Historical Significance of The Site
The first permanent English settlement in the area which is now the United States established in the Virginia Colony at Jamestown, beginning on May 14, 1607. Upon arrival, the colonists set about constructing a fort. Within a fortnight, they had completed their initial James Fort.
In 1698, an accidental fire destroyed the statehouse at Jamestown, and the legislature and seat of government temporarily relocated to Middle Plantation. The following year, the move became a permanent change, with that town soon renamed Williamsburg. Soon, Jamestown began a period of rapid decline. By the 1750s, the land was owned and heavily cultivated primarily by the Travis and Ambler families. Due to its location on the James River, the island saw some action during the American Revolutionary War (1776-1781) and the American Civil War (1861-1865), but otherwise, became largely desolate and unpopulated.
Read more about this topic: Jamestown Rediscovery
Famous quotes containing the words historical, significance and/or site:
“The proverbial notion of historical distance consists in our having lost ninety-five of every hundred original facts, so the remaining ones can be arranged however one likes.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)
“I am not afraid that I shall exaggerate the value and significance of life, but that I shall not be up to the occasion which it is.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“That is a pathetic inquiry among travelers and geographers after the site of ancient Troy. It is not near where they think it is. When a thing is decayed and gone, how indistinct must be the place it occupied!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)