What was the geography of Jamestown like
Video transcript- [Instructor] In the last video, we talked about the short-lived and highly unsuccessful English colony at Roanoke Island, which disappeared pretty much without a trace, and even today is still known as the Lost Colony. So as late as 1585, England has still not successfully established a New World colony. Well, all of that is about to change. In 1607, when the Virginia Company, a joint-stock company, or an early precursor to the modern corporation, which spread out both the shares, the wealth, and the risk of an expedition like one headed to the New World. They received a charter for New World exploration from King James I, who had now taken over for Queen Elizabeth, and their goals were kinda the same as many of the goals of explorers in this time period. They wanted to find gold. They wanted to find a passage to the Indies that might make it easier for them to get the luxurious materials like spices and silk that were so expensive to get over the land route that was the silk road. And, James in particular was hoping that they could maybe get one up on the Spanish, who had been doing so well for more than 100 years in the West Indies. Now one of the important things to note about this is that no one who went to Virginia expected to set up a colony there and live there for the rest of their lives. What they expected was to go for a couple of years, mine tremendous amounts of gold, which they hoped were lying in giant piles all over the ground. Get tremendously wealthy, and live like kings for the rest of their lives in Europe. So this Virginia Company expedition was intended to be short-term. But, as it'll turn out, that will not be the case. So how did things go for the Virginia Company compared to the Roanoke Island colonists? Well, not terrifically better. They sailed in early 1607 into the Chesapeake Bay, and they spent some time looking for what might be a good place to settle, and they eventually chose a site here on what they'll name the James River, for King James, and in the town that they'll call Jamestown for the same reason. It's hard to overstate how terrible the land that they chose at Jamestown was, and it was terrible for a couple of reasons. One reason is that the soil isn't terrifically good there. It's marshy, it's not great for growing subsistence crops, which you'll need to survive. And more importantly, it's buggy, and by buggy I mean that there are tons of mosquitoes, and mosquitoes carry diseases like yellow fever, malaria, and those mosquito-borne diseases will have a tremendous effect, a huge death toll for the early settlers at Jamestown. The other thing I can't overstate about the colonists at Jamestown was just how incredibly unprepared and unsuited they were to be colonists in the New World. Remember, this was essentially a get rich quick scheme. Well, who are the sort of people who'd like to get rich quick? Investors, for the most part. These were gentlemen, and the English definition of a gentleman is really someone who has title, someone who has status, someone who does not work with his hands, and all through that first summer when they probably should've been planting crops to try to survive through the winter, instead, these gentlemen were busy looking for gold, which means that when winter rolled around, things got pretty dire at Jamestown, and we'll talk about that in the next video. Show Traveling aboard the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, 104 men landed in Virginia in 1607 at a place they named Jamestown. This was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Thirteen years later, 102 settlers aboard the Mayflower landed in Massachusetts at a place they named Plymouth. With these two colonies, English settlement in North America was born. LOCATION OF THE SETTLEMENTS Jamestown offered anchorage and a good defensive position. Warm climate and fertile soil allowed large plantations to prosper. Plymouth provided good anchorage and an excellent harbor. Cold climate and thin, rocky soil limited farm size. New Englanders turned to lumbering, shipbuilding, fishing and trade. REASONS FOR THE COLONIES Economic motives prompted colonization in Virginia. The Virginia Company of London, organized in 1606, sponsored the Virginia Colony. Organizers of the company wanted to expand English trade and obtain a wider market for English manufactured goods. They naturally hoped for financial profit from their investment in shares of company stock. Freedom from religious persecution motivated the Pilgrims to leave England and settle in Holland, where there was more religious freedom. However, after a number of years the Pilgrims felt that their children were being corrupted by the liberal Dutch lifestyle and were losing their English heritage. News of the English Colony in Virginia motivated them to leave Holland and settle in the New World. EARLY SETBACKS Inexperience, unwillingness to work, and the lack of wilderness survival skills led to bickering, disagreements, and inaction at Jamestown. Poor Indian relations, disease, and the initial absence of the family unit compounded the problems. Cooperation and hard work were part of the Pilgrim's lifestyle. Nevertheless, they too were plagued with hunger, disease, and environmental hazards. RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES The settlers at Jamestown were members of the Anglican faith, the official Church of England. The Pilgrims were dissenters from the Church of England and established the Puritan or Congregational Church. GOVERNMENT In 1619, the first representative legislative assembly in the New World met at the Jamestown church. It was here that our American heritage of representative government was born. Since New England was outside the jurisdiction of Virginia's government, the Pilgrims established a self-governing agreement of their own, the "Mayflower Compact." NATIVE AMERICANS The Virginia colonists settled in the territory of a strong Indian empire or chiefdom. English relations with the Powhatan Indians were unstable from the beginning. Vast differences in culture, philosophies, and the English desire for dominance were obstacles too great to overcome. After the Indian uprising in 1622, the colonists gave up attempts to christianize and live peacefully with the Powhatans. Prior to the Pilgrims' arrival, an epidemic wiped out the majority of the New England Indians. Several survivors befriended and assisted the colonists. Good relations ended in 1636 when the Massachusetts Bay Puritans declared war on the Pequot Tribe and Plymouth was dragged into the conflict. LEGENDS Who married Pocahontas? Some erroneously believe John Smith did. In actuality, she married John Rolfe, an Englishman who started the tobacco industry in Virginia. The John Smith connection stems from Smith's later writings relating an incidence of Pocahontas saving his life. According to Longfellow's epic, The Courtship of Miles Standish, John Alden proposed to Priscilla Mullins on behalf of Standish and she replied, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" Priscilla did in fact marry John Alden at Plymouth. The records do not mention Standish ever courting Priscilla. THANKSGIVING On December 4, 1619 settlers stepped ashore at Berkeley Hundred along the James River and, in accordance with the proprietor's instruction that "the day of our ship's arrival ... shall be yearly and perpetually kept as a day of thanksgiving," celebrated the first official Thanksgiving Day. In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims held a celebration to give thanks to God for his bounty and blessings. This occasion was the origin of the traditional Thanksgiving as we know it today. CONCLUSION The growth and development of these two English colonies, though geographically separated, contributed much to our present American heritage of law, religion, government, custom and language. As Governor Bradford of Plymouth stated, "Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shown unto many, yea, in some sort, to our whole Nation." The charter of the Virginia Company stated, "Lastly and chiefly the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your own, and to serve and fear God the giver of all goodness, for every plantation which our father hath not planted shall be rooted out." BIBLIOGRAPHY Bradford, William. Bradford's History. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908. Breen, T. H. Puritans and Adventurers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. Hatch, Charles. The First 17 Years. Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation, 1957. Jennings, Francis. The Invasion of America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975. Robbins, Roland W. Pilgrim John Alden's Progress. Plymouth, Massachusetts: Pilgrim Society, 1969. Author: Nancy Fisher 1st Revision 2nd Revision How did the geography impact Jamestown?The water surrounding it was brackish and undrinkable. It was essentially a swamp, and filled with mosquitoes that carried diseases. A large number of Jamestown's settlers died from exposure, disease, and starvation.
What was Jamestown environment like?By around three thousand years ago, the environment of Jamestown Island was noticeably affected by these changes. Much of the low-lying island fringe was inundated and tidal wetlands encroached significantly up the small creeks and ravines draining its interior.
What type of landform was Jamestown on?Jamestown was built on a land feature called a peninsula in colonial Virginia. A peninsula projects out from a mainland and is surrounded by water in the areas not attached to the mainland.
Why was Jamestown a poor location for a settlement?Famine, disease and conflict with local Native American tribes in the first two years brought Jamestown to the brink of failure before the arrival of a new group of settlers and supplies in 1610.
|
