Excerpt: Virginia, pt. 1 -- The Successful Failure, 1607-1646

About this episode

This episode explores the transformation of Virginia from a struggling settlement to a prosperous colony, highlighting key figures and events in its history.

Virginia began from a small, undersupplied wooden fort immersed in a brackish and malarial marsh to become, after 30 years, the largest and most valuable colony in North America, pulling in thousands of indentured workers and African slaves each year and pumping out millions of pounds of tobacco. In achieving this shocking metamorphosis, the colonists had to contend with the Powhatan Confederacy, one of the strongest indigenous states in the Americas, which ruled the Tidewater region; and they had to to choose among different forking paths that might have led to an entirely different relationship between Indians and English. We consider the unrealized possible histories that iconic figures like John Smith and Pocahontas came to symbllize, and the reasons why the English backers poured so many resources and human lives into this endeavor of conquest and colonization, ultimately supplanting Powhatan civilization and creating a cash-crop colony. Please become a patron to hear all patron-only lectures: www.patreon.com/c/u5530632 Suggested further reading: Morgan, “American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia”; Wertenaber, “The Planters of Colonial Virginia”…

People in this episode

Host: Samuel Biagetti

Topics covered

• colonial history
• Virginia
• Powhatan Confederacy
• tobacco economy
• indentured servitude
• indigenous relations

Keywords

• Virginia
• colonization
• tobacco
• John Smith
• Pocahontas
• Powhatan
• indentured servants
• history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Powhatan Confederacy

Books & works: American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia, The Planters of Colonial Virginia, The Jamestown Project, Colonial Virginia: A History

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