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• Virginia was an idea before it was a place. The first "Virginia" was at Roanoke Island (now North Carolina) in 1585;
the second settlement was at Jamestown in 1607.
• Tobacco made the Virginia colony profitable and ensured both its survival and a constant influx of English settlers.
• The Indians became hostile once they realized that the English intended to remain.
• The Indians needed the land to maintain their political and cultural independence, and the English
needed the land to achieve the economic independence that had drawn them to the colony.
• Tobacco farming depleted the soil so quickly that the English constantly needed more land. Conflict over
land created tensions between the two cultures and determined that they could not coexist peacefully.
• Virginia set the precedent for the British colonies that followed after Jamestown by conquering the
Indians and confining them to small areas, later called reservations.
• Tobacco farming required heavy labor—long hours, and strenuous work. When the supply of English
indentured servants dwindled, enslaved Africans were brought to Virginia to work the fields.
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