Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in America after its founding in 1607.
The Virginia Company established Jamestown on an island in the James River in what is now Virginia. The settlement was named for King James I of England and served as the capital of the Virginia Colony for much of the 17th century.
Early colonists faced disease, food shortages, conflict, and difficult relations with nearby Indigenous peoples. The colony’s survival improved through cultivation and trade, especially after tobacco became a valuable export. In 1619, Virginia’s House of Burgesses met at Jamestown, creating one of the earliest representative legislative assemblies in English America.
Jamestown was not the first European settlement anywhere in North America, nor was it the first English attempt. Roanoke had been established earlier but failed to become a permanent colony. Jamestown was ultimately abandoned as Virginia’s capital in favor of Williamsburg in 1699.