On December 4, 1619, a group of 38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Hundred, about eight thousand acres (32 km²) on the north bank of the James River near Herring Creek in an area then known as Charles Cittie. It was about 20 miles upstream from Jamestown, where the first permanent settlement of the Colony of Virginia was established on May 14, 1607.

Berkeley, Virginia (Near Harrison's Landing)

On December 4, 1619, a group of 38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Hundred, about eight thousand…

Tobacco being harvested in the Virginia Colony. By 1612, John Rolfe's new strains of tobacco had been successfully cultivated and exported. Finally, a cash crop to export had been identified, and plantations and new outposts sprung up, initially both upriver and downriver along the navigable portion of the James River, and thereafter along the other rivers and waterways of the area.

Tobacco Cultivation in Colonial Virginia

Tobacco being harvested in the Virginia Colony. By 1612, John Rolfe's new strains of tobacco had been…

A man and his son hunting in the mountains of Virginia.

Virginia Mountaineers in Colonial Times

A man and his son hunting in the mountains of Virginia.