By the early 1600s, Spain had built a vast empire in the Americas, bringing enormous wealth back to Europe. England watched closely. If Spain could establish colonies across the Atlantic, England believed it could as well.

Primary Sources

• Captain John Smith — The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1624)
  • Jamestown founding account
  • Early struggles
  • Leadership role
  • Relations with the Powhatan Confederacy
  • “He that will not work, shall not eat”
• George Percy — A Trewe Relacyon of the Proceedings and Occurrents of Noate happening in Virginia (1608)
  • Firsthand account of early Jamestown hardships
  • Disease, hunger, and conditions among settlers
• Virginia Company of  ...