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Learn where the 13 colonies are on the map. 

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Learn where the 13 colonies are on the map. 

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After watching this video you should be able to find where the 13 colonies are on a map of North America.

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13 American Colonies | US History | Kids Academy

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After watching this video you should know

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The 13 Original Colonies for Kids | Learn all about the first 13 American Colonies

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Jamestown Settlement | Jamestown Colony | Educational Story for Kids | Kids Academy

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Colonial America for Kids: Jamestown Settlement

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Kids learn about the Jamestown Settlement of colonial America including the first settlers, John Smith, the Powhatan tribe, the Staving Time, interesting facts, and Pocahontas.

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Explorers had been landing in America for some time before English settlers arrived in what is now Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. But it was in that spot on the James River that English colonization began and with it, the history of America.

James I was king of England at that time, and he had granted approval for a group of businesspeople to settle in this new land. They were part of the Virginia Company, and they got the go-ahead in 1606. By December of that year, the expedition was ready. Hearing stories from Spanish explorers and others, they hoped to find gold in the New World.

In all, 214 people set sail for America. They reached it on May 14, 1607. Very soon after they landed, the English found themselves under attack from Algonquins, a Native American tribe who had been living in that area for some time and who didn't exactly welcome new settlers. The English managed to drive off the attackers, who came back every now and then. The English, however, were there to stay.

Under the leadership of Captain John Smith, the English built a fort and other buildings designed to protect their new colony. They also found friendly Native Americans, like Powhatan, who was willing to trade with them.

The terrible winter of 1609 convinced most of the settlers to abandon their new life, however. Only 60 of the 214 settlers survived this harsh winter, which was also hard on Powhatan's tribe and other neighboring Native Americans.

(It is this Powhatan, also, whose daughter Pocahontas eventually married John Rolfe.)

One of the main crops grown by the English settlers was tobacco, which they sold to Native Americans and to people back in England, beginning in 1612. Tobacco became a very popular crop because it was easy to grow and because it brought in so much money. The settlers never did find gold, but they were happy to have the money that other people were paying for tobacco.

Once the money started flowing in regularly, the Jamestown colony grew, as did other settlements in Virginia and in other states along the eastern seaboard.

America's first elected assembly, the House of Burgesses, met in Jamestown for the first time on July 30, 1619. This group boasted many famous members through the years, including Patrick Henry, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson.

The year 1619 also saw another significant development: the first arrival of black slaves on boats from Africa.

The Virginia Colony-and Jamestown, in particular-were gripped by a particularly violent series of events in 1676, known as Bacon's Rebellion. A few hundred armed colonists rebelled against the governor, who was himself backed by a few hundred armed English troops. One of the causes of the insurrection was a disagreement over land policies regarding Native Americans. Deaths, of both Englishmen and Native Americans, numbered in the dozens.

Jamestown was also the capital of Virginia and remained so until 1698.

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Jamestown: First English Colony in America

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Explorers had been landing in America for some time before English settlers arrived in what is now Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. But it was in that spot on the James River that English colonization began and with it, the history of America.

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Early European Settlement of North America Explained

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Spanish Colonizaton of North America Part

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Colonization #1 - Reasons for Exploring/Colonization

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This video explains the reasons for Europe exploring the world and the reasons that the King of England sent over Colonize to the New World.

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Read about why people came to North America

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Read about why people came to North America

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Resources for Family Engagement from the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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We invite you and your family to participate in these activities, inspired by the collections, programs, and expertise of the Library of Congress.

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History: The Pilgrims Journey Documentary

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The Lost Colony of Roanoke - background and first attempts

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Pilgrims for Kids | History of Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving

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The Lost Colony of Roanoke - settlement and disappearance

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The House of Burgesses and Patrick Henry in the new colony of Virginia

The House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses Definition: The House of Burgesses was where elected representatives of English colonists first assembled to debate and solve common problems and pass laws in the new colony of Virginia. The House of Burgesses was established in 1619, it was split into two chambers in 1650, creating the House of Burgesses and the Governors Council and eventually disbanded in 1776 when it was succeeded by the Virginia House of Delegates. The House of Burgesses was a bicameral legislature that was a model for congress and the first representative governmental body in America.
First House of Burgesses
House of Burgesses - Taxes in the Colonies
On February 10, 1763 the Peace Treaty of Paris 1763 ended the French and Indian War in North America. The British left with a massive war debt and looked for ways of imposing new taxes in the colonies. The English Policy of Salutary Neglect ended and the laws of the Navigation Acts are enforced. The Sugar Act and the Currency Act are passed in 1764. Then in 1765 the Stamp Act and the Quartering Act are passed by the English Parliament...

In May 1765 House of Burgesses - Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry was elected as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He led the protests against the hated English laws and taxes in the House of Burgesses. On May 29, 1765 Patrick Henry delivered his famous 'Caesar-Brutus Speech' "If this be treason, make the most of it!" in the debate in the House of Burgesses about his Resolutions against the Stamp Act. Patrick Henry was accused of treason by loyalist members but on May 30, 1765 the resolutions introduced by Patrick Henry against the Stamp Act were passed by the Virginia House of Burgesses. The violent reaction of the colonists to the Stamp Act led to the emergence of the Sons of Liberty organisation. The hated tax was repealed but the seed of revolution had been sewn...
Patrick Henry - "Give me Liberty..."

House of Burgesses - George Washington
In 1769, George Washington , set on protesting the British policy of "taxation without representation," brought a package of Nonimportation resolutions before the Virginia House of Burgesses. The resolutions, drafted by George Mason largely in response to England's passage of the Townshend Acts of 1767, opposed Parliament's plan to send colonial political protestors to England for trial.

The Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, disbanded the the House of Burgesses in 1773 for supporting persons opposed to the Mother Country. He dissolved the legislature again 1774. As the Governor of Virginia had prevented the House of Burgesses from meeting Patrick Henry delivered his famous speech " House of Burgesses is Disbanded
Give me liberty or give me death!" on March 23, 1775 at St. John's Church as it was the only building in Richmond suitable to hold 100 delegates. Virginia was the first colony to instruct its delegates to move for independence at the Continental Congress of 1776. Through the House of Burgesses, the Virginia House of Delegates is considered the oldest continuous legislative body in the New World.

The meaning gradually changed from "fortress," to "fortified town," to simply "town". The word Burgh changed to the word Borough which is evident in many modern London place names. The word 'Burgess' originally meant a freeman of a borough or burgh and later came to mean an elected official or the representative of a borough in the English House of Commons in Parliament.

House of Burgesses

Meaning and Definition of the House of Burgesses

History of the House of Burgesses of 1765

Fast Facts and info about House of Burgesses

The House of Burgesses article is a great history resource for kids

Social Studies Homework help for kids on the House of Burgesses of 1765

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The House of Burgesses and Patrick Henry in the new colony of Virginia The House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses Definition: The House of Burgesses was where elected representatives of English colonists first assembled to debate and solve common problems and pass laws in the new colony of Virginia.

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The three men who issued and first administered the laws were all career army officers, and because the largest part of the code was the law martial for the governing of the soldiers, the code has been misunderstood as imposing martial law on everyone in the colony. It has also been wrongly called Dale's Laws, as if Deputy Governor Sir Thomas Dale, who administered the code for much of the time that it was in effect, was its sole or principal author.

The Virginia Company received a new charter in 1609 that authorized it to send a military governor to the struggling colony. Sir Thomas Gates sailed for Virginia in 1609, but his ship, theSea Venture, was wrecked on Bermuda in a hurricane. When he arrived in Virginia in May 1610, he found the remnant of the garrison at Jamestown that had survived the deadly winter known as the Starving Time. On May 24, 1610, Gates issued the first of the orders that William Strachey compiled and published in England in 1612 in a book entitled For the Colony in Virginea Britannia. Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, &c.

Gates and the surviving colonists decided within weeks to pack up and sail for Newfoundland to catch a ride back to England aboard the fishing fleet. On the way down the James River, they met a relief expedition under the command of Thomas West, baron De La Warr, who had been appointed governor of the colony by the Virginia Company. The survivors returned to Jamestown. On June 12, 1610, De La Warr confirmed and began adding to the regulations that Gates had first announced. It is not possible from Strachey's compilation to know in most instances who issued which orders or whether the governors issued them in the same sequence in which Strachey published them. Some orders, such as those mentioning a new well that was dug later, clearly postdate the first Gates and De La Warr orders. The whole body of laws that Strachey compiled before returning to England in 1612 fills eighteen pages in his book. In the title he called them "Divine" and "Morall" laws and in another part "Divine" and "Politique" laws.

In May 1611, Sir Thomas Dale arrived in Virginia with supplies, livestock, and many new settlers. He commanded a large and well-equipped military force and on June 22, 1611, issued a detailed law martial for the governing of the soldiers. It fills sixty-nine pages of Strachey's book and was a fairly standard military code prescribing the duties and responsibilities of all the officers and men and imposing severe corporal punishments or death for infractions of discipline. Dale ordered that the guard publicly read a seven-page prayer twice each day. He administered the colony most of the time until the spring of 1616 during the long absences of Gates and De La Warr, but it is unlikely that he subjected the civilian residents of Virginia to the law martial. The orders imposed on civilians, to which Dale very likely added others, were strict enough to give the laws an evil reputation, and Dale's administration of them was harsh enough to earn him much criticism then and thereafter.

The laws specified the responsibilities of ministers and required every person to attend church twice every Sunday. The laws established procedures for the disposal of the property of colonists who died, regulated trade with Indians, prohibited unnecessary killing of livestock, required houses and bedding to be kept clean, and forbade washing soiled clothing and cooking utensils or doing "the necessities of nature" within a quarter mile of the new well. The laws also regulated the collection of debts and trading with men aboard ships, and they required tradesmen, cooks, laundry women, and others to work at their tasks and the men to muster for defense when summoned.

The laws ordered severe corporal punishment for many offenses, such as having a bodkin driven through the tongue for cursing or speaking disrespectfully of the clergy or company officials. The code imposed whippings and other physical punishment for gambling, failing to attend church, fornication, adultery, unnecessarily killing livestock, or stealing agricultural implements or other people's crops.

The list of crimes to be punished with death was long: blasphemy, uttering treasonous words or words critical of the company, murder, sodomy, robbery, swearing false oaths, bearing false witness, trading with Indians without permission, stealing from Indians, cheating the company or the cape merchant (who operated the company's storehouse), trading with sailors without permission, and sending goods out of the colony without permission. It prescribed death for a third offence for several of the crimes to be punished in the first or second instance by whipping, standing in the stocks or at the pillory, or having the tongue bored through or cut out.

The laws required that every minister "read all these lawes and ordinances, publickly in the assembly of the congregation."

It is very likely that Dale (as well as Gates and De La Warr during their occasional short residences in Virginia) issued more orders after Strachey left Virginia early in 1612, but those orders, or laws, have not survived. Strict enforcement of the code, for which Dale was noteworthy, helped the company restore order and discipline in Virginia. The company's military governors administered the code until April 18, 1619, when Sir George Yeardley arrived in Jamestown and began governing under the new Great Charter of 1618. From July 30 to August 4, 1619, he presided over the first meeting of the General Assembly of Virginia that adopted the first laws of the new civilian government.

Time Line

May 24, 1610 - In Jamestown, Sir Thomas Gates issues the first orders to govern the surviving inhabitants of Virginia. The orders will be added to and published in 1612 as For the Colony in Virginea Britannia. Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, &c.

June 12, 1610 - In Jamestown, Governor Thomas West, baron De La Warr, confirms Gates's orders and issues additional orders of his own. The orders will be published in 1612 as For the Colony in Virginea Britannia. Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, &c.

June 22, 1611 - Sir Thomas Dale issues military regulations under which his soldiers are to act while in Virginia, supplementing civil orders released in 1610. The combined orders are printed in London the next year with the title For the Colony in Virginea Britannia. Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, &c.

1612 - In London, William Strachey publishes a compilation of all of the laws issued before he left Virginia early in the year. He titles his book For the Colony in Virginea Britannia. Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, &c.

April 18, 1619 - Sir George Yeardley arrives in Jamestown and assumes the position of deputy governor. Government under the Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall ceases.

References

Further Reading

Flaherty, David H. For The Colony in Virginea Britannia Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, Etc., Compiled by William Strachey. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1969.

Konig, David Thomas. "'Dale's Laws' and the Non-Common Law Origins of Criminal Justice in Virginia." American Journal of Legal History 26, no. 4 (October 1982), 354-375.

Prince, Walter F. "The First Criminal Code of Virginia." Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1900), 1:309-363.

Strachey, William, comp. For the Colony in Virginea Britannia. Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, &c. London, printed for Walter Burre, 1612.

Cite This Entry

APA Citation:
Tarter, B. Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall. (2012, January 20). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Lawes_Divine_Morall_and_Martiall.

MLA Citation:
Tarter, Brent. " Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, 20 Jan. 2012. Web. READ_DATE.

First published: May 3, 2011 | Last modified: January 20, 2012

Contributed by Brent Tarter, founding editor of the Dictionary of Virginia Biography.

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The three men who issued and first administered the laws were all career army officers, and because the largest part of the code was the law martial for the governing of the soldiers, the code has been misunderstood as imposing martial law on everyone in the colony.

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Archeologists Uncover the Lives of Jamestown’s Enslaved People