Humans have been living in what is now the state of Virginia since approximately 15,000-20,000 years ago. Prior to European contact, the region was inhabited by various Algonquin-speaking indigenous tribes such as the Powhatans, the Pamunkeys, and the Appomattocs. At the time of European contact, along the coast of Tidewater Virginia, a region they called Tsenacommacah, the majority of tribes were united in the Powhatan Confederacy led by the Mamanatowick, Wahunsenacawh.

Indigenous women in these tribes played an important cultural role, being responsible for agriculture and having their ancestry tracked matrilineally for the purposes of inheritance and property. Cockacoeske, an indigenous Weroansqua of the Pamunkey nation, would lead her people during the attacks by Bacon's Rebellion, and would negotiate with the colonists for mutual security against other rebellions or indigenous groups. After the arrival of Europeans, the female colonial population was largely made up of indentured servants whose rights and freedoms were severely limited by their masters. Later on, in 1619, African slavery would be introduced to the Virginia Colony when twenty Africans from modern-day Angola were brought to Jamestown and sold into indentured servitude and though most would work off their indentures by 1630, chattel slavery would later be introduced and even the rights of free blacks would be severely restricted. During the 1630s, the ratio of women to men among servants living in the colony was one-to-six. Because of this, and because the English colonists largely viewed agriculture as man's work, they were often forced to send for more female indentured servants.

Background In May 1607, one hundred men and young boys were on an expedition where they arrived in what is now known as Virginia. This group were the first permanent English settlers in America. They named the colony of Jamestown, after the English King James. The site was chosen precisely for its location and beneficial factors. Jamestown was surrounded by water on three sides of the land; this made it easily accessible for ships to come and go. It was far enough inland, making it easier to defend from a possible Spanish attack. At the time, it was said that the men had to be able to create a living before any women could be a part of the colony.

In the colony's early days, the Powhatan Indians were known for helping the settlers. They would provide food and other supplies to the English settlers. In 1609, the Powhatan tribe could not help the settlers due to drought and insufficient supplies to share with the settlers. This was known as the Starving Time in Virginia, as most of the settlers died of starvation and diseases due to the lack of supplies. The essay, A Short History of Jamestown, notes that "As a result, they ate anything they could: various animals, leather from their shoes and belts, and sometimes fellow settlers who had already died due to starvation and disease." This illustrates how desperate the early settlers were for supplies and food.

Roles before and after European colonization In the early Virginia colonies, Native American women were responsible for household tasks and hard labor in the fields. It was normal for Native American women to have more responsibilities than men, as they were viewed as superior to men in certain ways. Powhatan women ( of Pochohontas's tribe) did not eat with the men, and the men had many wives. Most of the time the men would have to travel for food or trade, and leave the women alone for long periods of time. Therefore, women had to be able to survive without relying or depending on their husbands to do the heavy lifting.

Once European women arrived in the New World, the views on women's roles were conflicted. European women were always expected to do household tasks while caring for and teaching their children. In the eyes of Europeans, women were never supposed to step into men's roles. Some European women were sent to some of the Native American tribes to teach them English, primarily by teaching the women how to weave clothes, as well as their religion and culture. European wives whose families were wealthy enough to own a slave did not have to complete household tasks. However, those not wealthy enough to own a slave did not receive any help with the household chores.

One way European gender roles changed was in brewing. For centuries, English households brewed beer and cider themselves, and this was largely seen as a domestic duty of women. With the introduction of advanced distillation methods and organized commercial brewing along with hopped beer from the Dutch, alcohol production in the Atlantic world was largely shifting towards men's role. In the Chesapeake colonies of Maryland and Virginia, however, alcohol remained women's work to the extant that Virginia was said to be "a colony [of] water drinkers" because they had so few women and women with brewing skills were brought from England as wives. would come to often favor middle-class women, specifically those with a family history of tavern keeping, when it came to issuing tavern licenses as a way of policing the colony. They were seen as more able to keep working-class men from neglecting their responsibilities and protect against alcoholism.

Reason for immigration Women were known to provide a sense of stability. They came to the Jamestown Colony to marry men in the colony or to serve as indentured servants. Some women also came to the colony at a young age with their families, such as Cecily Jordan Farrar. In 1610, the colony's focus was on establishing families. Women were married soon after their arrival to the colony and were then expected to provide children to support the colony's growth. Single women could not own land after 1618 because the Virginia Company felt that if women could uphold land, they would be less likely to marry. This was a concern since "Women frequently gave birth to ten or twelve children, but childbirth was very dangerous for women."

Up until 1654 and the Anthony Johnson v. John Casor case, if a woman was of African descent, then she was a part of the indentured servant population. As a result of that case, there was a change in legal status and they were considered slaves. African American women were first brought to Virginia in 1619. There were three women and 20 men. They were sold into bondage to wealthy planters like Governor George Yeardley. As time passed, African American women were forced to work in the fields, jobs that were known as part of the men's role in American and European society, as well as perform domestic duties. Black women were also seen as a way to produce native-born slaves. There were class, race and gender structures in Colonial America. The female indentured servants did not encounter any conditions different from what they experienced at home in England, from household chores to farming. The role of women was clearly defined. If she belonged to the planter (upper) class, she was expected to supervise the slaves, attend to the household, and support the man. The farmers' wives found life harder; toiling dawn to dusk and beyond, in the house and the field. The difficulty of this life led to more dependence on and respect for the woman's role.

Women's rights In the early stages of the Virginia colonies, women did not have as many rights as they did in England. Women could not participate in many things such as voting, owning land, or even holding political office. If a woman was unmarried, their fathers held the rights to them until married, when they were taken into the care of their husband. The only women allowed to escape the control of a man were widows. Even if a widow decided to remarry after her husband's death, she had the right to control her property. To keep control over the property given to her by her deceased husband, a widow had to make legal arrangements. These arrangements would prevent a future husband from taking over the rights to the land.

Indentured servants

Twenty African indentured servants were brought over in a Portuguese ship in 1619. Prior to this, indentured servants were white. Black people were not enslaved until the case of Anthony Johnson v. John Casor in 1654. Being an indentured servant meant that one had to work for a particular length of time to pay for their transport to the New World. Those considered to be an indentured servant were not allowed to marry. After they had served their time, the indentured servants were free. In the 1620s, indentured servants contributed to Virginia's economy and society. Servants were a large part of maintaining the economy, and without the servants and slaves, Virginia would have had major economic problems. The original settlers had a hard time keeping up with all of the work that needed to be done. It was common for servants and slaves to become overwhelmed with the workload, with some considering running away to live with the Native Americans. If a servant or slave were caught running away from their master, they could be put to death, which would technically be destroying personal property, as slaves cost money and produced labor. In some cases, masters would treat their indentured servants and slaves respectfully rather than beat them. This gave them a sense of reliability and made it more likely that they would ask to work for the owner the following year to pay the indenture had expired.

In 1640, views on race changed for slaves.

By 1622, African American women were considered more valuable since they could work in the fields and the household. This led the Virginia Company to pass a law to obtain more African American women who could provide a dual workload.

Indentured servants were chattel. The master had no financial investment in them, and after they served their contract, they were freed and given clothes, seed and often a plot of land. Slaves, on the other hand, were property and masters had a financial investment in them and thus their well-being, as they were expected to produce work for life and not a term of years.

Female indentured servants did not have complete bodily autonomy, nor the freedom to get married without the consent of their masters. In 1662, an act "against ffornication" was passed by the Virginia General Assembly. This addressed the problem of indentured servants getting pregnant that led to their masters losing out on potential profits and labor. According to the law, servant women who had a child out of wedlock before their indenture expired, they would be forced to pay two thousand pounds of tobacco to their master lest they serve an additional two years on top of their indenture.

Women of the Virginia Colonies

Pocahontas (Matoaka)

Pocahontas was the first woman to help the colonists and become a part of the Jamestown colony. She was the daughter of Wahunsenaca, the chief of the Native American tribe, Powhatan. Her mother died while giving birth to her, and Matoaka was later renamed Pocahontas. She was originally kidnapped by the English settlers, which caused riots between the Native Americans and the colonists. Pocahontas was viewed as a sex object by the men and held against her will. Her role at the beginning was to bring food to the early settlers of Jamestown. She eventually became educated and was baptized into the English religion. At the time, the religion of the English Church was Protestantism. In 1614, she married an English settler, John Rolfe. Her marriage to Rolfe helped to calm the tension between the English and Native Americans. She later died in England in 1617.

Cockacoeske