Remembering Governor George Yeardley

Early Virginia

In the first two decades of the 17th century, the Jamestowne Colony in Virginia was struggling. Settled in 1607, the Colony had experienced Indian attacks, famine, disease, and a host of other...

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August 1619: Commemorating the First Representative Government in North America at Jamestowne Colony

Early Virginia

This month we commemorate the anniversary of the convening of the first General Assembly at the Jamestowne Colony in August 1619, an event that historians point to as the very first representative...

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Remembering William Berkeley

Early Virginia, Featured

Long forgotten today, one of the most important political figures in 17th century colonial America was William Berkeley, who died this day on July 9, 1677. Berkeley was the Governor of the Virginia...

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Remembering Nathaniel Bacon

Early Virginia

Americans sometimes forget—or never were taught—that the first permanent English settlement in North America was not in New England—it was Jamestown Colony in Virginia. During the 17th Century,...

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Remembering Captain John Smith

Early Virginia

One of the most famous people associated with the Jamestowne Colony in Virginia was Captain John Smith, an explorer, adventurer and military man who is best known today as the man with whom the...

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Remembering George Somers

Early Virginia

A forgotten man in the history of Jamestown and early Virginia is George Somers, who was born this day on April 24, 1554—a long, long time ago—but who during his lifetime was a celebrated...

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Remembering Pocahontas

Early Virginia

She has been memorialized in many ways by many generations. She’s been the main character in a Disney animated film. She was the very first Native-American to appear on a U.S. stamp. These and...

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February 1623: Jamestowne Colony Tallies Up the Grim Statistics of the “Livinge & Dead in Virginia,” Following the Massacre of 1622

Early Virginia

(contemporaneous engraving of the Massacre of 1622) Looking back 400 years, we often read about events that were defining moments in the history of our earliest American settlements, be they the...

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400 Years Ago in 1624: At Jamestowne Colony, Multiple Calamities Lead to the Ouster of The Virginia Company, and a Takeover by the Crown

Early Virginia

Jamestowne Colony, founded in 1607, was the very first permanent English colony in North America. Over the last 400+ years, its importance in American history has come to be overshadowed by the...

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