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Jamestown Colony
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Reconstructed timber-framed houses and outbuildings surrounded by trees at Jamestown Settlement living history museum in Virginia. Jamestown Settlement: Godspeed Powhatan bust Map highlighting the location of Jamestown Colony in southeastern Virginia, near the Atlantic coast. Surrounding states including Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and West Virginia are also shown. An inset globe in the top left corner marks the region's position in eastern North America. John Smith George Percy John Rolfe Illustration of Jamestown Fort, Virginia, around 1608, showing a triangular wooden palisade with tents and buildings inside, located beside a river. Painting of the early 1600s Jamestown village on the James River in Virginia, showing a fortified settlement, ships in the water, and a winding river through forested land.
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Painting of the early 1600s Jamestown village on the James River in Virginia, showing a fortified settlement, ships in the water, and a winding river through forested land.
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Reconstructed timber-framed houses and outbuildings surrounded by trees at Jamestown Settlement living history museum in Virginia.
Jamestown Fort Replica of Jamestown Fort buildings at Jamestown Settlement, near Williamsburg, Virginia.

Jamestown Colony

English colony, North America
Also known as: James Cittie, James Forte, James Towne, Jamestown(Show More)
Written by
David A. Price
David A. Price's Love and Hate in Jamestown (2003), a history of the Jamestown colony and the Virginia Company, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a School Library...
David A. Price
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

Jamestown Colony, first permanent English settlement in North America, located near present-day Williamsburg, Virginia. Established on May 14, 1607, the colony gave England its first foothold in the European competition for the New World, which had been dominated by the Spanish since the voyages of Christopher Columbus in the late 15th century. The colony was a private venture, financed and organized by the Virginia Company of London. King James I granted a charter to a...

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