colony · North America and Oceania
Colony of Virginia
Origins
The Virginia Company of London sent settlers to Jamestown on the James River in 1607, in the heart of the Powhatan Confederacy. Disease, hunger and conflict killed most early colonists, especially in the Starving Time of 1609 to 1610. John Rolfe's sweet tobacco, first grown around 1612, gave the colony an export crop, and in 1624 the Crown took direct control.
Rule and society
In 1619 the House of Burgesses met as the first elected assembly in English America, and the same year the first enslaved Africans arrived at Point Comfort. A planter elite grew rich on tobacco worked first by indentured servants and later by enslaved Africans, codified in the slave laws of 1705. The Church of England was established, and the College of William and Mary was founded in 1693. Governor William Berkeley's rule provoked Bacon's Rebellion in 1676.
Decline and legacy
The capital moved to Williamsburg in 1699. Virginians such as Patrick Henry, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson led resistance to Britain, and in 1776 the colony adopted George Mason's Declaration of Rights and became an independent commonwealth within the United States.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (4)
- Colony of Virginia was a colony of Kingdom of England1607 CE – 1707 CE
- Colony of Virginia was part of British Empire1607 CE – 1776 CE
- Powhatan Confederacy paid tribute to Colony of Virginia1646 CE – 1677 CE
- Colony of Virginia was a colony of Kingdom of Great Britain1707 CE – 1776 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Colony of Virginia. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/colony-of-virginia
- MLA
- “Colony of Virginia.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/colony-of-virginia. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Colony of Virginia.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/colony-of-virginia.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Colony of Virginia’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/colony-of-virginia (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻