Hello and welcome to a history of the United States. Episode 14, Berkeley. Remember that this is a

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Following Sir John Harvey as governor of Virginia in 1639 was Sir Francis Wyatt, serving for a second term. He ruled in an interim nature,

while the new governor was selected, and he arrived on the scene in 1642. Sir William Berkeley,

one of the great figures of the colonial era, and a man who will dominate our next few episodes.

He had an M.A. from Oxford. He was a playwright, and he had served in the King's Privy Chamber.

He was an able statesman. Not to dismiss all the other governors of the colonial era, but here was a great figure.

The source of person, Virginians,

wanted ruling them. Berkeley continued the aims of diversification. Tobacco had become something

of a staple crop at this point, but he would try to reverse it by introducing silk growing.

He was soon able to produce £300 of the stuff.

Not bad.

There's also to be another expedition to find gold.

In 1643, the General Assembly gave a 14-year monopoly to a group of four

who wished to try and find a gold mine along one of the more

southern rivers. I don't want to get too far into the reign of Charles I first and the English

Civil War, at least not right now. We need to cover some stuff, but it's not that important

as to what's happening in America, so I'm not going to spend entire episodes devoted to it.

If you want to know more about the English Civil War, there are plenty of books on the subject,

and there are 15 episodes of Mike Duncan's Revolutions podcast, which we'll deal with it.

...