John Smith

What were the settler’s lives like in Jamestown when they arrived and how did John Smith help them survive?

The settlers arrived at Jamestown on May 13, 1607 ready to start life in the New World, but what they did not know is how much hardship they were about to face. Jamestown was located in the middle of about 14,000 Algonquian-speaking Indians ruled by the powerful leader Powhatan. The Indians made life for the settlers almost impossible by raided their camps, stealing pistols, gunpowder, and other necessary supplies. The Indians wanted the settlers to just give up and leave. Other hardships faced by the settlers were the harsh winter, lack of fresh water, and lack of food. Many of the first settlers were upper-class Englishmen who lacked sufficient labor and farming skills. All of the hardship resulted in disease or death of the settlers. In the book The Proceedings and Accidents of the English Colony in Virginia John Smith describes this time by saying “Being thus left to our fortunes, it fortuned that within ten days, scarce ten amongst us could either go or well stand, such extreme weakness and sickness oppressed us. And threat none need marvel if they consider the cause and reason which was this: While the ship stayed, our allowance was somewhat bettered by a daily proportion of biscuit which sailors would pilfer to sell, give, or exchange with us for money, sassafras, furs, or love. But when they departed, there remained neither tavern, beer-house, nor place of relief but the common kettle.” Smith is basically blaming the settler’s hardship on the ship abandoning them to go back to England for supplies. Also he wrote “But now was all our provision spent, the sturgeon gone, all helps abandoned, each hour expecting the fury of the savage.” Then in September John Smith became president of the local council. He instituted a policy of rigid discipline, strengthened defenses, and he encouraged farming with this admonishment:"He who does not work will not eat."  Also he made friends with the Powhatan Indians and traded things like guns for food. Smith writes of the Powhatan princess Pocahontas bringing the settlers food “Now every once in four or five days, Pocahontas with her attendants brought him so much provision that saved many of their lives, that else for all this had starved with hunger.” In this text he is saying that without the Indians many would have died from lack of provisions. Because of Smith’s leadership and friendship with the Indians the settlers survived another year.

This video clip from the beginning of the Disney movie Pocahontas shows the settlers leaving England to go to the New World.

This is a picture of Jamestown today. The settlers choose this spot on the James River for its deep water anchorage and good defensive position.

This is a picture of what is left of the Jamestown settlement.



This is a picture of John Smith statue in Jamestown. It is thought that Smith is the reason the Jamestown settlers survived.



Sources:

http://www.preservationvirginia.org/rediscovery/page.php?page_id=25

http://www.historyisfun.org/History-Jamestown.htm

Baym, Nina, Wayne Franklin, and Robert S. Levine. "John Smith." The Norton Anthology ofAmerican     

          Literature. A,. New York [u.a.: Norton, 2007. Print.

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