took with some of the indians who was now called the lady and her husband went to england with was called a princess in england and received much attention but when about to start back to the colony she died leaving a little son one of the first for the success of a colony is some that may be to pay for clothing and those other necessaries of life which must be bought from older countries the attempts to find gold or silver in virginia had proved vain silk cotton and many other things were attempted at james the starving time l town from the very start but the only product that was found really profitable was tobacco this weed as it was even then called was like indian corn and the unknown to europe until after america was discovered it was introduced under the belief that it was of great value as a medicine when had made its use fashionable in england the english people bought their tobacco from spain but john the same who married and who seems to have been fond of new experiments thought that if the virginia indians could grow tobacco for their own use he might grow it in virginia for the english market he tried tobacco culture in and it was immediately so sue that tobacco became in three or four years the money by which trade was carried on and debts paid and it remained the recognized of virginia and for about a hundred and fifty years tobacco history of the states brought a large price in and for years afterward and as it furnished the first means by which people in virginia might gain a living it helped to make the colony successful but in when gave up the government there were only about three hundred and fifty english people in virginia and none besides in north america chapter vi the great ok virginia and the first by the indians during all the early years of the virginia colony the people were fed and clothed out of a common stock of provisions they were also obliged to work for this stock no division was made of the land nor could the industrious man get any profit by his hard work the man was as well oft as the one who worked hardest and under this arrangement men neglected their work and the colony was always poor the had been promised that after five years they should have land of their own and be free but this promise was not kept in sir thomas gave to some who had been longest in virginia three acres of ground apiece and allowed them one month in the year to work on their little patches for this they must support themselves and give the rest of their work to the common stock even this arrangement made them more industrious but the cruel military laws put in force by the the great of virginia ii governor made virginia so that men to be hanged for petty refused pardon when offered to them on condition of their going to the colony who came after was a greedy rascal th� oi who governed very badly and virginia was almost ruined in i i many new came out and lord de la was again sent as governor but he died on the way the virginia company of london which had the government of the colony about this time began to come under the control of certain great with liberal ideas among them was sir and the earl of these men were engaged in parliament in resisting the tyranny of king james s government and in trying to establish liberty in england this was slow work in an old country where the sovereign had long had almost absolute power but and and their friends probably thought it best to begin rightly in virginia and so to make that country a refuge for those who suffered from oppression in england the virginia company taking advantage of the power which the king had given to it granted to virginia in november a great under which the people of the colony were allowed a voice in making their own laws this was the beginning of free government in america under the the government of virginia was put into the hands of a governor a council of estate and a general assembly the members of the general assembly were chosen to represent the different or in virginia the other american colonies afterward took pattern from this government history of the united states of the government that remain division of land in virginia sending of wives to virginia the government of the united states by a president a and a house of representatives shows that the ideas put into the great have left their mark on the constitution of our country the of all our states also show traces of the same idea each state has a governor a and a house of representatives so that the plan arranged in for a few hundred people in virginia was a tiny stream that has spread out into a great river the great also gave the people of virginia the right to divide the land into farms and to own and work ground each for himself when the new governor sir george got to virginia in the spring of bringing this good news that the were to live under laws of their own making were to cultivate their own land and enjoy the fruits of their own labors they thought themselves the happiest people in the world at this time there were but few women in virginia and none of the men intended to remain there long it was thought that the colony would be more firmly planted if the had wives young women were therefore sent out to be married to the but before any man could marry one of these he was obliged to gain 