In 1607 Indians of Virginia's Tidewater discovered they had new neighbors on the James River. Their leaders, Powhatan and Opechancanough, countered the English threat in different ways.

Over its seventeen year life span, the Virginia Company struggled to plant a colony far from the edge of European civilization and to make it yield a profit. To some extent they were making it up as they went along.

The Virginia Company's huge investment finally paid off. Although it came too late to save the company, the profits from tobacco made Jamestown a significant player in the world economy.

In 1607, when Christopher Newport's little fleet anchored in what would be called the James River, it made rival claim to a domain inhabited by the highly organized and sophisticated Powhatan paramount chiefdom.

The great tobacco fortunes of early Virginia would not have been possible but for the steady supply of African slaves toward the end of the 17th century. They were transported from Africa along an extensive and sophisticated pipeline.

When the early colonists departed England bound for Virginia, they left behind a society divided by class, rank, wealth and religion, but also one uniquely unified in its view of the world.

Religion, notably Protestantism, played a central role in the life of the colonists, illustrated by the famous cross-planting at Cape Henry and the early construction of several churches within the Jamestown colony.

Starting in 1608, women began arriving in Jamestown, where many could achieve a status and freedom unheard of in England.

Three small ships sailed from England to establish a colony in Virginia, arriving in May 1607. Jamestown became America's first permanent English settlement.

Although slavery was not a prominent component of the early Jamestown settlement, the institution took root in Virginia with the growth of the tobacco industry and became a prototype for the other colonies.