Jamestown, founded in 1607, became the first permanent English settlement in the North American colonies.
The settlement was established by the Virginia Company on an island in the James River, in what is now Virginia. The colonists chose the site partly because it was easy to defend from attack and could be reached by ships. Jamestown was named for King James I of England.
The early settlement faced disease, hunger, conflict, and shortages. Its survival was aided by trade with nearby Indigenous peoples and by the development of tobacco cultivation, especially after John Rolfe introduced a commercially successful variety. Tobacco helped make Virginia economically viable.
Jamestown is often compared with Plymouth, founded by the English Pilgrims in 1620. Plymouth became historically important, but Jamestown was established thirteen years earlier and was the first permanent English settlement in the colonies that became the United States.