Jamestown was established in 1607 as the first permanent English settlement in North America.
The Virginia Company of London founded Jamestown on an island in the James River in the Colony of Virginia. The settlers arrived in May 1607 and named the settlement for King James I of England. Jamestown became the capital of colonial Virginia and remained an important political center for decades.
The settlement struggled with disease, hunger, conflict, and difficult relations with the Powhatan Confederacy. Tobacco cultivation, especially after John Rolfe’s experiments with a marketable strain, helped make the Virginia colony economically viable.
Jamestown is sometimes confused with Plymouth, founded by English Separatists in 1620. Plymouth was important, but it was established thirteen years after Jamestown and was not the first permanent English settlement in North America. Jamestown’s legacy connects the colonial era to the later creation of the United States.