7. Virginia Company 1624,

Virginia Company

The Virginia Company refers collectively to a joint stock company chartered by James I on 10 April 1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America. The two companies, called the "Virginia Company of London" (or the London Company) and the "Virginia Company of Plymouth" (or Plymouth Company) operated with identical charters but with differing territories. An area of overlapping territory was created within which the two companies were not permitted to establish colonies within one hundred miles of each other. The Plymouth Company never fulfilled its charter, and its territory that later became New England was at that time also claimed by England.

As corporations, the companies were empowered by the Crown to govern themselves, and they ultimately granted the same privilege to their colony. In 1624, the Virginia Company failed; however, its grant of self-government to the colony was not revoked, and, "either from apathy, indecision, or deliberate purpose," the Crown allowed the system to continue. The principle was thus established that a royal colony should be self-governing, and this formed the genesis of democracy in America.

The first leader of the Virginia Company in England was its treasurer, Sir Thomas Smythe, who arranged the 1609 charter. He had been governor of the East India Company since 1603 and continued with one break until 1621.

Colony of Virginia

The Colony of Virginia (also known frequently as the Virginia Colony, the Province of Virginia, and occasionally as the Dominion and Colony of Virginia or Most Ancient Colloney and Dominion of Virginia) was the first English colony in the world. William Kelso says Virginia "is where the British Empire began,... this was the first colony in the British Empire."[2] The colony existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the American Revolution (as a British colony after 1707[3]). The name Virginia was first applied by Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth I in 1584. After the English Civil War in the mid 17th century, the Virginia Colony was nicknamed "The Old Dominion" by King Charles II for its perceived loyalty to the English monarchy during the era of the Commonwealth of England.

In 1607, members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company founded Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River. Famine, disease and conflict with local Native American tribes (the Powhatan Confederacy) in the first two years brought Jamestown to the brink of failure before the arrival of a new group of settlers and supplies in 1610. Tobacco became Virginia's first profitable export, the production of which had a significant impact on the society and settlement patterns. In 1624, the Virginia Company's charter was revoked by King James I and the Virginia Colony was transferred to royal authority as a crown colony.

From 1619 to 1776, the legislature of the Virginia was the House of Burgesses, which governed in conjunction with a colonial governor. Jamestown remained the capital of the Virginia colony until 1699; from 1699 until its dissolution the capital was in Williamsburg. It experienced its first major political turmoil with Bacon's Rebellion of 1676.

After declaring independence from Great Britain in 1775 before the Declaration of Independence was officially adopted, the Virginia Colony became the Commonwealth of Virginia, one of the original thirteen states of the United States, adopting as its official slogan "The Old Dominion". After the United States was formed, the entire states of West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, and portions of Ohio and Western Pennsylvania were all later created from the territory encompassed earlier by the Colony of Virginia.

House of Burgesses

The Virginia House of Burgesses /ˈbɜrdʒəsɪz/ was the first legislative assembly of elected representatives in North America.[1] The House was established by the Virginia Company, who created the body as part of an effort to encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America and to make conditions in the colony more agreeable for its current inhabitants.[2]The word "Burgess" means an elected or appointed official of a municipality, or the representative of a borough in the English House of Commons. First session On July 30, 1619, the first European-style legislative assembly in the Americas convened for a six-day meeting at the church on Jamestown Island, Virginia. A council chosen by the Virginia Company as advisers to the governor, the Virginia Governor's Council, met as a sort of "upper house," while 22 elected representatives met as the House of Burgesses. Together, the House of Burgesses and the Council would be the Virginia General Assembly.

The House's first session of July 30, 1619, accomplished little. It was cut short by an outbreak of malaria. The assembly had 22 members from the following constituencies: James City (Captain William Powell, Ensign William Spense), Charles City (Sergeant Samuel Sharpe, Samuel Jordan), the City of Henricus (Thomas Dowse, John Polentine or Plentine), Kicoughtan (Captain William Tucker, William Capps), Martin-Brandon (Captain John Martin's Plantation) (Thomas Davis, Robert Stacy), Smythe's Hundred (Captain Thomas Graves, Walter Shelley), Martin's Hundred (John Boys, John Jackson), Argall's Gift Plantation (Thomas Pawlett, Edward Gourgainy), Flowerdew (or Flowerdieu) Hundred Plantation (Ensign Edmund Rossingham, John Jefferson), Captain Lawne's Plantation (Captain Christopher Lawne, Ensign Washer), and Captain Ward's Plantation (Captain John Warde or Ward, Lieutenant John Gibbs or Gibbes).

Joint-stock companyA joint-stock company is a business entity where different stocks can be bought and owned by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by his or her shares (certificates of ownership).[1] This allows for the unequal ownership of a business with some shareholders owning a larger proportion of a company than others. Shareholders are able to transfer their shares to others without any effects to the continued existence of the company.[2]

In modern corporate law, the existence of a joint-stock company is often synonymous with incorporation (i.e. possession of legal personality separate from shareholders) and limited liability (meaning that the shareholders are only liable for the company's debts to the value of the money they invested in the company). And as a consequence joint-stock companies are commonly known as corporations or limited companies.Some jurisdictions still provide the possibility of registering joint-stock companies without limited liability. In the United Kingdom and other countries which have adopted their model of company law, these are known as unlimited companies. In the United States, they are known simply as "joint-stock companies".

 

The territory granted to the London Company included the coast of North America from the 34th parallel (Cape Fear) north to the 41st parallel (in Long Island Sound). As part of the Virginia Company and Colony, the London Company "owned" a large portion of Atlantic and Inland Canada. The company was permitted by its charter to establish a 100-square-mile (260 km2) settlement within this area. The portion of the company's territory north of the 38th parallel was shared with the Plymouth Company, with the stipulation that neither company found a colony within 100 miles (161 km) of each other.

 

The London Company made landfall on April 26, 1607, at the southern edge of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, which they named Cape Henry, near present-day Virginia Beach. Deciding to move the encampment, on May 24, 1607, they established the Jamestown Settlement on the James River about 40 miles (64 km) upstream from its mouth at the Chesapeake Bay. Later in 1607, the Plymouth Company established its Popham Colony in present-day Maine, but it was abandoned after about a year. By 1609, the Plymouth Company had dissolved. As a result, the charter for the London Company was adjusted with a new grant that extended from "sea to sea" of the previously-shared area between the 38th and 40th parallel. It was amended in 1612 to include the new territory of the Somers Isles (or Bermuda).

 

The London Company struggled financially, struggling with labor shortages in the Virginia colony. Its profits improved after sweeter strains of tobacco than the native variety were cultivated and successfully exported from Virginia as a cash crop beginning in 1612. In 1624, the company lost its charter, and Virginia became a royal colony. (Its spin-off, the Somers Isles Company, operated until 1684).

 

In Renaissance England, wealthy merchants, eager to find investment opportunities, established a number of companies to trade in various parts of the world. Each company was made up of individuals who purchased shares of company stock. The Crown granted a charter to each company with a monopoly to explore, trade or settle a particular region of the world. Profits were shared among the investors according to the amount of stock each owned. Between 1585 and 1630, more than 6,300 Englishmen and women invested in joint stock companies trading with Russia, Turkey, Africa, the East Indies, the Mediterranean and North America.

Definition of "slavesVirginia slave code, 1639

“Act XI. All persons except the African slaves are to be provided with arms and ammunitions or be fined at the pleasure of the governor and the council.”

Virginia, 1662

“Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children got by any Englishmen upon a Negro shall be slave or Free, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present Grand assembly, that all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother."

Maryland, 1664

“That whatsoever free-born [English] woman shall intermarry with any slave [...] shall serve the master of such slave during the life of her husband; and that all the issue of such free-born women, so married shall be slaves as their fathers were.”

Virginia, 1667

“Act III. Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children that are slaves by birth [...] should by virtue of their baptism be made free, it is enacted that baptism does not alter the condition to the person as to his bondage or freedom; masters freed from this doubt may more carefully propagate Christianity by permitting slaves to be admitted to that sacrament.”

Virginia, 1682

“Act I. It is enacted that all servants [...] which shall be imported into this country either by sea or by land, whether Negroes, Moors, mulattoes or Indians who and whose parentage and native countries are not Christian at the time of their first purchase by some Christian [...] and all Indians, which shall be sold by our neighboring Indians, or any other trafficking with us for slaves, are hereby adjudged, deemed and taken to be slaves to all intents and purposes any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.”

Southern Colonies

Colony of England (1632–1707)

Colony of Great Britain (1707–76)

Southern Colonies in North America were established by England (later Great Britain), during the 17th and 18th centuries and consisted of the Province of Maryland,existed from 1633 until 1776,[1] the Colony of Virginia, From 1619 to 1776, the legislature of the Virginia was the House of Burgesses the Province of North Carolina,Carolina charter in 1663  the Province of South Carolina,which was chartered by eight Lords Proprietor in 1663 and the Province of Georgia The

 

charter was finalized by the King's privy council on June 9, 1732.

The colonies were founded in order to compete with other European powers in the quest for land and wealth. They developed prosperous economies based on the cultivation of cash crops, such as tobacco,[3] indigo,[4] and rice.[5] Over time, the region was noted for its reliance upon slave labor and for its highly-stratified social class distinctions.