, I'm Don Wildman. This is American History Hit. Did Jamestown fail? It was the first permanent English settlement in what would become the United States, yet it was eventually abandoned. Over the past three weeks, we've uncovered the hard history of the place, ravaged by disease, war, famine. But Jamestown did endure for a time to become Virginia's capital for 92 years until 1699. There it was, when the seat of power was finally moved to Williamsburg. So today, let's tell the last chapter and unravel the mystery of what happened to Jamestown. To find out, I am joined by Willie Ballerson,

director of Living History and Historic Trades at Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, down there at Jamestown itself. Nice to have you back again. Don, I'm so happy to be back with you. Thanks. For anyone who hasn't heard the three prior episodes of this series, we've been going through the founding and development and finally settling down of Jamestown Colony so that eventually becomes a success story. Willie, I want to make this clear because we're going to talk about a charter being revoked at the end here. So we have not really been clear about the fact that there were three other charters before this.

When we talk about charter, what are we talking about? It is official approval from the king to start a business that is succinct as I can make it. Sure. And there was one in 1606, the first charter. A second comes in 1609 just a few years later. The third charter is 1612. And we're going to be talking in this episode about 1624 when that last charter is revoked. Each one of these is a kind of a readjustment for the Virginia company back in England, but how this whole thing is running the size of it and so forth is creating problems and challenges and how it's governed and so forth. But we really find, I mean, this is the real headline of the series. The basis of the governance of Virginia is really created here in Jamestown, correct? That's absolutely correct. The first charter allowed that they could come into the Chesapeake Bay and wherever they landed, 50 miles in any direction was theirs. John Smith will explore the Chesapeake Bay in 168, and he writes a letter back saying,

we haven't asked for enough land. And that's why the 16-9 charter is granted. and Virginia then extends 200 miles and to the north or to the south, but because of John Smith's exploration and the discovery that the continent apparently continued further than anybody dreamed, it's the 16-9 charter that allows that the claim by the English and the Virginia company extends to the western shore. So it's the 16-9 charter that allowed England. to believe on paper that they extended all the way to what is today California, the Pacific Ocean.

Wow. Charter of 1612 adds Bermuda to the mix. Not only Virginia, but Bermuda will be taken in. And then there's a charter that was granted in November of 1618. And that is the charter that allows that they can have their own. own government. They are allowed to send word up and down the James River to the 11 largest settlements, and at a time determined, which will be determined to be the last of July, at the beginning of August 1619, two elected representatives from the 11 largest settlements

would gather. They were to review all of the laws of the former charters, the instructions, they were to review all of the laws that had been stated in martial law, and they were determined which ones they felt were necessary to be continued. And it was not written into that charter in 1618, but they took advantage sort of of a non-existent loophole. The appointed governor, Sir George Yardley, allowed them then to consider laws that they felt they needed. And this was the first time in the Western Hemisphere that elected Englishmen were allowed to create their own laws.

Wow. A representative government as well. Yes, yes. And that was the great charter, 1618. Yes. What was life like in the colony in that final era of time? Had the mission been accomplished as far as it being a profitable commercial enterprise, in this case, probably? tobacco mainly, right?

Absolutely. The colony experienced that strife of the first three years. They'd suffer under a tremendous strain with the martial laws. And the numbers of people that were willing to come over, it kind of narrowed. Because after that winter of the starving time, Virginia, on many broadsides was depicted as a place that you went in desperation to die. It was your last shot. That was in large part why the company sought that charter in 1618.

We are going to allow people to create law here. And the other major selling point for that charter was, since the tobacco economy was still in its embryonic stages, they had to come up with something to give back to the investors. Tobacco would come to be that, or at least have the potential to do that, but it wasn't there yet. So what the company realized, the Crown, King James had granted them to right to settle on the land, and they determined and wrote it out into the charter that if you had purchased shares of stock between 16-6 and 1616, when that stock came due with the dividend to be, paid, you would receive a piece of paper granting you the right to 100 acres of land in Virginia.

If you bought shares of stock after 16, 16, the dividend would be paid in 50 acre increments of land. And for the landed gentleman in England, who doesn't want more land? For the tradesmen that we're considering coming here selling themselves to the company for a share of stock, this would have was huge. And it did spark renewed interest in coming over. Now, the displacement of the colony was such that with the marriage of John Rolf to Lady Rebecca, her baptized name, in April of 1614, her father, the Emperor Poitin, declared that we would live as one people. And they wrote that that was the time of the peace of Bocahontas. Unfortunately, Pocahontas dies in 1617, her father, the emperor in 1618, as more people are arriving to grow

tobacco. Palatan's successor and his successor, Oprah Chankano, the former war chief of the Pamunkey Indians, recognized that more and more of their land was being taken up. And in March of 1622, everything reached flashpoint, an incredibly well-planned and well-executed revolt on uprising by the native people along the James River. At that point, there are about 23 settlements along the James River from where Richmond is today, down to where the James feeds into the basin of the Chesape. And almost every one of those settlements was in some way attack. We don't have an accurate measure. It's oft-guestimated around 1,250 English men, women, and children were living along the James, and we know of 347 that were killed that day.

Wow. The reprisals were slow in coming because for so long the English had accepted that the natives were willing to see the English arrive. Sure. What's interesting to me is that after these 20 years, there's still these threats. I mean, the threat has not been mitigated. You would have thought, I would imagine, through all that governance and all those times, that measures would have been taken, negotiations would have happened, but apparently not. They relied so heavily on the 1614 piece of Pocahontas.

Yeah. And they had been neglectful to actually realize that the native people were not happy. And the native people did have autonomy. And there were questions raised about their sincerity. At one point, in early 1622, before the uprising on March 22, the emperor, Opichankanao was asked. there were rumors that had gotten back to the governor at the time, Sir Francis Wyatt. And the ember who was reported to have said, the sky should sooner fall than our peace be broken. And a month and a half later, the sky did fall.

Wow. And this is going to mark the beginning of a whole longer period of conflict that goes into the 1630s. You know, this is a decade and more of lots of problems that eventually lands with even a rebellion within itself, right? Correct. Things will settle down in the 1630s, but there will be one final uprising in 1644 on April 18th. And this now very aged leader, Opichankan, now, it's his last shot. And the mortality rate against the English is not nearly as high. And at that point, within two years by 1646, several of the larger tribes have been regulated to reservations. Why would the Crown revoke this charter that had been in place in various iterations for 20 years?

It's another one of those complicated answers that I'm going to try to make as simple as I can. The company by the early 1620s, the officers in London, were very divided about how best to proceed forward. Some of them wanted to continue the idea that under the table they could use the ports in Virginia as safe havens for piracy. They couldn't come out and say this, but that was an underlining cause. Some of the officers were fearful of the Virginians being allowed so much autonomy, the colonists being allowed so much autonomy to create their own laws. That was a little unnerving. And King James was brought into the middle of this when several of his favorites fell on both sides of these arguments. And the crown, King James, determined that the easiest way to mitigate this would be to drop the company completely,

dissolve the company, and Virginia would become a royal colony. And that's what happened. It just seems very coincidental with the fact that the New Netherland begins in 1624 the same year. Did that have anything to do with it? Why were these gentlemen distressing over attacking the Spanish ships? They are trying to create some centrifuge for the double. Dutch. Remember, the Dutch are leasing English merchant ships, giving them Dutch flags. And there have been wars being fought over this in the previous years, Dutch and the

English, and all kinds of stuff is happening back in Europe, of course. This is merely the tip of the iceberg, I understand. And it's the beginning of the 30 years war as well. Yeah. So this stake in the ground in the new world is driven deeper when that charter is revoked and it becomes an official crown colony. Correct. Correct. There are peace treaties that are attempted. Not all of the tribes are coalescing under the Emperor Opa Chan Canal. Some are wanting to seek peace on their own terms. And that's one of the reasons that the reprisals against the native people at large continue into the 1630s. And by the 1630s, the Dutch are coming also into the Chesape. Yeah, and there's new Sweden is in the southern New Jersey. I mean, there's all kinds of pressures that are happening and reminding the English that, gee, we better grab this land. I just want to point out, I mean, the geography of it is you've got the Massachusetts Bay colony up there since the pilgrims came, you know, a few years earlier beginning up in Cape Cod area. And then you've got Jamestown down here. That's like a vice right between them is the, is the Dutch. And it's only a matter of time, 1664, when that all becomes whole. And that's kind of, the dynamic in play.

And don't forget Maryland, established in 1634. We always forget Maryland, don't we? Yeah. If you're in Virginia, you can't. I'm just saying, if you're a Virginia, you can't forget. But they're established in 1634 is a haven for Catholics. Yes. I'll be back with more American history after this short break.

Just a recap right now. I want to say it is a fascinating thing that we really discussed in the previous episode that's worth reminding people of right now. What has happened was the creation of a commercial entity, of a whole company that's down here, creating a profit-making organization that is based solely on making money as opposed to a religious organization running the show.

That has worked out. It's been a very rocky road. It still is. But it's happening. And as a result, it has become attractive to the crown to create this now official English colony, which won't happen up north for a few more years.

but that's the process that's underway. You mentioned something, I don't know, 10 minutes ago that was fascinating, that there was a point where one of those charters actually drew that Virginia all the way out to the Pacific Ocean. That's the beginning of Manifest Destiny, isn't it? Absolutely. As I offered in the previous segment, John Smith will explore the Chesapeake Bay twice, the summer of 1608. Yeah. And the letter survives that John Smith wrote in the autumn of 168 back to the summer of 168 back

to the home office, back to the company, saying, we haven't asked for enough land. You are not going to believe it. Instead of 50 miles in any direction, we need to ask for 200 miles, which they do, and they are granted in that charter of 16-9. And at that point, they also include all the way to the western shore. I mean, philosophically, economically, certainly, you have the whole bedrock. of the American experiment, spelled out in the South by making money, by creating these eventual plantations, these agricultural fiefdoms that create this whole subculture, or at least culture, of how to make a lot of money, keep your labor costs low. You know, you bring in enslaved people. Up north, meanwhile, you have the beacon on the hill. You know, you have the whole Puritan

dream. And that's the difference. That's the dichotomy that's very exciting for me personally at this point in my life to understand. How do you end up with these two Americas? That's kind of the basics of it, isn't it? That absolutely is. That's how the two distinct cultures developed. Yeah. 1644, there's, as you mentioned, a big attack by Opichankanow, 300 plus are killed. This leads up to more and more unrest that ends up with what called the Bacon's Rebellion. 1676, we're quite far down the road now. Explain what Bacon's rebellion is and how does that contribute to the downfall, or at least to the end of what we know is James Town. Certainly. We get this question a lot in that, you know, you've gone almost three quarters of a century and there's this huge cultural meltdown.

And what's the cash crop in Virginia? Tobacco. Tobacco. And many indentured servants are lured over. believing that it's like the Horatial Auger stories of the 19th century that were also enveloped with the manifest destiny. You come over, you work hard in the shop, and you can marry the shop owner, his daughter, and you've made it in America. There are a lot of indentured servants that hear these stories about all the land that is available. It's cheap.

and all you need to do is come over and work for someone else, and you've got your stake. The burden with this, and this dates back to the idea of that great chart in 16, 18, that folks that had bought shares of stock, the first 10 years of the colony's organization, they would get 100 acres for each share. and if you bought shares of stock after 16, 16, you would get 50 acres. When the company is dissolved, that mechanism for the stock is gone too. But the crown retained the idea that for each person that you would pay passage for, if you loaded up a ship with 10 people and brought them over, for each person that you brought

over, you, the person that paid their passage, would receive the right to 50 acres for each person. Wow. So some of these tobacco planters early on that do well start bringing over more indentured servants. They start. Exactly. And by the 1660s, early 1670s, some of these planners have the facility to bring over lots of people they have an abundance of land. And they got the opportunity to clear it with a fresh labor force every year and a half, two years.

By now, if you brought over free or enslaved people for each person, 50 acres of land. Wow. I'll just let that roll around for a second. Well, it's going to lead to a lot of class tension, isn't it? And when some of these large landowners set these indentures free, they've worked their term three to seven years, the indentures have it in their head that we're going to get some of this new land because they've got it. But the planners wind up vetting out the worn out tobacco land. It's a little bit like Ireland, isn't it? It absolutely is.

Yeah. The governor that arrives in 1642, William Barkley, will do one. all that he can after the uprising of 1644 to establish friendly natives just to the west of the settled land, and he will protect them. And as these newly freed indentures look to the west, who do they see on this land that they really, they want to get at? Yeah. It's the native people.

Sure. So you've got a tension of class, you've got a tension of land acquisition, and you've got a growing hatred of an indigenous people that are perceived to be being protected by a governor. And it only takes a small match. An settler is killed purportedly by one tribe of natives. and as the posse is raised to go after them, they wind up killing friendly natives, and within four months, 300 people along the frontier have died. It always comes out of not being able to become the middle class that you're expected to be, right? The expectation, managing the expectation.

It's that way over and over and over again. Yeah, the French Revolution. You name it. Yeah. Wealth disparity. It's amazing. How often this has happened in the history of mental. and this is what causes the rebellion in 1676. How long does it last? A year, less than. The forces

under Nathaniel Bacon, Bacon leads an army, a mob in March of 1676 to the West, attacks a large settlement of friendly natives and sadly kills them all, and brings back about 300 pounds sterling worth of deer skins, trade items, and they are touted by folks to the west along the frontier. Basically, Virginia's frontier at that point is where the Interstate 95 Corridor is today. No further than the falls, Richmond, Fredericksburg, but they are praised for having done this. But the governor has issued a warning that if you did it, Nathaniel Bacon would be considered a rebel. He is. And the governor wants to call for the election of new burgesses. We've got to figure it how to build forts along the frontier. We've got to stop this aggression against the native

people. Nathaniel Bacon is elected as one of the burgesses. Oh, okay. And so when he arrives, he tries to take his seat in June of 1676. The governor refuses, then realizes he's got a, he's got control of a mob, I need to be nice to him. Keep your enemies closer. It lasts for a week and a half. Nathaniel Bacon is not satisfied that there isn't a bill to attack native people that's proposed by the government. So he goes back where he came from near Richmond, Virginia, gathers an army of 350 men, and comes back and threatens the governor.

The governor is forced to cede him a commission to fight the native people. He goes, kills some friendly natives. The governor attempts several times to raise an army to put down the rebellion. That summer is unsuccessful. And when the governor returns to Jamestown in September, the mob led by Bacon comes back. Jamestown will get caught in the crossfires and will be destroyed by Bacon's followers September 19, 1676. Bacon leaves goes 30 miles away to attack some friendly natives and dies in the swaps.

It was said he died of a gross infestation of lice and the bloody flux. But with the rebellion falling apart at that point, they've lost their charismatic leader, and so it all disintegrates. Sure. And royal authority is reimposed in the winner of 1677. But this begins an inexorable momentum towards moving this entire place to the north, am I right? It eventually becomes a new James town and then Williamsburg, right? Correct.

They will rebuild parts of James Town in the 1680s. They rebuild the state house. They rebuilt a church. And an accidental fire on the state house of all nights, October 31st, 1698. The brand new state house, it wasn't 10 years old, burned down. And it's kind of like the final straw. After that, the Burgesses gathered over at the new college,

seven miles away inland to the north from Jamestown Island, a place called Middle Plantation, and one of the first orders of business. and the paraphrase, it's recorded in the minutes of the government meeting that due to the destruction of the state house and of the town, we feel it necessary that we will move the capital. Yeah. That's seven miles. That's ostensibly what was happening, but I'm sure there were all kinds of other more organic reasons, so to speak. I mean, such a spread of settlement really had gone to the north and west, is that right? Correct. And it was only a matter of time before, in order to manage those things. And in order for those burgesses not to have to travel so far, you end up with a new capital.

And they had written for years that James Town, from since the inception, it was an unwholesome place full of unclean air and muck. But they had retained the capital year for 92 years. It boggles the mind. I mean, it really does that such a place could be founded against all the odds. Tremendous torture and pain involved in doing this. And then to actually have survived despite itself, you know, by hook or crook, or at least the desire to make a pound, you know, to turn a profit, was really that much of a driving force. I can't help but think the tobacco had everything to do with it.

it was such a celebrated crop, created a whole industry back in Europe. And these are the various elements that go into it, not to mention enslavement. It's just all these different things that become part of the stew that is, you know, palatable to enough people to make this thing happen. Absolutely. You all time to hear about the American experience. Yes, exactly. And when people come here and they go on some of our tours, and we drill down and just the tenacity of the people against incredible odds to survive and to keep

trying to doggedly attempt again and again and again. Well, part of it is you had in so many of those early days no way out. So that creates a different kind of tenacity. It's more like a survival instinct, I suppose, versus later on. It's amazing. But I just really want to say, I mean, this has been a very exciting series to me because, of course, like any little kid in East Coast, I went to James Town when I was 10 years old and walked around the Palisay. You know, imagine this whole thing and it was all very interesting. But I had no clue until very recently and driven home by this conversation how fundamental Jamestown is to creating the American South and beyond that forever.

I mean, George Washington is really a product, essentially, of Jamestown, that whole idea of his view. of America, you know, how many canals he wanted to dig across the country. You know, the whole commercial enterprise that this continent was going to become in those founding fathers' minds. Those founding fathers of the 18th century never give up on the idea of somehow traversing the continent that in the 18th century, they don't know how far it goes. Yeah. But they, the canal system, they are trying every way they can to connect the east to the way. In the early 19th century, there will be the Ohio canals that will connect the Kanawa Canal, attempting to connect to East Coast. Sure, the super highways of the days.

Yeah. But it all begins with this microcosm that is Jamestown. I mean, maybe I'm overstating it, but it just seems like you can root the entire American civilization in this one island in 1607 in many ways. Cannot argue, as I said at Jamestown Island. Willie Volster is the director of living history and historical. trades at Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, the organization that oversees operations at Historic Jamestown, Jamestown, Island especially. I honestly, well, you cannot wait to go back to Jamestown now that I know as much as I do from these four episodes. Don, please, when you do,

reach out to us. Yeah. I will make sure I'm in armor. You can meet one of the colonists that New John Smith. He'll give you the 50-cent tour and offer to you just how bad it is. Parents, school your children. This is good stuff. Thank you so much, Willie. Nice to meet you. You as well, Don. Thank you so much. Hey, thanks for listening to American History Hit. You know, every week we release new episodes. Two new episodes dropping Mondays and Thursdays, all kinds of content from mysterious missing colonies to powerful political movements to some of the biggest battles across the centuries. Don't miss an episode. By hitting like and follow, you help us out, which is great. She'll also be reminded when our shows are on, and while you're at it, share it with a friend.

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