James Lincoln Collier - The Paradox of Jamestown: 1585 - 1700

T HE D RAMA OF A MERICAN H ISTORY

The PARADOX of JAMESTOWN

15851700

Christopher Collier

James Lincoln Collier

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The authors wish to thank Martin H. Quitt, Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of History, University of Massachusetts at Boston, for his careful reading of the text of this volume of The Drama of American History, and his thoughtful and useful comments. The work has been much improved by Professor Quitt's notes. The authors are deeply in his debt but, of course, assume full responsibility for the substance of the work, including any errors that may appear.

Photo research by James Lincoln Collier

Cover photo Jamestown-Yorktown Educational Trust .

PICTURE CREDITS: The photographs in this book are used by permission and through the courtesy of:

Chapter I: Corbis-Bettmann: working the fields, Flemish calendar, Peter Breugel painting, The Counter Scuffle. UPI/Corbis-Bettmann: Magna Carta, Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

Chapter II: Corbis-Bettmann: Guy Fawkes conspirators, Gunpowder Plotters execution, advertisements for the Virginia plantation.

Chapter III: Corbis-Bettmann: Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake. Jamestown-Yorktown Educational Trust: ax head, engraving of Kiwasa, de Bry's Indian "conjurer," reenactor making cordage, Indians cooking over an open fire, shaping a clay pot. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation : later version of Indian "conjurer."

Chapter IV: Corbis-Bettmann: Powhatan commands the death of John Smith, Jamestown in 1622, Pocahontas in England, tobacco shed. Jamestown-Yorktown Educational Trust: the Susan Constant , armed soldier at Jamestown, military drills, field hand "topping" tobacco.

Chapter V: Jamestown-Yorktown Educational Trust: blacksmith, early house, washing dishes, carpentry, preparing a meal, Virginians cooking over an open fire, Christmas wreath, Christmas dance.

Chapter VI: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation : slave cabin, interior of a slave cabin, slave hewing a beam, gourd rattles and percussion instruments.

AUTHORS' NOTE: The human beings who first peopled what we now call the Americas have traditionally been called Indians, because the first Europeans who landed in the Americas thought they had reached India. The term Indians is therefore not very accurate, and other terms have been used: Amerinds, and more recently, Native Americans. The Indians had no collective term for themselves. Today, most of them refer to themselves as Indians, and we will use that term here, while understanding that it is not very accurate.

1998 Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright holders.

First ebook edition 2012 by AudioGO. All Rights Reserved.

Trade ISBN 978-1-62064-493-5

Library ISBN 978-0-79279-536-0

The PARADOX of JAMESTOWN

15851700

C ONTENTS

P REFACE

OVER MANY YEARS of both teaching and writing for students at all levels, from grammar school to graduate school, it has been borne in on us that many, if not most, American history textbooks suffer from trying to include everything of any moment in the history of the nation. Students become lost in a swamp of factual information, and as a consequence lose track of how those facts fit together, and why they are significant and relevant to the world today.

In this series, our effort has been to strip the vast amount of available detail down to a central core. Our aim is to draw in bold strokes, providing enough information, but no more than is necessary, to bring out the basic themes of the American story, and what they mean to us now. We believe that it is surely more important for students to grasp the underlying concepts and ideas that emerge from the movement of history, than to memorize an array of facts and figures.

The difference between this series and many standard texts lies in what has been left out. We are convinced that students will better remember the important themes if they are not buried under a heap of names, dates, and places.

In this sense, our primary goal is what might be called citizenship education. We think it is critically important for America as a nation and Americans as individuals to understand the origins and workings of the public institutions which are central to American society. We have asked ourselves again and again what is most important for citizens of our democracy to know so they can most effectively make the system work for them and the nation. For this reason, we have focused on political and institutional history, leaving social and cultural history less well developed.

This series is divided into volumes that move chronologically through the American story. Each is built around a single topic, such as the pilgrims, the Constitutional Convention, or immigration. Each volume has been written so that it can stand alone, for students who wish to research a given topic. As a consequence, in many cases material from previous volumes is repeated, usually in abbreviated form, to set the topic in its historical context. That is to say, students of the Constitutional Convention must be given some idea of relations with England, and why the revolution was fought, even though the material was covered in detail in a previous volume. Readers should find that each volume tells an entire story that can be read with or without reference to other volumes.

Despite our belief that it is of the first importance to outline sharply basic concepts and generalizations, we have not neglected the great dramas of American history. The stories that will hold the attention of students are here, and we believe they will help the concepts they illustrate to stick in their minds. We think, for example, that knowing of Abraham Baldwin's brave and dramatic decision to vote with the small states at the Constitutional Convention will bring alive the Connecticut Compromise, out of which grew the American Senate.

Each of these volumes has been read by esteemed specialists in its particular topic; we have benefited from their comments.

C HAPTER I: E NGLAND ON THE E VE OF C OLONIZATION

THE ROLE OF Virginia in the creation of the United States was enormous. It was the first English colony to be permanently established on the mainland. Its people were usually in the forefront of the battle for the rights of Americans against the English government. A Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration of Independence. Another Virginian, George Washington, led the ragtag American army to its astonishing victory over the supposedly unbeatable British. Washington also presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787 which produced the great document, so much admired worldwide, by which we still live. Yet another Virginian, James Madison, contributed many of the ideas which found their way into the Constitution. One more Virginian, George Mason, wrote the model on which our Bill of Rights is based. Four of the first five presidents were Virginians. Through wealth, talent, and the cultivation of the intellect, Virginia was, for the first two centuries of its history, the most influential colony in English America. Without Virginia, the history of the United States would have been substantially different.