Jamestown was founded in 1607 as the first permanent English settlement in North America.
The Virginia Company of London established the settlement on an island in the James River in the Virginia Colony. The colonists arrived in three ships, the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. They named the settlement for King James I of England.
Jamestown faced severe hardships, including disease, hunger, conflict, and unreliable access to fresh water. The colony’s survival improved after tobacco became an important cash crop, especially through the work of John Rolfe. Jamestown also served as Virginia’s colonial capital until the government moved to Williamsburg in 1699.
Jamestown is sometimes confused with Roanoke, an earlier English colony that disappeared, or Plymouth, founded by English Separatists in 1620. St. Augustine, founded by Spain in 1565, predates Jamestown but was not an English settlement. The history also includes the Powhatan peoples, whose communities and political relationships were central to the colony’s early development.