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Positive And Negative Effects Of Colonial Virginia

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Imagine, stepping onto ground as mysterious as the bottomless depths of the ocean on which you have just spent three months risking your life sailing across. That was what it was like to be a settler for the first colony of the United states, Jamestown,Virginia. Virginia was the first English colony in North America. So therefore, regardless of positive or negative effect Jamestown, Virginia was the most influential colony because it planted the seeds of long term slavery, started the tobacco growing trend, and started long term ideas of democracy with the house of burgesses.

It was in Jamestown that one of the very first slave ships docked and sold some slaves. This inevitably started the trend of african slaves being sold in North America …show more content…

Virginia started the trend of going to the new world to grow one of Europe’s most desired imports, tobacco. The colonists planted tobacco everywhere, even if it wasn’t practical. They would plant it,grow it, then ship it to Europe to be sold. The taste of tobacco was perfected in 1612 and then,”European demand for tobacco was nearly insatiable. A tobacco rush swept over Virginia”(Cohen 32). European demand was high, so farmers grew more of it, eventually they flooded the market. Tobacco was the prime cash crop up until cotton and was an integral part of our culture until recently.

The House of Burgesses gave colonists the idea that they could govern themselves which led to the revolution.The House of Burgesses was a governmental body set up by the colonists to make decisions via popular vote. The House of Burgesses may have informed some of the decisions made when writing our constitution. However, Britain and king James were not appreciative of the House,”he distrusted the representative House of Burgesses, which he branded a ‘seminary of sedition’”(Kennedy 33). The House of Burgesses was probably one of the many factors that increased tensions between Britain and the colonies. Altogether, this shows that being the first instance of democracy, that the House of Burgesses was one of the most influential assemblies in American

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