Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the area now called the United States.
The Virginia Company established Jamestown in 1607 on an island in the James River. The settlement became the capital of the Virginia colony and served as an important base for English colonization in North America. Its name honored King James I of England.
Jamestown struggled with disease, hunger, conflict, and difficult relations with nearby Indigenous peoples. The colony’s survival depended on changing leadership, trade, agriculture, and new arrivals. Tobacco cultivation later became commercially important, although it brought severe environmental and social consequences and increased reliance on enslaved labor.
Jamestown is sometimes confused with Plymouth, founded by English Separatists in 1620. Plymouth was established later and was not the first permanent English settlement. St. Augustine, founded by Spain in 1565, is older than Jamestown but was not an English settlement.