Beyond Jamestown - Virginia Foundation for the Humanities

Christopher Newport
Christopher Newport was an English sailor who served as the captain of the Susan
Constant, the largest of the three ships that carried colonists to the Powhatan tribes’
homeland. In December 1606, the group of 104 men and boys set sail from London, and
after 144 days they reached the edge of the Chesapeake Bay. Then they sailed upriver to
an island they called “Jamestown,” where John Smith was proclaimed president of the
group.
Newport made two more trips from England in the next 18 months, bringing supplies to
the starving colonists. He authorized expeditions into the interior of Virginia and was
among the first Europeans to venture west to the Fall Line. His last trip shipwrecked in
the Bahamas, which later became an English colony.
The English brought their tools, their livestock, and their ways to North America. To them, it was a wild “New World” full
of resources they wanted: minerals, timber, and most of all, land. To the Indian peoples who lived there, it was a
beautiful homeland that they knew well and loved.
The European newcomers also brought diseases unknown to the Indian communities, which caused terrible epidemics in
which many Indians died.
The longest-lasting effect of Newport’s explorations is that the Virginia Indians, along with many others, lost their
homelands to the settlers. At first only a few settlers established homes around Jamestown, but as time went on, more
and more settlers came. They killed the deer on which tribes depended, fenced lands for their livestock, and made laws
to punish Indians who trespassed. Many Indian people left their
homes, moving west to escape and joining other tribes. Many
others died from disease and wars. The survivors changed their
ways of life, and adjusted over time to the English presence, but
their lives would never be the same.
SOL: 3.3
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