Why was 1619 an important year in American history? What is the basic story that the introduction says the book will be describing in more detail?
What was Jamestown's purpose? What would be its only important export? Describe early problems. In what ways were the Virginia Company and the colony reorganized in 1608 and 1609? What unreasonable expectations did the English have? Describe the peoples of Virginia before Jamestown was founded. What problems and troubles began when the Company sought to reestablish the colony in 1609? How did war with the Indians end?
Why, and how, did Jamestown authorities create private property? Why did they create large-scale grants and what privileges did their owners have? What did the owners grow on their land grants? What issues led to the 1619 overhaul of colonial government? Who was Sir Edwin Sandys and what was his vision for Virginia? How did Governor Sir George Yeardley change the colony and its government? What did the new government accomplish?
How did the first Africans arrive in Virginia? Where did they come from? How were they enslaved? Where was their original destination? What happened to them after they came to Virginia? How do we know they must have been slaves? Describe English attitudes towards black Africans and their institutionalization.
To Sandys and others in the Virginia Company, what did a commonwealth look like? What were its benefits? How were the ideals of a commonwealth put into practice in Virginia? Whom did the company recruit as settlers? How did the company attempt to attract colonists? What kind of economy did they promote? What were the company's religious goals, and how did it try to put them into effect?
What disaster happened to Virginia in 1622? How did colonists and the English react and respond? How did relations with and treatment of Indians change? How had Sandys's situation changed in England? Describe Virginians' discontent with Sandys and the Company. Explain the connection between events in England and in Virginia in the 1620s. Why did James I revoke the Virginia Company's charter?
How did the end of company rule in Virginia affect the situations of rich, poor, and slaves? How did treatment of slaves change? How did John Ferrar describe Virginia in mid-century? Yet how did he portray the demise of the Virginia Company? How did the company's end reveal constitutional issues about royal power?
What survived of Sandys's vision for Virginia? What was lost?