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66 PERIOD 2 Colonial America amid Global Change: 1607–1754

by arresting many landless, unemployed people, convicting them as criminal vagrants
indentured servitude and vagabonds, and forcing them into indentured servitude, a form of bound labor.
These sample pages are distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Condition of being contracted Contracts of indenture allowed the purchase of a laborer for a set number of years, typi-
to work for a set period of cally seven. Fearing arrest, many commoners chose to avoid imprisonment by indentur-
time without pay. ing themselves. Many early migrants to the English colonies indentured themselves in
exchange for the price of passage to North America. In the first half of the seventeenth
Copyright (c) 2024 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
century, the vast majority of British colonial workers in North America was indentured
servants. Once in the colonies, indentured servants were often treated harshly and had
Strictly for use with its products. NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION.
few legal protections.

REVIEW

■ What were some of the causes of English colonization of
North America?

The English Establish Jamestown

England’s success in colonizing North America depended in part on a new economic
joint-stock company model in which investors purchased shares in joint-stock companies that could raise
A company in which large large amounts of money quickly. If the venture succeeded, investors shared the profits.
numbers of investors own If they failed, no investor suffered the whole loss.
stock. Such a company could In 1606, a group of London merchants formed the Virginia Company, and King
quickly raise large amounts James I (reigned 1603–1625) granted them the right to settle a vast area of North
of money and share risk
and reward equally among America that stretched from present-day New York to North Carolina. Among the
investors. leaders of the group of 104 colonists who set out for the New World under the ban-
ner of the Virginia Company was John Smith. Born in 1580, Smith left England as
a young man “to learne the life of a Souldier.” After fighting and traveling through-
out Europe, the Mediterranean, and North Africa for several years, Captain Smith
returned to England around 1605, joining the Virginia Company when it was formed
a year later.
Arriving on the coast of North America in the Chesapeake Bay in April 1607,
the 104 colonists established Jamestown, named in honor of the king. Although the
Virginia Company claimed the land for themselves and their country, the area was
already controlled by a powerful American Indian leader, Chief Powhatan (proper
name Wahunsonacock). He presided over a confederation of some 14,000 Algonquian-
speaking peoples from twenty-five to thirty tribes, which surrounded the small James-
town settlement. Indeed, the English chose the site of this settlement mainly for its easy
Powhatan Confederacy defense, made necessary by the Powhatan Confederacy, which was far more power-
Large and powerful ful than the English settlers. For the first two years, the settlers depended on them to
confederation of Algonquian- survive.
speaking Native Americans Challenged by the swampy, mosquito-infested environment of Jamestown
in Virginia. The Jamestown and struggling for survival, the colonists divided their energies between search-
settlers had a complicated
and often combative ing for gold and silver and building a military encampment. Despite the English-
relationship with the leaders men’s aggressive stance in building this military fort, Powhatan assisted the new
of the Powhatan Confederacy. settlers in hopes they could provide him with English cloth, iron hatchets, and even
guns. His capture and eventual release of John Smith in 1607 suggests his interest
in developing trade relations with the newcomers even as he sought to subordi-
nate them.

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