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“Analysis: Of Plymouth Plantation.”
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US I (Honors) Essay
The times of early settlement were filled with determination to survive, following the words of God, and to making history in everlasting memories. I will be basing my opinion on these primary sources: “The Starving Time” by Captain John Smith, the founder of Jamestown, History of Plymouth Plantation” by William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony, “How they sought out a place of habitation” and “New governor, first marriage”. I believe that the settlers were bold, adventurous, determined, and faithful.
The first passage is “The Starving Time” by Captain John Smith, the founder of Jamestown. This passage explains the starving time in Jamestown. Captain Smith returned to England with the ships and Captain Davis arrived in a small boat with sixteen men and a company from Jamestown. While Captain West was returned to Jamestown among the savages who revolted, murdered, and spoiled all they encountered. The rest that remained had to live on the food for Smiths company. All things were consumed so thirty or forty men with Captain West and Captain Sickelmore were sent out to trade. Captain Sickelmore assuming confidence with Powhatan, with about thirty others were slain. Only one man escaped and that was, Jeffrey Shortbridge. Pocahontas, the king’s daughter, saved a boy named Henry Spillman who lived many years later, by her means, among the Patawomekes. Powhatan denied them trade, Captain West returned back to England. The savages then became very cruel and stole from John Smith. Six months after John Smith left there was sixty men remaining, and they began with five hundred men. The times became so tough that a man killed his wife and ate her (he was executed). This was known as the starving time .If they...
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...sage is an explanation of the starvation in Jamestown; the second passage is based off of when the first English arrived on Plymouth land. The third passage is about how the English settlers found land to live on and start their new lives. The final passage is about the new governor and the first marriage. In conclusion I believe I gave the right facts to back up my opinion and that I also followed the rubric assigned with the essay.
Work Cited
Bellesiles, Michael A. Freedom Library: The Divine Right to Occupy the Land. 1998. < http://faithandfreedom.us/documents/17thcentury/cottonoccupyland.htm>.
Unknown. http://www.arasmus.com/2008/11/27/john-winthrops-city-upon-a-hill-1630/>.
Unknown. .
Watkins, Thayer. The Starving Time in Virginia. < http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/starving.htm>.
Things in Jamestown were good. The people were fed, cared for, and happy. They created their own working government order, but, in a place where everything seems perfect, there is always one man to disagree. In this case, his name was Nathaniel Bacon.
For example, in Document A, it states “Fish are present in local streams, but only in the spring and early summer are they there in impressive abundance”. This means that there was only lots of food limited times per year and there would not have been much food in fall and winter time. Also, they had just experienced failure of a colony nearby who all of the colonists of Roanoke Island mysteriously disappeared. This could have had an affect on the number of people who died because they might not have been ready to build another colony and might have benefited from waiting a few more years to build a new colony. Disease would spread quickly among all of the colonists. This is because Jamestown was not huge meaning that if one person or a few people had a disease of illness, it would spread around quickly.
Have you ever heard of “Early Jamestown?” The year was 1607, roughly, 110 English men arrived on the coast of Virginia, to search for gold, which the Spaniards also had begun a search for and found an abundance of gold. It is the first permanent English colony in what is now the United States. ‘Early’ Jamestown entails the first five years of settlement in the Americas. The question is ‘Why did so many colonist die?’ Colonist died in early Jamestown because of three problems. These problems were the environmental issues, the relationships with the Native Americans, and the lack of skills the colonist brought with them to Jamestown.
Riches and materialistic things drew many people into the new land, but other people, like the settlers of Plymouth, were not drawn by materialistic riches, but by the riches of their religious faith and the freedom to practice what they wanted. Both colonies had many difficulties throughout their stay. Each settlement took their own approach at how to deal with things and how to overcome their own obstacles. They each saw their own way of finding space and because of that, both colonies were completely different because they each found a way to accomplish their goal and fulfill their
In document F, you can see that there is such a shortage of food that people resort to stealing their fellow colonists' clothes to pay for things like “butter and beef out of a ship”. You can also use the example of a resource shortage in document B, which shows a graph of the average rainfall during the first few years that the colonists lived there. From 1605-1612, Jamestown went through it’s longest, harshest drought. This meant there was very little food and water during that time. When you remember that the time period we are looking at is only from 1607 to 1610, it seems like that drought could have been a major factor in why a lot of the colonists died. Lastly, document D shows us that it was not just the colonists struggling. Native people also were having trouble finding food. An expedition of colonists was sent out to try to trade with some of the natives, but they had to force them to give anything. All the colonists got was a small shipload of grain and some very angry natives. The crew of that ship determined that the amount of grain they had would not do anything substantial for the colony, so they headed back to England, eating the grain along the way. So the colony never even got the grain, but they did have to deal with some very angry natives, which on its own is another reason that a lot of them didn’t
Jamestown and Plymouth were both very intense colonies. Jamestown had obligations only for financial purposes. Whereas, Plymouth cared for so much more. It had obligations for a variety of religions. In this colony, people were very fond of God. William Bradford once said, “ Nevertheless, to keep a good conscience. and walk in such a way as God has prescribed in his word, is a thing which I must prefer before you all, and above life itself.” Therefore, Plymouth was far more fair and reasonable, because of their interest in God and their opportunities for their religious variety. Even though, both colonies had many similarities like being helped by Native Americans, and they both encountered sickness, death, and struggle; Plymouth’s purpose
The English had two main colonies in the new world, Jamestown and Plymouth. The first colony was Jamestown, established in Virginia in 1607. Jamestown was settled by Captain John Smith, and was named after King James I. Tobacco was the main export of Jamestown, and became the basis of the Jamestown economy, sending more than 50,000 lbs of the plan back to Europe by 1618 (textbook 46). Jamestown had a very rocky start, many colonists dying in the first few years of the settlement, and the settlers had many problems with natives. Shortly after the arrival of English colonists the Natives attacked them, and were finally forced back by a canon from the English. A very uneasy truce was finally settled between the natives, called the Powhatans, and the English (textbook 44-5). Economic growth and expanding their territories were the main priorities of the English in the Jamestown colonies.
Colonial settlers John Smith and William Bradford were two of many Englishmen that partook in an expedition across the Atlantic Ocean in hopes of starting life anew in the New World. They lived and died around similar time frames and are both known for their success in maritime travel. Although the premise of their journeys are similar, it is evident through their respective narrative accounts that the two vastly differ in their motivations, perspectives, and literary structure.
William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation differs from William Byrd’s The History of the Dividing Line in the cases of purpose, tone, and style. The main purpose of Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation is to show how the colonists in Plymouth colony were struggling and dying due to the lack of food, and how the Native Americans in the area came and helped them. Natives like Squanto “directed them how to set their corn, where to take fish and to procure other commodities” (Bradford, 33). The lessons taught by the Natives saved the colonists and they formed a mutual friendship, as evidenced by the first Thanksgiving. Bradford was trying to show how the colonists were suffering and dying, but survived with the help of the Natives. Byrd, on the other hand, showed that the Virginians
In 1606, the London Company dispatched 144 men to Virginia on 3 ships: the Susan Constant, the Discovery, and the Godspeed. These men arrived at Chesapeake Bay in 1607 and traveled 60 miles up the James River, where they constructed Jamestown. The men had chosen this location because they believe it was effortless to protect; however, the decision would be regretted. In their first years, Jamestown colonists experienced a difficult time: The location was scorching and humid, marshy and truncated, and vulnerable to malaria outbreaks. In addition, Jamestown was surrounded by broad forests, making it troublesome to farm. The lack of food, along with malaria epidemic, the reluctance to work, and the extreme greed for land and resources nearly led to the extinction of Jamestown. However, the Jamestown colonists discovered how to cultivate tobacco, thus leading to their prosperity and survival. With the success of Jamestown, more Europeans traveled to the New World, and settled in 3 groups of colonies: the New England colonies, the Middle colonies, and the Southern colonies.
In this documentary by The National Geographic, The New World: Nightmare in Jamestown captures what it must have been like for the settlers of Jamestown. It takes place in an archeological site which is owned by the APVA where they found remains of the original men who first arrived to the New World and who set up the colony at Jamestown. They were sent by the Virginia Company in hopes of being able to bring home gold and other riches that the Spanish had already been taking advantage of. Unfortunately, in the process, they faced disease, death, hunger, and hostility from the Indians.
It includes the everyday life in an unfamiliar environment, filled with perilous times such as the “starving time”, and the expansion of the colony where more colonists, including women, came to fortify the settlement and make it more permanent. It includes the poorly run, miserable, yet evolving settlement of. Most important, life in Jamestown is the story of people – bravery, hardships, and a grim determination to survive, which ultimately laid the foundation for our country today – the United States of
Hardship is what unites us as a group of people who are working together for a common goal and sticks together and helps each other with hard work through rough times. Hardship unites us in difficult times and stressful situations. In the historical log, “Of Plymouth Plantation” written by William Bradford, he explains the hardship that explores dealt with there first few years of their settlement. It goes in depth as the struggle between diseases, nature, loss of food, and the bitter cold. More than half of the pilgrims died and only a few people could help the sick. It was not until the natives decided to set a peace treaty and help the
The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles by John Smith, portrays the enormous troubles the settlers were faced with by the Native Americans. He explains how he was captured by Indians and also saved by a young Native American girl, Pocahontas. He vividly describes the ceremonies and rituals of the Natives performed before his execution. However, the execution never occurred due to the tremendous mercy showed by the king’s daughter who blanketed John Smith’s body her own. Pocahontas went on to persuade the Native Americans to help the settlers by giving them food and other necessities. Despite her efforts to reach peaceful grounds, her people were still bitter and planned an attacks on the colony. Nevertheless, Pocahontas saved them once again by warning the settlers of attacks. Pocahontas went on to marry an Englishman and traveled to England. She resembled the prosperity and good that was to be found in an untamed land.
Settlers in the Chesapeake region used force to take possession of Indian lands. The Chesapeake region of the colonies included Virginia, Maryland, the New Jerseys and Pennsylvania. In 1607, Jamestown (the first English colony in the New World) was founded by a group of settlers along the James River. And because the colony was near water, the Pilgrims had a great advantage. They created a society that was full of companies interested in profiting from the natural resources of the New World. They also turned to the local Powhatan Indians, who taught them the process of corn- and tobacco-growing. These staple-crops flourished throughout all five of these colonies. After the ship arrived, John Smith’s main concern was to “dig gold, refine gold, and load gold” but there was no g...