Settlement/Migration
Colonial
Historical Park: Jamestown
Colonial
National Historical Park administers two of the most historically
significant sites in English North America: the first permanent
English settlement at Jamestown in 1607 and the final major battle
of the American Revolutionary War at Yorktown in 1781, literally
the beginning and end of English colonial America.
A
leap of historical imagination is needed to see the human face of
Jamestown as it existed almost 400 yars ago. It has become a national
icon whose meaning is entangled with the legend of Pocahontas and
John Smith. We begin to appreciate the true legacy of Virginia's
first capital when we understand its role in English colonization,
the growth of representative government, and questions concerning
African-Americans, slavery, and American Indian policies. These
major themes of American history had their beginning at Jamestown.
Situated
on the Virginia Peninsula, these sites are connected by the 23 mile
scenic Colonial Parkway. Colonial NHP also includes Green Spring,
the 17th century plantation home of Virginia's colonial governor,
Sir William Berkeley and the Cape Henry Memorial, which marks the
approximate site of the first landing of the Jamestown colonists
in April of 1607. This memorial also overlooks the site of the decisive
Battle of the Capes fought in September of 1781 preceding the siege
of Yorktown. Besides significant cultural resources, Colonial NHP
has a variety of natural resources including extensive wetlands,
forest, fields, shorelines and streams, as well as rare, threatened
and endangered plants and animals.
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