On December 6, 1606, the journey to Virginia began on three ships: the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. On May 13 they picked Jamestown, Virginia for their settlement, which was named after their King, James I. The settlement became the first permanent English settlement in North America.
In 1612, John Rolfe, one of many shipwrecked on Bermuda, helped turn the settlement into a profitable venture. He introduced a new strain of tobacco from seeds that he brought and tobacco became the long-awaited cash crop for the Virginia Company, who wanted to make money off their investment in Jamestown. John Rolfe had the colony plant and harvest tobacco, which became a cash crop and was sold to Europe. This is mainly how Jamestown was good enough to become the first permanent english colony.
