On October 19, 1781, a British army under General Charles Lord Cornwallis was forced to surrender to General Washington's combined American and French army. Upon hearing of their defeat, British Prime Minister Frederick Lord North is reputed to have said, "Oh God, it's all over." And it was. The victory secured independence for the United States and significantly changed the course of world history.
Come, walk in the steps of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas as we explore America's beginnings. Here is where the successful English colonization of North America began. Here is where the first English representative government met and where the first arrival of Africans to English North American was recorded in 1619. Jamestown, the Beginning of America.
It began on the swampy marshes of Jamestown in 1607. It ended on the battle scarred landscape of Yorktown in 1781. It was 174 years of hope, frustration, adventure and growth that saw a lonely settlement of 104 men and boys grow into a nation of 13 colonies of 3 million people, of many races and many beliefs. Jamestown and Yorktown mark the beginning and end of English Colonial America.
HERE AT CAPE HENRY FIRST LANDED IN AMERICA, UPON 26 APRIL 1607, THOSE ENGLISH COLONISTS WHO, UPON 13 MAY 1607, ESTABLISHED AT JAMESTOWN VIRGINIA, THE FIRST PERMANENT ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA. Upon this inscription rest a granite cross erected in 1935 by the National Society Daughters of the American Colonists, in memory of the wooden cross erected by the English colonists in 1607.
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