Colonial Jamestown - Part I - A little history about our beginnings

Jamestown Part I

The first successful English settlement in America

 This year of 2007 marks the 400^th anniversary of when Jamestown was settled by the Virginia Company of London.  The volunteers who answered the advertisements for colonists, consisted of about 104 men and boys, but no women.  They were instructed to build a settlement, search for gold, and look for a water passage to the Orient. Women arrived a year later with craftsmen and artisans from several different countries.

Some of the first arrivals were the foppish second sons of rich fathers. Previous voyages by explorers had brought back Indian captives as curiosities and slaves, and some of the young members of the expedition thought they would have Indian servants to wait on them and do the hard work once they arrived in America They had no idea they, themselves, would be expected to do manual labor! But they soon learned it was do or die.

The adventurers sailed from England in three ships, and when they reached landfall on April 6, 1606, they ventured 40 miles inland through Chesapeake Bay to an island where they chose a site with a deep-water channel that came close to shore for easy disembarkment. It was a defensive position, providing shelter from the Spanish who were seeking revenge for a century of attacks on Spanish shipping by English privateers. The island was a swampy place infested with mosquitoes, it lacked good water, and had limited hunting grounds. The fact that it was only 12 miles from the village of a powerful Algonquian Indian chief whom we remember as Powhatan, was important in deciding their fate. After the incident involving John Smith and Pocahontas. the Indians helped the settlers find food and hunt game, but this uneasy peace was destroyed by the arrogance and cruelty of some of the English officers.

Without the legend of Captain John Smith, and his small savior, Pocahontas, Powhatan’s ten-year-old daughter, the story of Jamestown would probably not have caught the interest that it has through the years. Smith was one of the leaders of the expedition, and at 26 years old, he already had a colorful past. He left home at 16 after his father died, and signed into an apprenticeship with a merchant. There is no record of his time of indenture, but by the time he reached 24, he had fought in two wars as a mercenary, and had been thrown off a ship by Catholic pilgrims on a their way to Rome. This was done because he was a Protestant. He survived, only to be captured and enslaved later by Turks who put an iron collar around his neck. He survived again to land, eventually, in Russia, where someone in charge took pity on him, and set him free. From Russia he traveled through Eastern Europe, Egypt, Morocco, France and Spain before returning to England in time to volunteer to be a colonist in the expedition to America sponsored by the London Company.

With all this experience, Smith knew his way in the world. But, it seems that when he told tales of his personal adventures, his listeners thought he was a braggart, and the captain considered him a troublemaker. By the time the ship made landfall, he had been placed in chains, and was under a sentence to be hung. Apparently he had a violent disagreement with the ship’s captain, who judged him to be mutinous. But when a sealed box belonging to the Virginia Company was opened, a document within made Smith a full member of the Council for the Colony. Instead of being hung, he became the colony’s most important leader.  He was the one who persuaded the indolent colonists that they were going to have to work if they wanted to survive in the wild new land.

It was when Smith was leading an exploratory expedition into the wilderness, that Indians captured him. At first he was treated well, but suddenly he was seized and flung down, and surrounded by warriors who appeared to be about to beat him to death with clubs. Little Pocahontas, rushed in, took his head in her arms, and laid her own head on his to save his life. Archeologists now wonder if, among Indian tribes in the area, this was a common ritual for strangers – friendship, threat of death, and salvation, and Pocahontas was just playing her part. It became known that she had saved others in the same manner. At any rate, the chief relented, declared Smith would be like a son to him, and he was set free.

This event was followed by a period of peace, during which Pocahontas visited the English settlement often, and was seen frequently doing cartwheels with the boys. Smith wrote about her in his journal, describing her as the prettiest and brightest person of her tribe.

Gradually, however, within a few years, the superior attitude, cruelty and arrogance of the English turned the Indians to retaliate with warlike violence.

To be continued.