Before Plymouth there was Jamestown
The odds seemed against its survival at all: its leaders were
querulous, most of the company was unacquainted with any vital
skill, and they established themselves on an island that had little
fresh water, scarce farming land, and was alive with
mosquitoes.
Before Plymouth there was Jamestown
The odds seemed against its survival at all: its leaders were querulous, most of the company was unacquainted with any vital skill, and they established themselves on an island that had little fresh water, scarce farming land, and was alive with mosquitoes.
Despite only 32 of its 104 settlers surviving the first winter, Jamestown, Virginia persisted and will observe its 400th anniversary May 14. It was the first permanent English colony in the New World and the bedrock upon which the nation was built. The Godspeed, Discovery and Susan Constant left England on Dec. 20, 1606 with a charter from King James for the Virginia Company.
One member was clapped into irons on a charge of fomenting mutiny, and the colonists were planning his execution. However, when sealed orders were opened upon arrival, the contents revealed that the prisoner was to be made a member of the Council. It is difficult to surmise what the colony’s future might have been had John Smith been executed. He was contentious, a braggart, and despised by many of his colleagues but is credited with saving Jamestown more than once. He is the first American hero.
Within two weeks of its settlement, two members were killed in an Indian attack. No crop was planted the first year because the settlers thought that the Indians would provide for them. Some Indians did befriend them by bringing corn and game but it was hardly enough for all. Fever set in, then the cold weather, and deaths mounted.
From the vantage point of time, poor planning seemed a pattern that later colonies would follow.
Smith was leading an expedition for food up river when an Indian hunting party surprised it. They took the white men to their chief and it was then that one of our oldest national folk tales was born.
Smith recounted years later that he was held down while several Indians raised large clubs to brain him when the chief’s daughter, Pocahontas, threw her body across his and saved his life. Some historians assert that it was a ceremony of threatened death with the “reborn” captive to be welcomed into the tribe.
Pocahontas and Smith became friends and she later converted to Christianity with the name Rebecca.
Another installment of settlers came to Jamestown the following year but there were too many gentlemen and not enough workers among them. Smith forced a doctrine of “work or don’t eat” that saved the colony but earned the hatred of many.
The survivors were preparing to sail home to England the following year when a relief ship arrived with food and supplies and they were ordered to stay put.
Smith wrote many books about his deeds. Pocahontas eventually married John Rolfe, whose first wife had died, and she herself died on a visit to England in 1617. In the meantime, Rolfe had assured the prosperity of Jamestown by raising its first cash crop whose export made some colonists rich.
Tobacco is still a big moneymaker today.
