T
EXPLORATION, ENCOUNTER, EXCHANGE IN HISTORY
he Virginia Company’s goal was for settlers to make
permanent homes in Virginia. The shareholders feared
that without women, the colony would attract only fortune
seekers whose pursuit of short-term interests would
sabotage the colony’s long-term prospects. They sought to
replicate an English model of society in the New World.
Englishwomen were not the only females to establish
themselves in the new colony. When the privateer White
Lion arrived at Point Comfort, Virginia, in 1619, it carried
“20. and odd Negroes” who were quickly exchanged to the
fledging colony for food and then resold to other colonists.
They were soon followed by others, brought unwillingly to
the colony and sold to provide labor. The first Jamestown
census, taken in March 1620, listed 17 African females
among the settlement’s 928 residents, some of whom were
likely brought aboard the White Lion or its sister ship the
Treasurer.5 Over the ensuing century, the mingling of men
and women from different cultures, socio-economic classes,
and conditions of servitude would lead to the development
Arrival of the young women at Jamestownn, Howard Pyle, 1882
New York Public Library
of cultural and legal systems distinctive from England’s that
continue to affect American life today.
Questions
• What motivated Virginia’s first female settlers?
Exploration:
• What were the conditions of their travel? Their new homes?
Encounter:
• How were their lives different than in their native countries?
• How were they integrated into Virginia society?
Exchange:
• What effect did the arrival of women have on the lives of those
already living in America, especially Native Americans?
Suggested Online Resources:
• Encyclopedia of Virginia
www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Women_
inColonial_Virginia
• National Park Service
www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/
the-indispensible-role-of-women-atjamestown.htm.
• National Women’s History Museum
www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/
jamestownwomen/index.htm
• How did the legal system and culture adapt to integrate women
and especially enslaved women?
“Virginia’s First Africans,” Encyclopedia of Virginia, accessed January 6, 2015, www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Virginia_s_First_Africans#start_entry.
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