Colonial Virginia Diary Entries

1. Read the following from John Smith’s History of Virginia. In your own words, explain the incident Smith described. What does this passage tell us about the relationship between the English settlers at Jamestown and the natives they encountered? What does it tell us about the condition of the English at the time?

Forced Founders by Woody Holton is a novel providing a look into colonial life in Virginia during British rule in the United States. Woody Holton presents multiple viewpoints on issues involving Virginia such as the spread of Native Americans into the Eastern land and Colonists land distribution in the West He also highlights the influence of growing debts between colonial farmers and British merchants, and finally the boycotts that took place up to the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Holton goes into great detail concerning particular instances that make for a very analytical book. For the most part, I agree with a majority of his editorial while also finding a certain amount of detail he goes into when explaining less important topics

The Virginia colony was founded in the year of 1607 by John Smith, in the Southern region. People moved there because they wanted to keep their families together on plantations, but the greatest motivation to move there was to make money that was available in the New America market.

In the Instructions for the Virginia Colony and the “City on a Hill” Speech articles, trade and religion were the two most prominent factors. Through this, we can better form the purpose of the Virginia and Massachusetts Bay colonies and how they affected the future of America. Throughout the Instructions for the Virginia Company, the investors for the Virginia Company discuss the instructions that the future colonists must abide by. The main focus throughout the piece is to find the “strongest, most wholesome and fertile place” to “better receive the trade of all the countries.”

The Virginians of 1619 were desperate for labor, to grow enough food to stay alive. Among them were survivors from the winter of 1609-1610, the "starving time," when, crazed for want of food, they roamed the woods for nuts and berries, dug up graves to eat the corpses, and died in batches until five hundred colonists were reduced to sixty.

In this document, there are many families going to New England, so by making an inference New England was a very family oriented place unlike Chesapeake which had mostly men trying to find gold and getting rich. The Chesapeake region was similar to Spain because Spain wanted god, glory, and gold, which is what the men wanted in North America. In Document five the author speaks in first person which is shown by the use of the pronoun “us”. His purpose is to inform the audience about the hardships in Virginia when they first arrived. This document is dated back to 1624 and written by John smith who’s his attended audience is the people who haven’t gone to North America because the people who already live there already know about the hardships. These men could not find any gold and they faced many hardships without having any food or water unlike Spain who found gold everywhere and got rich. Even though when the people from the Chesapeake region struggled when they first got to America overtime they started to learn their way around and once they

The seventeenth century was filled primarily with efforts to colonize the New World. This led to many new colonies being formed. They all faced their own problems, and some were more successful than others. Virginia was no exception to this. While it may have eventually reached a point that it could be argued as the most successful colony, Virginia had its fair share of hardships and challenges to face.

Now, as the 1670's and 1680's came along, indentured servants were beginning to live longer lives. (CL) According to Professor Cutter this new class of potential landowners was unable to get land because the rich had already used it all up. (CL) The only land that was now available was Indian land and the rich people of Virginia, selfish and "psychotically" individualistic as they were, were not about to spend their money on a war against the Indians to get land that they would never see the profit of. (CL) So in response to this, the governor of Virginia

With the colonization of the New World came financial, religious, and strategic opportunities. England answered this call in various ways as British colonies began with certain interests in mind. Massachusetts and Virginia, besides being started with royal charters, were planted in separate locations, with unique resources, and by Englishmen with entirely different intentions.

“The General History of Virginia” and “Of Plymouth Plantation” are similar and different in many ways. They are the first settlers of America and came for different reasons, different goals, and different ways of life. Although they were different they both risked their lives for a new life in return. John Smith and William Bradford were two different people. John Smith was an Adventurer and William Bradford was a Puritan. Their differences and similarities personified through two works of writing.

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

4. I do agree with Breen 's point of view and for the most part it agrees with our text. I would probably be more likely to agree with Breen that the people of Virginia did not form a military band and fight back against the Indians especially how the text talks about Indians remaining a strong presence. It wouldn 't make much sense for the Indians to remain a strong presence if they are constantly being attacked by the settlers. I think the reason that the Indians stayed around is because Virginia was not effectively fighting them off because they didn 't have any type of formalized military, or formalized anything for that matter, not even schools.

The English had very high hopes for their American colonies, but had a shaky start. James I hired the Virginia Company to govern all of Virginia. Under the charter’s leadership, a group of merchants from London colonized Chesapeake Bay, while merchants from England, specifically Plymouth, Exeter, and Bristol, colonized the northern side of the coast. The merchants from England managed to built forts and homes by 1608, while the merchants from London sailed to a secluded island within the waters of Chesapeake Bay. They named the river James River and their village Jamestown, after their leader. Unfortunately, many people of Jamestown's couldn’t survive through the winter. A fire destroyed most of the settlement, people starved, and diseases killed.It cut the population in half and the Virginia Company representatives kept fighting and bickering with each other. All of the citizens were employees of the Virginia Company, so any profit they made was being shipped right back to their London investors (Jones, 36).

In the seventeenth century, the populace that left England for America were influenced by the prospects that could either help them personally, or the mother country. The English settled in regions in America based on the religious acceptance of that area and ones that offered a preferable lifestyle.

Over 400 years ago in the Atlantic Ocean, three ships, complete with 105 men and 39 crew members aboard, steadily paced themselves across an uncharted and unfamiliar territory. One of the three ships contained Captain John Smith - an English explorer, soldier, and self proclaimed author. Unbeknownst to Smith at the time, he would journal and create the first ever “accurate" map of both Virginia and New England. Smith’s accuracy of coastlines and physical landmarks has long been hailed as nothing short of astounding when put in context with the technology (or lack thereof) in his possession. His original maps were sent back to England with the hopes of capturing the minds - and pocketbooks - of wealthy potential investors. Fast forward 150 years from Smith’s maiden voyage and over thirteen colonies and two and a half million people inhabited the once mysterious coastline. For the first time ever, a massive influx of foreign colonists to the New World was set into motion, some say solely by Smith’s intricate and persuasive map-making skills. His illustrations painted a beautiful land, one in which Powhatan’s Indian tribe and Smith’s crew worked side-by-side, one with hundreds of small villages located so closely together that trade between the two cultures would lead to prosperity of an unfathomable magnitude, and most importantly, a land so magnificent, it convinced Puritanical settlers that their true destiny lay an ocean away.