Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation

A confusing world full of disease, violent savages and starvation all brought hardship to the early colony of Jamestown. Edmund Morgan offers real reasons to why it failed, and how the colonists could have easily changed their own fate. England set out for an adventure when they sent ships full of eager colonists out to explore the New World. They had their sights set on finding gold, fine silk, and jewels while managing to forget to acquire basic food and shelter. How is it that an advanced team of colonists managed to starve and die while their primitive counterparts, the Indians, managed to feed their own people year after year? Edmund Morgan, author of the “Jamestown Fiasco”, believes that the colonists failed because of ineffective leadership,

Pocahontas was born in 1595, with the given name of Matoaka and later got the nickname Pocahontas. She has been known as the favorite daughter of the powerful Powhatan Chief but she is also famous in history for contributing greatly toward the survival of the Jamestown colony. When the English colonists settled in Jamestown in 1607, there became tension between the Colonists and the Powhatan Indians. During the 1600s, the leader of the Colonists, Captain John Smith was caught by the Powhatan’s men. It has been said that Pocahontas saved Smith’s life and has had great influence on early relationships between the colonists and Indians. During Pocahontas’s life, she has faced many tragedies but triumphs have also played a role in her time.

Three ships, known as the Discovery, the Susan Constant and the Godspeed landed in Virginia, a colony named after the “Virgin Queen,” Queen Elizabeth. These ships consisted of single men, searching for gold, but ended up staying there. They were mostly ex-indentured servants looking for jobs and money, but were uneducated and did not have many skills that could help them to succeed (Doc 3). The settlers ended up creating their colony on a swamp in 1607 and became a very successful colony. John Smith said, “he who shall not work, shall not eat.”

With fertile soil and cash crops aplenty, many young men from England settled there in search of their own fortunes. Many of these men were second or third born sons who were denied a share in the family fortune because of the common practice of primogeniture. Initially believing they would find gold there, they pooled their money together to form a joint-stock company to make the journey across the Atlantic Ocean. However when it was discovered that there was no gold whatsoever in the area, the Chesapeake was thought to have met what was seen as its untimely end. Captain John Smith chronicles this in his History of Virginia, where he tells of those fixed on the hope of finding gold, “…There was no talk…but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold…” (Document F). If it weren’t for Smith and Chief Powhatan, the colony of Virginia would have been razed to the

In December, 1606 The Virginia Company of London sent 144 men and 3 ships to part of North America. They were sent to look for gold and try to trade fish and furs. 40 people died on the way there. By April 1607 they entered Chesapeake Bay and sailed up a river leading to it. They named the river the James and their settlement Jamestown to honor their king. They built the settlement on a peninsula so they could defend from attacks, but there were many mosquitoes that carried diseases and it also didn’t have very good farmland. They were looking for gold and silver most of the time but they should've been growing food. The main reason they survived was because of their captain, John Smith. He forced them to work, and he explored the area and

Jamestown was the Primary land that the colonists settled to in 1607 in the Susan Constant, 13 years later the colonists decided to settle in a land on the Mayflower in Massachusetts that the civilians would call Plymouth. I would've chosen to sail with Bradford in the Mayflower for various justifications which include the purpose, the relationships with comrades, the leader, and resources in the land. The first reason I would sail with the Puritans on the Mayflower compact is that the Puritans were not just in search of land and currency from resources, they were in search of something even more valuable, Religious freedom. The English soldiers (colonists) just searched for fame and wanted to become wealthy.

One of the things Pocahontas is most known for saving John Smith’s life. It all started when one day, the Pamunkey tribe caught a white man. The man was to be presented to Pocahontas’ father, Chief Powhatan, that night. The village prepared large feasts, and Pocahontas was thrilled to finally get the chance to see one of the mysterious outsiders who had come to their homeland. When the man was finally brought out, many villagers screamed in horror when he glanced at them, although Pocahontas didn’t understand why everyone was afraid of this man to be called “John Smith”. Pocahontas’ father declared that the handsome man with the blue eyes was to be killed! The toughest warrior poised his arms above his head with a club in hand and… Pocahontas

The first one-fourth of the seventeenth century transmigration was mostly to the Virginia colony and specifically to Jamestown, the first everlasting settlement in America. Although most of Jamestown’s historical documentation came from an eyewitness account of the colony’s development from Captain John Smith, his understanding of the events occurring around him could be misinterpretations of normal Native American culture and the North American environment. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that English citizens who risked the harsh voyage to the Americas were looking for

The source of these letters is from John Smith, The General Historic of Virginia in London 1624. Written in the standpoints of English leader John Smith and North American Indian leader Powhatan, these letters were intended for the English settlers, Powhatan's Indians tribe, and the King of England. John Smith desired to share with his country the impactful yet unbeneficial loose knit agreement that they two leaders attempted to orchestrate. By using this form of effective writing, the author created a way for Smith to expound on the trials and hardships of the peculiar and unknown world. On the other hand, Powhatan shared his perspective on the rash and unforeseen arrival of these pale-faced settlers. Notably, the author's main purpose for writing these letters from both leader's points of view was to show the differences between the experiences both culturally and socially in the aspects of the strange world and those who inhabited it. Both John Smith and Powhatan saw

Throughout the 17th century, the English faced many hardships. The settlers of Jamestown had faced misfortune of the new land such as disease and malnutrition, and failure of crops. Over time the English built their economic and social structure with perfecting crops, indentured slaves and building a new society that would spark others to explore.

When the first American settlement on Roanoke Island was established in 1585 it’s primary force, Sir Walter Raleigh, had no idea that this “New World” would evolve into one of the most powerful voices in the modern world. But before it developed it would have to shaped by it’s founders from the Western world. Two of the largest voices in America’s early development are John Smith, who with a group of English merchants, hoped to get rich in this new land, and William Bradford, a puritan farmer who was one of the most influential men involved with the Mayflower compact. In their two pieces they both convey America as a place to escape but

Townsend also argues for the unfathomability of John Smith and Pocahontas’ relationship by referencing the customs of Powhatan culture. Not only is Pocahontas a prepubescent ten-year-old girl, but the “head-bashing” ceremony John Smith writes about is reserved for serious criminal offenses within the Powhatan community; “It was impossible to believe that Powhatan ever intended to ‘brain’ John Smith. That was a punishment reserved for criminals; it was never meted out to captured warriors of enemy peoples. Captured warriors were ceremonially tortured, allowing them an opportunity to prove themselves before dying; it would later happen to other Englishmen.” (55). Townsend uses Helen Rountree’s analysis of surrounding Algonkian tribes’ manners

Pocahontas, also once called Matoaka was a Powhatan indian who brought peace between the colonists and native Americans by befriending them. As a young girl, Pocahontas saved the life of John Smith when he got captured by her father and about to be executed. Eventually, she became friends with John smith and would bring food to the settlers from her tribe as well as saved their lives many times over. Even though Pocahontas befriended the English settlers, once Smith returned to England the relationship between the Powhatans and settlers began to crumble and would never be the same. Pocahontas was born about 1595 in Virginia, near Jamestown, and died in March 1617 in Kent England.

The day I believed was the beginning of a new opportunity in becoming the man I’ve always wanted to become was really the begging of failure, starvation, and depression. I decided to leave England because of my economic problems I was facing due to the population boost, their was a lot more people and fewer jobs to go around. Even though I was still working to make a profit for the Virginia Company of London I had hope of raising a family here. Our Caption Christopher Newport had us explore the coast of Virginia before landing in Jamestown. On May 13, after two weeks of exploration, the ships arrived at a site on the James River selected for its deep water anchorage and good defensive position. The passengers came ashore the next day, and work

When it comes to wealth and power, people want it all for themselves. They will do anything in order to claim it and call it theirs. Some people are stronger than others, which makes their journeys easier to win over others. English colonists arrived to the New World after seeing Spanish colonization gaining wealth and being able to send gold and sliver back home. While English colonists were trying to gain wealth, they had to use Native Americans. Native Americans on Jamestown had everything that English colonists wanted, therefore they relayed on them and took advantage of the natives. The treatment of Native Americans by English colonists in Jamestown was unavoidable because English colonists arrived to the New World with a single goal, gaining wealth. English colonists and indigenous people could have never peacefully co-existed because both sides knew