In 1607, three small ships - the Discovery, Godspeed, and Susan Constant - arrived on the shores of the eastern North American coast and established the first successful British settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. For two centuries, colonists faced the challenges of life in a new world - weather, Native Indian attacks, starvation, and disease - to establish the strongest economy in the American colonies.

Volume VII of the Adventures in Colonial America series discusses the contributions of these colonists in creating probably the most powerful colonial economy in 17th and 18th Century British North America, including politicians, clergy, plantation owners, and artisans. The book also discusses the establishment of the Anglican Church as the official state religion - and how that policy impacted the writing of the US Constitution and the separation of church and state.

Virginia's role in the American Revolution, from the fall of Norfolk to the victory at Yorktown is also discussed. Virginia's native sons, including Jefferson, Washington, Madison, and Monroe, were among many of our founding fathers who not only fought during the American Revolution but fought a political battle on the floor of Virginia's legislature and the Continental Congress. Following the Revolution they were instrumental in creating the US Constitution and Bill of Rights which provide all Americans with legal protections that we benefit from centuries later.