Enchanted Land

This Day in History: May 13 (14?), 1607

Two dates are recorded @history.com (This Day in History and Jamestown Colony) for the founding of Jamestown. Regardless of the conflict of dates the settling of Jamestown, Virginia marks the first permanent settlement in North America. Three ships crossed the Atlantic, the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery carrying roughly 100 colonists—men and boys, no women were on the first ships.

And, this was only the beginning...

Reenactment of the first landing on the 400th anniversary
as part of the Jamestown 2007 commemoration
Source: en.wikipedia.org

Enchanted Land

Encountering land after many weeks at sea embraced an enchanting site!
The spirit of European exploration exalted its presence
in the most significant landing in our nation’s founding:
Jamestown, Virginia, 1607.

Visions of enchantment

Transcended from shore to shore

Awakening sleepy thoughts

Of adventures o’er and o’er

 

Seekers and adventurers

Left families, loved ones behind

Marking the end of one era

A new beginning for mankind

What was it they heartily sought

Across the raging perilous sea?

Was it peace and tranquility

Or simply a new life meant to be?

 

Ferocious winds, hostile seas

Crushed the hull and tore at the sails

With strength, determination

Safe passage did at last prevail

 

 “Land ahoy!” echoed loudly

Along the horizon’s thin line

The journey to the new world

Ended as hands firmly entwined

 Ailing men, fathers and sons

Lined the deck toward their utopia

“Look at such magnificence

The land of enchantment—America!”

©2013 Awakenings
Sharla Lee Shults

"The Far East has its Mecca, Palestine its Jerusalem, France its Lourdes, and Italy its Loreto, but America's only shrines are her altars of patriotism - the first and most potent being Jamestown, the sire of Virginia, and Virginia, the mother of this great Republic."

-- from a 1907 Virginia guidebook

By the 1750s the land was owned and heavily cultivated, primarily by the Travis and Ambler families. A military post was located on the island during the American Revolution, and American and British prisoners were exchanged there. In 1861 the island was occupied by Confederate soldiers who built an earth fort near the church as part of the defense system to block the Union advance up the James River. Little further attention was paid to Jamestown until preservation was undertaken in the twentieth century.
Source: en.wikipedia.org